"NO!"

Aly's head flashed up at Professor McGonagall's voice. She stood up.

"NO!

"NO!"

"HARRY!"

Aly looked toward the entrance doors and dropped to her knees in disbelief. "Harry..." she breathed. She stared at Hagrid, whose cheeks were damp with tears as he held Harry's dead body. He lay limp in Hagrid's arms while the death eaters shouted in triumph.

Her heart thumped with fear as she looked at Voldemort. His snake like eyes, his slit nostrils...his face gleaning with triumph. It should've never come to this...

She choked on tears.

"SILENCE!" Voldemort screamed. A white flash and a bang, and Aly felt herself unable to speak. She stood up slowly again and felt both her parents grip her shoulders tightly.

"Harry Potter is dead! He is a meaningless boy!"

"He beat you!" Ron yelled, and the students of Hogwarts broke into screaming. Voldemort silenced them once more.

"Pathetic boy tried to sneak out-"

Aly's eyes flashed to the side as Neville dashed out of the crowd, charging for Bellatrix Lestrange. Aly watched in horror as Lestrange stunned Neville and threw him to the ground.

Voldemort smiled cruelly. "And who is this?"

"Longbottom, my lord!" Bellatrix's high voice laughed. "The son of the aurors!"

"Ah, yes," He said softly. "We could use people like you."

"Not likely, snake!" Neville spat. "Dumbledore's Army!"

Char and Damien raised their fists and yelled with the others in reponse. Neville suddenly became still.

"This..." he hissed, "Is what happens when people defy me."

Aly stepped back in shock as the sorting hat conjured into the air and placed itself on Neville's head. The hat began to burst into flames.

Then the most wonderful thing happened.

Grawp, Hagrid's half brother, led the regime as thousands of arrows swarmed over the castle walls. Death eaters fell one by one.

Aly scrambled around, ducking and grabbed her wand. She looked at Hagrid.

"WHERE'S HARRY?!" he bellowed.

"Crucio!" Char's voice yelled and a death eater screamed in pain.

Aly looked over her shoulder in amazement as Kay, Sam, Mr. and Mrs. Boyle ran into the Great Hall, firing jinxes. To her left, Darien and Joy stood side by side firing jinxes. Then she saw Julian, Bev, Adam and David fighting. Damien, Hayden and Amanda ran through the crowd, firing curses.

"Stupefy!"

"Deprimo!" Aly yelled, turning around. She ducked the spell and pointed her wand at Jules. His head began to twist around, and his eyes expanded.

Crack!

"YEAH!" Adam yelled. "WAY TO GO!"

Jules slumped to the floor, dead.

"Expelliarmus!" Darien yelled.

Aly felt a blast of cold air from behind her. She shivered and turned around and saw a dementor gliding toward her. The people around her drew back in terror.

Aly summoned a happy thought: Her parents.

"EXPECT PATRONUM!"

Aly watched with a blazing look in her face as a tiger came roaring from her wand and destroyed the dementor. The crowd cheered.

She whirled around and watched Neville draw the Sword of Gryffindor. With one stroke Neville sliced off the giant snake, Nagini's head. The crowd roared in joy.

"Expelliarmus!"

"Deprimo!" Aly backed toward her parents and they all stood in a triangle.

"Stupefy!" Joy yelled.

"Expelliarmus!" Darien cried, sending one death eater flying.

Aly grinned darkly as she crushed another death eater's skull.

"Joy!" Darien called, cursing another death eater. "I'm sorry!"

"What?!" Joy yelled.

"For everything! I'm sorry!"

"It's not your fault!" Joy yelled, ducking as she stunned another. "We both made a mistake!"

"Marry me!"

"WHAT?!" Joy ducked again. "Deprimo, bastard!" Crunch.

"Marry me!" Darien called out again.

"Are you insane?!" Joy shrieked.

"NO! I love you!" Darien said, stunning one more.

"Dad! Watch out!" Aly yelled, looking at Darien's side. "Deprimo!"

Crunch.

"Fight! For master Regulus!" Kreacher's voice rang.

Aly grinned slightly as she watched another death eater crumple before her eyes.

There was a blast of light and the family of three ducked as the people surrounding them were killed. Voldemort seemed to part the sea of people. Aly stood up, scrambling for the others. She grabbed Darien and Joy's hands and sprinted through the crowd to her friends.

Aly looked at Ginny from across the room as Bellatrix raised her wand.

"GINNY! MOVE!" she bellowed. Ginny turned and missed death by an inch as the killing curse shot past her.

"NOT MY DAUGHTER!" Mrs. Weasley yelled. Bellatrix laughed. Molly sent a curse for Bellatrix and it struck her heart. She toppled to the ground. The crowd roared and Voldemort screamed.

"Protego!"

Aly watched in amazement as Harry revealed himself to the crowd. She roared in joy with the others.

"It's got to be me-"

A curse soared outright and struck Aly square in the chest. She stumbled backwards in shock, gasping.

"ALY!" Joy bellowed, watching her stumble. Darien turned around, his eyes expanded. "NO!"

Char and the others rushed over to Aly's side as she doubled over, heaving.

She could feel something trickling in her bloodstream. Like water. Except it made her feel drowsy and her breathing became labored.

"Want to her some, before you make another big mistake?" Aly vaguely heard.

The sounds began to fade away.

"Aly? Can you hear me?" Damien's low voice said frantically. She could feel someone shaking her. "Listen to me!"

Joy stared at Aly's drooping face, listening as her breathing slowed down. "Something's wrong internally."

"What is it?" Amanda choked.

"I don't know," Darien said with panic. "But it taking over quickly."

Ugh...She could feel her brain shutting down and eyes drooping slowly.

"Aly...Stay with us..." Julian's frantic voice said.

"A better wizards, a better man..."

Aly's legs stopped working and she sank to the ground.

"Aly!" Hayden's voice said faintly.

"You bastard!" another man's voice said, one she barely recognized as Mr. Boyle's. "Deprimo!"

A short cry of pain, and then nothing.

Aly felt herself being pulled up as her body sagged.

"Aly, look!"

Aly's eyelid fluttered. She watched as the sun hit both Voldemort and Harry's face.

"Avada Kedavra!"

"Expelliarmus!"

A huge bang, and then Voldemort fell backward.

The crowd roared and surged toward Harry. Aly collapsed.

"NO! DO SOMETHING!" Darien roared over the crowd. Aly felt someone's hands on her backside.

"I'VE GOT IT!" Char sobbed. "Put her down!"

Aly was placed on the floor, and Amanda sobbed as Aly's breathing slowed.

It wasn't supposed to go down like this...

Her head was tipped up.

I'm not supposed to die...the Mirror of Erised lied to me...

The sound of a bottle uncorked.

I'm supposed to get married to Char...it makes no sense...

Someone poured something down her throat.

Life...isn't...fair.

Char poured the rest of the bottle of phoenix tears down Aly's throat.

Joy stared at her daughter's body in shock.


YES!

A new feeling coursed through Aly's veins. A hot white fire. Her brain started working...her heart started pumping...

On the outside, Aly looked like she was having a seizure.

"What's wrong?" Joy shrieked over the crowd.

"I don't know!" Damien said with panic. "A seizure."

Aly's eyes snapped open.

Hyperventilating, she stared up at her family.

"ALY!"

"ALY!"

"ALY!"

"YOU'RE ALIVE!"

Aly was suffocated under her friends hugs.

"Of course I'm alive," Aly gasped, letting air into her lungs. "I'm not letting it go down like that."

Char reached down to hug her tightly. "I thought you were dead."

Darien and Joy sobbed into Aly's shoulders, leaning over her.

"Wha...happened?" Aly gasped, feeling her muscles work.

"Him," Hayden said, wiping his eyes. They parted and Aly saw John's body lying on the floor of the Great Hall. Aly gulped, staring at Adam.

"That was him?"

"Specialty," Mr. Boyle's strained voice said. "Some sort of poisonous spell he created. He had to go."

Aly sighed, staring at the ceiling and wiped a tear. "Did he...?"

"He's dead," Joy said softly. "He's gone."

Aly relaxed on the cold, marble floor, sighing. "Good."

Darien reached down and picked Aly up, sighing with relief. "You're alive."

Aly smiled weakly up at her father. "And you're getting married."

"Yes I am," Joy said faintly. Aly looked through the crowd at Voldemort's corpse.

She curled up against her father's body.

Thank you.