Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Dawn That Brought Battle

Hermione found Luke Skywalker in the great hall with Filius Flitwick, her fiancé, and Minerva McGonagall. He was dueling with Ben's wand.

Hermione stopped and stared. "How is that possible?"

The duelers ceased and Luke turned to her with a sad smile. "Is Ben set?"

She nodded. "He took her to their bathroom in the Slytherin dorms. I asked some of his housemates to make sure he isn't bothered."

"Thank you."

"Mr…er, I mean, Master Skywalker, how can you be using wand magic? Ben had to go through a month of hard training."

"I'm using that training," Luke said. "It is possible in the Force to communicate a great deal in a short amount of time. I don't know if you're aware of this, but Ben has an eidetic memory. He showed me every lesson you had, every spell you taught him. He thinks very highly of you."

"But…"

"It appears Master Skywalker is well versed in many arts," Filius said in a squeaky voice. "I'm proud to say I haven't even come close to besting him."

"I think old Mad Eye wouldn't have last five minutes," Sirius said.

"Oh." She shook her head. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you about Voldemort. He's sort of immortal."

Luke nodded. "Ben shared with me your story of the horcruxes."

"Well, Sirius and I retrieved one of the last ones from Gringotts," Hermione said. "The problem is destroying it."

"I take it there's something difficult in doing so?"

It was Filius who answered. "I only found out about the Horcruxes myself before Albus died. The Horcrux is the most powerful and dark of all the dark arts. The rending of a human soul takes a tremendous amount of magical power, and to destroy an objected imbued with that soul fragment would release that potential energy in a rather destructive fashion. If we try to destroy a horcrux using just energy alone, the resulting backlash could flatten the school."

Luke considered this for a moment before he pulled his small com switch off his belt. "Han, where are you?"

They all heard a groggy voice. "Sleeping on my ship, where do you think a seventy-one year old man would be at this time a night?"

"I hope you got a good rest, then, because it's time to get up."

They heard more grumbling, then a woman's voice saying, "Stars, Han, it's not like you've ever had to get up early before."

Luke smiled. A few minutes later, a frumpy Han Solo walked into the great hall. His shirt was not completely tucked into his spacer's slacks, though he had his blaster secured well enough. His hair was still unkempt from his brief sleep. "What's up, kid?" he asked.

"We have a dangerous explosive we need to dispose of before the battle," Luke said. "I was looking for options."

"Put it on the ground and shoot it," Han said with a shrug. "That was easy. 'Night."

"It's morning, Han, and it's more complicated than that. The object has power that could damage everything around it."

Hermione watched as the older man threw his head back and yawned. "All right, fine. How big is it?"

"Twinkle," McGonagall called.

Almost instantly, an elf appeared. "Missus called?"

"Please retrieve the object I asked you to hide yesterday."

The elf disappeared, and reappeared a moment later with Helga Hufflepuff's cup.

"That's your dangerous object?" Han said with a chuckle.

"It has a shard of Voldemort's soul in it," Hermione said.

"Yeah, sure," Han said. He was already thinking. "Okay, here's what we do. We take out the proximity fuse from one of the variable-yield proton torpedos on the Falcon and put that thing in it instead, shoot it up with a twenty second delay, and set it off. Since we're in the atmosphere we'll set it for a minimum yield. Half a kiloton. Think that should be enough?"

"What's a kiloton?" Sirius asked.

"The muggles dropped a 15 kiloton bomb on a city in Japan and it blew the entire city up, killing in the end 200,000 people," Hermione said.

Han shrugged. "Doubt we'll need more than half a kiloton to destroy a cup, eh?"

"I think half a kiloton should be sufficient," Luke agreed.

"Too bad we don't know where the bad guy lives, we could just drop it on him," Han said. "Doubt even an immortal would survive that."

"He has before," Black said. "First time he died his body was blasted apart so bad they couldn't find anything bigger than a stamp. He survived in spirit form and returned thirteen years later in a new body."

"Think about the Emperor and his clones, Han," Luke said. "It's a similar principal."

"Still," Sirius said, "we do actually have an idea where he used to live. Little Hagleton."

"Come on, then, friend," Han said. "Let's go look at maps."

Black grabbed the cup from McGonagall and followed after the captain and former general. "So what's a proton torpedo?"

"They have sent a signal, Lord!" Wormtail said. He pointed through the trees of the Forbidden Forest toward Hogwarts.

Lord Voldemort stepped forward and watched as the trail of light streaked into the sky and arced away to fly into the distance to the south. It was like no spell he had seen. However, it moved away from his forces and so was of little concern. The sky to the east was turning pink.

"It is nearly time," the Dark Lord said. "Wake the others and prepare to march. Today marks the end for Dumbledore's dreams."

"Yes, Lord," Wormtail said as he backed away.

The torpedo streaked away at four times the speed of sound. The moment it ripped out of the muggle-repelling and notice-me-not wards of Hogwarts, every early alert system across the United Kingdom and much for the world tracked what even to their systems appeared to be an inter-continental ballistic missile. However, the missile did not achieve an extra-atmospheric altitude and started descending toward a spot within England's borders.

The residents of Little Hagleton had little warning, but fortunately they were not the targets. In fact, no one from the little village had any desire to be anywhere near the Riddle Estate nor the graveyard nearby. Some of the residents who went too close disappeared, and often times at night they could see strange lights and hear distance screams.

So the estate of Tom Riddle Sr. and all the surrounding land was completely empty of innocents, as were several square miles around it, when a variable-yield MG1-A proton torpedo with a modified Horcrux-enhanced warhead slammed directly into the center of the unplottable house. The non-nuclear yield was reduced to just half a kiloton, but that was more than sufficient to vaporize the house, the cemetery, the surrounding square kilometer, and the horcrux within. Not to mention the twenty or so Death Eaters using the house as a base of operations.

Voldemort watched the torpedo disappear into the distance and chuckled to himself. The fools at Hogwarts had no idea what was coming. "Nagini," he said to his beloved companion, "stay with Wormtail. This fight will not take long."

"Everyone go to the Come and Go Room!" Hermione announced through the paintings of the castle. It was a privilege granted only to faculty and the head boy or girl. "The castle is under attack. All students are to evacuate to the Come and Go Room."

She stood just outside the Great Hall, and in moments she could see students pouring out of their common rooms. The Slytherins appeared, and from their midst came Greengrass and Finnigan.

"What about Ben?"

"His father told us not to bother him," Hermione said.

"Let us help," Daphne then said.

Beside her, Seamus nodded. "We're seventh years," he said. "We know how to fight. And I was in your dueling club."

The Hermione of old would have called Professor McGonagall for a decision. The Hermione of now merely nodded. "We can use all the help we can get. Talk to the other seventh years to see if anyone else wants to help. Seventh years only!"

Daphne and Seamus shared a determined nod and then split up to spread the word.

Once Hermione finished shepherding all the rest the students into the Come and Go Room on the 3rd floor, she turned and ran up to the roof by the astronomy tower where she knew Sirius was acting as a look-out. The first warnings of the imminent attack came from him.

She emerged onto the roof in time to see Sirius Black and Han Solo standing by several aurors and a large, wicked looking piece of machinery. She was just in time to hear Solo say, "Huh. Giants. Who knew?"

She rushed to Sirius's side and stared down in horror at the forces arrayed against them.

There were giants, dozens of them. She saw dragons on the ground and in the air, flying in circles around the army. There were hundreds of wizards and witches, all in black robes. There were werewolves held in their animal form by modified wolfsbane potions. She caught the familiar site of mountain trolls as well, lumbering stupidly alongside the equally large and distantly related giants.

Most terrifying, though, was the army of inferi that walked at the forefront of the dark army. Thousands of living corpses shambled along the ground toward Hogwarts, their limbs hanging limply and their heads tilted at impossible angles.

On the other side of Black, Han Solo grunted. "That is one ugly bunch of critters," he said. "Guess I should start blowing 'em up now."

He left the others and stood behind the large muggle device. It looked faintly like a cannon on a free-swiveling mount. However, it ended in a much narrower point than any cannon Hermione had ever seen. "What is that?" she asked.

"Portable infantry turbolaser," Han said. "Forgot I had it in the Falcon. Leia reminded me."

"Where is Leia?"

The whole castle shook as the Millennium Falcon soared over their heads. "There she is," Han said. "Jaina's the better flier, but Luke wanted her defending the castle's back entrance. This way Leia and Allana can be all safe in the Falcon while we fight. Watch this."

The dragons circling over Voldemort's army spotted the freighter and immediately viewed it as a threat. They broke their circling formation and charged through the air toward the Falcon. A single streak of green light streaked out of the front of the ship and hit the largest, centermost dragon.

The resulting whump of the explosion sent the other nine dragons plummeting away, flattened the trees below, and actually knocked three of the giants down. The Falcon flew through the vaporized remnants of the first dragon and turned in a tight loop to come around for another pass.

"I love my turbolaser," Han said with a chuckle. "Special gift to myself last year."

"Was than a kiloton?" Black asked.

"That? Nah, that was on minimal yield. Maybe two tons only. Nah, a kiloton yield would probably destroy the whole army, and most of the castle too."

One of the dragons fell to the earth with an angry scream and could not get up again. The remaining eight recovered and gave chase to the space ship.

Black nodded in appreciation. He lifted the Order of the Phoenix galleon. "The dragons are out of the picture."

Han held up his own com. "Corran, you and your kids ready?"

"You bet, Han. The green ones are ours. You can have the giants."

"Sounds fun," Han agreed. He swung his huge cannon around. Curious, Hermione stepped behind him and gasped when she saw a screen just inches from his face with a large X in the middle. He sited the X on the chest of one of the approaching giants and then pulled a lever with his right hand.

The cannon screamed and a large burst of green light flashed from the barrel, zipped across the grounds, and ripped through the chest of the giant. The giant looked down in surprise to find a gaping, blackened hole in his chest large enough for a man to crawl through. It made a grunting noise before falling over dead.

At the same time, less powerful red lights flashed from other points along the top of the castle and ripped into the trolls. Though the red lights did not create man-sized holes, they easily burned through the tough hide of the trolls and put them on the ground in a single shot.

By this time, the dark wizards were responding and a flurry of spellfire rushed toward the castle walls. "Get down!" Black roared.

Han ignored them and sighted the next giant. He squeezed off a shot and grinned as the monstrously large humanoid fell. "Those things are so big even an old man can hit them," he muttered. He quickly fired off a volley of shots and got every giant down when he discovered first hand that the twinkly balls of light really were dangerous.

Voldemort, raging as the strange muggle weapons destroyed his pets, followed the path of the green lights to a machine atop the castle. He pointed his wand and loaded a blasting curse with all his power.

The red streak of magic flashed back across the grounds and slammed into the turbolaser with the power of a laser cannon.

The explosion threw Han across the roof. Sirius managed a hasty shield just in time to absorb much of the explosion, but it was still sufficient to send he and Hermione both spinning away. Hermione looked up in time to see one auror screaming and holding a shattered arm, while the second did not get up at all.

She crawled across to Solo. His chest was badly burned, but he appeared to be breathing. She applied several healing and burn charms and breathed a sigh of relief when he opened his eyes. "Okay, that hurt," he muttered. His com was beeping furiously.

He grabbed it and sat up with Hermione's help. "Solo here."

"Han, are you all right?"

"Fine, Leia. Fine. Hermy-girl-what's-her-face cured me right up. But the big gun's done for."

"Ours too," Corran reported. "Saw what happened to you and got out just in time. But we took out all the trolls and all the giants."

They heard a distant roar and looked up in the sky to see another dragon explode under the laser fire from the Falcon. "I only have five more to go," Leia reported.

"Think you can swing over and do something about those Anzati-like zombies?"

"Like firespray, maybe?"

Hermione felt a little nervous at the captain's devilish grin. "That should work."

Almost before they finished speaking, the Falcon sped directly over the field of battle with five large dragons on her thrustors. A single canister dropped from the bottom of the ship. Hermione was kneeling by Solo and so the battlements kept her from seeing the ground. However, she could not miss the massive billow of fire that erupted all along the front of Hogwarts.

She jumped to her feet and ran to the edge just in time to see the vast majority of inferi burning. They did not make a sound, other than the crisping of their rotting skins and bones. "Was that napalm?"

"Don't know," Han said as he joined her. "Don't know what napalm is. Firespray is used to clear vegetation for landing sites. It'll burn any organic matter and keep burning until that matter is gone. Never leave home without at least one canister of the stuff."

He turned to the dead auror and the wounded one. "We need to get this man to your hospital."

Despite the initial successes, there were wounded. With spellfire running rampant, some were bound to be hit. There were perhaps half a dozen in the hospital wing when Hermione, Solo, Sirius and the wounded auror arrived.

Pomphrey nodded, pointed to a bed, and handed Hermione a potion. "Make him drink this."

The castle shook. Pomphrey looked up from the man she was working on. "They're in the castle."

Han pulled his blaster. "Okay, sounds like it's about time for the fun to start." A squad of aurors rushed in accompanied by Daphne Greengrass, Seamus Finnagan, Neville Longbottom and several other seventh years.

The students rushed into the hospital proper and took up positions around the inside of the door with their wands held at the ready. "Close and ward the door," Tonks told them all. "We'll hold them off outside, but you are going to act as the last line of defense for the wounded."

"Wait for me," Black said to his cousin. He turned back to Hermione and Solo. "You two don't mind playing last line of defense with the kids, do you?"

"I've done my bit," Solo said. "I'll let you kids go play soldier."

Hermione merely nodded her agreement and watched as the man she loved ran off to fight.

Luna sat on the edge of Phyllis the pond. The sky overhead flashed and darkened as the sun swept by with the turning of the days of her life. Clouds streaked past. Sometimes a wall of rain would sweep by, but then be gone a second later. Time was meaningless in this place.

She remembered this place. It was where she ran to after her Mum died. She hid here for a long time. It comforted her. She remembered with a little bitterness the feeling she had when the mind-healers pulled her out. As a child she did not understand that the procedure was damaging—only now, as an adult, did she appreciate how the wresting of her consciousness out of its retreat had damaged her. She was broken.

"Luna!"

Ben stumbled around the pond, blinded by the passing of time. It was possible he saw something else entirely. Whatever it was he saw, his eyes searched for her desperately. He looked so very lost and alone. He looked so deeply, profoundly sad.

She wanted to call out to him, to let him know she was here, but she could not. She tried to stand, to go to him, but she could not. The shadow of memory held her firm. The memory of pain unbearable—of agony beyond mere death—held her paralyzed and mute. She could no more move or call out to him than she could have flown without magic.

Tears gathered in her eyes. The shadow of memory gripped her hard enough to steal her breath, but not even it could steal her tears. This beautiful young boy looking so desperately for her had fixed her. He had healed the damage done when the mindhealers ripped her psyche apart and forced her back to a semblance of consciousness. But he could not erase the power of the darkness holding her now.

Finally, Ben stumbled into the water. He must not have seen in, since he did not sink immediately. He simply stumbled into the center of Phyllis the pond and collapsed into a sitting position, his legs crossed and his head down. He looked so very dejected.

Then, surprisingly, he began to talk. "I was in the Sith sphere when I felt her," he said to the air. "I flew to Kavan as fast as the sphere would take me. I kept telling myself that she was just in a deep healing trance, but I knew better. There was a hole in the Force where she should have been. A hole inside me."

Luna sat up ever so slightly. As Ben spoke, he sank slightly into the water.

"I didn't recognize anything around me when I landed on Kavan. But it didn't matter. I ran to her. I pulled the Force to me and I ran faster than I've ever run before. When Jedi Masters die, they pass into the Force completely. Most don't even leave a body. When I first saw her, she was still there. She'd remained so that…she'd chosen not to go completely into the Force so that we could learn what had happened."

The water was up past his thighs now.

"She was so beautiful, Luna. Even in death, she looked beautiful. A few cuts and scrapes, but so beautiful. I screamed into the Force for her to just be asleep, to let her wake up and hug me. But there was this other side of me. I was a lieutenant in the Galactic Alliance Guard. I was the GAG Commander's apprentice. And so the fourteen-year-old boy who had just lost his mother shut down and let the lieutenant take over. I took holoimages and observations, and I investigated.

"Then HE was there. He just stumbled in with this blank expression, as if he were shocked. He played his part perfect. The shocked nephew. The grieving cousin. The supportive master. He promised me we would get the one who killed her. I loved him so much, and he…killed…my …mother!"

He stopped. The water was midway up his chest. He looked up at last, his eyes glistening. "When I lost your presence in the Force and our bond, Luna, all I could think of was her. Of seeing Mara Jade Skywalker lying dead in a storm drain. Of how it felt to be so alone again. And when I finally found you, it was even worse than if you had died. You were there. I could hold you and feel you with my hands, I could see you with my eyes, but I couldn't feel you with my mind." The water was up to his neck now.

Luna leaned forward, straining against the power of the shadow of memory. It growled and threatened her with the memory of pain. Of the memory of the men laughing as they hurt and shamed her so badly. It burned her. Still, she kept her eyes on Ben's face as he sank into the water, and strained. Her magic did nothing for her, yet still she fought against the shadow of memory.

Ben spoke, though his voice was soft now as the water bubbled around his chin. "Body and soul. Mind and magic. You promised yourself to me, Luna. I love you so much, you promised me! I can't do it again. I can't open my eyes and see you there, but gone. I can't have another hole like that in my soul. I won't. Please don't leave me."

Luna fought now. His words died as the water covered his mouth. Only his eyes remained free, weeping and staring into the emptiness around her with despair. She struggled to call his name, to reach out for him. The shadow of memory roared now and lashed her. She felt the cuts anew. She felt the heated brand burning into her thighs. She felt the ripping inside as the men laughed at her with their bestial expressions.

"No!" The sound came out as a guttural moan. Low and weak and determined. The shadow fought harder, striking her with shards of the cruciatus curse, and the way the fat man with the silver hand had laughed in delight as she screamed under the power of his unforgivable curses.

"No!" she said, stronger this time. "Ben! Don't leave me!"

With her words came strength. She reached down into her magic, and with that power lacing her limbs she ripped free at last from the shadow's vile grip. She rushed across the grass just as Ben's eyes sank into the pond. She dove head-first into the water, though she had never in her life swam.

She sank under the surface, her hands reaching out to him. It was not water they floated in, though. It was a field of stars stretching on forever. Below them was a spectacular wheel of stars, arms reaching out in gentle curves from a brilliant core. It was the galaxy.

The two of them floated in a brilliant field of stars. He reached for her, and their arms came together in a tight grip as their hair floated about as if in water. He stared at her with such profound, heart-wrenching relief it made her eyes water.

"I found you," Ben whispered into her ear.

Luna's eyes snapped open.

The imprint of the galaxy floated as a ghost image on her retinas before her, overlaying the white and green tiles of a Slytherin bathroom. She felt a beautiful, healing warmth enveloping the whole of her body. Inside of her as well, she realized as she ran a hand down her stomach to her abdomen. All the cuts were gone. The tears she could feel inside. She reached down further, but could not feel the raised welts from the brand. Nor could she feel the pain inside, where the men….

She was floating perfectly naked in a tub full of warm water. Only then did she feel the arm under her head. She turned, and met a pair of sky-blue eyes just inches from hers. They were kind and sweet and filled with quiet tears. He was not sobbing or crying. She could feel through their bond a joy so powerful, so sublime and elemental that it left him weeping in silence.

"I found you," he managed to say.

She reached over and placed a hand on his cheek. It had stubble, she realized. He did not have a thick beard. "You need to shave," she said.

He chuckled, then laughed. The laughter turned into sobs as he pulled her to him. Their bodies met in the beautiful, soothing warmth of the water. She reached over and hugged him as well, glorying in the feel of him as his body shook under his sobs.

"I'm here now," she whispered. "Magic and mind. Body and soul. I pledged myself to you, Ben. I will love you forever."

She held him for perhaps ten minutes, when suddenly her stomach growled. "My goodness," she said. "I suppose I am quite hungry."

Ben pushed away, his face red from tears and joy. He stared at her incredulously, and this time laughed a pure, clean laugh. "By the Force I love you."

"And I love you too," she said. "Can you get up now?"

He tried, but splashed back in the water. "I can't," he admitted with another laugh. "My arm is asleep."

Luna stood then and let the water drip off. He stared up at her in open admiration. "It's like you were never…you look so beautiful."

She beamed down at him. "Only for you," she said softly. "I wish Fawkes would bottle some of those tears. I'm sure we were in there for a while, and yet I don't have a single wrinkle!"

She bent down and helped Ben sit up. As he did so, he reached up and ran a hand over her smooth, porcelain skin. "You are so beautiful. So perfect."

As if his touch were an irresistible pull, she came back down into the water, straddling him. "Only for you," she whispered. She leaned forward until their foreheads touched, and stared into his eyes.

"Mind and magic," she whispered.

"Body and soul," he said.

The moment did not last as long as either wanted. Both looked up when they heard a loud boom and the whole castle around them shook. A second later, the windows in the lounge exploded inward. "What is happening?" Luna asked.

"Voldemort is here," Ben said. "The battle has begun."

"What are we going to do?"

"We're going to make it all better."