"What can we do?" Hermione screamed, her voice barely heard over the flames roaring around them, reminding Bryt of a crashing waterfall. The heat was unbearable, making it hard to breathe.
"Here!" Harry called nearby. He had rushed to a set of brooms nearby and tossed one to Ron, taking the other for himself. Bryt and Ron immediately mounted one, Bryt behind Ron and gripping him around the waist. Bryt could feel the diadem in her coat pocket pressing in her side. Harry and Hermione had mounted the second broom and soon, they were all into the air. Bryt could feel the flames beneath them, trying to rise to reach them. They were in smoke now and Bryt coughed, her eyes burning as she looked around. Ron had pushed forward and they were racing in the direction that Bryt hoped was the door.
There was a loud scream nearby and Bryt's heart skipped a beat. Either Malfoy or one of his friends were still alive. Or maybe all of them...They couldn't just leave them there.
"It's too dangerous!" Ron yelled and Bryt tightened her arms around him.
"Ron, we can't leave them!" she screamed, she saw the shape of Harry and Hermione rushing through the smoke.
Ron cursed loudly, pushing off after Harry. They broke through where Bryt saw Malfoy and the unconscious Goyle on the top of a junk mountain. Crabbe was nowhere in sight.
They reached the two and Bryt and Ron pulled Goyle onto their broom, Bryt gripping Goyle to keep him on as Malfoy scrambled onto the broom with Harry and Hermione and they launched into the air again, racing through the smoke. There had to be some sign of the door...Somewhere...
"THERE!" Bryt screamed, though she was unable to point, "TO THE LEFT! THERE'S THE DOOR!"
They pushed forward. The door slowly grew larger and larger...And they were through. Out into the corridor, falling from their brooms and breathing in the smoke-free air, only to start coughing more at the dust-filled air. Bryt pushed herself to her knees and looked to the door, which was now a solid wall. The Room of Requirement had sealed itself.
"C-Crabbe..." Malfoy managed nearby, his voice weak, "C-Crabbe..."
"He's dead," Ron said sharply and Bryt frowned. Malfoy looked so pathetic. He'd shown in the Room of Requirement that Crabbe and Goyle had apparently actually been friends of his, rather than just a couple of lackeys...Bryt couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for Malfoy.
"Where's Ginny?" Harry asked, pushing himself to his feet. Ron followed, helping Bryt up. Hermione scrambled up next to them and they stepped away from Malfoy and Goyle—neither had wands, they wouldn't be any threat. Bryt got a good look at her friends and noticed they were soot-covered and singed a bit. Bryt was sure she probably was, too.
"She was here," Harry whispered, looking around, "She was supposed to be going back into the Room of Requirement."
"Blimey, d'you reckon it'll still work after that fire?" Ron asked, looking around, "Shall we split up and look—"
"No," Hermione said, "Let's stick together. I say we go somewhere and destroy the diadem—wait, do we have it?"
"Yeah," Bryt nodded, patting her coat pocket, "I snagged it before Crabbe set the place on fire."
"Think we should destroy it now?" Ron asked, glancing around. Malfoy and Goyle didn't seem to be paying them any attention.
"Better to get it over with," Bryt said, "I don't want to be carrying a Horcrux around in this battle."
Bryt pulled the diadem out, studying it. It was silver, with faded stones, and the engraving "Wit Beyond Measure is Man's Greatest Treasure" along the front.
"I say you do it," Ron whispered to Bryt, "You haven't yet."
Bryt nodded, though she frowned and put the diadem on the floor, holding it steady with one hand as she pulled the basilisk fang from her pocket, raising it up and bringing it down on the diadem. It vibrated for a second, then started leaking the same inky-black substance that the cup had done in the Chamber of Secrets. Like last time, there was also that faint scream, and then the noise stopped. Bryt looked up, looking at the faces of her friends and she couldn't help but grin a little.
"Only one left," she whispered, "The snake. That's all we have left. If we can get to the snake, then Voldemort's vulnerable!"
Harry opened his mouth to answer, but he never got a chance. Yells came from around the corner and they all jumped up, spinning to see Fred backing around the corner with—to Bryt's immense surprise—Percy Weasley. They were dueling together, against a pair of Death Eaters. What was Percy doing here?
Harry, Ron, and Hermione rushed forward and Bryt pushed back her surprise. She snatched up the destroyed Horcrux and shoved it in her pocket again as she chased after them, her wand out. They'd just gotten closer when the hood fell back on one man, who Bryt recognized from their infiltration of the Ministry of Magic, that this was the Minister.
"Hello, Minister!" Percy said, sending a jinx that hit the man square in the chest and the man collapsed, clawing at himself as he started to turn into some small, spiky object, "Did I mention I'm resigning?"
"You're joking, Perce!" Fred laughed, sending a Stunning Spell at the Death Eater at the same time as Bryt, Ron, Harry, and Hermione, making the man collapse. Fred spun to Percy, a bright grin across his face.
"You actually are joking, Perce..." Fred said, "I don't think I've heard you joke since you were—"
Fred never got to finish. An explosion rocked the whole corridor, sending Bryt flying backwards into a nearby wall, knocking the wind out of her and blackening her vision for a moment. When she came to, half the wall had collapsed inward around them, the cold air rushing through, sucking dust away from them. Someone shouted nearby, a cry that tore Bryt's heart and chilled her to the bones. She pushed herself to her feet, looking around, noticing Percy, Ron, and Fred nearby. Percy was screaming Fred's name and Bryt stumbled forward, scarcely able to breathe, afraid of what she'd find.
And her fear was confirmed. Fred lay there, his eyes open and unstaring at the ceiling above. Fred Weasley was dead.
Bryt dropped to her knees next to Ron, feeling like she couldn't breathe. Both Percy and Ron were crying, Percy was still screaming his brother's name, each cry tearing more and more at Bryt. That was worse for Bryt than having to stare at Fred's lifeless body.
"Get down!"
Bryt glanced up at Harry, then was immediately jerked to the floor by Ron next to her and the spell seemed to be broken and Bryt was snapped back to the war raging around them. She cursed under her breath. She couldn't allow herself to be distracted.
"Percy!" Harry called and Bryt looked up, her chest tightening as she saw Percy had thrown himself over Fred's body, trying to protect it from the curses and rubble falling around, "Percy, you can't do anything for him! We're going to—"
Hermione screamed nearby and Bryt felt Ron go tense. Through one of the holes, an acromantula was coming in. Bryt shuddered, remembering the last time she'd ran into these things five years ago. She pulled out her wand, shooting out a spell at the same time as Ron and Harry, sending the spider backwards out of the hole again. Harry rushed over and peered through the hole after it.
"It brought friends!" he said, shooting off more spells before looking at the others, "Let's move, now!"
Bryt hurried to her feet with Ron, taking off down the hallway. Bryt glanced over her shoulder to see Harry and Percy had pulled up Fred's body, pulling him along with them. Bryt turned back in front of her and they kept running. It was hard, however, as they were trying to stay low, avoiding flying curses.
They rounded a corner and Bryt noticed a group of students trying to fight off a Death Eater up ahead. Bryt heard a shout and noticed Percy running past them towards the group and Ron started to take off as well, but Bryt grabbed ahold of his arm and looked around, then ducked behind a nearby tapestry.
"Hermione, help!" Bryt said and Hermione grabbed Ron from behind as Bryt pushed Ron back, the two girls struggling together to keep Ron back.
"Harry, in here!" Hermione called and a second later, Harry ducked into their hiding place.
"I wanna help," Ron said angrily, his entire body shaking as he fought against the girls, "I wanna kill some Death Eaters—"
"Ron, stop!" Bryt said, her voice rising in panic, "Stop, we can't! We can't go running into the battle! We have to find the snake!"
"I want to fight!" Ron yelled and Bryt felt her chest tighten. She knew exactly how he felt, but this...After all she lost...But this was far more important...
"RON, LISTEN!" Bryt yelled, "I lost my mother in case you forgot!"
Ron immediately stopped, staring at Bryt. She took that opportunity to press forward.
"Don't you think I want to be out there, fighting those people who sent the Snatchers out there after people like me and my family?" Bryt asked, "My mother was killed by Snatchers, of course I want to be out there fighting! But we have to go after that snake! We're the only ones, remember? We're the only ones to know how important it is, we're the only ones who can kill it!"
Ron seemed to finally see reason. He slowly stopped struggling, though he was still tense, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. Bryt slowly lowered her hands from his arms, watching him. She knew how badly he wanted to run into the fight. She understood exactly how he felt. But they had a job to do. They were so close...
"You need to find out where Voldemort is," Hermione said and Bryt looked over to see her staring at Harry, "Because he'll have the snake with him, won't he? Do it, Harry—look inside him!"
It was clear how dire the situation was. For them to want Harry to open that connection, after spending years telling him to keep it closed...But they needed to know where the snake was.
Bryt watched as Harry closed his eyes and almost immediately he started to sway. Hermione reached out, grabbing his arm to steady him. Bryt stood silently, her heart pounding, waiting...It was agonizing, even though Harry was only quiet for a couple of minutes, with the battle raging around them, it felt like an eternity. Bryt could hear explosions and screams and each time, she winced and tensed up, trying not to wonder if those screams belonged to someone she knew, someone she was friends with...
Finally, Harry gasped, opening his eyes again and steadying himself.
"He's in the Shrieking Shack," Harry whispered, "The snake's with him, it's got some sort of magical protection around it. He's just send Lucius Malfoy to find Snape."
Bryt stared at Harry, gripping her hands into fits. What was Voldemort doing, hiding away? Hiding away like a coward while his Death Eaters did all the work...
"Voldemort's in the Shrieking Shack?" Hermione asked, her voice shaking in anger, "He's not—he's not even fighting?"
"He doesn't think he needs to fight," Harry said, "He thinks I'm going to go to him."
"Because we're after the Horcruxes?" Bryt asked, "He doesn't let that snake out of his sight, I bet."
"Exactly," Harry said with a nod, "Obviously I'm going to have to go to him to get near the thing—"
"Right," Ron said, straightening up, the first time he'd spoken since Bryt convinced him not to rush into the battle, "So you can't go, that's what he wants, what he's expecting. You stay here and look after Bryt and Hermione, and I'll get it—"
"You're not going anywhere without me," Bryt snapped. It had nothing to do with Ron's rashness earlier, but instead she just didn't want to add worrying about Ron to the list of people she was already worrying about in this battle. There were so many people she was terrified for already. As long as she was with Ron, as well as Hermione and Harry, she knew that they, at least, were alive.
"We're not splitting up again," Bryt said, turning to the others, "We've split up enough times already. Besides, we have a better chance if—"
"POTTER!"
Bryt jumped, spinning with her wand raised to see Death Eaters had apparently heard their arguing and were now standing in front of them, the tapestry that had once hidden them was now on the ground.
Hermione was the first to act. She pointed her wand ad the floor and yelled "Glisseo!"
The stairs the were on suddenly turned to a slide, much like the jinx on the girls' stairway in the Gryffindor common room to keep boys out, and Bryt yelped as she went plummeting down the shoot towards the floors below.