Once Upon a Hogwarts-Chapter Fifteen

By Lily in a Pond

Disclaimer: Erm...nothing to rent, nothing to own?

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"They were fighting in Hogsmeade?" Ron whispered, staring, horrified, at the scene. Death Eaters and members of the Order as well as the Aurors were shooting spells so quickly, the sky looked like it was permanently lit up with colors and occasionally, blood flew over the bush they were hiding behind. "That is so typical, fighting right under our noses!"

"Shush!" Harry hissed at him. "What if they hear us?"

But it was already too late. A hooded Death Eater shot a jet of purple light at the Auror he was fighting with and started walking towards them.

Morag MacDougal bit his bottom lip. "Er...you should go ahead, I'll take care of this."

Lisa Turpin looked apprehensive. "No offense, Morag, dear, but...you're not the most capable dueler."

"I know," said Morag, "but I feel like I can handle this."

"Can you?" Pansy asked skeptically. Morag glared at her.

"Yes."

As Morag leapt out of the bush they were hiding behind and tackled the Death Eater to the ground, Pansy groaned. "Great way to alert the others that there was a person in here."

"I hope he'll be alright after the fight," Ernie Macmillan said.

"Oh, I think he'll be fine," Hermione smiled. She pointed. "Look."

Morag grinned at the group, brushing his hands. Their eyes swiveled to the unconcious Death Eater, and the crumpled paper bag lying next to him.

"How did you do that?" Pansy asked, astonished. "You've never even been able to Disarm anyone, let alone Stun!"

"Simple," Morag smirked. "I forced a paper bag on his head."

Pansy was silent.

"And...?" Lisa prompted.

"And he fainted," Morag said slowly, as if he was talking to a small child.

"OH," Pansy said. "Fear of the dark...well, you definitely got lucky on that one, Morag." Morag scowled. "Anyway," she continued," now, to business," she said seriously.

Hermione drew out her wand. "Guess it's time to fight."

Harry took a deep breath. "Time to finish what Dumbledore left behind."

"Time to either kill or be killed," said Blaise darkly. "Time for battle."

0o0

The battlefield at Hogsmeade was a mess. There were curses flying everywhere, people ducking and running, blood on the ground, and every so often, you would trip over a fallen body.

As Blaise dodged a nasty Severing Hex, he collided with Mandy and they both fell to the ground.

"Avada Kedavra!" the Death Eater Blaise was fighting with shouted at him.

"No!" Before Blaise knew what was going on, Mandy had pushed him out of the way, and the curse had traveled through the air, above Ernie Macmillan's head as he ducked quickly, under Pansy Parkinson's left arm, and hit a Death Eater.

"Stupefy!" Blaise yelled and the Death Eater crumpled to the ground. "Thanks," he said quietly to Mandy. Mandy smiled.

"Anytime."

Meanwhile, near Honeydukes, Ron and Hermione were having a different sort of dilemma…..

"No! Step away from the truffles!" Ron was yelling at the Death Eater.

Hermione's eyes widened when the Death Eater she was fighting (whom she strongly suspected was Crabbe or Goyle Senior) blasted the display of Sugar Quills into smithereens.

"Okay, mister, that was the wrong thing to do! You do not mess with Hermione Granger's Sugar Quills!"

The Death Eater blinked stupidly at her.

"Diffindo Maximus!" Hermione yelled, covering the man's body with little cut marks.

"Hermione, if I die today, I just want to let you know that I'm sorry that I insulted your cat a lot in third year!" Ron yelled as he dodged a Crucio.

Hermione's eyes wealed up with emotion as she took a temporary break from the battle. "I'm sorry I attacked you with birds last year."

"I'm sorry – hey! You will not explode the Droobles!" Ron was practically breathing fire and he tossed his wand to Hermione and in one swift motion, punched, shoved, and kicked the Death Eater in the you-know-where. "Stupefy!" he yelled at the man now lying motionless on the ground.

Hermione was staring at him in shock and amusement. "I didn't know you were so passionate about the candy."

"Yeah, well, candy is a blessing and if he wants to abuse it, he will get kicked by me. Can I have my wand back?"

Over near the Shrieking Shack, Theodore Nott, Anthony Goldstein, and Lisa Turpin were having a another strange sort of problem. ……

Staring at the shack in which the Death Eaters they were fighting with had ran into, Anthony suddenly sighed and turned to Lisa.

"Lisa, if I die today, I just want you to know that I'm leaving to you my collection of Butterbeer bottle caps and my poster of the Weird Sisters."

Lisa grinned excitedly. "Anthony, if I die, I want you to know that you'll get my special just-for-brunettes shampoo, my Norwegian falcon quill, and my secret stash of Muggle Candy."

"Oh, and if I die, can you ask everyone to bury me in a redwood chest?" Anthony excitedly.

"Sure! Can you ask them to cremate me?"

"Now that you two are finished planning your funerals, can we go in already?" Theo's voice cut in cynically.

Lisa glared at him. "Can't you go in by yourself? We're planning our wills here!"

Theo rolled his eyes. "Oh, goody! Going into a house I have never been in before that also has three dangerous and homocidal Death Eaters in it!" he proclaimed sarcastically. "What a lovely idea! If I didn't know any better, I would think you guys were trying to do me in! You know, I just might die before you, and when I do, I am leaving everything to Blaise and Pansy! I'm not giving a bloody cent to you guys!"

"Fine!" Anthony bellowed back. "I don't need your bloody money! I'm dating Pansy anyways, I'll find a way to con the money out of her!"

Lisa looked disgusted. "I don't want to give my stuff to you anymore, Anthony. You con people."

"Fine, be that way, Lisa. I'm going to go in with Theo, and when I die, you're not getting anything either! So you can just die poor and...dead!"

"That doesn't make sense!" Lisa yelled. "How can I die dead if I'm dead already?"

"Will you people just shut up and attack us already?" a Death Eater shouted from the window of Shrieking Shack. "It's no fun talking about death if no one is dying!"

Theo, Anthony, and Lisa's heads snapped up immediately. They seemed to have forgotten that the main reason they were outside the Shrieking Shack was to attack the Death Eaters.

"Oops, forgot about them," Lisa laughed nervously. "Occumbere Maximus Shrieking Shack." As the Shrieking Shack crumbled down to the ground, Lisa muttered something else and the three Death Eaters flew into the air and deposited near their feet. "Reparo." The Shrieking Shack immediately flew back together in one whole piece.

"I never knew a house could be repaired after getting destroyed completely," Theo commented after a moment of silence for the now-dead Death Eaters.

"Neither did I," Lisa murmured as Anthony said,

"Yeah, well, you never knew you would be spending time with your friends, and not Daphne Greengrass," he shrugged.

"That's true. It's weird, it's like I've forgotten all about Daphne." When Lisa and Anthony raised their eyebrows at this, he continued and protested, "No, seriously, it's like she was nothing than a crush that I got over."

Anthony gave Theo a friendly slap on the back. "I'm proud of you, Theo. You finally got over your obsession with Daphne."

"God bless the random kindness of angels," Lisa intoned, clasping her hands and looking up at the sky.

Theo and Anthony looked at each other, and then burst out laughing.

Lisa scowled. "And God bless the fiery depths of Hell in which Theodore Edmund Nott and Anthony Caesar Goldstein will be deposited in after their extremely untimely and painful deaths."

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Draco peered down from the tree he had climbed up and looked for the signature white blond hair of his father.

A rustling in the tree startled him.

"Hey," Hermione whispered as she plopped down next to him. Draco stared at her coolly.

"Oh, come on, Malfoy; I know you want to throttle someone or burn this tree right now, although you really shouldn't think about that stuff," said Hermione, backing away slightly after realizing what she had just said. "...Stop hiding it, it's not good for you."

"I don't have anger management. That's Weasel's department," Draco snorted.

Hermione frowned. "Fine. Well, I'll be leaving now. I still have to hex Macnair for what he did to Buckbeak, or what he almost did." As the rustling of leaves sounded again, Hermione's head popped out of nowhere and her eyes drilled into Draco's. Draco's eyes popped open slightly, but he refrained from screaming like a little girl on a balloon high.

"Unless………you want some company……?"

"No," Draco huffed.

"Fine, fine, I get the hint; I'll go," Hermione said. A moment later, her head popped back into view. "Are you sure - ?"

"No!"

Hermione looked hurt. "Well, then, why do you allow me to keep coming back?"

"That's an extremely good question," snapped Draco. "Why do I?"

Hermione sat down on the branch again, sighing, and patted his shoulder. "You don't have to do this, you know," she whispered softly.

"...I know. But I'm going to. It's something I just……….have to do." Draco muttered. "But you don't care about that - "

"I do."

"Oh."

"Draco..." Hermione began. "I know this is a hard thing to do, but you have to follow through. Give it everything you've got."

Draco tilted his head back and looked at her under his eyelashes.

"I know this is going to bring up so many bad memories for you, and it's going to hurt, but it'll all be good in the long run. I promise. It'll turn out fine. And even if it doesn't, we'll all make it better for you. Everyone cares for you, Draco, even if you think they hate you. Nobody wants to see one of the people they treasure most die. I promise...that no matter what happens, we'll be there for you. We'll be that shoulder to lean upon, we'll be the tub of ice cream and chocolate, we'll be ready to go the extra mile. We truly care for you. And I - I care the most. If you died..." she trailed off, looking hesitantly at Draco.

Draco looked into Hermione's eyes. "I never thought I'd be saying this, but you might the one person that can really understand me. Not Blaise, not Pansy, not even Potter. You can."

Draco looked at her for a moment, and then leaned towards Hermione and planted the softest of kisses on her lips. "Thank you...Hermione."

As the wind flew by and whipped Hermione's hair around, Draco disappeared in a flurry of leaves.

Hermione gently touched her lips. "Draco..."

A bright flash of white light interrupted her thoughts.

"Voldemort," Hermione breathed.

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A/N-Woohoo! This was definitely one of my favorite chapters I've written so far. And yes, I know that I've mentioned that this isn't the Final Battle, but it will actually turn into the Final Battle. Still,

THIS BATTLE IS NOT THE FINAL BATTLE.

Also, Butterbeers and Cauldron Cakes to everyone who realized the meaning of the whole Hermione-and-Draco-sitting-in-a-tree thing.

Twenty galleons to anyone who figured which song lyrics were featured in this chapter. (It's only a little part of the lyrics, though.)

The answers to the burning, flaming, smoldering, fiery, sizzling, blazing, radiating, and roaring reviews……….

potc-and-hpfan – Er……..well, I think it worked because I have certainly updated, but it's rather faulty since I didn't update at the specified time.

serpentine17ice – Hey, I like that too! If you put strawberry jelly on it, it tastes good too. Ooh, or marmalade!

Sam's Firefly – Ferrets ARE cute, I saw one at the pet shop a few days ago. It was so adorable!

melanie – Daphne admitted to being a DE because she was under the Veritaserum and Melody and Diana asked her that because torturing someone and then killing them sounds a LOT like typical DE behavior.

Additional thanks to Setsuna-chan09, dragoneyes5000, DA4life, xo evolremmus xo, AnimeAlexis, iMnOtReAlLYcRaZy, pink butterfly, and Bri Leonard!

EDIT 7/29/07 - Changed the beginning of the chapter quite a bit and modified the Draco/Hermione kiss scene.

-Lily in a Pond