"Well, someone grab him!" said Daphne Greengrass. "He's right there!"

"Alright, hold it!" Draco called, stepping out next to Potter. The whole room went up in gasps again, including McGonagall.

"Yes, I'm a Death Eater, big deal, thanks." Lowering his voice, he said, "You and Weasel need to go get the basilisk fang now. I'll take it from here."

"Students out of bed!"

Draco turned to see Filch running down the hall with Mrs. Norris.

"Students in the corridor!"

"They are supposed to be out of bed, you blithering idiot!" McGonagall informed him.

"Oh..." Filch trailed off. "Sorry ma'am."

"It seems your arrival is rather opportune. I would have you escort Daphne Greengrass and the rest of Slytherin house out of the hall to the dungeons."

"Wait!" Milicent Bulstrode called out, to Draco's surprise. She stepped forward shyly. "If you don't mind, Professor, I'd like to stay and help fight."

"Me too," said Bradbury Stevens, now a third year. "My mum's a Quidditch player, not a Death Eater. And my dad's a healer. So I'm helping out."

Draco was proud of the boy for stepping up, even though he was so young. Slowly, several more Slytherins began to declare their intent to fight until there were only a handful left.

"Very well," McGonagall agreed. "Mr. Filch, please take students from any of the houses who wish not to fight, as well as the first and second year students, and escort them to their common rooms, where they will be safe."

Filch nodded and led the students out of the hall.

Draco turned back to Potter and Weasley. "You two go down to the chamber and destroy that cup." The two Gryffindors rushed off to just that.

Professor Flitwick said to Hermione, "Miss Granger, would you please accompany me outside to help set up protection charms?"

"Certainly, Professor. Shall I bring help?"

"Yes," Flitwick said, turning to the other students. "Anyone who finds him or herself particularly adept at protection charms will follow me outside to the courtyard now."

Hermione and a handful of other students fell behind the Charms professor as they made their way out of the great hall. Soon after, Professor McGonagall led Slughorn and Molly Weasley out to the front of the school, Longbottom and Finnigan on their tails. Draco scanned the room and found that the Carrows were out of sight. McGonagall had knocked them down during the fight with Snape, but now they were gone. Each Order member led a group of students out of the hall, no doubt to guard the difference areas of the castle.

"Theo," Draco called. "I need you to go secure the Slytherin common room. No one gets in or out. I don't know if the password can be overridden, but I'm sure the portrait can be blasted."

"You got it, mate," Theo replied, leaving the hall.

"Luna, can you do the same for your common room?"

The Ravenclaw nodded and took off.

"Blaise, you'll have to take care of Hufflepuff's common room since they all just went off to help Flitwick."

"Yeah, that's fine."

"As for Gryffindor—"

"I'll do Gryffindor," Dean Thomas interjected. Draco could sense the boy still didn't really like him, but at least he was cooperating.

"Great, then that's settled. Pansy, Adrian, come with me. We'll go help guard the entrance."

The three Slytherins left the Great Hall and exited the castle. Outside, there were giant statues gathering on the bridge, a proud McGonagall watching over them. Draco began casting all the protection spells he knew, his friends following suit.

In about a half hour, the entire castle was under all the protection its inhabitants could conjure up. Potter and Weasley had successfully destroyed Hufflepuff's Cup and were now running towards Draco.

"Potter, you can't be here," Draco told him. "You need to go hide or something."

"Hide? I think it's a bit late for that, don't you? Besides, we've got time and we need to come up with a plan to defeat him."

However, it seemed Voldemort had other plans because at that moment, hundreds of spells started flying at the protective dome from outside, attempting to destroy it.

"That's not fair, it hasn't been an hour yet!" proclaimed Weasley.

"You really think Voldemort's gonna play by the rules?" Draco said. "Potter, get to the Room of Requirement. Take the Vanishing Cabinet to Borgin & Burkes and get out of here."

"I'm not leaving now, Malfoy. I'm not going to escape and let everyone else fight to protect me."

"If you leave, so will he—"

"But not until he destroys every bit of this castle trying to find me."

Draco knew Potter was right, but thankfully Hermione had an idea.

"Harry, we still need the sword to kill his snake, right?" she reminded. "Because you can't even try to get near it with a basilisk fang. So maybe you should go looking for the Sorting Hat, because like Dumbledore used to say, a true Gryffindor can always pull the sword out of the hat."

"Where is he supposed to find the hat?" asked Weasley. "Room of Requirement?"

Potter said, "That wouldn't be a bad place to start. I'll go see if I can ask the Room for the hat, and if not, then maybe it can give me a way to find the hat." With that, he took off into the castle.

Draco performed a quick sight amplification spell to get a closer look at Voldemort's front lines.

With the Dark Lord was Bellatrix, just as bloodthirsty as ever, accompanied by her husband and brother in law. The fathers of Crabbe, Goyle, and Theo were there as well, but no sign of Scabior and the Snatchers. They must have been coming in from the bridge in the back. Draco could only hope that it was well protected.

As it happened, Ginny and a small group were standing guard at the point connecting the bridge to the castle. Neville had gone ahead to the end of the bridge, looking out over it, when suddenly a large mass of Death Eaters came running from the woods behind. Two Death Eaters ran out in front, but were quickly engulfed and destroyed by the shield, causing everyone else to stop.

Neville felt very confident now, yelling out, "Yeah? You and whose army?"

Just then, there was a loud thundering, but it wasn't the clouds. A giant force slammed into the shield and slowly began eating away at the protection. It looked like the world was going up in flames.

Neville stepped back as he watched a flame fall from the shield. Scabior twirled it with his wand and let it drop. Very slowly Scabior lowered his foot onto the ground on the other side of the shield. To his delight, he was fine. He grinned at Scabior then called out a war cry, leading the charge ahead.

Immediately, Neville spun around and began running for his life. He shot several spells over his shoulder, hoping they did some damage. With one last shot, the bridge began to crumble. As the Death Eaters realized this, they ran even faster, trying to escape the fall, but they weren't fast enough. Unfortunately, the collapse of the bridge was catching up to Neville and he fell as the wood gave out from under him.

"Neville!" Ginny cried out, rushing forward. Luckily, Neville had caught the bar on the side and held on for dear life. Ginny pulled him up and the whole group rushed back inside the castle to warn the others.

Meanwhile on the other side of Hogwarts, Draco had watched in horror as Voldemort successfully penetrated the shield. The Death Eaters took full flight forward, followed by trolls and giants that took out everything in their path. Draco vaporized into the air and flew forward, blasting away any other flying Death Eaters. He arrived in the middle of the bridge and morphed into a wolf before charging back towards Hogwarts, taking out the three trolls by biting their legs and pulling them down. He quickly turned back into himself in time to hear McGonagall call out to the students, "Get inside!"

He followed everyone through the courtyard as they tried to dodge the Death Eaters' spells. Inside, he caught up with Hermione and Wealsey, telling them to follow him.

"We need to get to the Room of Requirement," he explained. The three of them took off, blasting away the Death Eaters who flew in behind them.

"Hermione!" called Ginny Weasley, sprinting towards them. "We need you. Slughorn taught us this fire-breathing potion that you learned last year, and he said you were always the best at focusing it on your target. The Death Eaters broke through the barrier on the bridge back by the forest."

"Hold them off for as long as you can!" Hermione replied. "I need to go get Harry and then I'll stop by Slughorn's classroom to get the potion from his stores."

It was a long trip, but they finally made it to the Room. The door was still visible and it swung open with Potter carrying the Sorting Hat, both covered in dirt and ashes.

"Bloody hell, mate, what happened?" Weasley asked. Then they all watched a giant fire snake sped towards the door.

"Crabbe and Goyle," Potter panted out. "Crabbe set the bloody place on fire!"

"How did they get out of the Slytherin Common Room?" Weasley asked. "Wasn't Nott supposed to seal it shut?"

Hermione said, "They must have got out before he got there. Harry, come with me. I need to go help Ginny and you need to find the snake. You two," she pointed to Draco and Weasley "take care of this." She and Potter ran down the hall and flew down the stairs.

"Water spell, quick," said Draco.

Together, the boys shouted, "Aguamenti!" Jets of water shot out of their wands and briefly protected them as they entered the room and rolled out of the fire snake's way.

"Malfoy!"

Draco whipped around to see Crabbe and Goyle marching towards them triumphantly, wands pointed right at Draco and Weasley.

Just then, the fire snake burst outside and set the hallway into flames.

"Crabbe, are you completely mad?!" Draco yelled over the roar. "You're going to kill us all!"

"Don't worry, I'm only here to kill you," Crabbe taunted. Goyle had his wand on Weasley, but he looked very uncertain.

"Goyle, put the wand down. Aren't you tired of this? You and your mum can live out the rest of your days in peace once your father goes to Azkaban."

Goyle seemed to be listening, but one look at Crabbe, and he kept his wand in place.

"Fine, have it your way," Weasley muttered, flinging a hex at Goyle. Draco did the same to Crabbe, who blocked it him. Draco knew he could easily take Crabbe, but if he did so, Crabbe would either die by his hand or fall into the fire. But even though he wasn't trying to kill Crabbe, his childhood friend was trying his best to kill him.

The entire room was still in flames. No doubt Crabbe had cast Fiendfyre, but he couldn't properly control it so the fire kept shooting in their direction. Just then, a large cloud of smoke slowly approached Crabbe, a flame suddenly bursting forth.

"Crabbe, watch out!"

"Your tricks won't fool me, Malfoy," the boy countered. Goyle turned around and in that moment decided to stop dueling Weasley. The Gryffindor and the Slytherin locked eyes and ran for the door.

"Goyle, where you going?" Crabbe demanded.

Draco was slowly stepping back as he kept blocking Crabbe's spells.

"Crabbe, the fire is coming right for you!"

But it was too late. Draco barely had a moment to register the look of shock on Crabbe's face as the fire engulfed him completely and charged towards the door. Draco turned and ran as fast as he could, following Weasley and Goyle down the hall. Just then, Theo, one of the Weasley twins, and Percy Weasley came up the stairs, pursued by Death Eaters.

"Fred!" Ron Weasley called out. Draco turned around to keep the fire at bay while the others fought the Death Eaters.

"Guess what, little brother?" Fred Weasley smiled at him. "Percy just quit his job at the Ministry. I guess it was for the best, since killing the Minister wouldn't get him up the ladder!"

"Theo, mate, help me out?" Draco asked.

"A little busy, actually!" Theo called back as he took out more Death Eaters. With everyone distracted, Goyle sprinted down the stairs and out of their sight, no doubt to get to Hogsmeade and apparate home.

"We need to leave!" Draco told them. "I can't hold it for much longer!" He slowly backed up towards the stairs.

The Death Eaters pushed on, but were slowly falling. Theo and Ron defeated the wizards they were fighting and circled around them to get on the stairs. Percy and Fred finally took care of the last Death Eater and followed Draco to where the others were, but at the last moment, someone from the floor below shot a hex at them all, and Draco immediately blocked it, letting go of the fire blockade. The fire immediately rushed after them.

"Percy, Fred, come on!" Ron called as they all clambered down the stairs.

"Hold your horses, little brother," Fred told him. "This is like the time we were all rushing to see if Bill liked the new haircut George and I gave him while he was asleep. And the fire was Mum!"

Then out of nowhere, a Death Eater's spell collided with the fire and there was a loud explosion near the middle of the stairs. Fred shot into the air and tumbled down onto the next floor.

"Fred!" his brothers cried out, racing to him.

"Come on, Fred," Percy nudged as the other one teared up. "Fred, wake up. Rennervate! Fred!"

"Fred, no, you can't do this to us!" Ron shook his brother really hard, hoping it would wake him up, but to no avail. Percy put his two fingers on Fred's neck and looked down with grief as Ron buried his face into Fred's shoulder. Percy closed Fred's eyes, and it now looked like Fred was happily dreaming of his last great joke.

Theo put his hand on Ron's shoulder. "He fought so bravely, mate. Come on, we need to keep going."

Percy nodded and rose. "We'll have to put his body somewhere safe for now."

The three of them picked up Fred's body and made for a suit of armor. Draco moved forward to help, only to be interrupted by the Dark Lord himself.