"Please!" Wormtail squeaked in alarm as I had naturally raised my wand to stun him but I paused, his hand diving to shield his face. "Please. I…I'm here to help! I escaped my room, I managed it, I was going to run away but then I heard your people talking about a battle, and Hogwarts, and Harry Potter and the Dark Lord…I…I couldn't leave…I just couldn't…so I snuck up someone's trouser leg as a rat and they brought me with them, to that place with the passageway into the castle…" He desperately garbled, trying to make me see that he was here as an ally. "Please, dear girl, Mia, please believe me. I want to make amends. I want to…I want to try to earn forgiveness…I…I want to be brave." Any sane person would have stunned him already and be done with it, but I remained frozen in place.
My logical side told me that I couldn't trust Wormtail, however as I looked at him, I noticed a certain…change about him. He still trembled with fear, but his feet were planted squarely with resolution and his eyes, which used to jump about the place, never once looked away from me. Once again, Dumbledore's message whispered itself clearly in my mind. Trust your instincts. Standing upright, I lowered my wand. "You'll need your wand back, in that case." Jerking my head, I sliced an opening through the waterfall and grabbed hold of Wormtail, pulling him with me in order to race to the bathroom where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets lay which was only one floor up, and through a pure stroke of luck, Ron and Hermione were just then emerging from it, carrying the basilisk fangs in their arms. "Hermione! I need Wormtail's wand!"
"What?" She turned in confusion, frowning before then recognising him behind me. She dropped the fangs and raised her wand, naturally reacting with an offensive spell to take him down but with a quick swish, I created a shield before us, reflecting the hex.
"Hermione, he's on our side now. Just trust me. Give him his wand!" She gaped at me and Ron looked lost for words, but then Hermione nodded her head and quickly fumbled around in her purse before summoning the wand out. I returned it to Wormtail who received it with a slight bow. Thanking her, I wished them luck and directed them to where I'd last seen Harry before taking Wormtail with me. "Dad will probably attack you on sight so try and avoid him. I'm sending a message ahead to Moody, you'll be joining his team. Are you sure you're up to this? If you turn your back on us, or betray us in any way, then I will hunt you down myself and make Voldemort seem like a fluffy kitten in comparison to me." My threat was sincere and strong, but Wormtail vowed that he was determined this time to do what he should have done sixteen years ago.
In a burst of compassion, I reached over and kissed his cheek, giving his shoulder a squeeze as I smiled. "Then good luck, Uncle Peter. Follow the patronus." With a wave of my wand, the bright silvery lion sprung into life and took off, Wormtail hurrying to follow her as she carried my message to Moody. It was nearly midnight, I had only a bare few minutes left and as I made my way to the battlements, the first bombardment of spells struck the protective barrier. There were lights everywhere, casting bright flashes upon our faces as everyone stared in silent apprehension. From where I was standing, I saw the giants moving towards us in the distance and the other students around me started to whimper.
"Don't be frightened. They're big and stupid, aim right for their eyes!" I called out decisively, raising my wand at the ready. "Get them before they reach the caste, otherwise they might fall on some of our lot!" Shooting a white, flaming burst into the sky, it exploded high above us to shower everyone with light, flooding the grounds so that everyone could see as if it were pure daylight. They were crawling with beasts and monsters trying to get through the barrier but being repelled, though I could see it deteriorating. It collapsed faster than I could fix it, making me yell in frustration until a sudden beam of light came from the outside and struck the outer barrier, bringing it down and seemingly burning it away. It was gone. Our last scrap of protection. Gone.
It had to be Voldemort, there was no other explanation for it, and as I stared, I saw all manners of horrors rushing towards the castle with roars of bloodlust and eager sadistic cheers. My eyes quickly scanned the grounds before me at the north, the giants moving in closer so with a wave of my wand, I leaped over the battlements, causing everyone behind me to shriek. I fell for a bit before a broom I'd summoned came to me from the quidditch cupboard and I hopped onto it, flying straight for the giants and began to shoot powerful spells at them to make them stop and roar, swinging their clubs which were no more than uprooted trees, trying to knock me out of the sky.
Focusing on their eyes, I used the Conjunctivitis Curse, as well as blinding spells, Confundus Charms and every manner of means I could think of to have the giants either collapsing back on the grounds away from the castle or fighting each other. They did a rather good job of knocking one another out from that point on, and upon seeing my demonstration, a number of stuents then copied my actions, summoning brooms and flying over the grounds in order to leap into the fight. Flying low, I scanned the grounds to see everyone fighting below and, abandoning the broom, I leaped off it and sent it crashing against a Death Eater, twirling my wand to make the broom curl and snap itself around their torso and lock their arms before it shot off into the Forbidden Forest.
Then I created fire. Long whips of golden flames which I then lashed upon the grounds and directed up and down to create a boundary line, lifting the roaring flames up so that the giant spiders that had left the forest were now screeching and trapped, backing away from the flames in fear. Turning around, I was soon duelling two Death Eaters at once, stunning the first then freezing the other into a block of ice which then shattered when a rebounded curse struck them. I had no time to stop, everything was happening so quickly. My eye caught sight of Remus and my dad, fighting back to back as werewolves came charging in with a fresh wave of Death Eaters, the one called Dolohov launching himself into my uncle's way and began to duel him.
Roaring as I dropped onto all fours, I collided with several werewolves and mauled them as quickly as I could, breaking their arms and legs to leave them in too much pain to actually fight, racing across the ground before then leaping up and whilst in the air, sent a curse at Dolohov from above. He deflected it at the last moment, looking up as I landed nearby with a roll and as I did so, aimed a flipping jinx at his feet, and as he flew upwards, I transfigured a bunch of stones into a herd of rhinos, sending them charging forwards. The lead one slammed into Dolohov as he landed and the rest trampled him, giving Remus time to catch his breath. "Alright Uncle Rem?"
"Much better. Very tidy wand work, Mia." He complimented before he had to veer back out of the way of a spell, but before the attacker could aim again, Tonks herself appeared and sent them flying a good twenty feet away from him, her hair now a very angry shade of red. "Dora! What are you…you shouldn't be here! Teddy!"
"He'll be fine, he's with my mother." Tonks told her husband curtly as she strode on over and embraced him quickly as I lunged forwards to create a shield around them, protecting them from a bunch of spells that had been aimed their way as my dad joined in, the both of us grabbing each other's hands to fight together. "It's you who needs me tonight." Unable to help myself, I smiled at the loving scene before me as Remus kissed Tonks then seized her hand, the both of them fighting together with a ferocity that could only be manifested through the sheer force of willpower to protect their loved one.
Suddenly, a silver dove came flying towards me and landed on my shoulder, the patronus delivering the message from my mother. "Mia, we're overrun, too many casualties, send help!" Then the bird was gone, but I was already turning to run.
"Mia!"
"I'll go, stay here with your team!" I yelled back to dad as I started to bolt for the castle, throwing spells as I went. Everywhere I went people were fighting, but even as I reached the castle, Death Eaters were starting to get inside. In desperate want to get to my mother and Leo as soon as possible, I launched myself into the air with an ascension charm and crashed through a window, breaking the glass before I could hit it then landed on my feet, stumbling slightly and quickly looking around to come face to face with Ron, Harry and Hermione. Goyle and Malfoy were there too, the former unconscious, and the latter crumbled on the floor, shaking. My eyes, however, were fixated on the diadem in Harry's hand, looking like it was bleeding and burned.
"Mia!"
"You three! Is that-?" Before I could even ask, there was a crash behind us and Death Eaters flooded into the corridor, pushing Fred and Percy back towards us as they fought them off. Refocusing my attention, I dove forwards with the others and promptly joined the fight. The Death Eaters were all hooded and cloaked, but the one Percy was fighting lost his hood and the mask broke off, revealing his face to us all as Percy shouted.
"Hello Minister! Did I mention I'm resigning?" He transfigured Pius Thicknesse rather efficiently, and once he was crawling on hands and knees, I sent him tumbling back down the stairs whilst he was turning into some kind of prickly urchin thing, Fred roaring with laughter.
"You're joking, Perce!" One more went down with a triple stunning spell, leaving only one left as Fred turned to look at his brother. "You actually are joking, Perce, I don't think I've heard you joke since you were…" Whatever Fred was going to say became lost in the burst of noise and force which hit us all at once. Before I knew it, everyone was being thrown off my feet and I screamed, mostly out of fear for what would happen to the others as rubble and stone came crashing down upon us from the explosion of the corridor.
"Immobulus!" Everything around us froze in place, our bodies, the rubble, the Death Eaters, even the dust ceased it's hissing as my eyes desperately cast themselves around. Fred's face was frozen mid-laugh, but there was a huge chunk of stone a mere hair's breadth away from his chest, and with a gulp of fear, I willed the magic through my wand to free me and only me so that I could act. Landing on my feet, I sent the rubble flying back at the last two Death Eaters, drowning their cries of terror under the mass of stones which crushed them before I then freed the others.
They touched the ground lightly and I was already rushing to Fred, touching my wand to the centre of his chest to create a bright glow of white light, healing him of his injuries though he was completely unconscious, the force of the explosion having knocked him out cold. He was alive, but just barely. "Pomfrey!" I managed to gasp out as Percy flung himself to his knees and gripped mine and Fred's shoulder, looking at his brother with fearful apprehension. "Great Hall…Madam Pomfrey!"
"I'll take him." Without any hesitation, Percy had Fred floating in the air and was running off with him as I coughed and wheezed, clutching my chest where the force of the blast had impacted. The trio were looking at me, their faces still stuck on the same expression as if my freezing charm was still holding them in place, staring at me with worry even as more Death Eaters started to climb over the wreckage of the castle walls which had been collapsed, a huge chunk of the castle now missing which exposed us to the cool night air.
"Go!" I finally shouted, flinging my hand at them as spells started to fire in our direction. "Get going!" Leaping to stand in front of them, I cast a powerful shield charm to deflect the jinxes, hexes and curses before then breaking through it with a repelling jinx, sending them all flying backwards as I bellowed a third time for Harry to get out of here with Ron and Hermione. They dove under the invisibility cloak and took off, allowing me to cover their escape as I dealt with the Death Eaters and also a hoard of giant spiders which were climbing the walls. Kingsley and his team soon joined me, rushing to my aide as they had witnessed the mass explosion. As they took on the Death Eaters, I repelled the spiders back outside the castle then created a barrier out of impervious glass to block the new entryway, so that as the spiders tried to climb, they slipped off the glass and fell one after the other. Once I was certain they were holding off the attackers, I went running to find my mother, sprinting as fast as I was able through the dust and the wreckage of my school, leaping over bodies and continuing to fight as I ran.
I found her, cradling Leo who was bleeding from the head and with an outburst of rage, my wand cast a spell that was created through pure emotion without actual thought to its construct or purpose. It was, however, effective. A rippling wall of light burst from the tip of my wand as I wanted all my enemies before my eyes to bet turned to dust, and that's exactly what happened. Every foe the light touched caused their bodies to burst into sand and dust, whilst everyone else, such as students, teachers and friends, were left untouched as they looked around in astonishment before locating me.
My hair was in a tumbling wild fury, fluttering around me as I stood on top of the stairs with my wand raised, but in the next heartbeat I was leaping down the steps and running to my mother. "He's alright, he's alright Mia." She promised me as she stroked his head, trying to stem the flow of the blood with her hand whilst cradling Leo against her. "It was the werewolf Greyback, he went for me but Leo cursed him off, but then one of the Death Eaters caught him from behind…he's alive…he's alive…" Mum was trembling so I gripped her shoulder and sealed the wound before telling her to get Leo to the Great Hall where Madam Pomfrey was handling the injuries.
Up like a shot, my mother waved her wand and as she levitated my step-dad, who I watched leave with worry and concern for how pale and deathly he looked, I witnessed my mother perform the most impressive display of magic I'd ever witnessed from her. With her cherry and unicorn wand in hand, she launched a spell at three Death Eaters who were cornering a bunch of students and slammed them into the wall, and with a little complicated twiddle, the wall then swallowed them. They howled as their bodies and most of their limbs were drawn in, as if melting into the stonework with little more than their mouths and noses free to breathe, and I couldn't help but stare at her. "Mum…that was amazing." I appreciated as she tossed a grin back at me, and for a moment, I saw how much alike she and I were. That grin. Identical to mine.
She strode off like a storm, clearing the way before her as I then turned and repaired some of the castle and reset a few traps, noticing with glee that several snatchers and one or two werewolves had been caught in a sticky net which pinned them to the ceiling, one of my traps. Mum had mentioned Greyback, so now I set about trying to find him to take him out, because no one attacks my parents and gets away with it. He was easy to spot and hadn't gone far, running towards him as he launched himself on Lavender Brown who screamed, her wand having been lost somehow. "GREYBACK!" Thundering with all the fury I could muster, it was enough to make him pause from burying his teeth into Lavender and instead look up.
I collided with him as I roared, slamming my lion's body against him and the two of us tumbled over the stone balcony and crashed into the entrance hall where the four towering hourglasses stood, one for each house. The Slytherin one had shattered, meaning that there were emeralds everywhere underfoot as I scrambled to my feet and sprung at Greyback once more who had also recovered from the fall. Easily overpowering him, I buried my fangs into his shoulder which dragged a pained howl from him and threw him with a shake of my head, sending him crashing into the other hourglasses which caused gems and glass to shatter everywhere as I fought, slashing my claws into several more Death Eaters, including Yaxley who I took particular pleasure in dragging my claws across his face on account of Cedric's injuries from him. Lashing with my claws and biting with my fangs, sometimes I simply barrelled into the Death Eaters to take their feet out from underneath them, turning as Greyback lunged at me once more.
His arms snapped around my neck and started to squeeze, choking me and I yowled, rising up onto my hind legs and rolled, trying to shake him off but he was strong, and I could feel my windpipe being crushed. Suddenly Neville was there with armfuls of venomous Tentacula, throwing them at the enemy and one landed on Greyback, proceeding to strangle him. Someone then blasted him off my back and I dropped back down onto my hands and knees, gasping for breath but swiftly recovering as I turned.
With several artistic flourishes of my wand, I raised the glass shards of the hourglasses into the air and sent them flying after Greyback, slicing into him as he howled and tried to run, but slipped on the gems on the floor and landed rather painfully on his back. Hooking onto him with my wand with a bright line of magic, I dragged him up and slammed him against the walls with particular ruthlessness before all at once, I turned him into a slug, and before I could throw him away, another Death Eater stepped on him with a disgusting squelch, Kingsley having forced him back. Well, he's dead then. "Mia!" Looking up, I heard Harry calling me but couldn't see him.
With a rush of fabric, I found myself suddenly enclosed in the invisibility cloak with the trio, all of us stooping down in order to avoid being seen. "Harry! What are you doing? Don't worry about me, you should be focusing on…"
"The snake. Well I know where it is, and it's with Voldemort, he's in the Shrieking Shack but he's protecting it somehow. If we're going to get close enough to kill it, we're going to need someone to distract Voldemort and someone else to remove the protection spells. We need you, Mia, but we have to hurry." Harry explained to me as the sounds of the battle around us were muffled slightly by the cloak.
"Well? What are we waiting for?" Grabbing them, I turned them all in order to make them start running, all of us started to make a break for it just as crystal balls started to rain down upon us all, Professor Trelawney shouting with a high pitched screech from the top of the bannisters.
"I have more! More for any who want them, here!" She had shockingly good aim, I'll give her that. It was hard enough trying to move through the duellists, but our path was then blocked by another wave of spiders who had clearly given up trying to get into the castle through the glass barrier I'd made, and were now spilling inside into the Entrance Hall.
"Hold on!" Calling to the others, I pulled away from the cloak and faced the spiders, flinging my wand at them. "Serpensortia!" From my wand erupted a large black snake which coiled and hissed on the floor, slithering forwards towards the spiders. "Engorgio!" Suddenly the snake swelled and I made it grow until it was just as big as the basilisk Harry had fought in his second year, the long tail filling the hallway and people had to leap out of the way to avoid it. As I had hoped, the spiders panicked as the snake hissed and struck at them, its jaws locking around one of the giant spiders and swallowing it, making the others scuttle and try to escape as others fired spells at them.
"Don't hurt 'em! Don't hurt 'em!" Hagrid's shouting bellowed over the noise of the fight as he came rushing to try and protect the spiders even as my snake ate more of them, lashing and biting at them as they tried to eat it, having now figured out it wasn't a real basilisk.
"HAGRID NO!" Harry suddenly sprinted into view, abandoning the cloak as he ran to try and get Hagrid but he'd already reached the spiders as I screamed, launching spells to try and make them back away from Hagrid but before we could do anything, Hagrid was pulled down and the spiders all swarmed over him in a writhing black mass, moving out of the entrance and into the grounds. "HAGRID! COME BACK!" Harry gave chase and when I felt a brush of fabric past me, I knew Ron and Hermione were following.
I covered their escape, making sure to keep any spells from hitting the rough area where I judged them to be, only able to go on the occasional appearance of a heel before I then raced out into the grounds after them. Ron yanked off the cloak just as a giant stepped into view from around the castle, the crashing of his foot causing the entire ground to quake. Staggering, I just about managed to grab onto Harry before he could tear off too far ahead, away from the rest of us and put himself in the dangerous position of being out in the open. The giant growled deeply and punched through the castle in order to grab a handful of people, making me yell in fury. "NO!" Ron had grabbed Hermione to stop her from stunning him, but I aimed for the feet.
Collapsing the earth underneath him, the giant stumbled and dropped everyone he was holding, making them scream but I was quick to send a cushioning charm their way as I then created a flock of birds and had them attack the giant's face as Grawp came bounding from around the corner of the castle. Now that I could compare him with a full grown giant, it was shocking to realise just how small Grawp actually was. "HAGGER!" He yelled, searching for Hagrid, but upon seeing the other giant, he roared and launched himself at the foe.
"Go Grawp!" I yelled, waving an arm to him as he managed to throw the other giant onto his back though he caused an earthquake in the process. Uncertain whether or not he had heard me, we had to run or risk being crushed by the two giants as they now rolled and fought with one another, threatening to crush us with a single arm if it flailed out the wrong way. Harry was leading the way into the Forest, clearly now focused on getting Hagrid back, but when the unsettling cold feeling of dread hit us all, we realised we had run straight into a large cluster of dementors, all of whom were now sweeping towards us.
I stopped so suddenly that my foot slipped out from underneath me and I hit the ground with a heavy thud, making me groan. The others tried to make their patronuses appear, but Ron and Hermione's faded too quickly, and Harry had frozen in place. Thankfully, we weren't alone. Luna's hare leaped into view, along with a boar and a fox, courtesy of Ernie McMillan and Seamus. Luna smiled kindly and gently encouraged Harry to think of something happy as I sat up and, from the pine covered carpet of the forest floor, sent out my lioness to help.
The dementors fled as our patronuses tackled them all, Harry also managing to conjure his stag before they fled and the bright forms of silver chased away the feeling of cold emptiness which had threatened to swallow us entirely. It allowed a moment of relief and I picked myself up off the floor, feeling rather foolish for falling, but before I could turn around to Luna to thank her and the others, another giant came lolloping into view and we had to run once more. I'd caught onto someone's hand, Hermione's, as we all bolted together and, this time, headed directly for the Whomping Willow, and as I contemplated the fact that we would momentarily be facing Voldemort once more, the similar chilling sensation of the dementors' presence crept up my neck.