This won't happen again... Ever! I am never taking this long a break from this story, and for all those waiting for the update, my deepest apologies.
Also, Celeste38, I hope you haven't forgotten me... :) and I hope I answered all of your questions in the PM.
Thank you, Avirags24, for checking out this story! I hope you like the other chapters too! :)
Didn't want to stop this chap so abruptly and wanted to give you guys a longer read as a bribe for the looooong wait, but this was the apt place to end this chap here and hence... Do leave a comment on what everyone thought of this chap. =)
Chapter 51: Beginning Of The End
DAY 6: DECEMBER 26, 1976
THIRD FLOOR CORRIDOR, HOGWARTS
12:56 AM
The school was abuzz with students and teachers and toads and cats and elves and ghosts and even an occasional stray centaur running amok as if struck by a sudden epidemic. At first, it looked like people were just running around randomly to make his life even less agreeable than it currently was, but he soon realized that in actuality, all the teachers and prefects were really only yelling their throats off because something really BIG was happening... He couldn't think clearly though because, the chaos and confusion that he was surrounded in momentarily smothered him dead; also because he had more important matters at hand to deal with at the moment and EVERYTHING else seemed secondary...
But even as he ran aimlessly through a sea of students, realisation dawned on him.
The deafening thunder that reverberated through the walls sent chills down his spine as he realised he was suddenly swathed in a burning, green light showing down from the skies... The eerie green glow washed over the darkened school's walls and corridors as he stopped dead in his tracks for just a split second to notice the Dark Mark hanging above his head. And though his head spun a little as the revelation hit him, his mind was still clouded with bigger questions; questions that were unfathomable; questions that probably had no answers; questions that were even scarier than the Dark Mark staring down his neck...
With a sudden bolt of panic riding up his body, he pushed past a throng of students and dashed towards the abandoned classroom once more, hoping and praying that all of its inhabitants still had air in their lungs. The crowds were thinning now as hardly anyone ever loitered around this part of the castle at any given time. Running like his life depended on it, he pushed away all thoughts of blood and death and focussed merely on getting to his destination in one piece... Huffing and puffing from all the running, he skidded to a halt right in front of the classroom and paused for a second.
His heart hammered against his chest as he nervously screwed his ears to pick up any sound at all that emanated from inside the room.
As if the universe was answering his prayer, a sudden loud THUD! bolted him right back to reality as he fatally dodged a heart attack and dashed inside, ready to blast anything to smithereens!
"Whoa! Wh—that—sh—oh my god, did... Did anyone see that?! Izzy! You saw that right...?!" stuttered a flustered-looking Black. "What—what just happened?!"
Isabella looked horrified beyond measure too as she blankly stared back at Sirius. "Well, yes, I did see a hand come out of that, yes…" Isabella offered, her breath coming out in rags. "But I can't be sure..."
(He could not even BEGIN to comprehend the happiness he experienced to see Black, Snape and Williams still alive and kicking!)
Drawing in a breath of air, he stepped in nervously. "I saw it too..." Lucius spoke from the entrance and stared pointedly at Sirius. "You did not imagine that, Black... I saw it too..." he said, still panting from all the running.
"Malfoy?!" said a startled Sirius. "What are you...? How did you...? WHEN DID YOU ESCAPE?! And how did you find us...?"
"Black, we have don't time. He's here," Lucius replied, stunned beyond measure at his own calm voice. Pointing at the skies outside, he spoke again, "He's here, the time has come... He's waiting for us right outside..."
The shock settled around them like dust. The second when panic actually drowned him, however, was when he watched two of the BEST Aurors Hogwarts had ever produced, stare back at him completely gripped with fear... Somehow, he'd always imagined these blasted Gryffindors to be the dauntless lot that would blindly run off into the sunset and fight his wars, and that he wouldn't have a THING to worry about... What was he THINKING?!
"He's... He's here?" whispered Sirius, quite unable to even fathom the thought. "Already...?"
"All's doomed then..." Severus whispered, fear dripping from every inch of his skin. "We haven't switched the worlds back yet and he's already here..."
"No, Snape, that..." Lucius quickly cut him short and eyed him nervously before speaking up, "that is not up to us..." he said, choosing his words very carefully. "Our responsibility... is out there," he said pointing at an invisible Voldemort standing behind him. "All WE need to focus on is fighting him while we give... well, someone else the time to figure this one out..."
"Huh?" said Isabella, clearly bemused at Lucius's suggestion. "What does that even mean...? Someone else who?! Lucius, no one's coming... No one else is going to do this for us!" she said, gritting her teeth in blatant frustration. "There's NO one looking out for us, NOT EVEN DUMBLEDORE! We HAVE to finish what we came here for, don't you see? I am the heir of Gryffindor... Only I can do this..."
"No, Williams... You're not the only one that can do it... I, well..." Lucius stuttered, unable to find the right words to explain what he already knows. "Bella, don't ask me how I know about this, but... You're not the only solution to this problem. A-Another heir has already been born... And they're here... With us... Right this second... So we really need to leave right away and go do what we have to do... We," he said, pointing at the little company in the room, "need to go fight this war."
"Malfoy, what even..."
"Black, please. Trust me on this, I beg of you. I know what I'm talking about... I know things, I have SEEN things, things that I can't explain right now. So, please just... Would you stand by my side, and help me fight the Dark Lord?" he asked and looked straight into Sirius's eyes.
And in that split second, a multitude of messages transpired between them and to Lucius' utter disbelief, Sirius somehow miraculously seemed to understand and concede too! Quite unable to believe his own luck, Lucius breathed a sigh of relief, albeit treading carefully, lest he jinxed his own good fortune (you never know with these hot-heads). Without another word, he quietly walked towards Sirius and beckoned him to hand over the locket.
Nervously, but determinedly, Sirius let it slid out of his fingers into Lucius's outstretched hand. As his fingers closed around the locket, Lucius's head spun a bit more as realization hit him: the greatest magical object to ever exist now rested on his palm; and at this very second, he most fervently hoped he was doing the right thing—he hoped that he hadn't got this all wrong, for that could make this an instant suicide mission! And despite battling these conflicting thoughts in his mind, he found himself moving towards the mirror and placing the locket carefully at the foot of the ancient relic.
For a split second, Lucius' eyes darted towards the mirror and his heart raced, but he quickly turned away and faced the rest of them as if nothing had happened; as if he hadn't seen anything important in it at all; anything that answered ALL of his questions. "Shall we?" he finally said, almost short of breath now.
"Yeah... Let's do this..." Sirius replied and without another word pulled his wand out and went on instant beast-mode. The fierceness that oozed from Sirius's intense grey eyes, startled even Lucius. Behind him, Isabella and Severus had drawn their wands out too, solemnly waiting for one of the boys to initiate the attack mission. Smirking amusedly, Lucius looked towards Sirius again and jerked his head towards the door as if to say, 'Might as well lead the way then.' The room emptied almost instantly as a fiery Sirius bolted out through the door while the others followed, their faces screaming DEATH!
And even as their footsteps echoed along the corridor walls, sounds of explosions from far away could be heard, finally marking the beginning of war.
...
Hermione simply stood there completely dumbfounded and still unsure if she could finally come out into the light. From the other side of the room, she could hear shuffling of feet and an instant later, the Invisibility Cloak was pulled down and there stood Ron and Harry, sporting the exact same expression that she had on at the moment. The three of them seemed to have gone into a state of trance so much so that they became entirely oblivious to their surroundings; incomprehensible voices battered them, sobs and shouts and wails stabbed the stillness in the air, warning bells sounded all around them, fear and panic was more than palpable at the moment and yet, nothing seemed to shake them off their momentary delve into speechlessness.
"He... knows..." Hermione whispered, unconsciously tightening her grip around the tattered fabric of the Sorting Hat. "How...? How does he...?"
But she couldn't even get herself to complete that question as full-blown panic took over, leaving her a paralyzed mess. Harry's mind raced too, cancelling out possibilities and unforeseen errors from their side, but nothing seemed to fit; there was just no way in HELL that this could be happening; nothing made sense...
"Honestly?" said Ron out of nowhere, making Harry crash-land back to earth. "Are we HONESTLY going to ponder over how he found out about us instead of doing what we really came here to do?" asked Ron, who was genuinely dumbstruck at Harry and Hermione's ability to even delve on such trivial topics. "We came here for a REASON," he said taking swift steps towards the mirror and grabbing hold of the locket, "I suggest we fulfill that and get AS FAR AWAY FROM HERE as possible!" he yelled, finally succeeding at breaking their reverie.
Startled, Harry looked at Ron with a hint of surprise. And when he noticed Ron opening his mouth one more time, he quickly added, "Uh, Ron's right you know," before Ron had another outburst. "It doesn't matter now, Hermione," said Harry. "What matters is he somehow knows that there are time-travellers messing with this world, and Lucius is right, Hermione, you are the true heir and we need to move over to the Lighter side THIS INSTANT for this to end well! That's what we came here to do, remember? Give it a better ending?"
Hermione merely nodded as if she was still unable to form words just yet.
"And they're looking up to US to help them out whether they know it or not..." said Ron, as he swiftly walked over to the Den of DESIRE. "It's now or never, Hermione... So come on, let's just end this nightmare once and for all!" he said, grabbing hold of the locket.
Hermione weakly nodded again. "Alright, fine," she said, not at all convincing Harry. Breathing deeply, she turned uncertainly to Ron and said, "Ron, I am not sure about this, so I need you to take the lead... You know how it's done; we've seen this happen before... No mistakes, this time..." she said, almost on the verge of tears now.
Harry nodded, eyeing them nervously. "On the count of three then," Harry whispered, as he took his position, wand at the ready. A trickle of sweat rolled down the side of his face and his wand hand shook uncontrollably as panic consumed him once more. "Okay, here we go. One..." he breathed.
"Find the boy with the Jewel of Light," Ron whispered and stood directly in front of the Den of Desire looking more determined than Harry had ever seen him.
"Two..."
"Reflect of Desire..." Hermione recited and waved her shaky hand in a smooth circle around the Sorting Hat. The sound of silver scraping through another metal marked the arrival of the weapon they had been seeking for all this while. With a sudden fire burning in her eyes, she swiftly put her hand inside the Sorting Hat and yanked out the magnificent Sword of Gryffindor before raising it above her like a warrior!
Time nearly stopped when Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged one last look of pure panic before the word tumbled out of Harry's mouth: "Three..."
Ron threw his hand back before hurling the locket as hard as he could against the mirror. Harry's heart leaped into his mouth as he watched the locket shoot across the room and towards the smooth surface of the mirror until the tiny emerald stone crashed into it.
Harry immediately ducked backwards as the locket burst open and a thick, black cloud of dust exploded out of it, shrouding the entire room in a sudden blanket of pitch darkness! A split second later, a horrific screech as that of a banshee THUNDERED across the room as the pearly, white ghost of Mávros Slytherin flared up from the pores of the emerald stone and merged with the blackness. Harry lost all sense of space and time for a split second and his heart raced with fear.
"...and BURN IT BRIGHT!" came Ron's voice out of nowhere, followed by a click sound. Three balls of light soared up from Harry's far right even as the thick white cloud swirled around itself to form the deadly face of the late King. For a moment, Harry didn't know what was happening as he scraped through the floor trying to get as far away from the swirling white cloud as possible (he thought he saw a hint of Mávros' skull forming) when something incredible happened: the three balls of light that had shot out of nowhere suddenly squiggled and collided mid-air with each other to cause such a mega explosion that Harry was thrown up in the air and hurled backwards until he hit the wall behind him. A wild screeching noise pierced his ears as the explosion from the lights burned white everywhere, blinding him entirely in the process! It almost felt like the dark clouds were getting burned and licked away by the blinding white light and before long, another loud scream resonated across the room before everything went still.
Harry felt dizzy and nauseous and couldn't move just yet as he lay there, wincing in pain from the impact. The impression from the blinding light had still not left his eyes and made it difficult for him to see what was happening. He rolled over and groped for his wand which had flown out of his hand a moment ago and squinted his eyes to see what was happening. Ron was flung right across the room too and seemed to be in a similar state as Harry was: confused and unsteady. Hermione, however, seemed to have recovered faster than the boys and was already prepared for her next move.
Holding the sword with both of her hands, she started moving towards the Mirror once again.
"Daughter of love, sacrifice and thorn..." Harry heard her mumble as she suddenly took off on a sprint.
"Hermione, WAIT, what are you...?!"
"WHAT IS UP IS NOW DOWN!" she screamed and jumped high in the air before slashing the mirror with the sword! And to Harry's complete astonishment, instead of the sword colliding with the mirror, it seemed to tear the surface as if the mirror were made of cloth!
And before he could even absorb the consequences of Hermione's move, his entire world dissolved into one giant molten mess and everything started to swirl around as if he was caught in the middle of a giant maelstrom! Sheer panic shot up through his veins as he very nearly lost control of everything and got sucked into something much, MUCH bigger than himself: the ceiling and the lights and the walls and everything around him melted and seemed to turn into mere squiggles of colours that had gotten washed away from a beautiful painting! On and on everything spun as if a giant drain had been opened, making his world spin dry! The spinning got faster and wilder now as Harry wasn't even sure if he existed because he couldn't feel his hands or legs or his body anymore and became one with the giant pool.
The spinning was uncontrollable now and they were getting sucked into a very tight tube and Harry knew he wasn't going to make it. The air in his lungs seemed to have been squeezed out of him entirely now and he very nearly ceased to exist; not a thought crossed his mind, not a prick was felt and not thing a moved as he finally stopped fighting and surrendered entirely to its magnificence. His lungs burned, his eyes popped and his mouth went dry as his end drew near. One more breath to live, just one more and he'd live... One more... Come on, Har...
Silence...
Everything stopped. Everything disappeared. Everything was white and everything was OVER... He felt as light as a feather and as alive as a tiny speck of snow floating towards nowhere... He was finally released from the mortal confines of his body and was finally about to dissipate into nothingness when...
BAM!
He felt himself splash through a glassy waterfall in slow motion, and get slammed dunked flat on his face on the wall opposite to him, as he crashed back into the same room he had been a second ago! Everything tumbled out of focus once again as he felt himself being flung out of the mirror and roll over uncontrollably into the new world; a world of hope!
They had done it! They had finally started putting the pieces together; finally given the Lighter side a better chance at happiness! Harry nearly welled up even as he lay there rolled up and completely powerless at the moment... Gulping in a lung full of air, he choked and coughed uncontrollably while rubbing his chest to ease the burning and the pain that scoured through his body. Still gasping for breath, he looked up through watery eyes to locate his friends and in spite of himself, his face broke into a sheepish grin when he found the hilt of a long sword still wrapped tightly inside Hermione's fist.
"Harry... Where... Where's Ron...?"
And just like that, his smile faded away...
...
DAY 6: DECEMBER 26, 1976
HOGWARTS
02:32 AM
"AURORS TO THE FRONT LINE! AURORS TO THE FRONT LINE!"
"WANDS AT THE READY!"
"REMEMBER YOUR SPELLS!"
"...show no MERCY! REMEMBER YOUR TRAINING!"
"First, second and third years RETREAT INTO YOUR TOWERS! NOW!"
"PREFECTS ON 'STUDENT-BODY' DUTY! NO UNDERAGE STUDENTS TO BE LEFT BEHIND!"
"NON-VERBAL SPELLS...!"
"VIGILANCE...!"
"STUDENTS BEWARE...!"
"WAR IS UPON US...!"
"...or we DIE FIGHTING...!"
In short, it was Hell.
The school had turned into a complete nightmare in under 30 minutes! Some said the war had already started, others said it was a mere rumour, that, burning down the peaceful village of Hogsmeade was the Ministry's way of distracting the public from the real threat; and still others claimed Voldemort to be already dead, killed by a VERY powerful wizard who had travelled back in time just to save the Wizarding world (nice work, Lovegood!)...
And Remus had had enough! He had stood here, manning the double doors to the Entrance Hall for over an hour now as soon as the warning bells were sounded, and still nothing. Except for the large green skull hanging above them all in the sky, there was absolutely no sign of Voldemort, not even the tiniest hint of an attack on the horizon. Oh, and what's the BEST part of it all, you ask? Well, more than half the gang wasn't even HERE beside him, right now. Sirius and Isabella had disappeared off ages ago, the three Slytherins, MOST probably decided to get real and rejoin the forces of Voldemort (OBVIOUSLY?) and James and Lily were 'sorting out' the panic situation inside the school. And even as he stood there turning his wand impatiently between his fingers, he contemplated on breaking off from the front line too and looking for Claiborne one last time; why don't women ever wear a bell around their necks so that their boys would always KNOW where they are?!
"Hey, Frank! Mind if I hop off for a bit, mate? Need to find..."
"Oh no, no, mate, no one leaves the front line!" said Frank almost immediately. "We are just twenty VERY incompetent bunch of so-called IDIOTS who are about to go up against the most powerful Dark Force EVER, and we don't even know WHERE all the professors are, so no. No one's going anywhere..."
"But, it's Clay...!"
"Oh, BOLLOCKS! Not this again..." Frank exclaimed, clearly irritated. "Remus, James will KILL me, mate..."
"Frank, please, I don't know where she is and I HAVE to find her, mate! I'm worried sick here, I just have to know..." Remus replied, only to make Frank that much more frustrated. "Please, Frank, let me just... I won't be long, I promise..."
"For heaven's sake, mate, why her? Honestly, WHAT do you see in her...?"
"I beg you pardon?"
"No, you heard me. None of us approve of the two of you getting together, not ONE. To be brutally honest with you, we think you could do SO much better than a dullard like Claiborne..."
"Shut... UP!" Remus exclaimed through gritted teeth, thrown beyond expression at Frank's words. "Oh my god, is THAT what you all think of her?!" he asked, almost shaking in shock. "And I thought you were my friends..."
"Moony, we ARE...!"
"Look OOOUT!"
The scream came out of nowhere, throwing Remus completely out of balance. Chaos set in before Remus could even blink. Groping for his wand, he clumsily looked around to see what was happening as students started to push at each other in panic. And then he heard it: from a place not so far away emanated the ominous roaring and spluttering of a MASSIVE fire that seemed to burn and lick at EVERYTHING that was cursed to be on its way... Alarmed beyond imagination, he shakily turned around to realize that the eerie orangish-red glow of the fire had now surrounded the entire school!
"Frank! Call in the others! Call in the others NOW!" he screamed as he ran to the very front of the Auror line only to get his breath knocked right out of his lungs: to his right in the distance, he could see the bridge burning to ground and a swarm of black, hooded creatures pouring into the school grounds like a giant wave; an unearthly screech from above indicated that the school grounds were, in fact, being ambushed by a swarm of massive and DEADLY dragons that was causing all the fire; and straight ahead was the worst news of them all: Death Eaters...
They had been surrounded from every angle possible and Voldemort wasn't even giving them the choice to stand down this time...
The whole school was in an uproar now as everyone scrambled about to get back inside the castle and take shelter from the dragons above, but that only meant suicide because, the Dementors probably were already flooding in and seeping in through every hole possible like black, liquid DEATH! In an impulse (and out of sheer fear), Remus started to randomly shoot hexes and jinxes at the dragons above while trying to figure out a game plan... Still gasping from all the effort (and not managing to hit even ONE of those giant fire-breathers) he turned around to check on the Death-Eater situation: warning bells blared through his brain as he watched thousands and THOUSANDS of white faces show through a SEA of black hoods, slowly marching towards him; undeterred and unflinchingly. Behind the army of white and black, Remus noticed the trees rustle and shake violently and he could've sworn that he saw a LARGE head peeping through the thicket, sixteen feet above the ground (Trolls?! This CANNOT be happening!)...
And leading them all right in the front was The Man itself... With a large, red rock dangling around his neck...
Remus nearly fainted; there was no way in HELL that he was going to stop a human-snake mutant man who had strapped the Philosopher's Stone around his freaking neck! His head swam instantly and almost fell backwards in dread when he hit something as solid a brick wall. Horrified at the thought that the Dark Lord's army actually have him surrounded, he grasped for his wand and swung around like lightening only to stare into the cheerful face of Sirius...
"Thanks for holding the fort, Moony," Sirius grinned widely and slammed him on the back encouragingly. Remus was overcome with conflicting thoughts of wailing like a baby and hexing his best friend dead all at the same time! And as irritating as Sirius's smug grin was, the determination to royally kick some butt never wavered in his eyes.
And soon enough, they were joined by a few more brave souls: Isabella, James, Lucius, Severus, Lily, Frank, Alice, Andromeda, Edgar, Sturgis, Benjy, Mavis, Ornelle, Dorcas... and Peter.
"Didn't think we'd leave you here all by yourself now, did you?" Sirius sniggered, making Remus roll his eyes in unapologetic relief (honestly, nothing, not even an ARMY of Death Eaters marching towards them, is enough to get a serious reaction from this bunch!).
"I don't ever worry when you're around, Pads..." Remus replied, whilst staring straight into the ghostly white faces in front of them. "Let's do this..."
