"Where is Ginny?" Harry didn't have time to make sure Malfoy and Goyle were alright. He had to finish his mission. "She was supposed to go back into the room of requirement!"

"Blimey, do you think it will work after that fire?" Ron glanced back at the now blank stretch of wall. "Should we split up and look for her?"

"No, we need to stick together." Hermione coughed, brushing uselessly at the soot all over her clothing. "I say we- Harry, what's that on your arm?"

"What? Oh, yeah…" He pulled the diadem from his wrist. It looked like it was bleeding, a sticky black substance leaking out of the yellowed crystals. It let out a quiet scream of pain before shaking violently and breaking apart in his hands.

"It must have been fiendfyre." Hermione whispered fearfully, eyes glued on the broken pieces.

"Sorry?" He looked at her blankly.

"Cursed fire. It's one of the ways to destroy horcruxes. I would never have dreamed of using it, it's so dangerous- how did Crabbe know how to use it?" She glanced back behind them to where Malfoy was still slumped against the wall, his body shaking with sobs.

"He must have learned it from the Carrows." Harry said bitterly.

"Shame he didn't pay attention when they taught them how to stop it." Ron snorted."If he hadn't tried to kill us, I might be sorry he was dead."

"No one deserves to die like that." Harry snapped. "It doesn't matter what side he was on."

"Hold on, don't you realize what this means?" Hermione interrupted before Ron could respond. "The snake is the only one left!"

"There's the silver lining I've been looking for." Harry pinched the bridge of his nose, his thoughts racing.

The unmistakable sound of a duel suddenly filled the corridor. A cacophony of noise was making Harry's head throb; people shouting, screams of terror, giants roaring from outside the windows. It was all so overwhelming. He barely had time to register that the diadem was destroyed. When they came to the top of the stairs Harry's heart seemed to fail. Death eaters had invaded the castle.

Fred and Percy were backed into a corner, dueling three masked and hooded figures at once. Without thinking or even waiting for the others, Harry rushed in to help, taking the steps two or three at a time in his haste. He stunned one of the death eaters as he ran, spells flying in every direction. When their comrade fell the cloaked figure that had been dueling Percy fell back. They tripped over the fallen death eater and their hood slipped, revealing the imperioused Minister of Magic.

"Hello, Minister!" Percy bellowed, casting a quick jinx. "Did I mention I'm resigning?"

Percy's jink hit Thicknesse square in the chest and he dropped to the floor, clawing at his abdomen in obvious discomfort. In the blink of an eye the man was replaced by some form of sea urchin.

"You're joking, Perce!" Fred shouted as he and Harry both took out the remaining death eater with twin stunning spells.

With all three immediate threats neutralized, the five of them relaxed. Harry rushed to wrap Fred in a hug, thanking the stars that he was alright.

"Merlin's beard, you actually were joking!" Fred laughed, kissing Harry on the top of the head before turning towards his no longer estranged brother. "I don't think I've heard you crack a joke since you were-"

The very air around them seemed to explode, cutting their small little reunion short. Harry was thrown backwards and it was all he could do to keep hold of the thin piece of wood that was his only weapon in this war. He could hear the other's screams but had no way of knowing what had happened to them.

The next sensation Harry was aware of was pain. Terrible pain erupted all over his body.

He was buried underneath a load of rubble. His glasses were gone. He couldn't see anything. Cold air hit his face and he became aware of a hot substance flowing from his temple. He was bleeding copiously. The corridor must have been blown wide open. A shaking pair of hands entered his range of vision and he suddenly was being pulled out from underneath the broken stone. He grabbed his rescuer's shoulders, identifying her as Hermione through all of the dust that polluted the air.

"Thanks." He coughed breathlessly.

An agonizing scream pierced the night and Harry's blood turned to ice in his veins.

That scream was not caused by any curse or fire. It was more raw, and it scared him more than anything else in his whole miserable existence. Three bright blurs of red caught his attention and he forgot how to breathe. Two red-headed figures were bent over a third.

"No-no! NO!" a despairing cry arose as Harry and Hermione approached the three Weasleys.

Suddenly Harry didn't need his glasses. He didn't need clear vision for his world to be wrought apart.

"Fred?" He didn't remember deciding to speak. "NO! FRED! NO!"

His voice broke as he pushed Hermione away and rushed to Fred's side. Ron and Percy made room for him without comment. Fred's eyes were staring up at the now visible sky, unblinking- unseeing, with his last laugh still etched upon his face.

"Don't leave me. Please…" Harry sobbed, grabbing his hand. "I need you. George needs you. Please. PLEASE!"

"Harry, he's-" Hermione placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder but he yanked away from her.

"NO!" He screamed, burying his head in Fred's chest, just like he had a thousand times before. Only this time there was no reassuring heartbeat. "Please come back! You can't leave me like everyone else..."

The world had ended, so why had the battle not ceased, the castle fallen silent in horror, and every combatant laid down their arms? Harry's heart felt like it was literally shredding, crumbling and falling apart right in his chest. He had felt pain before. But never like this.

Ron moved closer, wrapping his arm around Harry's shoulders and he let him pull him off of Fred.

"I know, mate. I know." was all he said, but it was enough. Harry let out a grief-stricken sob, falling back into Ron as they both lamented their loss.

A body fell past the breach in the castle wall and curses flew in at them from the darkness, hitting the wall above their heads.

"We have to go." Hermione's voice sounded oddly constricted and Harry looked at her. Tears had cut through the grime on her cheeks and she looked almost as lost as he felt. She wordlessly held out his glasses to him.

Harry grabbed at his hair and pulled, tring to find something to focus on. Slowly all of his injuries started screaming; the smoke in his lungs, the gash on his head, blistering burns on his forearms and feet from when he went back for the diadem. They allowed him to channel his attention to the physical pain instead of his entire world imploding. He let loose one last guttural roar and stood up, taking his miraculously not broken glasses and putting them on with trembling hands.

Hermione shrieked and Harry followed her gaze. A spider the size of a small car was scuttling down the corridor towards them. Aagog's descendants had joined the fight. Ron and Harry raised their wands at the same moment and their combined spells sent the spider flying out of the gaping hole in the wall.

"Come on, we better get going before the rest of them show up." Ron's voice faltered only for a moment.

"No. We have to move Fred's body. We can't let anything happen to him." Harry said as firmly as he could manage. He joined Percy who had taken Harry's place, weeping over his body. "Come on Percy, we need to take him somewhere safe."

Harry gently closed his eyes with his fingers, just as Luna had done for Dobby, and grabbed him underneath the armpits. Ron and Percy each grabbed a leg and together they carried him into an abandoned classroom. They set him behind the professor's desk, where he would be the safest, and Harry had to physically force himself not to stare. He could almost be sleeping.

"Harry, the snake..." Hermione said gently when he didn't move after putting Fred down.

"Yeah. Right. Of course." He said tonelessly, shoving all of his emotions into a drawer and locking them away to deal with later. He had a job to do.

Draco groaned under the weight of a still unconscious Greg as he carried him to the Hogwarts Infirmary. His first thought had been to take him to St. Mungos, but the hospital probably wouldn't take kindly to treating death eaters right now. The infirmary would most likely be empty in the midst of battle so he would have free range of all of the medical supplies.

A group of people ran past them shouting back and forth, but it was all just noise to Draco. He didn't really care to see who they were, he just stopped walking and kept as close to the wall as he could. He had cast disillusionment charms on the both of them before leaving the seventh floor corridor. The last thing he needed was to get caught up in a duel. When the group had finally vanished around the far corner he sighed in relief.

They were almost there, but Greg was getting rather heavy. He stumbled down a secret passage that was, blessedly, free of stairs. It had a steep incline, though, and Draco struggled not to fall. If he could get him to the infirmary he could patch him up. He was no expert, but he had done extensive amounts of research into healing magic. He could at least make sure Greg wouldn't die too.

What seemed like an eternity later they finally arrived at the infirmary. Draco shouldered the door open and was pleased to find that his assumption had been correct. The room was completely deserted. Some supplies had fallen onto the floor, but the beds were unoccupied and Madam Pomfrey's office door was ajar, revealing it to be empty as well. Draco let Greg go and levitated him onto the closest bed before rushing over to the supply cupboard. His hands were shaking as he pulled vials and sprays out. It was one thing to read about the theory behind healing magic and feel that you understood it. It was another thing to perform it without any training or practice.

He wracked his brains, trying to remember the chapter on magical burns. There had been specific instructions on how to treat Fiendfyre victims if they were lucky enough to even need medical attention. One does not normally survive an encounter with fiendfyre. He closed his eyes and took deep, calming breaths as he tried to conjure up the image of the page.

It worked. He could see the open book in front of him.

Essence of dittany should be applied as quickly as possible to stop the burn from spreading. Clean the wound of any ash or debris, then reapply the essence of dittany to aid in replacing any lost skin. Once the burn is saturated, draw your wand and use this incantation:

Therapeuo Medela

Move your wand in a figure-eight motion across the infected area while repeating the incantation until the wound is fully healed.

Draco opened his eyes and grabbed for the essence of dittany. His novice healing spell had stopped the burn from spreading up on the seventh floor, so he ignored that step. He carefully peeled off layers of singed fabric from Greg's burns and retched at the smell. He cleaned each burn with painstaking precision until no trace of ash remained. Once he was satisfied that the burns would not get infected, he coated them in the dittany.

Now for the hard part.

He took a few moments to collect himself before attempting the spell, doing his best to focus despite the raging battle outside.

"Therapeuo medela, therapeuo medela, therapeuo medela…" He chanted, hovering over the worst of the burns first. He was not prepared for the sudden drain of energy as Greg's skin started responding to the spell. He almost wanted to stop, but he couldn't. Greg had to survive. When he could not physically move his wand any longer he staggered back and collapsed onto the bed next to Greg.

As he was catching his breath he heard movement and looked towards the sound. Greg was stirring, shifting positions and blinking blearily at the room around him.

"Wha' happened?" He slurred as he tried to sit up.

"You got burned by fiendfyre." Draco panted.

"How did we end up here?"

"Potter saved us."

"Oh." He paused thoughtfully. "Did Vince…?"

Draco couldn't meet Gregs eyes. How was he supposed to tell someone that their other half is gone?