Chapter XXXVII: The Battle of Hogwarts II.
The fifth chime drowned out Voldemort's yell, a mixture of rage and pain, drowned out by the ringing bell chime. Upon the sixth chime all hell broke loose, as the Death eaters fired spells in all directions.
'Now!' Harry yelled, throwing the destroyed horcruxes off the balcony, the fangs still embedded in them on the seventh strike. 'Cissa wait!'
'They're moments away master, I can't stop them now!' Cissa said urgently, before going quiet, evidentially engaged in battle.
Despite the raging battle that had erupted seconds earlier, the clangs of the impaled horcruxes on the courtyard stone echoed loudly, even against the ninth strike of midnight. The deadline had passed, now both sides were playing to win, by any means necessary. When Harry saw the death eater masses surging forward, he made a quick decision to save the defenders.
'Fall back inside the castle, spread them out across the different floors, we won't survive head on like this! Harry ordered his harem, knowing the order would be relayed to the others. 'Lavender, charge at the castle, make sure none can retreat across the bridge.'
As the final bell chimed, Harry saw Voldemort rising to his feet, standing perfectly still, despite the chaos around him.
"You were warned!" Harry yelled. "Tom Marvolo Riddle; born in 1926, dies in 2008. This is your last night on Earth."
"It's your last night Potter!" Voldemort yelled, turning into smoke and hurtling towards Harry, many death eaters followed suit, to attack the defenders from the air.
He felt the familiar chill, as the sky was filled with flying death eaters and Dementors, circling the castle, and destroying the stone work to attack the defenders.
'Get inside! Now!' Angelina yelled over the link, seeing something coming toward the castle.
Harry leapt inside and kicked the door shut, as Voldemort flew through a window and reformed inside.
Voldemort raised his wand, but was distracted by blood-curdling screams outside, and the unmistakable sound of dragons roaring.
"Sorry Tom, this 'ruin' has many layers defending it," Harry smiled, using the opportunity to get to his feet, wand drawn. "And now there are multiple dragons burning away your dementors, and any stupid enough to have taken flight."
"It will not save you, we still outnumber you two to one" Voldemort snapped, firing curses at Harry, who deflected them.
"But your forces are in a bottleneck, and surrounded on three sides." Harry laughed, leaping backward, and through a narrow door. "And this castle still has secrets protecting it."
Voldemort snarled and glided after him.
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Fleur had managed to apparate her sister into the Chamber, and back again, before dragon fire raining from the sky signalled Cissa's surprise move.
'No going outside now!' Cissa informed them. 'Except maybe the courtyard.'
'How'd you know they were close?' Penny asked.
'Hedwig found me, she had a letter from Charlie Weasley' Cissa said quickly; clearly busy fighting for her life.
'Bet Voldemort wasn't expecting dragons to help us,' Trixie laughed.
'Where's Harry?' Hermione asked urgently.
'Facing Voldemort on the sixth floor, what we need to do is take out that snake!' Ginny said quickly.
'No! I have a plan for dealing with Nagini, you eliminate his inner circle.' Harry hissed. 'Leave him with no key supporters, but don't worry about the snake.'
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Cissa was with Trixie and Andromeda in the library, fighting three masked death eaters, who had breached the upper floors, before the dragons had arrived.
"You're on the wrong side peons!" Trixie laughed, casting spells at the death eaters in abundance. "He can't win when his life is bound to something so easily destroyed."
"The same could be said for Potter, but he is just a boy, nothing else keeping him alive." A familiar drawl said from behind the central death eater's mask.
"Care to show your face Lucius!" Cissa smiled.
Lucius removed his mask in a flash, and snarled at Cissa.
"We finally meet face to face, but no lawyer will save you now!" Lucius snapped.
"Ladies, care to take them elsewhere, me and Lucius have unfinished business" Cissa smiled.
"Beat it! I'll deal with her," Lucius said to his flanking death eaters.
"But…" the left one protested.
"No buts Goyle, you kill the sisters, I'll deal with my ex-wife." Lucius snarled. "You too Crabbe!"
The bookend death eaters quickly moved sideways, as Trixie and Andromeda followed, still firing spells at each other.
"You really think he can win?" Cissa smiled, blocking Lucius' spells. "You saw how the destruction of those two horcruxes hurt him, there's only one left now."
"This isn't about the dark lord Narcissa!" Lucius yelled. "You humiliated me when you called for a divorce!"
"I should have divorced you long ago," Cissa snarled, pressing the advantage, and forcing him back. "Life with you was misery; you were so backwards that it was agony for me."
"We had a son!" Lucius yelled, frustrated by their stalemate. "You were overjoyed when he was born!"
"And then you raised him to be like you, I had to get out, in order to save him!" Cissa snapped in response. "You even paired him with the sons of YOUR bookends!" she nodded toward Crabbe and Goyle seniors.
"But you waited until Potter raped you!" Lucius was now livid, and wanted to end her as soon as possible. "Fourteen years, and one rape makes you suddenly change!"
"Harry made me finally see that there WAS a way out, and you can hardly talk. How many whores did you fuck when Draco was young?"
"A lord is entitled to mistresses, a lady is not!" Lucius smiled. "But if you had a problem with that, why did you use a piece of insignificant small print in our contract!"
"It was the strongest ground I had, and it's purely your fault we didn't have a daughter!" Cissa yelled. "Now I have one with someone who truly loves me, and would happily bear another son with me."
Lucius sent a shockwave hurtling towards Cissa, and sent her flying into the bookshelves behind her, which promptly collapsed.
"I'm afraid he won't get the chance," Lucius smiled, standing over her with his wand aimed at her throat. "He'll have to watch as little Lilith grows up without her mother!"
"Draco will never forgive you," Cissa said weakly, her limbs refusing to move, instead screaming in pain from the impact.
"He'll learn to, he'll forget about that Bulgarian seeker, and find a woman to continue the Malfoy line, as he is supposed to." Lucius smiled.
"No I won't father!" Draco called, as Lucius raised his wand. "I will not leave Victor!"
"Draco, you will listen to your father if you know what's good for you!" Lucius said calmly, looking straight at his son, but not moving his wand from Cissa's throat. "It'll be a better life I assure you, if you listen to me."
"I'm done listening to you!" Draco said coldly.
Before Lucius could react, Draco sent a stunning spell at his father, which sent him out of the window, and into the night.
"Draco!" Cissa called.
He hurried over to her side, and slowly helped her into a sitting position. "You saved me?" she said quietly.
"You're our mother; I couldn't let him ruin Lilith's life, more than he did to me." Draco smiled, feeling tears welling in his eyes. "Now let's get you some help."
He gently picked his mother up, cradling her in his arms, and carried her out of the library.
"I'll make sure she hears about her heroic brother," Cissa said softly.
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Luna, Lupin and Ginny were in an equally difficult situation, holding off several death eaters, from reaching the Hospital Wing.
"Look familiar Yaxley?" Lupin chided, as they were forced back, a door appearing on their right. "In there is where you got those handsome burns."
Yaxley snarled and focused his spells on the werewolf.
"I had the last laugh freak, when we burned down all your little hidey-holes," Yaxley spat. "I took great delight in incinerating the Weasley nest; it went up like a tinderbox."
"You bastard!" Ginny yelled, casting two spells in quick succession and stunning Yaxley's support.
"You didn't get all of them" Luna said dreamily. "Potter Manor still stands."
"Potter Manor?" Yaxley laughed, holding his own against the three adversaries. "It's been a ruin for fifteen years."
"Fidelius charm," Luna said blankly.
Yaxley hesitated, and this gave Luna the advantage, she stepped forward and waved her wand. Yaxley flew sideways into the Room of Requirement, and the door locked shut behind him.
"Where is he?" Lupin asked, looking down at the ditsy blonde.
"Falling," Luna said brightly, she then skipped away to fight someone else.
"Best not to ask" Ginny said in Luna's defence. "Come on, someone somewhere in the castle needs our help."
"You may need to tell the healers to expect a splattered corpse when they overflow into that room." Luna said quietly to Lupin.
"I'll go tell them now," he chuckled dryly. "Good work Miss Lovegood."
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Harry scrambled to his feet and continued to back away from Voldemort, their spells impacting on the stonework around them.
"You fight valiantly, but in the end you will lose," Voldemort said coldly, pacing in front of Harry to taunt him. "You are outmatched."
"I beg to differ, you are one, pathetic excuse for a man, whereas I have the intelligence of twenty five people, you are outmatched." Harry laughed, waving his wand and blasting the floor beneath Voldemort, but the dark lord calmly hovered over the gap. "Plus, my forces aren't the focus of that dragon fire outside!"
They battled past a set of windows that overlooked the courtyard, where they could see multiple flashes illuminating the entire area, and the heat from the dragons that flew past, setting fire to the Dementors.
"You are outnumbered, and with no means of retreating," Voldemort laughed.
"Your people are in a far worse predicament," Harry smiled, hearing a familiar howl, followed by a Centaur's war horn. "And we're not outnumbered you blind fool!"
Voldemort snarled as he saw Centaurs and Lavender charging across the narrow bridge, trapping the death eaters in the castle.
"By the way, duck!" Harry smirked.
Voldemort reacted too late, and a blunderbuss-wielding suit of armour blasted him through a door.
"This castle isn't going down without a fight!" Harry chided. "Numbers mean nothing when we have a tactical advantage."
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Susan looked across the Hospital with a grim look on her face; most of the floor was covered with veiled outlines of people, whilst most of the beds were empty.
"They're not making things easy," Tonks grumbled, as Susan tended to the glass embedded in the Metamorphmagus' side. "They're focused on killing, not maiming. I'm just lucky that the death eater I faced was incompetent, came away with a stained glass window in my side."
"There will be a lot of widows when this battle is through," Pomfrey said, as an injured student went limp from blood loss. "And many grieving parents." She pulled the sheet over the student's head and noted the time of death on a clipboard.
"We knew what to expect," Hannah said, trying to reassure her colleagues. "We knew they'd be ruthless against us."
"Yeah, but even we couldn't think they'd be this brutal," Tracey said, holding a severed arm, before placing it with the body she thought it belonged to. "I'm going to have nightmares about this for months when this night is over."
"I'm sure master will chase those nightmares away," Susan said brightly, freeing the last shard of glass from Tonks' arm. "He is our dream catcher after all."
The harem witches' joke was completely lost on those around them. They smiled as Draco carried Cissa into the room, laid her down on an empty bed, before hurrying away to continue the fight.
"Is the baby okay?" Tonks quickly asked, looking down at her slight bump, and the cuts on her side.
Pomfrey bustled over and waved her wand over Tonks' stomach.
"They're fine my dear, they're only surface wounds here," Pomfrey smiled. "The cuts on your shoulder, arm and thigh are deeper, and will leave scars."
"Great, couple more hours and I may end up like Moody" Tonks sighed, as Susan patched her up, before helping her redress. "Back to the fight" she said brightly, before hurrying out of the room.
"She's lucky to still be walking" Dean groaned, as Hannah cauterised his bleeding stump of a leg.
"Shush now, you'll walk, just with one normal leg and an artificial one," Hannah said brightly. "If you're lucky we'll mount your real leg as a souvenir, if we can find it in the courtyard."
"Gee, thanks for that Hannah," Seamus groaned, as he sat up, and felt his stump of an arm.
"We're just trying to keep your spirits up!" Tracey said softly, making sure the Irishman wouldn't suffer any further blood loss from his severed limb.
"We've got a problem!" Daphne said as she burst into the room with several others, they were carrying a bloody sheet that covered a person; Tracey peaked at the person's face and went pale.
"Ladies, all hands, if we don't save this one then we're in deep trouble." She said quickly. "How'd they even get caught in the battle?"
"I found them lying like this in the dungeons, it looked like Thickness had tried to torture information from them." Daphne said quickly.
"Where's Thickness now?" Pomfrey asked.
"Bled out in the dungeons, they had the last laugh" Daphne said quickly, nodding at the covered form. "Just focus on keeping them alive, or we'll all suffer the repercussions."
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Lavender led the Centaur charge across the bridge, with the Thestrals and Buckbeak following close behind. The death eaters froze at the sight, and despite being petrified of the dragons overhead, were helpless when the charging Centaurs smashed through their ranks. Lavender raised herself up on to her hind legs and swatted the nearest death eaters aside.
"Son of a..." Scabior cursed, as Lavender swatted away the men either side. "I really have the worst luck."
Lavender slammed her claws down and tore into Scabior's already weakened body. Her cuts sliced off his right arm and left gaping wounds that instantly killed him.
"Aren't you beautiful," a voice said calmly, as the Centaurs cleared the courtyard, driving the remaining death eaters into the castle.
"Hold this ground; we're to let no scum escape!" Firenze yelled, and the Centaurs quickly spread out to check for wounded, and finish off the injured death eaters.
The dragons continued circling overhead, occasional flashes of orange signalled another incinerated Dementor.
Lavender looked down and saw Hippolyta floating towards her.
"Master certainly is clever to use your unique ability," she said quietly, caressing Lavender's muscular abdomen. "His grandfather would be proud of him, and marvel at you."
He knows I'm the best help using this curse to our advantage she growled, enjoying the gentle caresses against her tough fur-covered skin.
"I know dear, our master knows how we can each help in this fight," Hippolyta smiled. She summoned a small ball of fire into her hand. "My warriors are talented, and are using our natural abilities to help; I doubt they were prepared for so many fully fledged Veela hurling fireballs at them."
Think we've learnt that trick through the bond? Lavender asked, realising that the Veela queen could understand werewolves.
"I do not know my dear, I suspect Fleur and Gabby could," she smiled. "But let's not dawdle, there's a castle to defend."
Before they could move off into the castle, there was a loud sound of glass shattering, followed by an emotional wrenching sensation in their chests, as someone fell from one of the upper floors.
"Take me to them!" Hippolyta said, fearing something had happened.
She leapt on to Lavender's back, and held on tight, as the werewolf ran along the exterior of the castle, on the scent of the person who had fallen.
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Luna skipped through the corridors; remaining close to the hospital wing corridor, in case any death eaters made a move for it. She heard movement nearby and froze; someone had snuck past and was moving toward the three key rooms.
§ Who's there? § She asked, hoping her master's pets were nearby.
§ A half-blood virgin mistress § Medusa hissed, Luna heard them slither past in the pipes, heading in the other direction.
§ She's hidden, but we can smell her fear § Manasa added, following closely behind her twin.
§ Thank you ladies § Luna smiled.
She cast a notice-me-not charm on herself and followed the muted footsteps, as they drew closer to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, passing the Hospital Wing and Room of Requirement with no incidents.
"Bombarda Maxima" a voice whispered, and Luna watched as the column of sinks were blasted apart, revealing the passage to the Chamber of Secrets.
That's not possible! She thought to herself, as she heard the person slide down the pipe. No one but those master trusts know the location! All those inside were blindfolded.
She followed the cloaked figure down the pipe at a short distance. In the Chamber, she could see the dusty outline of a form moving toward the main chamber, evidentially their invisibility cloak wasn't as good as Harry's, as dust had revealed its owner to Luna.
Another blasting spell was cast, this time having no effect on the metal door with the snakes embossed on its surface.
'Rosie, we've got an intruder in the Chamber!' Luna said quickly over the link. 'They're stuck at the snake door.'
'What should we do?' Rosie quickly asked, as several more blasting spells shook the entire cavern, and failed to blast open the door.
'Let them in, but get everyone hidden!' Luna suggested. 'We'll lure them into a trap!'
The door creaked, and slowly unlocked. The cloaked figure moved inside, and their footsteps echoed off the stone floor.
"Accio invisibility cloak" Luna whispered, before diving out of sight.
The dust-covered cloak flew off its owner, and out of the main chamber. Luna waited a couple of seconds, before peering around the edge of the snake door, feeling her heart sink at seeing the intruder.
"No!" she cursed under her breath, as Dolores Umbridge strode down the tunnel, toward the stone head of Salazar Slytherin. "She's supposed to be dead, master was happy that she was dead!"
'Who is it Luna?' Rosie asked.
'Umbitch!' Luna spat, feeling long dormant anger welling inside her.
"All clear everyone, the battle is over! You may come out now!" Umbridge called, Luna could tell she was lying; her faux-happiness was almost sickening. "We won!"
"Who's 'we' Dolores?" Rosie asked, appearing from a darkened tunnel, her wand at the ready. "Because I can tell you the battle still going, and is heavily in the Lord of Hogwarts' favour, not your dark lords."
"'My dark lord'. Hah!" Umbridge laughed. "I merely allied with him as a means to an end, but when his cronies left me for dead, I struck out."
"Then why are you here?" Rosie asked, the two women circling in front of the pool.
"Because 'the Lord of Hogwarts'' vision is wrong," Umbridge snarled, firing off a spell but Rosie deflected it with ease. "Allying with creatures of near-human intelligence, giving equal rights to mudbloods, this is not what a lord is supposed to do!"
"Oh wake up and smell the shit you bathe in!" Rosie snapped. "That may have been the status quo one hundred years ago, but it's so outdated now, that people like Harry are hailed as heroes for modernising the magical community! You need to either wake up to the new world Dolores, or…"
"Show the world the Lord's views are wrong!" Umbridge snarled, Luna crept closer and closer to the circling women, watching as the small pool began to bubble and broil. "How will people react, when they hear how he let so many innocents, who were allegedly 'safe', die when this cave collapses on them?"
"You wouldn't!" Rosie yelled.
"Order must be maintained! The status quo can't shift to allow mudbloods and inhuman creatures equal rights to true witches and wizards!" Umbridge screeched. "Bombarda…"
Umbridge's spell was interrupted when a rope of seaweed shot out from the pool, latched on to Umbridge's wand, and dragged it under.
"Who dares steal a witches' wand!" she bellowed at the water, as Rosie backed away, knowing full well who had taken it.
Luna strode up behind Dolores and spun her around, before grabbing her by the collar, the charm wearing off.
"Remember me bitch!" Luna spat.
"You!" Umbridge managed, before Luna interrupted her.
"I'm one of Harry's so called 'whores' and no one threatens my master!" Luna snapped, before head-butting Umbridge's face, breaking her nose, and sending her backward into the foaming pool of water.
Umbridge managed to tread water for a few seconds, before she momentarily slipped beneath the surface.
"Something just touched my leg!" she screeched. "Don't just stand there, help me!"
"You never helped anyone but yourself, why should we help you now?" Luna stated.
Before Umbridge could spit out a poisonous retort, several webbed hands reached up and grabbed her, before quickly pulling her under.
Murcus' face came into view as Umbridge's pink fur clothes vanished into the dark water. Luna knelt down and dipped her head into the water. Rosie watched as the two spoke, before Murcus swam away and Luna resurfaced. Rosie took great pride in hand-drying Luna's face and hair with a towel, before engaging the young 'claw in a passionate kiss.
"What did you tell her?" Gabby asked, as the refugees slowly emerged from the tunnels, staring in disbelief at the pool of water.
"To put her in the deepest, darkest part of the lake, and keep her there, tied up and on a diet of gillyweed, until they think she's suffered for her crimes." Luna said coldly, enjoying the warmth of Rosie's embrace. "From there it's up to them."
They were stopped from the cheerful moment, by a wrenching sensation in their chests.
"Something's wrong!" Astoria exclaimed, before hurrying toward the exit, followed by Rosie, Luna and Gabby.
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Harry was now facing Voldemort in the grand staircases, the sounds of battle all around, but growing fainter.
"Your forces are being killed off one by one, and you still delay the inevitable" Voldemort mocked.
He waved his arm, and Harry was thrown backwards, falling down several flights, before rolling into a wall. He got up slowly, and looked up to see Voldemort smiling down at him. A familiar hiss soon answered the reason why Voldemort was so smug. His cursed serpent, Nagini, was mere metres away, and slowly slithering toward him up the stairs, a glint of hunger in her eyes.
§ Save me § he hissed loudly, hoping it would work.
"Nagini won't answer to half-blood scum like you, she only obeys her master" Voldemort laughed.
"I wasn't talking to your pet," Harry smirked, as a familiar hissing filled his ears. "And I'm not just half-blood anymore."
Voldemort realised too late what was going on, and was forced to watch the events that followed. Medusa and Manasa burst through the wall, each biting half of Nagini, and ripping her in two, before slithering out of sight. Voldemort collapsed to his knees again, as a savage pain wracked his body, Nagini was dead, there was nothing stopping Harry from killing him.
"I warned you," Harry said loudly, slowly walking up the stairs to where Voldemort knelt. "I gave you a chance to flee the country, and you ignored me. Now your staring death in the face and nothing will save you."
"Avada…" Voldemort said weakly, but Harry smacked the wand from his shaking hands, sending over the banister, and hearing a faint snap seconds later.
"Harry!" Hermione called, rounding the corner and smiling with relief, seeing Harry standing over Voldemort.
The dark lord however smirked, and waved his hand. Harry was thrown backwards out of the window, his scream piercing the night silence.
"I win" Voldemort said, before diving out the window, turning to smoke as he crossed the broken window.