A/N – Just to avoid any confusion I just want to say that this chapter goes back to the start of the battle and gets things from Harry's perspective.
Upon spotting the approaching Death Eaters from their vantage point in the Astronomy Tower, Harry led the group of teenagers back down to the main body of the school so they could prepare the Order. Fortunately the Order had been ready and it didn't take them long to ensure they were ready for battle.
"I've put an enchantment over The Great Hall," Dumbledore informed the teenagers. "Now no-one with a Dark Mark can enter, so those inside will be safe."
"What about Draco?" Hermione questioned with a frown. "What if he needs medical attention?"
"And Professor Snape," Theo added. Despite Draco being with the enemy, the potions Professor had made no move to leave the light as he explained it was time for his true allegiance to be known.
"I've made exceptions for both Draco and Severus," Dumbledore answered. "They can enter The Great Hall, but no other Death Eaters can. Now do you all know what you're doing?"
"Yeah, we're looking for the snake," Ron replied.
"Until then you need to stay out of Voldemort's clutches, Harry," Dumbledore warned. "I know you'll not want to, but you have to stay as far away from him as possible. I want you at the back when he arrives."
"I guess I can do that," Harry muttered.
"We'll stay with you," Ron offered, patting his best friend on the back. "We'll all stand together. I'm sure we can find a vantage point that will help us find the snake."
"Ron's right, we're in this together," Hermione agreed as she gave Harry a quick hug.
Theo, Blaise and Neville all also vowed to stand with Harry, and that was how the six teenagers came to be standing on the wall at the back of the group standing against Voldemort when The Dark Lord and his followers entered Hogwarts. However, despite their vow to stick together it was impossible for them to keep to it once the fighting started. Within two minutes of the first curses been thrown, Harry had already lost track of both Hermione and Ron. Although he suspected Hermione was trying to make her way to Draco as Harry knew his best friend had caught sight of her boyfriend.
Trying to keep out of the thick of the fighting was hard, but Harry knew it had to be done as he couldn't risk getting killed before it was time to confront Voldemort. It also wasn't easy trying to track down Nagini, and Harry had been very disappointed when he'd seen no sign of the snake when Voldemort had first approached the castle. It would have been easier if they'd managed to set eyes on Nagini straight away, but they hadn't and they were now forced to keep one eye out for a deadly snake as they tried to stay alive.
Despite keeping away from Voldemort and the band of Death Eaters he kept close at his side, Harry still had to fight and he found himself facing several different Death Eaters over the first half hour of the battle. Fortunately the Order and their supporters outnumbered the Death Eaters and more often than not, Harry had help in seeing off the enemy.
After Charlie had saved him from a Death Eater trying to attack him from behind, Harry decided to retreat into the castle and see if he could find any of the others to see if they'd located Nagini. Keeping his wand at his side the entire time, Harry cautiously made his way back into the castle. By this point the fighting had moved into the castle and as Harry dodged around Sirius, who was battling a Death Eater with a manic grin on his face, he glanced upwards and spotted Blaise and Theo on the floor above, their backs to the wall as their former friends cornered them.
Harry could see that Crabbe and Goyle were using their bulk to keep the two Slytherins in place, while Pansy and Daphne looked to be the ones doing the talking. Although both witches also had their wands out and Harry suspected they were throwing the odd hex Blaise and Theo's way. After everything the pair had done for Hermione, Harry couldn't just leave them to it, so he ran around to the back staircase and sprinted up a flight of stairs.
Fortunately for Harry the Slytherins were too busy taunting Blaise and Theo to notice his approach. Harry bristled when he heard Daphne laughing about how Voldemort had Draco exactly where he wanted him, and how he planned on killing Hermione and making Draco watch. Pansy then began to brag that either she or Daphne would marry Draco and provide him with a suitable male heir, rather than the tainted female one Hermione had given him.
"You evil little tarts," Harry yelled, surging out of the shadows, his wand aimed at Pansy and Daphne. "Expelliarmus!"
The spell sent Daphne's wand flying from her hand, and without thinking the Slytherin witch turned and tried to catch the wand before it fell over the railing and down to the ground floor. Surprisingly she did manage to catch the piece of wood, however in doing so she unbalanced herself and with a loud scream she went tumbling over the railing. Harry winced at the sound of Daphne's body thudding to the floor below.
"Daphne!" Pansy screamed, peering over the railing and screaming when she spotted her friend lying on the floor, blood pooling around her head. "You killed her," she seethed, turning back to Harry with a dangerous glint in her eyes.
"I'll do the same to you if you don't back off," Harry warned, holding his wand out in front of him. "This is your one chance, Parkinson. Run now or join Daphne in the afterlife."
"I'm not running," Pansy sneered.
"Care to think again, Pansy?" Blaise asked with a smirk, drawing Pansy's attention to him and Theo.
Blaise and Theo now had Crabbe and Goyle in head locks with their wands pressed to their throats. Both Crabbe and Goyle had lost concentration when Harry had arrived and Daphne had fallen over the balcony, so Blaise and Theo had taken their opportunity and gotten the upper hand. Knowing she was alone, Pansy spat at Harry before turning and running down the corridor, not even giving Crabbe and Goyle a second thought.
"Bitch," Harry muttered, wiping at his face and turning to his new found Slytherin friends. "Stun these two and tie them up. I'm sure Parkinson will be caught sooner or later."
Two minutes later, Crabbe and Goyle were stunned and tied together. Leaving them in a classroom secured by every spell they knew, the trio then headed towards the stairs to try and find someone and let them know they had prisoners, and a dead Daphne somewhere on the ground floor. Halfway down the stairs, Theo suddenly froze and letting out a loud gasp, he alerted Blaise and Harry to the couple darting out of the Great Hall.
"Draco," Blaise cried, thrilled to see his best friend.
Blaise's cry stopped Hermione and Draco in their tracks, and Draco's face broke into a smile as he set eyes on his two best friends. Flying down the stairs as fast as they could, Blaise and Theo embraced Draco as Harry gave Hermione a hug and let her know how pleased he was that she was reunited with her boyfriend.
"Yet, you don't seem happy," Harry remarked as he truly looked at Hermione and saw she'd been crying.
"It's Ron," Hermione said softly.
"No," Harry interrupted, shaking his head as he sensed what Hermione was going to tell him.
"I saw it," Hermione whispered. "He's gone, Harry."
"No," Harry cried, holding onto Hermione as the reality of losing his best friend hit him.
"What's wrong?" Blaise asked, not having heard what Hermione was telling Harry as he was too busy with Draco.
"Ron's dead," Hermione explained as she held back her own tears.
"I don't believe it," Theo gasped. "Are you sure?"
"We're sure," Draco said quietly. "He died saving me. I owe him my life."
"Where is he?" Harry asked, still holding onto Hermione.
"In the Great Hall," Hermione answered. "Come on, let's go and see him."
Harry and Hermione led the way back into the Great Hall, where they found Ron had been placed on a bed over beside the window. Molly was sitting at his side crying quietly, and her sobs got louder as Harry ran over to her and embraced her. Hermione also joined the sobbing pair, and together the trio cried over their loss.
"It's so sad," Blaise said in a choked up voice as he, Theo and Draco kept a respectable distance from the mourning.
"It is," Draco agreed, watching as Harry leaned over Ron and gave his best friend a final hug.
Hermione and Harry stayed with Molly for another few minutes, before they returned to the Slytherins, wiping at their tears. To be honest neither of them had really began to process their grief, they were merely pushing it aside to deal with matters at hand. Before they could really mourn Ron, and anyone else who would lose their lives, they had to defeat Voldemort.
"We need to find that damn snake," Harry spat. "I want to end this."
"I've got some good news on that front, we've located Nagini," Hermione said.
"Where?" Harry asked, pulling out his basilisk fang. "I want to gut the horrid thing."
"It's at the manor guarding mother," Draco explained.
"Shit," Harry swore, kicking at a chair and sending it skittering over the floor.
"Calm down Harry, I've sent Tipsy to the manor with my fang. She's going to tell Narcissa what needs to be done," Hermione explained.
"Narcissa is going to kill the snake?" Harry asked sceptically. "Really?"
"She can do it," Draco reassured Harry. "My mother is far tougher than she looks. Besides, after everything we've been through, I think she'll be more than ready to help deliver some payback."
"I hope you're right Malfoy," Harry said with a sigh. "Because if she doesn't kill that snake, we'll never kill Voldemort and Ron will have died in vain as we'll all be slaughtered."
"That will not happen," Hermione insisted as she wrapped her arm around Harry. "We're going to be victorious today, I know we are. We have to keep the faith. Ron wouldn't want us to lose hope."
"No, he wouldn't," Harry agreed, tears pooling in his eyes as he turned back to look at his fallen friend once again.
It wasn't going to be easy, but he was going to remain positive. He was going to believe that Narcissa could deal with Nagini, and then he was going to take down Voldemort and save the wizarding world from his evil designs.
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Left all alone at Malfoy Manor, not counting the evil snake that was slithering around the place, Narcissa felt sick to her stomach. She'd spent months worrying about her son and granddaughter, but she'd never been as nervous as she currently was. She knew Voldemort was planning on the battle being the final one, and she knew he had every faith he would douse the light once and for all, but Narcissa was praying that his pride would get the better of him and he would fail. She knew she couldn't live under the dark's rule, and she suspected that if Voldemort was triumphant that both she and Draco would soon become expendable.
Unable to focus on anything, Narcissa settled herself in Draco's room. She was aware that Nagini kept slithering up and down the hallway outside, but thankfully the horrid creature stayed out of her son's room. Being in Draco's room help Narcissa feel close to her son and she was sitting with one of his old stuffed dragons, which he'd kept in a box under the bed, in her hands when she heard a small popping noise from the bathroom. Instantly alert, Narcissa glanced at the doorway and saw no sign of Nagini, which she hoped meant that the snake hadn't heard the noise.
Dropping the stuffed dragon onto Draco's bed, Narcissa hurried into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. As she'd hoped, Tipsy was waiting in the bathroom and the small elf hugged Narcissa tightly when she saw her. Narcissa hugged the tiny elf back, before quietly asking about her granddaughter.
"Little Miss Lyra is sleeping," Tipsy explained.
Narcissa breathed a sigh of relief at the news her granddaughter wasn't dead, and she knew it was more vital than ever for Voldemort to be killed. Until he was gone her granddaughter wouldn't wake up, and even though she didn't know the exact spells Dumbledore had used on her, she didn't think it would be good for Lyra to be unconscious for too long.
"Miss Hermione sent me," Tipsy whispered. "They need you to kill the bad snake. The evil wizard cannot be killed until his snake is dead."
"They want me to kill Nagini?" Narcissa frowned. "How?"
"With this," Tipsy said, pulling out the basilisk fang Hermione had given her and handing it to Narcissa. "Please Mistress Narcissa, you need to do it. Kill the snake so Harry Potter can kill the evil wizard."
"This will kill the snake?" Narcissa checked, looking warily at the fang in her hand.
"Yes, and then I can take you to Little Miss Lyra," Tipsy said.
Narcissa welled up at the thought of seeing her granddaughter. Knowing that Hermione wouldn't have asked her to kill Nagini unless it was vital to the effort to defeat Voldemort, Narcissa took a couple of deep breaths to compose herself. Ordering Tipsy to stay in the bathroom and to stay out of sight if anyone should enter, Narcissa tucked the fang into her dress and walked out of the bathroom with her head held high.
For the first time since Narcissa had settled herself in the room, Nagini had entered her son's room. Narcissa found the snake watching the bathroom door with beady eyes and it hissed at Narcissa as she re-entered the bedroom and shut the door behind her.
"Get out," she snapped at the snake, not even knowing if it understood or not. "Get out of my son's room."
Nagini hissed again before slowly turning her long body and slithering towards the doorway. With the snake heading away from her, Narcissa pulled the fang out of her dress and prepared to pounce. With her head full of thoughts of Draco, Lyra, Hermione and even poor Tonks, Narcissa lunged at the snake with a blood curdling scream.
The element of surprise was on her side and she managed to plunge the fang into the middle of Nagini's body. Nagini hissed in agony and swivelled her head to try and bite Narcissa, but Narcissa wasn't close enough for her to sink her fangs in. Plunging the fang deeper into the snake, and making sure to keep out of Nagini's venomous reach, Narcissa began to wiggle it from side to side as she enlarged the wound. Nagini continued to hiss in pain and tried to wiggle away, but Narcissa wasn't giving up and she kept working on the wound until Nagini was nearly ripped in two. The larger the wound got the more the fight went out of Nagini, and by the time Narcissa separated the snake in two, Nagini was still.
Breathing heavily, Narcissa moved away from the snake once it was in two parts. However, she wasn't taking any chances that the snake wasn't dead. Repulsive as it was, she picked up the back end of the snake and carried it towards the fire in the corner of the room. Lighting the fire, she threw the half snake onto the fire and watched it burn. She then went back to the other half, and making sure to keep her hands well away from Nagini's open mouth and sharp fangs, she then threw the rest of the snake onto the fire as well.
"Burn in hell," Narcissa whispered as she watched the snake pieces shrivel in the flames.
Once she was sure the snake was gone for good, Narcissa turned back to where she'd torn the snake in half. The carpet was covered in blood and would have to be replaced, but Narcissa wasn't too concerned. She was sure that Draco would rather have a bloody carpet, then have Nagini still slithering around alive and well.
"Tipsy," Narcissa called. "I'm done," she announced when the elf timidly poked her head around the door. "Take me to Lyra."
Tipsy smiled widely as she wrapped her arms around Narcissa and using everything she had, she began to break through the strong wards of the manor. Apparition wasn't instantaneous, but Tipsy's will and magic was strong, and knowing that Narcissa would be killed if she didn't get her out of the manor, the little elf persevered and finally the wards shattered under her onslaught and she spirited Narcissa away to Grimmauld Place, where the doting grandmother rushed straight to her precious granddaughter's side. Now Narcissa was with Lyra, nothing was going to tear her away from her granddaughter again. She would be at Lyra's side until word reached them from the final battle. All she could do now was pray it was good news and that her family's torment was coming to an end.