Chapter 13: The Battle of Hogwarts (part two)
Summary:
The battle continues. Quotations from the original are in bold, with rephrasing and original sentences in the rest.
Chapter Text
Harry had a clear view of the bodies lying next to Fred: Remus and Tonks, pale and still and peaceful looking, apparently asleep beneath the dark, enchanted ceiling.
He passed unseen to Dumbledore's office and used the Pensieve to view Snape's memories. After an unknown time which unspooled before him, he left it to enter the Forest, knowing there was only one way to end this war – he must die.
Behind him two bodies wavered, their images growing brighter, yet shrinking, as the multiverse melded time and space. With a 'pop' the bodies disappeared, and Remus and Tonks fought their way towards the Great Hall.
Tonks leapt to avoid a Blasting Curse, and slashed out with her wand, casting a Cutting Curse. She hadn't used a fatal curse often, but the Death Eater in front of her had used Avada Kedavra on a sixth-year girl by her side. She squared her shoulders, kept her balance, and sliced him open like the Auror she was. In the midst of the chaos and screaming, she kept attacking him until he fell with blood spurting from a dozen wounds. Arterial blood sprayed across her face, and she wiped it away. Behind her Remus yelled, "Duck," and she threw herself to the floor as he bellowed, "Stupefy!"
A body fell across her, and Remus reached down and heaved it away. "Petrificus Totalis!" His eyes were pure amber as he pulled her to his side, and his grin was fierce.
"NO!" Tonks felt a pressure wave starting behind her – an Earthquake Curse, probably, which would rip the ground open and bury them. She staggered, Remus stumbled, and the stone tripped them. She fell across Remus and screamed as the newly healed wounds on her chest flared intensely.
Dust billowed up, choking her. It pushed up thickly on her eyes. She couldn't see, and her hearing was fading. It must end now, she thought. We're too late. We came back, but we're too late - we've died again.
"NO!" It was Rincewind screaming; he seemed very far away. A whooshing sound whizzed over her, with scorching heat. Were they going to be burned as well as buried? But the earth stabilized. She rolled away from Remus and pushed herself upright. With an unsteady swipe she cleared her eyes. Rincewind stood over her and Remus, while a giant loomed over him. Another giant, she thought. It had been trying to bury them, seemed like. How many were there? This one was more than twenty feet tall, with treelike, hairy shins. It was crumpling in on itself, head bowed, arms crossed, a lacy pattern dancing up and down its body.
"What's happening? What did you do to it?"
"Wodeley's fluidic fractal distorter." The Discworld wizard had thrust his staff straight in front of him, twisting it around in circles. "It forces the blood to bend and twist into tinier and tinier edges, and it gets all lacy and spongier, see? It can't flow, and then the fractals keep going outward. Archancellor Mandelbrot created the spell as his masterpiece."
"Okay," she said, not understanding a word. "So the giant will end up looking like a doily?"
The wizard grinned. His face was also smeared with dirt. "No, the spell will keep going. It's going to keep working itself out through the organs. By the time it hits the skin – well, it's like mincemeat, see?"
"We don't have time – Tonks, look out!" Another giant was beyond the first, as Remus screamed at her. They all turned to face it, wands and staff upraised, and then the giant seemed to have a second head. A large arm covered in orange hair covered the giant's face and twisted. Only Remus's Impermeable Charm kept them from the splatter, and his Cushioning Charm kept it from crushing them.
The Librarian leaped away from the dead giant, hooting triumph. The quartet reformed themselves into a unit, backs together, searching for their next targets.
A voice magically magnified crashed upon their eardrums.
"Harry Potter is dead. He was killed as he ran away, trying to save himself while you lay down your lives for him. We bring you his body as proof that your hero is gone."
The Death Eaters approached the open doors of the school, Harry limp in Hagrid's arms.
"NO!" The scream was the more terrible because it came from Professor McGonagall.
Tonks surged towards the doors, pushing until she could see him. The Boy Who Lived was dead. Her hair sagged downward in a defeated brown. Remus caught up to her and slipped his arms around her. "We'll keep on. It's not over yet." But his tears fell damp on her face as he kissed her.
Someone had broken free of the crowd and charged at Voldemort. Harry saw the figure hit the ground, Disarmed, Voldemort throwing the challenger's wand aside and laughing.
"And who is this?" he said in his soft snake's hiss.
"Merlin, it's Neville," groaned Remus. "He's going to get himself killed!"
They all watched in horror as Voldemort taunted and tormented the boy.
"He's no fighter – Remus, we have to do something!"
But Remus shook his head, eyes still wet. There were too many Death Eaters before them, wands raised.
Voldemort pulled the Sorting Hat to him, forced it down over Neville's head, and set it on fire.
Screams split the dawn, and Neville was aflame, rooted to the spot, unable to move, and Harry could not bear it. He must act –
Rincewind yelled, "Look!– " and Tonks saw hundreds of people swarming over the walls, heard the hooves and twangs of bows. In the surprise, Neville acted too.
In one swift, fluid motion Neville broke free of the Body-Bind Curse. The Sorting Hat fell and he drew from its depths something silver, with a glittering, rubied handle -
With a single stroke he sliced off the great snake's head, which spun high in the air, and the snake's body thudded to the ground.
The battle fell into even more chaos. The four of them became separated, and Tonks could barely keep track of her targets. Even more fighters came to the aid of the castle – the centaurs were charging the Death Eaters, there were flying figures – thestrals - and was that a hippogriff? House elves armed with carving knives and cleavers.
"Goblins? You have goblins fighting for you!" Rincewind was close to Tonks again, this time swinging his staff directly at a werewolf. He smashed it to the ground, and the two of them wrenched away from it.
"No – house – elves," panted Tonks. "There's Bellatrix!"
Bellatrix was dueling three at once: Hermione, Ginny, and Luna, and a Killing Curse missed Ginny by an inch.
"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"
"No, no, no!" Tonks knew that Molly Weasley couldn't duel. She'd never practiced with the Order of the Phoenix, she wasn't an Auror.
"Get the Librarian to throw a bomb at her!" Remus was behind Tonks now, yelling.
Rincewind screamed, "EEK! EEK! EEK!" and people shrank away from him. On the other side of the Hall they heard a deep answering "OOK!"
Bellatrix and Mrs. Weasley faced each other, lights flying from both wands.
A small explosion landed behind Bellatrix and cracked the ground; she stumbled but was upright again in an instant.
;"What will happen to your children when I've killed you?" taunted Bellatrix. "When Mummy's gone the same way as Freddie?"
"You – will – never – touch – our children – again!"
But Molly was faltering. The Librarian tossed another tiny bomblet, and it again hit behind Bellatrix.
Harry had been hiding under the Invisibility Cloak, casting shields and protecting fighters, and he saw it all.
Bellatrix laughed, the same exhilarated laugh her cousin Sirius had given as he toppled backwards through the veil, and suddenly Harry knew what was going to happen before it did.
The small explosion – and where had that come from? – made Bellatrix arch her back just high enough. Molly's curse soared beneath Bellatrix's outstretched arm and hit her squarely in the chest, directly over her heart.
Everyone screamed, and then Voldemort raised his arm and directed it at Molly Weasley.
"PROTEGO!" Harry pulled off his Invisibility Cloak at last.
He and Voldemort circled each other and began taunts.
"Fuck!" Tonks whisper-shouted into her hands. "Stop talking and kill him! Do it!"
But Harry was going on and on about Dumbledore being the better wizard, and Snape being Dumbledore's agent all along, and then Voldemort was taunting Harry –
"I killed Severus Snape three hours ago and the Elder Wand, the Deathstick, the Wand of Destiny is truly mine! Dumbledore's last plan went wrong, Harry Potter!"
"What the hell is the Elder Wand?" muttered Remus. "I thought that was only a myth."
"Remus, we can take him," hissed Tonks. "Get us up to the front of the circle and I can kill Voldemort. Then I'm going to kill Harry for monologuing!"
She did not know, she could not know, the prophecy "neither could live while the other survives," and if she had known it, and all the risks Dumbledore had put Harry in, so he would be the Horcrux killing all the other Horcruxes, with no help except fellow students, she would have smashed Dumbledore's portrait from the wall.
"So it all comes down to this, doesn't it? whispered Harry. "Does the wand in your hand know its last master was Disarmed? Because if it does . . .I am the true master of the Elder Wand."
"NOW!" Remus and Tonks forced their way past everyone, and reached the edge of the circle.
"We've got plenty of room. Let's cast together so we won't miss the bastard," growled Remus.
"On three – one, two –"
"Avada Kedavra!" And it wasn't their curse.
"Expelliarmus!"
"Harry, you idiot! A first year spell! Three –" her hand slashed up in the first movement of the Killing Curse, the curse with the same stroke as the lightning bolt scar on Harry's forehead.
"Wait!"
Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty, the snakelike face vacant and unknowing. Voldemort was dead, killed by his own rebounding curse, and Harry stood with two wands in his hand, staring down at his enemy's shell.
"It's a damn good thing that worked," yelled Tonks, racing across the dueling space. "Because if it hadn't worked, I would have killed you myself!"
The sounds of battle had ceased. Tonks, Remus, and Harry sat apart on a little bench, Harry between them.
"You were dead. I saw both of you lying in the hall when I went to the forest."
"There's a lot of that going around tonight, Harry Potter. You were dead yourself, and we saw your body." Tonks's hair was in the brightest pink it had ever been, candy floss swirling over her head in an aureole.
"I – it's hard to explain. Did you wind up in King's Cross like I did?"
"No." Remus reached his hand up to caress the back of Harry's head. "We were – someplace else, and it took us three days to come back."
"Three? – "
"Never mind. Time for this later."
Harry hugged them both. "I'm so glad, so so glad. I was thinking about Teddy as well as everyone else when I went out to – to the forest. I thought – 'he'll never know his parents.'"
"And if you had died, he'd have never known his godfather."
"Godfather?"
"Yes," said Remus. "We hadn't asked you yet – has been only a couple of weeks, but you're the one. You've been the one we want. Always."
Tonks heard Luna Lovegood speak to Harry.
"I'd want some peace and quiet, if it were me."
"I'd love some."
"I'll distract them all," and then she cried out. "Look, a Blibbering Humdinger!"
Harry left them to search out Ron and Hermione.
Tonks nudged Remus. "I want some peace and quiet too, but Teddy – I need to see if he's alright."
"We can't apparate inside Hogwarts and I'm honestly too tired to get back to Hogsmeade. These bones – almost weren't strong enough. I wish we had some of Angua's bone soup."
And because a certain kind of magic belongs to Hogwarts itself, steaming bowls with a rich meaty smell appeared on the bench beside them.
When Rincewind and the Librarian joined them after the battle, Remus and Tonks offered to have them stay at Andromeda's until they could sort out how to send them home.
"I think we'll visit Madam Pince," said Rincewind.
"Why do you want to see her?" said Tonks. "Does she have books on the Discworld?"
Rincewind looked shifty. "Not as such. There's L-space. All libraries are interconnected everywhere. I couldn't begin to explain it," as their mouths dropped open.
"So – we could have come back through the library? Why didn't you ever say so?" whimpered Tonks. "That whole ritual, and it hurt like a hundred Apparitions, why? –"
"It's not exactly like that," said Rincewind hastily. "It gets a bit quantum, see, but Roundworld is uphill from the Disc. On top of a gravity well, the Archchancellor said, although I don't know why you'd find gravity in a well – anyway, it's at the top, and the Disc is at the bottom. I don't know how to explain it any better."
"Alright," said Tonks, and Remus said suddenly, "We'll walk you to the library."
The four of them found Madam Pince working furiously with her wand to right toppled shelves and put books back in place, and she was delighted to see Rincewind. Remus pulled Tonks away before she could quite notice them.
"Where are we going? I'm exhausted."
"Where do you think?" Remus smiled. It was probably supposed to be a rakish grin, but didn't quite reach that far.
"Not the – are you serious? You can't mean the Restricted Section!"
"Yes, I do, and in fact - " they had reached the area of the library famous for hiding canoodling students for hundreds of years.
Remus made a turn Tonks didn't quite remember taking, and slipped between two shelves she'd never seen before.
"What's this?"
"A little nook the Marauders found. It's not big enough for a hidden passage, and at first we ignored it. But then we realized the possibilities."
He raised his wand, tapped in it a rhythmic pattern on the bookshelf, and a three-foot wide section of books pivoted outwards.
"You created a hidden room!"
"Indeed we did. I checked it a few years ago when I had the DADA position, and updated the amenities. Lumos."
They were in an eight-by-ten-foot room with a soft carpet and a large squashy sofa. Two large squashy chairs faced it, with an endtable between them. Remus crossed to the endtable, opened it, and pulled out two large pillows and several soft blankets. Rummaging below them, he came up with two bottles.
"Elf-made wine or Old Ogden's?"
"I've never had elf-made wine."
"No time like the present." He fished to the bottle of the little storage space and pulled out two dusty glasses. "Scourgify."
They eased down onto the couch, using the pillows to prompt themselves. "I bet with all those pranks the Marauders used to hide in here a lot."
"Um. It's chilly in the winter, and this room backs right up against the castle wall."
"Bet it was snug enough whenever you smuggled a girl in here."
"Or a boy," he thought. "A bright shining star. That's done and dusted, and I'm so glad to have her."
"Hmm, well, that's a long time ago. Can't remember. Here's your wine, m'dear."
They sipped the wine and Tonks relaxed against Remus. Presently he took their cups and set them on the table.
They kissed slowly, exploring all the places where the healing hadn't quite finished. Remus's bones ached throughout his body, and Tonks still felt the slash across her chest. But the couch was soft, and it responded quite nicely to an Extension Charm.
Remus pulled off Tonk's shirt slowly, and hissed as he saw how much of Bellatrix's damage remained. She pulled off his shirt and discovered why he'd groaned when she hugged him too hard. Injured, damaged, battered. But that would change, would mend. They lay facing each other, legs tangled. Remus took the tip of his finger and traced the shell of her ear, then around to her earlobe and onto her neck. She shivered. He bent down and repeated the action with his tongue, giving the tiniest nip to her earlobe. Then he kissed her neck, down to her collarbone, avoiding the red scar across it. He came back and captured her mouth; she opened to his tongue. They moved gently, carefully, as two people can who have nearly died and then helped save the world.
Tonks's tongue found its way into Remus's with a lick along his lips and then inside with a warm push. He reached behind her and unfastened her bra, exposing her breasts, then cupped one and bent to the nipple. She squeaked and he moved to the other side.
"I would kill Bellatrix again, happily, just to keep her from damaging you."
"Hmm . . .shhh." Tonks reached for Remus's belt and undid it slowly. She slipped her hand inside and stroked him.
"I want to – " they spoke at the same time, and then she whispered what she wanted to do, and he whispered his desires. She took over, sliding down to lay her cheek over his trousers, and stripped him bare.
They had time. They had all the time in the world, now. Memories and ghosts would rise to haunt them, probably, thought Tonks, and each would comfort the other. But at this moment, secure in this hidden room, they were safe and could give and take pleasure as they willed.
FIN
Notes:
This is the end of the story part of this work. There will be two epilogues. A tip of the hat to Truckle, who suggested the format for Rincewind's curse.