CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

The smoke was still thick in the foyer, but Hermione was able to start making out movement in front of her. The sounds of black robes rustling as Death Eaters tried to stand up and make their way through the entry hall filled Hermione's ears. She stood up on her knees the same time the Auror did and they both cast stunning spells at the Death Eaters.

Hermione was able to deflect the curses that were thrown her way; the Auror did the same. The smoke began to clear and she could see more clearly the pile of black hooded bodies lying stiff on the stone floor. Things grew quiet and Hermione turned around to Rebecca and Ginny who were still seated in the corner behind her.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes," they both said in unison.

"The three of you – get outside, go back to where the portkey brought you and stick together," the Auror whispered at them urgently.

"We want to fight," said Ginny, standing up with her wand tightly in her hand.

"No. The potions finished; your job is done. Get outside."

With that, the Auror fled through the foyer towards the corridor that led to the drawing room. Hermione frowned. She was not going to be told what to do. Reaching her hand down to help Rebecca stand up, she felt a powerful pop in the middle of her back. Her entire body felt as though it was on fire and her eyes blurred to almost complete darkness as the pain feasted upon her back and limbs.

Hermione had been so intent on staying and fighting, she paid no attention to the Death Eater hiding behind the suit of armor who yelled out, "Crucio!" and watched her fall to the floor.

Harry heard an explosion only moments before he watched Voldemort sink to his knees. The fighting between the Aurors and Death Eaters ceased while they watched in horror and wonderment the killing of Voldemort's soul. Animal Ron had long since flung the man who tried to strangle him across the room and was now sitting on the Death Eater's stomach, watching with his cat-shaped blue eyes.

Voldemort held out his arms and threw his head back, emitting a throaty, tortured scream. Red light flew from his fingertips and out of his opened eyes. Harry took the Sorting Hat from his waistband and reached inside to pull out the sword of Gryffindor. The hat fell to the floor as Harry clutched the sword tightly in his two hands.

The red light and horrible scream stopped as suddenly as they began. Voldemort brought his head forward and stared at Harry with two evil, red eyes. He opened his mouth and the room watched as a ball of white light escaped from Voldemort's lips and rose into the air. The ball exploded, white light bouncing off the walls, and Harry knew it meant that Voldemort's soul was dead.

Now nothing but the shell of a Dark Wizard, Voldemort stood up on his feet and took out his wand. His movements were so slow they seemed almost static. Harry brought the sword back, his elbows bending, before lunging forward. The sharp tip of the blade went straight through Voldemort's chest, through his heart. Harry pushed the sword into Voldemort's body until the entirety of it was encompassed by cold flesh. Only then did Harry withdraw the sword and let it drop to the stone floor with a loud clank, the only sound in the room.

Voldemort dropped to his knees, blood trickling from his opened mouth and small slits he had for a nose. He fell over onto the floor, coating it with a thick, sticky blanket of blood. The Death Eaters in the room yelled out in pain, clutching their arms were the Dark Mark was branded onto their skin.

Harry felt his scar prickle sharply and he rubbed at it. He looked down at his hands; they were covered in blood. He felt sick. He wanted to vomit. He needed to leave the room immediately. And he did. Fleeing from the secret room, Harry ran through the house and instinctively found a back door.

He didn't stop running.

An hour later the house seemed eerily quiet. Ron and one of the Aurors left the room after the Death Eaters had been stunned and bound. Bodies lay on the floor in every room of the house. Some twitched from the aftermath of the curses while others were stiff from death. Ron and the Auror met Lupin the dining room. His clothes were torn and his face appeared slashed.

"The Aurors tell me the house has been completely searched and all the Death Eaters have been found." Lupin glanced at Ron. "You can change back into a human, now."

Relieved, Ron transformed back into his normal Ron self. He shook out his body in hopes of releasing some of the tension that was building up in his muscles.

"Is everyone all right?" Ron asked. "Where's Hermione and Ginny?"

Lupin's eyes darkened slightly. "They're in the foyer." He grabbed Ron's arm before Ron had a chance to run out of the room. "There has been more death here tonight than any of us has ever seen before, Ron. People are injured – you are extremely lucky that you're unharmed. One of our members Apparated to the Ministry so Healers from St. Mungo's are on their way right now to transport people back to the hospital. Ministry Law Enforcement is coming as well to take care of the Death Eaters."

"Why are you telling me this?" Ron asked, suddenly feeling a bit ill.

"Because, I don't want you to do anything rash. The right people will take care of things."

"She's hurt, isn't she?"

Lupin nodded. "Yes," he whispered. "Don't move her body, though. Stones from the wall and paintings and bits of armor all fell in that foyer. The Auror told me she was hit with a curse, however, I daresay, if she couldn't move out of the way of debris…"

Ron began to shake uncontrollably. He removed his arm from Lupin's grasp and ran into the entrance hall. Two Aurors and one of the members of the Order were undoing the masks of the Death Eaters. Ron ignored the revealed faces and ran towards the front doors, skidding as he tried to stop.

Mad-Eye was levitating bits of rock and armor from the corner. His magical eye turned towards Ron and he grimaced.

"Your sister's there," he said.

Ron turned around and found Ginny and Rebecca sitting down on the floor, leaning against the wall. Their clothes were torn, their faces dirty, and their skin cut up. Both of their heads tilted up to look at him, eyes rimmed with red, tears making trails down their cheeks.

"What happened?"

"Oh, Ron, it was awful," said Ginny.

"What happened?" Ron asked again.

"Hermione did the potion and there was all this smoke. She and the Auror started stunning the Death Eaters through the smoke. I would have helped but I still couldn't see anything."

"Neither could I," added Rebecca, sniffling.

"Then, the smoke cleared and there didn't appear to be any more Death Eaters."

"But, one was hiding," continued Rebecca. "Behind the suit of armor, and she yelled out Crucio and Hermione started having these… convulsions. Then, two more Death Eaters came out and we tried to fight them, only one of the curses bounced off one of…"

"One of my shields," said Ginny. "It hit the ceiling and part of the ceiling collapsed."

Ron looked up. A large chunk of stone was missing from above. It lay in rubble all around his feet.

"Hermione kept twitching," said Rebecca.

"There was still some rubbish on her from the stray curse, but Mad-Eye's taking care of that now." Ginny looked at her brother with large sad eyes. He saw how young she looked with her red eyes and nose from crying and how much she needed him to comfort her, to tell her it wasn't her fault. Later, though. Now, he needed to go to Hermione. His little sister would live – no one said whether or not Hermione would.

Arthur Weasley looked frantically around the house for his children. He was in fairly good shape, compared to the Aurors and a few other members of the Order; he managed to leave the fighting with only a few good bruises from dodging curses.

"Oh, Severus!"

Professor Snape stopped and turned around. He had several deep cuts along his cheeks that would have to be healed at St. Mungo's and a limp that he had been trying to hide since the fighting ended.

"Arthur," Snape greeted in his long, drawn out, crisp voice. "I see that you are all right."

"Yes, yes. Have you seen my children?"

Snape cocked his head back a bit. "I saw your eldest boy in the dining room with Lupin."

"I saw Bill, yes, but have you seen Ron or Ginny?"

Snape nodded towards the front entrance. "In the foyer, I presume, with Granger. They were fine but it might help to subdue your boy some. His behavior would have me deduct serious house points if we were at Hogwarts."

Confused by what Snape was saying, but thrilled that his children were all right, Arthur made his way through the mansion and into the entrance hall. His youngest son was seated by Hermione, holding one of her hands in his. Ron's back was turned so Arthur couldn't see his face.

"Daddy!"

Arthur whipped his head around and saw his daughter running up to him. She wrapped her arms around him tightly, beginning to cry again.

"Ah, Ginny, are you all right?" He pushed her back, his hands on her shoulders, and studied her appearance.

"I'm fine. Just shakey. I've never been so frightened before."

"You were extremely brave today – going into this Final Battle, knowing what might happen. I'm very proud of you."

"Thanks, Dad." Ginny tried to force a smile. "You sound a bit like Mum, though."

Arthur laughed. "Mum's at St. Mungo's right now. She wanted to be here, she really did, but I wouldn't allow it. I had three of my children here – we didn't need the rest of the family losing both parents, now did we?"

Ginny shook her head. "Why's Mum at St. Mungo's?"

"They needed volunteers to ready more rooms and beds," said Arthur. "This is an Official Ministry Disaster Zone."

"Really?" asked Ginny in awe.

Arthur nodded. "We'll take you to St. Mungo's after the most serious cases have been taken care of. Get some of those cuts healed so you won't have scars."

"Dad? Have you seen Harry?"

Arthur straightened up. "Harry? Er, we should talk about that later – oh, he's all right. He's just not here in the house. I suspect he's out walking the grounds and I'd like it if you left him alone, Ginevra, all right?" Arthur looked towards his son. "How is he?"

"Ron? Having a fit. Moody had to threaten to stun him if he didn't calm down. Hermione was hit with the Cruciatus Curse."

Arthur paled. "For how long?"

Ginny swallowed. "Really long. Several minutes. How long were Neville's parents exposed to the curse?"

"I don't know."

"Hermione hasn't woken up yet. I've studied the curses enough in Defense to know that she won't die, but if she wakes up she might be insane."

Arthur nodded. He turned his head back around and several Healers Apparated into the mansion. They all looked around at the debris and bodies and looked stricken with horror.

"Why don't we see if they need any help? You're strong enough to help, aren't you?"

Ginny nodded. "Yes."

"Let's make ourselves useful. It'll help get our minds off those we – those we lost."

Arthur led his daughter towards the main Healer who was handing out instructions, to offer their assistance.

All of the Death Eaters who had been stunned were given Ennervate to revive them. Ministry officials took the conscious, but bound, Death Eaters to magical holding cells near Azkaban where they would await trial. Severely wounded and unconscious Death Eaters and members of the Order were transported immediately to St. Mungo's. The Death Eaters went with Law Enforcement officials to ensure they wouldn't escape.

Guthrie Levski, the Head Healer and member of the Order, stayed behind to fix minor cuts and abrasions. He didn't want his already overcrowded hospital to receive any more patients than necessary. Going room to room, Guthrie healed cuts and mended mildly broken bones, telling each patient the exact potion they needed to get in case of any sudden pain.

"Thank you for your help," he told Ginny as he healed the scrapes on her face.

"I didn't do much."

"You helped levitate patients and bind bones that needed more than a simple wave of the wand or potion to heal. You are very good with ailing people. You should think of becoming a Healer."

Ginny blushed. "Thanks."

Guthrie finished with Ginny and made his way up the stairs. The rooms were all vacant – thank god. He was tired and sore from hours of work without a break. He entered the last room on the corridor, hoping this room would also be empty. No such luck. Guthrie recognized the two blonde men on the floor – one unconscious and one dead.

"Remus!" Guthrie called out, seeing Remus walk down the flight of stairs from the level above.

Lupin stopped, turned, and walked down the corridor towards Guthrie.

"I was checking all the rooms upstairs," he said. "They've all been cleaned out by the Ministry."

"I thought you needed to see this." Guthrie moved out of the doorway.

Lupin looked inside the room and sighed loudly. "Oh, shit. They hated each other."

Guthrie nodded. "I know. Out of all the Death Eaters here, only two died. One had his head bashed in by the falling ceiling near the front entrance. The other was Voldemort himself. I know the Order and I know no one would use the Killing Curse. However, I don't need a Coroner to tell me that Malfoy is dead by Avada Kedavra."

Lupin rubbed his eyes. "I'm too old for this rubbish."

"I just thought you should see. I'll get the one to St. Mungo's. The Ministry is taking care of the deceased, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"All right. You should get some rest – go to St. Mungo's and see your wife. She'll be awake by now and, knowing her, knocking everything over."

Lupin couldn't help but smile a little bit – he always did smile whenever anyone brought up Tonks.

"Thanks, Guth, for all your help."

"It's over now," said Guthrie. "That's the important thing; it's finally over."

Ron remembered crying over the Christmas holiday when they all thought Harry was dead. It was nothing compared to the way he was crying now. He cried quietly, but hard, his whole body shaking with the intensity of it. Her white bed sheets were getting wet from his tears. Ron wiped at his eyes and took in several deep breaths.

From behind him he heard the door to the room open and shut. The person behind him walked too slowly to be a Healer come to check on Hermione.

"Ronnie?"

Ron shut his eyes tight. "Hi, Mum." He forced himself to turn around and look at his mother. His eyes were blood shot and his skin was dangerously pale.

"Oh, Ron!"

"They can't make her wake up and they said that if she ever wakes up she might have brain damage from the spell – if she wakes up."

Mrs. Weasley looked as though she were trying with all of her strength not to cry. Ron was upset enough for the both of them.

"They told you about the prophecy, right? What if the part of one of us being left behind didn't mean death but this? What if Hermione's the one left behind because she can never wake up or be herself ever again?" Tears slipped down Ron's face.

Mrs. Weasley walked over to her son and held him close to her; he was nearly her height even though he was seated. She released him and took in a deep breath.

"The rest of us are going home"—

Ron's body tensed up; he didn't want to leave Hermione.

"—but, I'm not going to make you come if you want to stay here. If you want to come home, please do it by Floo or portkey. You're so upset you might splinch yourself if you try and Apparate."

"Yes, Mum."

"Ginny's going to say good-bye. We'll be back tomorrow if we don't see you at home first." Mrs. Weasley patted Ron's shoulder before she left the room.

Ginny came in the room next. Ron noticed her cuts were healed and her face cleaned of dirt and dust. She looked past her brother at the girl lying in the hospital bed.

"Talk to her."

"What?"

Ginny's gaze returned to Ron. "Talk to her. Healers say that when you're unconscious you can still hear what's going on around you. She might wake up quicker if she knows you're here."

Ron nodded. "All right, I will."

"Malfoy's dead."

"What? Draco?"

Ginny shrugged. "I heard a couple of Healers talking in the hall. One of the Malfoys is dead, the other one is on this floor somewhere being treated. I couldn't find out which one died, though… Most of the rooms are locked."

Ron found himself hoping Draco wasn't dead – something he'd never dreamed he'd be hoping. But, Draco helped them; he warned Snape about attacks and gave him information about Voldemort. Draco helped in the Final Battle. It wouldn't be fair for him to be dead.

"Where's Rebecca?"

"I don't know. Her ankle was worse than we thought. I looked for her as well, but I don't know if they released her already."

Mrs. Weasley popped her head back in the door. "Ginny? It's time to go."

Ginny kissed her brother's cheek and gave him a short hug. "Talk to her," she said as she left the room.

Ron turned back to Hermione. He picked up her hand and played with the paper ring on her finger.

"Er, Ginny says to talk to you, but I don't know what to say." He paused. "I guess I'll just babble – I'm good at that." He paused again. "I must've done a good Unbreakable Charm 'cause your ring is still on your finger. It's a little dirty though… If you wake up, I still promise to make you happy and one day get a job where I can buy you an actual ring – a really nice one that even Malfoy wouldn't care scoff at.

"If you wake up, I promise to study for NEWTs," continued Ron. "There's still little over a month before we have to take them, anyway. And if you don't wake up you won't be able to even take the NEWTs and I know how you love taking tests.

"Shit, Hermione, please wake up? Fuck, I'm crying again."

Ron wiped at his eyes with the sleeve of his t-shirt.

The door opened behind him and a Healer walked in. "Hello, Mr. Weasley," the young Healer said. "I've come to check on Miss Granger again. Why don't you go to the tea room and get something to eat? This'll take me a few minutes and you cannot be in the room…"

Ron understood. Healers had been tossing him out of the room while they checked on Hermione all afternoon and evening. He left the room and walked down the hall. For once in his life, he didn't feel compelled to eat. Perhaps he could find out if Draco was killed or not. Stopping a busy looking Healer in the corridor, Ron tried to smile.

"Er, I'm a friend of the Malfoys. I was wondering where his room was."

The Healer narrowed his eyes. "I just got on shift so I don't know any of the new patients' rooms. Ask someone else."

"I, uh, couldn't find anyone else. Please?"

The Healer frowned and pointed down the hall. "Somewhere down there. One of the last couple of doors, I think."

"Thanks."

Ron hurried off down the corridor. The last two doors were locked, but the knob to the third door turned and Ron opened the door slightly and peered inside. A white blonde bloke lay in the hospital bed curled up, sleeping soundly. Satisfied, Ron closed the door and walked slowly back towards Hermione's room. He made a mental note to remember to tell his sister that Draco was alive.

Ron heard the screaming before he reached Hermione's room. He dashed off towards her room, inwardly knowing that it was her who was screeching. Three Healers entered the room before him and he squeezed in behind them.

Hermione was sitting up on the bed, tears streaming down her face, screaming loudly. She struggled against the Wizards who were trying to hold her back down. Her head turned toward Ron, her eyes wide, and he saw the look of uncharacteristic pain and rage behind them.

To Be Continued…

A/N: Yes. Liger's exist. You can find info about them on the internet.

Only two more chapters left............