Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the plot.
A Candle in the Dark.
Chapter 14: The Battle.
After leaving the DA room, Harry, Ron and Hermione headed towards Dumbledore's office to tell him about the DA keeping watch. They entered Dumbledore's office to see Dumbledore's sitting at his desk. The old man looked up,
"What can I do for you Harry?" Harry explained his plan to Dumbledore, Dumbledore nodded.
"That would be very useful Harry, I admit I forget about guards, thank you." Harry bowed to Dumbledore and strode out of the room.
Harry, Ron and Hermione returned to the Gryffindor common room and Ron and Hermione, too worried and tired to talk, went straight to their dorms and fell asleep. Harry, however, stayed up, drawing up a guard duty roster. Half the DA would be on duty for two hours at a time, then, when the two hours were up; the other half of the DA would take over. When the roster was completed
Harry woke up at eight o'clock, as it was saturday there were no lessons. The three of them left the common room and proceeded down into the Entrance Hall. Waiting at the bottom of the steps was the entire DA. Harry quickly told them about the roster. He read out the ten people who were to be lookouts first. They would be working in pairs and they would be placed at five strategic places around the school, one pair looking east, one pair looking north, one pair looking south, one pair looking west and one pair standing outside the door to the Entrance Hall so they could run and get Dumbledore.
"Have you had breakfast?" All ten of them shook their heads.
"Go and have something to eat, then." Said Harry. They nodded and ran off into the Great Hall. As the rest off them followed them, more slowly, Hermione and Cho came up to Harry looking worried.
"Harry, can we have a word with you? Privately?" asked Hermione tentatively. Harry nodded and followed them, wondering what they wanted.
"Harry," said Hermione when they were out of earshot of the others, "I'm sure you've thought about this and we have but I don't think the others have thought about it, won't the Death Eaters just fire Avada Kedavra at us, as it can't be blocked they could end the battle in just five minutes, and we would all be dead." Hermione's voice became hysterical at the end with panic and fear. Harry sighed, he had thought about this problem.
"I don't know what to do, I'll ask Dumbledore about it." Said Harry.
"What's there to ask about? There's nothing we can do about it." demanded Cho harshly. Hermione looked at her, astonished at her harshness. Harry however knew it was because she was worried about him.
"I don't know, maybe Dumbledore has a plan." He said wearily. Cho regretted being so harsh to him.
"I'm sorry, I'm just worried about you." She said sadly.
"I know, it's all right." Harry held out his arms to her. He hugged her briefly before walking into the Great Hall. He proceeded straight to where Dumbledore was sitting. The old man looked up at him and smiled.
"How can I help you Harry?" Harry wasted know time in telling him the problem. To Harry's amazement and slight relief there was still a twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes,
"As unbelievable as it may seem, only a very few Death Eaters know how to perform the killing curse, those who are closest to Voldemort. Out of the two thousand that will arrive tomorrow only about fifteen to twenty will actually be able to cast the spell." Harry felt a wave of relief flood through him.
"Then how will the rest of them kill us?"
"The same way we will, overwhelm them with spells that hurt, hurt them till they die from the sheer pain." Harry nodded. He was barely able to stop himself from running over to the Ravenclaw table. He walked to over where Cho was sitting with her back to him. He knelt down and put his arms around her waist. Ignoring the glances they were getting from the rest of they hall Cho turned her head to look at him. Harry put his mouth beside her ear and said very quietly so that only she could hear him.
"It's alright, only about twenty of the Death Eaters will be able to perform the killing curse." Cho beamed at him and threw her arms around his neck and nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck. Harry smiled down at her, love filling the startling green eyes of his.
Roger Davies stared at the pair, deepest loathing on his face. Suddenly he could stand it no longer. He took out his wand, jumped up and sent three slashing spells at Harry. Two hit him on the shoulder and one hit him on the cheek. Every member of the DA jumped and pointed their wand at Davies. To their astonishment Harry waved them down.
"Jealousy will get you nowhere Davies." Said Harry, his voice calm yet dangerous.
"Who says I jealous?" growled Davies, his voice barely above a whisper, but in the silence everybody could hear it.
"I do." Said Harry.
"What do you know? You know nothing."
"I know nothing, huh? I'll tell you what I do know, I know how to curse you from here to next year."
"We'll see." Said Davies. With that he unleashed a torrent of spells on Harry. Calmly, almost lazily, Harry sent up an advance shield charm. The spells bounced uselessly off of it and rebounded towards Davies who was forced to drop to the floor. As Davies got to his feet Harry called out to him.
"Stop playing childish games and fight like you intend to hurt." Davies swore at him and let of another stream of curses. Again Harry deflected them. The duel continued, Harry was constantly moving, never in the same place long enough to be hit, taunting Davies, mocking him. Whilst he was picking himself off of the floor for the fifth time Davies smiled to himself. He knew just how to hurt Harry. He stood up and pointed his wand at him, but at the last second flicked it towards Cho and sent a curse that only dark wizards would know. Caught by surprise Cho had no time to get up a shield charm and was promptly hit by the curse, she let out a tiny 'oh!' of surprise before falling to the floor, a large gash on her stomach.
Harry watched all this in horror. Eventually hatred overtook surprise,
"DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH? 'COS YOU'VE JUST SIGNED YOUR OWN DEATH WARRANT!" He roared at Davies. He then produced a spell so powerful that the people who were about a metre and a half away from him felt their hair stand on end as it sped pass them. Davies was struck by the spell and was flung thirty metres across the room and hit the opposite wall. His arm was broken by the impact. He tried to get up but found he couldn't; Harry had one foot on his chest and his wand was pointing at Davies's heart.
"Give me a reason to and I swear I will kill you." Harry said, then he felt hands pull him off of Davies and he saw Professor Dumbledore and several of the teachers standing there. Dumbledore alone looked calm, but the rest of the teachers looked furious.
"I suggest you come along to my office Harry. You too Mr Davies." Said Dumbledore.
"No." answered Harry shortly, and with that he pushed passed them and ran over to Cho. He knelt down by her side. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was shallow. Harry performed the healing charm on her, it didn't work, he tried again, nothing. He sprinted back to where Davies was lying, he shoved aside Professors McGonagall and Flitwick, grabbed Davies by the collar and shoved him up against the wall.
"What have you done to her?" he demanded angrily. Davies whimpered in terror.
"Harry, calm down. Madam Pomfrey will sort her out." Dumbledore said kindly, suddenly Harry felt tired, he was tired of all this hate, all this pain, all this war, all this fear. He let Davies drop and strode out of the Great Hall. Ron and Hermione jumped up and followed him. They caught up with him outside in the grounds. Hermione healed Harry's cuts in an instance.
"The last thing you need right now is a lecture from me, but if you want to talk Ron and I will always be here for you." Ron nodded in agreement.
"Always here." He repeated. They turned and walked away from Harry, leaving him deep in thought.
At nine o'clock that night Harry hurried along to the hospital wing. He entered the room and saw Cho sitting up reading a book. Harry breathed a sigh of relief before grinning.
"Typical Ravenclaw, never could pass up an opportunity to read." Cho smiled up at him. She put down the book and he sat on the end of the bed.
"How are you?" He asked.
"I'm fine, Madam Pomfrey wants me to stay in case there are any after effects of the spell. I'm allowed out at eight o'clock tomorrow morning." They spent another hour talking before Harry stood up to leave.
"No! Don't go, we may not be alive after tomorrow, I need to spend as much time with you as I can." Harry nodded, he flicked his wand and suddenly he was wearing his pyjamas. Cho smiled as he got into bed with her. He wrapped his arms around her and she lay down facing him, her face in the crook of his neck. Harry rested his chin on the top of her head.
And that was how Professor Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey found them the next morning. Madam Pomfrey let out a gasp and Dumbledore had an amused twinkle in his eyes.
Harry woke up and saw Madam Pomfrey looking horrified and Dumbledore smiling at them. He cursed under his breath, how was he going to explain this.
"It's not what it looks like, we just needed to be together." Dumbledore let out a small chuckle.
"Don't worry, Mr Potter, I believe you." Cho woke up and pressed closer to Harry.
"Love you." She murmured as she woke up, she looked up and blushed when she saw Dumbledore. At that point Ron and Hermione ran into the hospital wing.
"Harry there- HOLY COW!" yelled Ron when he caught sight of Harry.
"Ron calm down, nothing happened!" exclaimed Harry loudly.
"So you didn't, you know,"
"No." said Harry firmly.
"Phew," said Ron looking thoroughly relieved, "I'm too young to be a godfather." Harry and Cho got up and half an hour later were down in the Great Hall eating breakfast. Harry looked at his watch, nine o'clock, he decided that he should get the ten members who were on lookout duty. He ate the rest of his breakfast quickly, then went and got everyone.
Harry and Hermione were standing out in the grounds by the doors of the entrance hall, ready to go get Dumbledore if they saw red or blue sparks.
"Harry," began Hermione tentatively, "Why didn't you come and tell me or Ron you were going to spend the night with Cho?" Harry thought about this.
"Because I wasn't sure what your reaction would be, I didn't know if you would try to stop me." Hermione looked shocked and a little hurt,
"What you and Cho do is none of my business, I have no right to stop you from spending the night with her. I don't lecture you about everything." She said defensively.
"Calm down. It wasn't only that, Cho didn't want me to leave her."
"But you would have done, wouldn't you, if she asked you to." Said Hermione after a minutes silence,
"What, left her?" said Harry, Hermione blushed and looked away.
"You know that's not what I meant."
"Yes, I would have." Said Harry finally, blushing deeply. There was an embarrassed silence.
Justin Finch-Fletchley and Hannah Abbott were looking towards the east, keeping an eye out for any signs of someone apparating.
Suddenly a black dot appeared about two miles away, then more followed. Soon there were about five hundred and more were arriving every second.
"Hannah!" he exclaimed. She turned round and gasped,
"Quick, send up the blue sparks!" Justin thrust his wand into the air, but he hesitated, if he did it then there would be no going back, for a moment he was tempted to ignore it, as if it would go away, suddenly his head cleared and he hesitated no longer. A stream of blue sparks erupted from his wand. This was it, the army of hell had arrived.
"Harry." Said Hermione quietly. Harry looked to where she was looking and swore. Red sparks could be seen from where Padma and Parvati Patil were.
"C'mon, let's go get Dumbledore." He said. They turned and ran towards the Great Hall. Harry threw open the double doors, a loud crash filled the Great Hall. Everyone fell silent. Harry looked directly at Dumbledore.
"It's begun, Voldemort's army has arrived." The entire hall erupted in screams of horror. Dumbledore silenced them with several large, orange firecrackers from his wand.
"Where?"
"The east." Answered Harry promptly.
"Harry, take your soldiers outside, the Aurors will be joining you shortly." He said, Harry nodded. He surveyed the Great Hall.
"Let's go." He said, the remaining members stood up, said the incantation to change into their DA robes and followed Harry out of the hall.
Five minutes later the DA were gathered where Justin Finch-Fletchley and Hannah Abbott were. By now most, if not all, of Voldemort's army had arrived.
"Let's send them a welcoming message." Growled Harry. He thrust his wand into the air and muttered a few words. A second later emerald green letters began forming, the slowly formed words. The message read,
GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM, VOLDEMORT, HELL, AND TAKE YOUR PITIFUL EXCUSE FOR AN ARMY WITH YOU.
FROM HARRY POTTER AND THE DA.
A couple of minutes later similar words formed, this time in deepest black.
DON'T GET CONFIDENT, POTTER, BEFORE THE DAY IS OUT YOU AND THAT OLD FOOL DUMBLEDORE WILL BE DEAD AND HOGWARTS WILL BE DESTROYED.
Harry grinned when he saw that, he thrust his arm into the air and said a few more words. Again emerald green letters appeared in the air.
WAKE UP VOLDEMORT, YOU'RE DREAMING. Even if they were only words everyone could tell that they were filled with scorn. The DA looked at Harry in admiration, and suddenly they all felt confident, this was the Harry Potter that was going to lead them to victory, this was the Harry Potter that would eventually kill Voldemort.
Harry smiled to himself, He noticed Hagrid walking towards them, but to Harry's surprise, Hagrid was carrying his crossbow and an arrow bag with about thirty quarrels in it. As well as that he had a large sword in a scabbard by his side and a large, round shield slung on his back. He also had a helmet on his head.
"What's that?" asked Ron curiously when Hagrid arrived. Hagrid gave a low chuckle.
"It's me battle gear ain' it. As I can' do magic and I'm gonna fight then I 'ave to use me battle gear." Hagrid drew the sword. It was about a metre and a half long and about seven centimetres wide. "Fines' giant forged sword, admittedly it's more of a short sword to them but it will do as a long sword fine fer me," he swung the shield off of his back, it was a metre in diameter and had an orange phoenix in the middle. "Goblin forged, this," Hagrid patted the shied, " same wi' this helmet." Hagrid leaned down and whispered to Harry, "Dumbledore got me this stuff when I joined the Order." Hagrid stood up again.
"I'd rather jus' use me crossbow, I 'ave to get close to use me sword an' spells are more likely to affect me the closer I am, but eventually the arrows are gonna run out." Hermione looked thoughtful for a minute.
"Give me your arrow bag." She said. Hagrid looked surprised but handed it over anyway. Hermione performed a tricky little charm. The quarrels glowed blue for an instant and then resumed their normal colour.
"That was an infinity charm," she said as she gave Hagrid the arrow bag, "for the next four hours you won't run out of quarrels." Hagrid looked extremely grateful. They all looked over to the east. The black dots seemed to be moving into a formation.
"Be another hour yet." Said Hagrid quietly, he looked sideways at Harry, "you fightin' then?"
"Yeah."
"Yer Dad and Sirius would be extremely proud if they could see you now." Someone gave a shout and Harry spun round, several hundred black robed men were running towards them. Hagrid's crossbow came up into his shoulder and Harry raised his wand. Where the hell were the Aurors?
"Easy, we're Aurors." Said one man, Harry recognised him as Stilas Rackon. Harry then noticed the scarlet line, a few centimetres wide, running from the right shoulder down to the waist. The rest of the Aurors arrived and began forming a long line about two or three ranks deep. Harry noticed with a jolt of horror that they were in the centre, they were going to be in the thickest of the fighting. Half an hour later another group of people arrived, dressed in blue robes with an orange phoenix above their heart. Harry recognised these people as the Order of the Phoenix. Amongst the Order of the Phoenix were the teachers. This was it, Harry thought, this was the army that would send Voldemort back to hell or die trying.
"Where is Harry Potter?" Harry heard someone call out. Harry sent up a stream of green sparks. The entire Order ran towards him. Harry soon found himself standing next to Lupin.
"Hi Moony."
"Hello Harry, how are you?"
"Fine now but I dunno how I'll be in an hour." Lupin gave a short laugh.
"No-one does Harry, whether they're in a battle or not." Suddenly someone gave a shout, the mass of black clad people were slowly moving towards them.
"Stay alive, Moony." Said Harry simply.
"You too Harry." Harry turned to the DA.
"Let's give them hell. Because that's what they deserve. This is going to be a battle like the ones told in legends, the battle of good against evil. So let's make this battle legendary." A loud cheer went up after this and not only from the DA.
The Death Eaters slowly advanced and soon there was only about two hundred and fifty metres between the two armies. With only two hundred metres between them the Death Eaters stopped. There was silence for a few minutes then,
"Kill them all." Said a high-pitched voice that could be none other then Voldemort. Then the spells flew.
At least thirty Death Eaters were killed in the first minute. The air was filled with screams of pain and anger, beams of light were flying everywhere, Harry stunned a Death Eater as he led the DA to the left flank, where the Aurors were most hard pressed, Harry saw a Death Eater fall to the ground in a spray of blood, a quarrel in his throat. He spun round to see Hagrid following them, and instantly regretted doing so, he felt a burning pain on his left shoulder. A deep cut had formed there. Another spell flew towards him but he deflected it.
The battle had only been raging for a few minutes and already the Aurors on the left were about to break. As he got closer he saw that Bellatrix Lestrange was leading the Death Eaters, hatred as he had never known before filled him and he growled to the DA
"Lestrange is mine." He opened his mouth to slasio her throat, Harry knew that doing so would kill her, but before he could the Aurors turned and fled.
"Bastards," growled Ron, "Bastards have taken a bribe."
Harry heard Bellatrix give a triumphant scream and he sprinted towards her. The DA stopped between the Death Eaters and the fleeing Aurors. They turned to face the triumphant Death Eaters. Harry thrust his arm into the air whilst the DA tried to stem the rapid flow of Death Eaters, a fountain of green sparks erupted from his wand. The fleeing Aurors turned round and saw Harry Potter standing there looking defiant as hell while his troops fought off a third of the enemy army. The sight installed a new courage in them and they gave a hearty cheer and sped towards the enemy army. By the time they arrived several of the DA were on the floor but not one was dead. As the Aurors sprinted past them Harry, Hermione, Parvati, Padma and Lavender went round healing the injured DA members.
Suddenly Harry spotted Bellatrix duelling with an Auror. Taking careful aim, he aimed at her throat and sent a slashing curse at her. Harry watched the curse speed through the air and strike Bellatrix in the throat. Time seemed to slow down for him, he watched her slump to her knees, her hand clutching her throat. She choked once, twice and then fell to the ground dead.
The Death Eaters paused, confused, their leader had fallen, the Aurors took advantage of their confusion and pushed harder, Harry ducked as two jets of light sped towards him, out of the corner of his eye he saw Parvati fall to the ground a large gash forming on her stomach.
"Ginny!" He yelled, Ginny sprinted up alongside him, "Parvati" She nodded and ran to heal her, Harry turned around and saw Anthony Goldstein and Terry Boot lying on the floor.
"Drop!" He yelled, "drop!" The DA did so and Harry crawled on his stomach over to where Hermione and Ron were lying, spells flying overhead and screams of pain echoing in his ears. Hermione was pale and Ron was sweating heavily, but both looked determined.
"Listen," he said urgently, "I can't be everywhere at once, I can't see everywhere at once, you are my lieutenants, if you see anyone get injured get someone to help them, ok?" They nodded. Harry jumped to his feet and led the DA towards the enemy, they had only been fighting for a few more minutes when the Death Eaters broke, it happened incredibly quickly, one minute both sides were firing spells at each other and then the next the Death Eaters were fleeing in panic. Most fled towards the centre where the fighting was thickest but a few fled towards where they had arrived. The remaining Aurors, about two hundred, gave a cheer and began pursuing the Death Eaters who were fleeing towards the centre. Harry waited to allow the DA a chance to rest; suddenly Ron gave a shout of alarm,
"They're breaking, they're bloody breaking!" Sure enough in the centre, the Aurors were being forced back further and further, they were just about to break and Harry was just about to lead the DA to help when he saw a large group of the Order and Aurors, led by Dumbledore, McGonagall and Rackon sprint towards the centre. Harry alone knew that had the reinforcements led by Dumbledore arrive a few minutes later the battle would be lost as Voldemort would have placed most of his best troops in the centre and they would have quickly overrun the flanks and then Hogwarts. Harry breathed a sigh of relief. The battle had been raging for just over half an hour and they had already come extremely close to total defeat.
Harry led the battle-weary DA towards the centre. He then saw something that made him speed up dramatically. Hagrid was on his own surrounded by Death Eaters who were two or three ranks deep. His crossbow had obviously been broken as he had his shield on his left arm and was swinging his sword in great arcs that cut down two people in every swing, but for every Death Eater that fell five more took their place. Harry watched two Death Eaters be completely beheaded by Hagrid; they swayed for a full minute before falling to the ground. Harry ducked two jets of light that were speeding towards him but didn't stop running
Harry could tell that Hagrid wouldn't be able to hold out much longer, more than half the spells that hit him were doing damage and the sword swings lacked the power that they had a few minutes ago. The DA fired spells at some of the Death Eaters that surrounded Hagrid, they managed to get past and then they rallied around Hagrid and helped fight the remaining Death Eaters that surrounded them.
"Repairo." Said Hermione pointing her wand at the broken crossbow at Hagrid's feet. Hagrid sheathed his sword, slung his shield onto his back and picked up the crossbow. He loaded it in less than ten seconds, a job that would have taken an ordinary human five minutes, and fired at a Death Eater, the man was snatched backwards by the force of the quarrel in a shower of blood.
Soon the DA and Hagrid were fighting for desperately, fighting for their lives. They were completely surrounded and there was no way out. The DA were beginning to tire severely, their reactions were slower. They were beginning to take casualties. Pretty soon less than half of them were still fighting. Both Lavender Brown and Ginny Weasley were bleeding heavily and Harry was sure that if they didn't break out soon then they would die. If they didn't break out soon then they would all die.
Then he knew what to do, he thrust his arm into the air and fired a stream of green sparks into the air. By doing this he attracted the attention of most of the Death Eaters surrounding them, most of their spells were directed at him. Ron and Hermione stepped in front of him to protect him. They defended him for a few seconds before Ron fell to the ground unconscious, Michael Corner took his place.
Lupin and several other members of the Order were fighting alongside several Aurors in the centre, about fifty metres to the right of Harry. He glanced to the left and his eyes widened in horror when he saw the green sparks surrounded by Death Eaters.
"Harry's in trouble!" He yelled. He led thirty Aurors and twenty members of the Order to Harry's aid. The Death Eaters were unprepared for this sudden counterattack. As they turned to fight the Aurors and the members of the Order, Harry and the remaining five members of the DA of the DA healed and revived the other fifteen members of the DA. When everyone was healed they darted forward and attacked the Death Eaters who were fighting Lupin and the members of the Order and the Aurors. Caught between two groups the Death Eaters were quickly killed or injured. Seeing that Harry was safe, Lupin led the people that had come to Harry's aid back to the main battle.
However Harry didn't follow. He had put it off enough, he had to go and look for Voldemort. He scanned the battlefield, both sides were locked in vicious combat and there were spells flying everywhere. Hagrid and a small group of the Order were fighting a larger group of Death Eaters lead by an unmasked Dolohov. Harry was about to lead the DA to their aid but he saw a group of Aurors, led by Moody, already sprinting towards them, jets of light flying out of their wands. Harry turned to the DA,
"I'm going to look for Voldemort, if you want go and join Lupin, tell him I'm off to look for Voldemort." Nobody moved, Harry started to lead them towards the thickest of the fighting; they had only been running for a few minutes before Harry felt something hit his right leg, he stumbled. He could feel blood against his robes. He turned and saw a group of about fifty Death Eaters led by Lucius Malfoy running towards them. Luna, Cho and Terry Boot were lying on the floor. The DA turned and met the attack of the Death Eaters with anger and deadly enthusiasm. Lucius headed straight for Harry.
Lucius sent a killing curse at Harry, Harry knew that he was fighting a lethal enemy. He threw himself to the right and fired a stunning spell as he did so. Malfoy blocked it with ease and responded by unleashing a barrage of slashing and stunning spells at Harry's head, Harry dropped to the floor and responded with some slashing spells. To his immense satisfaction all of them hit and Malfoy bore three deep cuts.
"You'll pay for that Potter."
"Can't, don't have any money on me." Harry retorted. He opened his mouth to let loose another load of spells but before he could he felt his wand fly out of his hand and, he looked to his left and he saw a Death Eater standing there, his wand pointed at Harry. Ron promptly stunned the Death Eater and then cut his throat using slasio. Malfoy smirked at Harry and opened his mouth,
"Avada-" but he didn't finish, in his side was a crossbow quarrel, he choked up some blood and fell to his knees, he choked up more blood, looked at Harry in surprise and slumped to the ground.
Harry didn't bother checking whether he was dead, he looked to his right, where the bolt had come from, Hagrid, Lupin, Arthur and Molly Weasley and another ten members of the Order running towards them. Disregarding this Harry turned to the battle between the DA and the Death Eaters, the DA were fighting valiantly. Less then thirty Death Eaters were still fighting whereas only five more DA members had been injured, He ran over to where Ron and Hermione were fighting four Death Eaters, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott and Zacharias Smith were particularly hard pressed on their left.
"Go help Smith and that lot over there." He barked to them, jerking his head to the left. Knowing that this was not the time to argue. Ron and Hermione ran towards Smith.
"Think you can take us on alone Potter?" sneered one of the four who had been fighting Ron and Hermione.
"No," answered Harry, "I think I can kill you alone." Expecting to beat Harry easily one of the Death Eaters fired a simple stunning spell at him. Harry blocked it easily, not expecting Harry to block it the Death Eater was too surprised to get up a shield charm, he dropped to the ground unconscious. Harry quickly used slasio on his throat, killing him. The other three, astonished by the speed and the efficiency with which Harry killed their companion were more vicious, they tried to overwhelm him with spells, Harry immediately produced an advanced shield charm and threw himself to the right where he unleashed his own barrage of spells. When the beams of light had all disappeared, Harry saw that one of the Death Eaters was lying on the floor badly injured and the other two had fled. He immediately ran to join Ron and Hermione.
The members of the Order smacked into the Death Eaters right and a quick exchange of spells followed with the Order and the DA forcing the Death Eaters back. The fight only lasted a few more minutes before the Death Eaters, already disheartened by the injury of their leader, which put him out of the fight, fled in panic. Before Harry could stop him one of the Death Eaters grabbed Malfoy and fled after him his comrades
The DA and the Order were just about to rejoin the main battle when a great cheer went up. Harry turned quickly and saw the remaining Death Eaters fleeing in panic, the victorious Aurors and remaining members of the Order, led by Dumbledore, pursuing them. The Battle for Hogwarts was over, they had won.
The darkest forces that hell could muster had been unleashed upon them and the DA had stood tall, fought hard and had been found worthy of fighting them.
A/N I hope the battle lived up to your expectations, let me know if it did or didn't. I know it was a bit of an abrupt ending, all will be explained in the next chapter. That will definitely not be the last battle in the trilogy. In your reviews let me know if I should kill Lucius Malfoy. Right now he is only wounded. This was the second to last chapter in this fic, the final one will be up soon.
I know I called a few Death Eaters 'leader' this is not because I'm forgetting that Voldemort leads the Death Eaters, it's because Voldemort is like the General, Malfoy, for example, is like a major or a captain, it's the majors and captains that actually lead the troops in battle.
A Candle in the Dark.
Chapter 14: The Battle.
After leaving the DA room, Harry, Ron and Hermione headed towards Dumbledore's office to tell him about the DA keeping watch. They entered Dumbledore's office to see Dumbledore's sitting at his desk. The old man looked up,
"What can I do for you Harry?" Harry explained his plan to Dumbledore, Dumbledore nodded.
"That would be very useful Harry, I admit I forget about guards, thank you." Harry bowed to Dumbledore and strode out of the room.
Harry, Ron and Hermione returned to the Gryffindor common room and Ron and Hermione, too worried and tired to talk, went straight to their dorms and fell asleep. Harry, however, stayed up, drawing up a guard duty roster. Half the DA would be on duty for two hours at a time, then, when the two hours were up; the other half of the DA would take over. When the roster was completed
Harry woke up at eight o'clock, as it was saturday there were no lessons. The three of them left the common room and proceeded down into the Entrance Hall. Waiting at the bottom of the steps was the entire DA. Harry quickly told them about the roster. He read out the ten people who were to be lookouts first. They would be working in pairs and they would be placed at five strategic places around the school, one pair looking east, one pair looking north, one pair looking south, one pair looking west and one pair standing outside the door to the Entrance Hall so they could run and get Dumbledore.
"Have you had breakfast?" All ten of them shook their heads.
"Go and have something to eat, then." Said Harry. They nodded and ran off into the Great Hall. As the rest off them followed them, more slowly, Hermione and Cho came up to Harry looking worried.
"Harry, can we have a word with you? Privately?" asked Hermione tentatively. Harry nodded and followed them, wondering what they wanted.
"Harry," said Hermione when they were out of earshot of the others, "I'm sure you've thought about this and we have but I don't think the others have thought about it, won't the Death Eaters just fire Avada Kedavra at us, as it can't be blocked they could end the battle in just five minutes, and we would all be dead." Hermione's voice became hysterical at the end with panic and fear. Harry sighed, he had thought about this problem.
"I don't know what to do, I'll ask Dumbledore about it." Said Harry.
"What's there to ask about? There's nothing we can do about it." demanded Cho harshly. Hermione looked at her, astonished at her harshness. Harry however knew it was because she was worried about him.
"I don't know, maybe Dumbledore has a plan." He said wearily. Cho regretted being so harsh to him.
"I'm sorry, I'm just worried about you." She said sadly.
"I know, it's all right." Harry held out his arms to her. He hugged her briefly before walking into the Great Hall. He proceeded straight to where Dumbledore was sitting. The old man looked up at him and smiled.
"How can I help you Harry?" Harry wasted know time in telling him the problem. To Harry's amazement and slight relief there was still a twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes,
"As unbelievable as it may seem, only a very few Death Eaters know how to perform the killing curse, those who are closest to Voldemort. Out of the two thousand that will arrive tomorrow only about fifteen to twenty will actually be able to cast the spell." Harry felt a wave of relief flood through him.
"Then how will the rest of them kill us?"
"The same way we will, overwhelm them with spells that hurt, hurt them till they die from the sheer pain." Harry nodded. He was barely able to stop himself from running over to the Ravenclaw table. He walked to over where Cho was sitting with her back to him. He knelt down and put his arms around her waist. Ignoring the glances they were getting from the rest of they hall Cho turned her head to look at him. Harry put his mouth beside her ear and said very quietly so that only she could hear him.
"It's alright, only about twenty of the Death Eaters will be able to perform the killing curse." Cho beamed at him and threw her arms around his neck and nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck. Harry smiled down at her, love filling the startling green eyes of his.
Roger Davies stared at the pair, deepest loathing on his face. Suddenly he could stand it no longer. He took out his wand, jumped up and sent three slashing spells at Harry. Two hit him on the shoulder and one hit him on the cheek. Every member of the DA jumped and pointed their wand at Davies. To their astonishment Harry waved them down.
"Jealousy will get you nowhere Davies." Said Harry, his voice calm yet dangerous.
"Who says I jealous?" growled Davies, his voice barely above a whisper, but in the silence everybody could hear it.
"I do." Said Harry.
"What do you know? You know nothing."
"I know nothing, huh? I'll tell you what I do know, I know how to curse you from here to next year."
"We'll see." Said Davies. With that he unleashed a torrent of spells on Harry. Calmly, almost lazily, Harry sent up an advance shield charm. The spells bounced uselessly off of it and rebounded towards Davies who was forced to drop to the floor. As Davies got to his feet Harry called out to him.
"Stop playing childish games and fight like you intend to hurt." Davies swore at him and let of another stream of curses. Again Harry deflected them. The duel continued, Harry was constantly moving, never in the same place long enough to be hit, taunting Davies, mocking him. Whilst he was picking himself off of the floor for the fifth time Davies smiled to himself. He knew just how to hurt Harry. He stood up and pointed his wand at him, but at the last second flicked it towards Cho and sent a curse that only dark wizards would know. Caught by surprise Cho had no time to get up a shield charm and was promptly hit by the curse, she let out a tiny 'oh!' of surprise before falling to the floor, a large gash on her stomach.
Harry watched all this in horror. Eventually hatred overtook surprise,
"DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH? 'COS YOU'VE JUST SIGNED YOUR OWN DEATH WARRANT!" He roared at Davies. He then produced a spell so powerful that the people who were about a metre and a half away from him felt their hair stand on end as it sped pass them. Davies was struck by the spell and was flung thirty metres across the room and hit the opposite wall. His arm was broken by the impact. He tried to get up but found he couldn't; Harry had one foot on his chest and his wand was pointing at Davies's heart.
"Give me a reason to and I swear I will kill you." Harry said, then he felt hands pull him off of Davies and he saw Professor Dumbledore and several of the teachers standing there. Dumbledore alone looked calm, but the rest of the teachers looked furious.
"I suggest you come along to my office Harry. You too Mr Davies." Said Dumbledore.
"No." answered Harry shortly, and with that he pushed passed them and ran over to Cho. He knelt down by her side. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was shallow. Harry performed the healing charm on her, it didn't work, he tried again, nothing. He sprinted back to where Davies was lying, he shoved aside Professors McGonagall and Flitwick, grabbed Davies by the collar and shoved him up against the wall.
"What have you done to her?" he demanded angrily. Davies whimpered in terror.
"Harry, calm down. Madam Pomfrey will sort her out." Dumbledore said kindly, suddenly Harry felt tired, he was tired of all this hate, all this pain, all this war, all this fear. He let Davies drop and strode out of the Great Hall. Ron and Hermione jumped up and followed him. They caught up with him outside in the grounds. Hermione healed Harry's cuts in an instance.
"The last thing you need right now is a lecture from me, but if you want to talk Ron and I will always be here for you." Ron nodded in agreement.
"Always here." He repeated. They turned and walked away from Harry, leaving him deep in thought.
At nine o'clock that night Harry hurried along to the hospital wing. He entered the room and saw Cho sitting up reading a book. Harry breathed a sigh of relief before grinning.
"Typical Ravenclaw, never could pass up an opportunity to read." Cho smiled up at him. She put down the book and he sat on the end of the bed.
"How are you?" He asked.
"I'm fine, Madam Pomfrey wants me to stay in case there are any after effects of the spell. I'm allowed out at eight o'clock tomorrow morning." They spent another hour talking before Harry stood up to leave.
"No! Don't go, we may not be alive after tomorrow, I need to spend as much time with you as I can." Harry nodded, he flicked his wand and suddenly he was wearing his pyjamas. Cho smiled as he got into bed with her. He wrapped his arms around her and she lay down facing him, her face in the crook of his neck. Harry rested his chin on the top of her head.
And that was how Professor Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey found them the next morning. Madam Pomfrey let out a gasp and Dumbledore had an amused twinkle in his eyes.
Harry woke up and saw Madam Pomfrey looking horrified and Dumbledore smiling at them. He cursed under his breath, how was he going to explain this.
"It's not what it looks like, we just needed to be together." Dumbledore let out a small chuckle.
"Don't worry, Mr Potter, I believe you." Cho woke up and pressed closer to Harry.
"Love you." She murmured as she woke up, she looked up and blushed when she saw Dumbledore. At that point Ron and Hermione ran into the hospital wing.
"Harry there- HOLY COW!" yelled Ron when he caught sight of Harry.
"Ron calm down, nothing happened!" exclaimed Harry loudly.
"So you didn't, you know,"
"No." said Harry firmly.
"Phew," said Ron looking thoroughly relieved, "I'm too young to be a godfather." Harry and Cho got up and half an hour later were down in the Great Hall eating breakfast. Harry looked at his watch, nine o'clock, he decided that he should get the ten members who were on lookout duty. He ate the rest of his breakfast quickly, then went and got everyone.
Harry and Hermione were standing out in the grounds by the doors of the entrance hall, ready to go get Dumbledore if they saw red or blue sparks.
"Harry," began Hermione tentatively, "Why didn't you come and tell me or Ron you were going to spend the night with Cho?" Harry thought about this.
"Because I wasn't sure what your reaction would be, I didn't know if you would try to stop me." Hermione looked shocked and a little hurt,
"What you and Cho do is none of my business, I have no right to stop you from spending the night with her. I don't lecture you about everything." She said defensively.
"Calm down. It wasn't only that, Cho didn't want me to leave her."
"But you would have done, wouldn't you, if she asked you to." Said Hermione after a minutes silence,
"What, left her?" said Harry, Hermione blushed and looked away.
"You know that's not what I meant."
"Yes, I would have." Said Harry finally, blushing deeply. There was an embarrassed silence.
Justin Finch-Fletchley and Hannah Abbott were looking towards the east, keeping an eye out for any signs of someone apparating.
Suddenly a black dot appeared about two miles away, then more followed. Soon there were about five hundred and more were arriving every second.
"Hannah!" he exclaimed. She turned round and gasped,
"Quick, send up the blue sparks!" Justin thrust his wand into the air, but he hesitated, if he did it then there would be no going back, for a moment he was tempted to ignore it, as if it would go away, suddenly his head cleared and he hesitated no longer. A stream of blue sparks erupted from his wand. This was it, the army of hell had arrived.
"Harry." Said Hermione quietly. Harry looked to where she was looking and swore. Red sparks could be seen from where Padma and Parvati Patil were.
"C'mon, let's go get Dumbledore." He said. They turned and ran towards the Great Hall. Harry threw open the double doors, a loud crash filled the Great Hall. Everyone fell silent. Harry looked directly at Dumbledore.
"It's begun, Voldemort's army has arrived." The entire hall erupted in screams of horror. Dumbledore silenced them with several large, orange firecrackers from his wand.
"Where?"
"The east." Answered Harry promptly.
"Harry, take your soldiers outside, the Aurors will be joining you shortly." He said, Harry nodded. He surveyed the Great Hall.
"Let's go." He said, the remaining members stood up, said the incantation to change into their DA robes and followed Harry out of the hall.
Five minutes later the DA were gathered where Justin Finch-Fletchley and Hannah Abbott were. By now most, if not all, of Voldemort's army had arrived.
"Let's send them a welcoming message." Growled Harry. He thrust his wand into the air and muttered a few words. A second later emerald green letters began forming, the slowly formed words. The message read,
GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM, VOLDEMORT, HELL, AND TAKE YOUR PITIFUL EXCUSE FOR AN ARMY WITH YOU.
FROM HARRY POTTER AND THE DA.
A couple of minutes later similar words formed, this time in deepest black.
DON'T GET CONFIDENT, POTTER, BEFORE THE DAY IS OUT YOU AND THAT OLD FOOL DUMBLEDORE WILL BE DEAD AND HOGWARTS WILL BE DESTROYED.
Harry grinned when he saw that, he thrust his arm into the air and said a few more words. Again emerald green letters appeared in the air.
WAKE UP VOLDEMORT, YOU'RE DREAMING. Even if they were only words everyone could tell that they were filled with scorn. The DA looked at Harry in admiration, and suddenly they all felt confident, this was the Harry Potter that was going to lead them to victory, this was the Harry Potter that would eventually kill Voldemort.
Harry smiled to himself, He noticed Hagrid walking towards them, but to Harry's surprise, Hagrid was carrying his crossbow and an arrow bag with about thirty quarrels in it. As well as that he had a large sword in a scabbard by his side and a large, round shield slung on his back. He also had a helmet on his head.
"What's that?" asked Ron curiously when Hagrid arrived. Hagrid gave a low chuckle.
"It's me battle gear ain' it. As I can' do magic and I'm gonna fight then I 'ave to use me battle gear." Hagrid drew the sword. It was about a metre and a half long and about seven centimetres wide. "Fines' giant forged sword, admittedly it's more of a short sword to them but it will do as a long sword fine fer me," he swung the shield off of his back, it was a metre in diameter and had an orange phoenix in the middle. "Goblin forged, this," Hagrid patted the shied, " same wi' this helmet." Hagrid leaned down and whispered to Harry, "Dumbledore got me this stuff when I joined the Order." Hagrid stood up again.
"I'd rather jus' use me crossbow, I 'ave to get close to use me sword an' spells are more likely to affect me the closer I am, but eventually the arrows are gonna run out." Hermione looked thoughtful for a minute.
"Give me your arrow bag." She said. Hagrid looked surprised but handed it over anyway. Hermione performed a tricky little charm. The quarrels glowed blue for an instant and then resumed their normal colour.
"That was an infinity charm," she said as she gave Hagrid the arrow bag, "for the next four hours you won't run out of quarrels." Hagrid looked extremely grateful. They all looked over to the east. The black dots seemed to be moving into a formation.
"Be another hour yet." Said Hagrid quietly, he looked sideways at Harry, "you fightin' then?"
"Yeah."
"Yer Dad and Sirius would be extremely proud if they could see you now." Someone gave a shout and Harry spun round, several hundred black robed men were running towards them. Hagrid's crossbow came up into his shoulder and Harry raised his wand. Where the hell were the Aurors?
"Easy, we're Aurors." Said one man, Harry recognised him as Stilas Rackon. Harry then noticed the scarlet line, a few centimetres wide, running from the right shoulder down to the waist. The rest of the Aurors arrived and began forming a long line about two or three ranks deep. Harry noticed with a jolt of horror that they were in the centre, they were going to be in the thickest of the fighting. Half an hour later another group of people arrived, dressed in blue robes with an orange phoenix above their heart. Harry recognised these people as the Order of the Phoenix. Amongst the Order of the Phoenix were the teachers. This was it, Harry thought, this was the army that would send Voldemort back to hell or die trying.
"Where is Harry Potter?" Harry heard someone call out. Harry sent up a stream of green sparks. The entire Order ran towards him. Harry soon found himself standing next to Lupin.
"Hi Moony."
"Hello Harry, how are you?"
"Fine now but I dunno how I'll be in an hour." Lupin gave a short laugh.
"No-one does Harry, whether they're in a battle or not." Suddenly someone gave a shout, the mass of black clad people were slowly moving towards them.
"Stay alive, Moony." Said Harry simply.
"You too Harry." Harry turned to the DA.
"Let's give them hell. Because that's what they deserve. This is going to be a battle like the ones told in legends, the battle of good against evil. So let's make this battle legendary." A loud cheer went up after this and not only from the DA.
The Death Eaters slowly advanced and soon there was only about two hundred and fifty metres between the two armies. With only two hundred metres between them the Death Eaters stopped. There was silence for a few minutes then,
"Kill them all." Said a high-pitched voice that could be none other then Voldemort. Then the spells flew.
At least thirty Death Eaters were killed in the first minute. The air was filled with screams of pain and anger, beams of light were flying everywhere, Harry stunned a Death Eater as he led the DA to the left flank, where the Aurors were most hard pressed, Harry saw a Death Eater fall to the ground in a spray of blood, a quarrel in his throat. He spun round to see Hagrid following them, and instantly regretted doing so, he felt a burning pain on his left shoulder. A deep cut had formed there. Another spell flew towards him but he deflected it.
The battle had only been raging for a few minutes and already the Aurors on the left were about to break. As he got closer he saw that Bellatrix Lestrange was leading the Death Eaters, hatred as he had never known before filled him and he growled to the DA
"Lestrange is mine." He opened his mouth to slasio her throat, Harry knew that doing so would kill her, but before he could the Aurors turned and fled.
"Bastards," growled Ron, "Bastards have taken a bribe."
Harry heard Bellatrix give a triumphant scream and he sprinted towards her. The DA stopped between the Death Eaters and the fleeing Aurors. They turned to face the triumphant Death Eaters. Harry thrust his arm into the air whilst the DA tried to stem the rapid flow of Death Eaters, a fountain of green sparks erupted from his wand. The fleeing Aurors turned round and saw Harry Potter standing there looking defiant as hell while his troops fought off a third of the enemy army. The sight installed a new courage in them and they gave a hearty cheer and sped towards the enemy army. By the time they arrived several of the DA were on the floor but not one was dead. As the Aurors sprinted past them Harry, Hermione, Parvati, Padma and Lavender went round healing the injured DA members.
Suddenly Harry spotted Bellatrix duelling with an Auror. Taking careful aim, he aimed at her throat and sent a slashing curse at her. Harry watched the curse speed through the air and strike Bellatrix in the throat. Time seemed to slow down for him, he watched her slump to her knees, her hand clutching her throat. She choked once, twice and then fell to the ground dead.
The Death Eaters paused, confused, their leader had fallen, the Aurors took advantage of their confusion and pushed harder, Harry ducked as two jets of light sped towards him, out of the corner of his eye he saw Parvati fall to the ground a large gash forming on her stomach.
"Ginny!" He yelled, Ginny sprinted up alongside him, "Parvati" She nodded and ran to heal her, Harry turned around and saw Anthony Goldstein and Terry Boot lying on the floor.
"Drop!" He yelled, "drop!" The DA did so and Harry crawled on his stomach over to where Hermione and Ron were lying, spells flying overhead and screams of pain echoing in his ears. Hermione was pale and Ron was sweating heavily, but both looked determined.
"Listen," he said urgently, "I can't be everywhere at once, I can't see everywhere at once, you are my lieutenants, if you see anyone get injured get someone to help them, ok?" They nodded. Harry jumped to his feet and led the DA towards the enemy, they had only been fighting for a few more minutes when the Death Eaters broke, it happened incredibly quickly, one minute both sides were firing spells at each other and then the next the Death Eaters were fleeing in panic. Most fled towards the centre where the fighting was thickest but a few fled towards where they had arrived. The remaining Aurors, about two hundred, gave a cheer and began pursuing the Death Eaters who were fleeing towards the centre. Harry waited to allow the DA a chance to rest; suddenly Ron gave a shout of alarm,
"They're breaking, they're bloody breaking!" Sure enough in the centre, the Aurors were being forced back further and further, they were just about to break and Harry was just about to lead the DA to help when he saw a large group of the Order and Aurors, led by Dumbledore, McGonagall and Rackon sprint towards the centre. Harry alone knew that had the reinforcements led by Dumbledore arrive a few minutes later the battle would be lost as Voldemort would have placed most of his best troops in the centre and they would have quickly overrun the flanks and then Hogwarts. Harry breathed a sigh of relief. The battle had been raging for just over half an hour and they had already come extremely close to total defeat.
Harry led the battle-weary DA towards the centre. He then saw something that made him speed up dramatically. Hagrid was on his own surrounded by Death Eaters who were two or three ranks deep. His crossbow had obviously been broken as he had his shield on his left arm and was swinging his sword in great arcs that cut down two people in every swing, but for every Death Eater that fell five more took their place. Harry watched two Death Eaters be completely beheaded by Hagrid; they swayed for a full minute before falling to the ground. Harry ducked two jets of light that were speeding towards him but didn't stop running
Harry could tell that Hagrid wouldn't be able to hold out much longer, more than half the spells that hit him were doing damage and the sword swings lacked the power that they had a few minutes ago. The DA fired spells at some of the Death Eaters that surrounded Hagrid, they managed to get past and then they rallied around Hagrid and helped fight the remaining Death Eaters that surrounded them.
"Repairo." Said Hermione pointing her wand at the broken crossbow at Hagrid's feet. Hagrid sheathed his sword, slung his shield onto his back and picked up the crossbow. He loaded it in less than ten seconds, a job that would have taken an ordinary human five minutes, and fired at a Death Eater, the man was snatched backwards by the force of the quarrel in a shower of blood.
Soon the DA and Hagrid were fighting for desperately, fighting for their lives. They were completely surrounded and there was no way out. The DA were beginning to tire severely, their reactions were slower. They were beginning to take casualties. Pretty soon less than half of them were still fighting. Both Lavender Brown and Ginny Weasley were bleeding heavily and Harry was sure that if they didn't break out soon then they would die. If they didn't break out soon then they would all die.
Then he knew what to do, he thrust his arm into the air and fired a stream of green sparks into the air. By doing this he attracted the attention of most of the Death Eaters surrounding them, most of their spells were directed at him. Ron and Hermione stepped in front of him to protect him. They defended him for a few seconds before Ron fell to the ground unconscious, Michael Corner took his place.
Lupin and several other members of the Order were fighting alongside several Aurors in the centre, about fifty metres to the right of Harry. He glanced to the left and his eyes widened in horror when he saw the green sparks surrounded by Death Eaters.
"Harry's in trouble!" He yelled. He led thirty Aurors and twenty members of the Order to Harry's aid. The Death Eaters were unprepared for this sudden counterattack. As they turned to fight the Aurors and the members of the Order, Harry and the remaining five members of the DA of the DA healed and revived the other fifteen members of the DA. When everyone was healed they darted forward and attacked the Death Eaters who were fighting Lupin and the members of the Order and the Aurors. Caught between two groups the Death Eaters were quickly killed or injured. Seeing that Harry was safe, Lupin led the people that had come to Harry's aid back to the main battle.
However Harry didn't follow. He had put it off enough, he had to go and look for Voldemort. He scanned the battlefield, both sides were locked in vicious combat and there were spells flying everywhere. Hagrid and a small group of the Order were fighting a larger group of Death Eaters lead by an unmasked Dolohov. Harry was about to lead the DA to their aid but he saw a group of Aurors, led by Moody, already sprinting towards them, jets of light flying out of their wands. Harry turned to the DA,
"I'm going to look for Voldemort, if you want go and join Lupin, tell him I'm off to look for Voldemort." Nobody moved, Harry started to lead them towards the thickest of the fighting; they had only been running for a few minutes before Harry felt something hit his right leg, he stumbled. He could feel blood against his robes. He turned and saw a group of about fifty Death Eaters led by Lucius Malfoy running towards them. Luna, Cho and Terry Boot were lying on the floor. The DA turned and met the attack of the Death Eaters with anger and deadly enthusiasm. Lucius headed straight for Harry.
Lucius sent a killing curse at Harry, Harry knew that he was fighting a lethal enemy. He threw himself to the right and fired a stunning spell as he did so. Malfoy blocked it with ease and responded by unleashing a barrage of slashing and stunning spells at Harry's head, Harry dropped to the floor and responded with some slashing spells. To his immense satisfaction all of them hit and Malfoy bore three deep cuts.
"You'll pay for that Potter."
"Can't, don't have any money on me." Harry retorted. He opened his mouth to let loose another load of spells but before he could he felt his wand fly out of his hand and, he looked to his left and he saw a Death Eater standing there, his wand pointed at Harry. Ron promptly stunned the Death Eater and then cut his throat using slasio. Malfoy smirked at Harry and opened his mouth,
"Avada-" but he didn't finish, in his side was a crossbow quarrel, he choked up some blood and fell to his knees, he choked up more blood, looked at Harry in surprise and slumped to the ground.
Harry didn't bother checking whether he was dead, he looked to his right, where the bolt had come from, Hagrid, Lupin, Arthur and Molly Weasley and another ten members of the Order running towards them. Disregarding this Harry turned to the battle between the DA and the Death Eaters, the DA were fighting valiantly. Less then thirty Death Eaters were still fighting whereas only five more DA members had been injured, He ran over to where Ron and Hermione were fighting four Death Eaters, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott and Zacharias Smith were particularly hard pressed on their left.
"Go help Smith and that lot over there." He barked to them, jerking his head to the left. Knowing that this was not the time to argue. Ron and Hermione ran towards Smith.
"Think you can take us on alone Potter?" sneered one of the four who had been fighting Ron and Hermione.
"No," answered Harry, "I think I can kill you alone." Expecting to beat Harry easily one of the Death Eaters fired a simple stunning spell at him. Harry blocked it easily, not expecting Harry to block it the Death Eater was too surprised to get up a shield charm, he dropped to the ground unconscious. Harry quickly used slasio on his throat, killing him. The other three, astonished by the speed and the efficiency with which Harry killed their companion were more vicious, they tried to overwhelm him with spells, Harry immediately produced an advanced shield charm and threw himself to the right where he unleashed his own barrage of spells. When the beams of light had all disappeared, Harry saw that one of the Death Eaters was lying on the floor badly injured and the other two had fled. He immediately ran to join Ron and Hermione.
The members of the Order smacked into the Death Eaters right and a quick exchange of spells followed with the Order and the DA forcing the Death Eaters back. The fight only lasted a few more minutes before the Death Eaters, already disheartened by the injury of their leader, which put him out of the fight, fled in panic. Before Harry could stop him one of the Death Eaters grabbed Malfoy and fled after him his comrades
The DA and the Order were just about to rejoin the main battle when a great cheer went up. Harry turned quickly and saw the remaining Death Eaters fleeing in panic, the victorious Aurors and remaining members of the Order, led by Dumbledore, pursuing them. The Battle for Hogwarts was over, they had won.
The darkest forces that hell could muster had been unleashed upon them and the DA had stood tall, fought hard and had been found worthy of fighting them.
A/N I hope the battle lived up to your expectations, let me know if it did or didn't. I know it was a bit of an abrupt ending, all will be explained in the next chapter. That will definitely not be the last battle in the trilogy. In your reviews let me know if I should kill Lucius Malfoy. Right now he is only wounded. This was the second to last chapter in this fic, the final one will be up soon.
I know I called a few Death Eaters 'leader' this is not because I'm forgetting that Voldemort leads the Death Eaters, it's because Voldemort is like the General, Malfoy, for example, is like a major or a captain, it's the majors and captains that actually lead the troops in battle.