The enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall was dark and scattered with stars, and below it the four long House tables were lined with disheveled students, some in traveling cloaks, others in dressing gowns. Here and there shone the pearly white figures of the school ghosts. Every eye, living and dead, was fixed upon Professor McGonagall, who was speaking from the raised platform at the top of the Hall. Behind her stood the remaining teachers, including the palomino centaur, Firenze, and some of the members of the Order of the Phoenix.

"—evacuation will be overseen by Mr. Filch and Madam Pomfrey. Prefects, when I give the word, you will organize your House and take your charges, in an orderly fashion, to the evacuation point."

Alexa and Shacklebolt wound through the crowd, looking for Neville.

"You're sure it's wise to have to have underaged people fighting?" he asked.

Alexa shrugged, "Their odds are as good as the rest of us." Shacklebolt nodded.

"We've got people in the towers-" Neville was saying.

"Anybody from the Order?" Alexa asked Shacklebolt.

He nodded, "We'll need more people up there, and the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw."

"As soon as the castle is breached they'll need to be ready to come down," Neville added.

Alexa agreed, "And the grounds? We can put the Weasley twins in charge of defending the entrances."

"Yes,," Sprout said, "Neville, can you help me with the greenhouses? We'll add to the defenses before they approach."

He nodded, "I'll have my team come with us. Alexa, Bones should be on the grounds fighting. We should send Prewett with Fred and George, I think Seamus could make anything blow up."

"And Potter with…" The two of them rattled off a plan, glancing around the hall, Shacklebolt and Sprout agreeing and adding commentary as they did. When they broke apart and Neville and Alexa moved to stand with the rest of the D.A., all rigidly standing at attention in almost straight lines (Alexa had been working on that, but they still weren't perfect). She felt a stirring of pride at how far they had come. She turned, facing the room.

Many of the students looked petrified, white faced and whispering to each other.

"If you're at least sixteen and wish to stay and fight, your aid would be welcome," McGonagall said, glancing down at Alexa.

"Where's Professor Snape?" shouted a young girl from the Slytherin table.

"He has, to use the common phrase, done a bunk," replied Professor McGonagall, and a great cheer erupted from the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws. Alexa caught sight of Harry as he moved up the Hall alongside the Gryffindor table. As he paused, faces turned in his direction, and a great deal of whispering broke out in his wake.

"We have already placed protection around the castle," Professor McGonagall was saying, "but it is unlikely to hold for very long unless we reinforce it. I must ask you, therefore, to move quickly and calmly, and so as your prefects—"

But her final words were drowned as a different voice echoed throughout the Hall. It was high, cold, and clean. There was no telling from where it came; it seemed to issue from the walls themselves. Like the monster it had once commanded, it might have lain dormant there for centuries.

"I know you are preparing to fight." There were screams amongst the students, some of whom clutched each other, looking around in terror for the source of the sound. Alexa's hand slapped on the hilt of her sword, hanging at her hips."Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood." There was silence in the Hall now, the kind of silence that presses against the eardrums, that seems too huge to be contained by walls. "Give me Harry Potter," said Voldemort's voice, "and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you should be rewarded.

"You have until midnight." The silence swallowed them all again. Every head turned, every eye in the place seemed to have found Harry, to hold him frozen in the glare of thousands of invisible beams.

Then a figure rose from the Slytherin table and Pansy Parkinson raised a shaking arm and screamed, "But he's there! Potter's there! Someone grab him!"

In a flash Alexa was across the hall, poised in front of the Gryffindor table, sword drawn. And she was not alone. The Gryffindors in front of Harry had risen and stood facing, not Harry, but Pansy. The Hufflepuffs stood, the Ravenclaws had stood, all to defend him. Some of the Slytherins had risen as well, and Blaise's own wand was pressing into Pansy's neck. All of them, with their backs to Harry, all of them looking toward Pansy instead, she saw wands emerging everywhere, pulled from beneath cloaks and under sleeves. Harry looked as though he might actually cry.

"Thank you, Miss Parkinson," said Professor McGonagall in a clipped voice. "You will leave the Hall first with Mr. Filch. If anyone under sixteen would follow." Most of the Slytherins filed away, Blaise Zabini and three sixth years staying. She gave Blaise a nod as he sat down.

"Ravenclaws, follow on!" cried Professor McGonagall. Slowly the four tables emptied. A number of older Ravenclaws remained seated while their fellows filed out; even more Hufflepuffs stayed behind, and half of the Gryffindors remained in their seats, necessitating Professor McGonagall's descent from the teachers' platform to chivvy everyone under sixteen on their way. Alexa slipped back over to stand by Neville.

They flanked Shacklebolt as he stepped forward to address the crowd.

"We've only got half an hour until midnight, so we need to act fast! A battle plan has been agreed between the teachers of Hogwarts, the D.A., and the Order of the Phoenix. Professors Flitwick, Sprout, and McGonagall are going to take groups of fighters up to the three highest towers—Ravenclaw, Astronomy, and Gryffindor—where they'll have a good overview, excellent positions from which to work spells. Meanwhile Remus"—he indicated Lupin—"Arthur"—he pointed toward Mr. Weasley, sitting at the Gryffindor table, and "Alexa," he inclined his head towards her—"and I will take groups into the grounds. We'll need somebody to organize defense of the entrances of the passageways into the school."

"Alright, leaders up here and we'll divide up the troops!"

Lupin, Mr. Weasley, and the professors moved to the front, while Alexa turned to address the D.A.

"Fred and George, you're in charge of defending the main entrance, take Prewett with you. Bones, you'll be with me on the grounds. Black, go with Lupin. Potter, go with Mr. Weasley, Mckinnon with Shacklebolt. Evans to the Astronomy Tower, Meadows, go to Gryffindor. Longbottom, you'll be with Neville and Sprout." Next to her Kingsley nodded in agreement.

"Jones, Dye, you'll join Alexa's group," he added. She nodded at them as they joined her ranks. There were so many people seeping into her army, her friends, that she didn't recognize. Jones, Dye. They were her responsibility. How many of the others would die? How many of their names would she never know?

She watched as they all moved to their new positions, the professors adding people and gathering the students who had stayed, a strange sort of fear bubbling in her stomach. How many of them wouldn't see the dawn? She looked from face to face, her eyes catching Theodore's. He and Blaise were standing together, looking up at her where she stood, elevated above them. She could see the same fear mirrored in their eyes. This was going to be one hell of a fight.

"Move out!" Kingsley called.

She hopped off the platform, nodding to Bones, and fell into pace with Lupin, Kingsley and Arthur Weasley, her group following behind her in a straight line throughout the flurry of people and bodies around them, except for the Order members who didn't seem to get the memo and were up front side by side.

"We need to set a perimeter," Kingsley said, as they strode through the castle and out the great oak doors.

"The lake covers the South, We're weakest from the North and the West. The forest in the East provides a boundary, they won't come from that side, they'd have to go through it," Alexa established, "That doesn't mean we should ignore it, however."

Lupin nodded, "I know the Forest. I can take my group to cover the East."

"Then go there, Alexa and I will take the North, that will be where the heaviest attack will come through. Arthur, go to the West, but keep an eye open. Good luck," he raised his voice, surveying the entire ensemble, "We will see each other again." And they divided, Arthur and Lupin breaking off. But before they did, Lupin hesitated, surveying them.

"As your former teacher, I just want you to know I'm proud of you all. And as your compatriot in this fight, I'm proud to stand with you. Be careful."

"You too professor," Theo replied, and Alexa gave Lupin a nod.

"Alright Bones let's go!" she yelled.

"At least it's a nice night for it," Zechariah said, as they marched their way to the North.

Parvati snorted, "That's what really matters," she rolled her eyes.

Jones, a man who wasn't young but wasn't quite middle aged, rolled his eyes as well, scoffing at the teenagers in front of him. Dye, a positively Amazonian woman with a shock of white blond hair, gave him a sharp look and Jones only shrugged.

"Bones?" Jones asked, eyebrow raised.

"We named our contubernium after original order members," Alexa replied.

"A history buff, are you? Fancy yourself Roman?" Jones sneered, glancing at her sword.

Alexa didn't bother to slow her pace, "I'm a demigod," she replied, "I am Roman. If you have a problem with that I can reassign you somewhere else." Dye snickered, and Jones went white.

She and Kingsley spaced their groups out evenly in front of the castle. Alexa stood next to him, Theo on her other side, and together they waited. She could hear her friends speaking, murmuring in the darkness. Every few minutes Theo would pull out his pocket watch and check the time.

"Five minutes," he said. His voice sounded too loud after the silence that hung thick in the air like spoiled cream.

"If we need to retreat," Alexa said, looking to Kinglsey, "Lead them. I'll get the rear, I can get in no matter what."

Kingsley nodded, "Agreed."

They turned back to the vigil, eyes straining to look at the gate, to see through the darkness. Alexa's eyes were keener than the mortals, and she was the first to spot them.

"They're here." Was all she said. She drew her sword in her left hand, her wand held firm in her right. She could see the black cloaks surging forward.

Beside her her comrades gripped their wands tighter.

"It will take them a while to get through the wards," Kingsley said.

"One minute," Theo added.

"Adjuva nos, Mars," she whispered. Theo glanced at her, something soft in his eyes. But he only nodded once and turned back towards the gate.