A/N: Thanks to Aahz for leaving another review. Reviews make my day!

I don't own Harry Potter. = (

Chapter 26: The Battle of Good Versus Evil

"Get the girl!" Voldemort screamed with rage. The dementors looked confused. Which girl? Voldemort nodded towards Hermione, and the dementors advanced on her.

"Expecto patronum!" Hermione cried. Silver-white erupted from her wand, and the dementors staggered away from her. The Death Eaters were the next to get to her. Hermione used various Disarming Charms, and body-binds to get them away from her. Wormtail charged at her with his arms outstretched. Hermione held her foot out, and he tripped, skidding a good couple of feet away from her. She ran to Lucius, Draco, and Megan. Lucius had his arm around Megan, and he was using her as a shield. Draco's eyes darted from his father and Megan to Hermione.

"Kill her!" Lucius yelled. Hermione pointed her wand at Draco, but he was faster than her.

"Expelliarmus!" he cried, and Hermione's wand flew in the air, and into Draco's hands. He pocketed her wand, and still had his pointing at her. "I'm sorry." Draco whispered; his eyes locked with Hermione's. She quickly brought her hand into her robe, and pulled something out. She held it close to her.

"Now, Draco!" Lucius was gripping Megan tightly. Draco inhaled heavily.

"Avada Kedavra!" green light darted out of Draco's wand, and hurtled towards Hermione. It came within her range, and she held out a mirror. The green light bounced off the mirror, and the light began speeding towards Megan and Lucius.

"Duck!" Hermione called out. Megan forced herself out of Lucius' grip, and knelt on the floor, her hands over her head.

Megan's distraction had caught Lucius off guard, and when he looked up, he was hit in the stomach with the Unforgivable Curse. He fell to the ground in an instant, and Megan, Hermione, and Draco stood there, staring at Lucius' lifeless form. Hermione looked at the mirror, and saw a big crack across it. She tossed it aside.

"You knew. You knew all along that I was going to use the mirror." Hermione looked up meet Draco's gaze. "You didn't intend to kill me." Draco shuffled his feet.

"I would've never intended on killing you. My father thinks that way, but I don't."

"What is going on here?" the two broke away from each other to look at Megan.

"Nothing." They said simultaneously. Draco and Hermione extended their hands out to Megan to help her up off the ground.

"Let's go get your boyfriend." Hermione said, squeezing Megan's hand. "Draco, go get Alina. She should still be behind the fire, unattended. The last time I saw Wormtail, he was nowhere near her." She said before she and Megan ran towards the other end of the cave.

"Mudblood and the beast." Hermione and Megan stopped in their tracks as Wormtail sauntered towards them, arm outstretched, wand in hand. Hermione cursed. Draco still had her wand.

"I can handle him." Megan said, as she pulled out her wand. She pointed her wand at Wormtail.

"You can't kill me, you beast." He spat.

"I can't, but I can do this: Expelliarmus!" Wormtail's wand flew in the air, and it landed in Hermione's hands. Wormtail kept stumbling backwards, and he couldn't find his balance. He flung his arms out in the air, trying to keep himself to stop moving. He tripped...and fell into the Fire of Life. He let out an earsplitting scream, and the fire emitted. The two girls shielded themselves; afraid they'd catch fire. Hermione looked up to see the fire had died down. She nodded to Megan.

"C'mon." she said, and they broke into a run.

"Megan," Ron said, still struggling against the dementor, "what happened?"

"Lucius Malfoy is dead." Hermione said, "Expecto patronum!" the dementor let go of Ron, and backed away from him. Megan looked around the cave.

"Where's Harry?" Ron shrugged as he adjusted his robes.

"The last time I noticed, he was beside me with a dementor. I kind of lost track when Hermione got here."

"Voldemort's gone, too."

"You guys, Voldemort has Harry. We have to find him!" Alina came running over with Draco.

"What!?"

"Voldemort took Harry. They went down the path we came from. They're probably going down that other path." Draco explained, looking from one person to the next.

"Let's go." Hermione said. She handed Alina her wand, and the group started for the path, but it was blocked. Countless Death Eaters and dementors stood before them, wands outstretched, eyes flaring.

"There're too many of them." Megan said as she clung on to Ron's arm.

"We'll never make it out alive. We can't do this alone. We've been outnumbered."

"This is it. Do we surrender?" Draco turned to the group. The group didn't answer. They couldn't even look at him. Draco turned back to the dementors and Death Eaters, and threw his wand down.

"Draco, what're you-"

"Surrendering, Hermione. We can't win this."

"Don't say that-"

"I know these people. They won't let us win. They've been given orders from Voldemort, and they can't back down on Voldemort's orders. They either do it or suffer the consequences and die."

Alina took a step up, away from the group.

"I'm not afraid of you. I'm not afraid of Voldemort. Who wants to hit me first?"

"Alina, don't-"

"They'll kill you-"

"It's not the time to be bold-"

"If you really are true followers of Voldemort, one of you will point your wand at me, kill me, and get it over with." She, too, threw her wand down before the dementors and Death Eaters. The group of hooded people parted, and one of them stepped forward. Alina fell to her knees before the hooded figure.

"Don't do this." Megan was in tears. The Death Eater removed his hood.

It was Snape.

"Any last words?" he asked icily. Megan gasped, and Ron clamped a hand over her mouth.

"No, sir." She said, her head held up high.

"Draco, do something." Hermione whispered. He looked down at her.

"Let her handle this. She knows what she's doing." She looked at him strangely.

"How do you know?" Snape raised his wand, and pointed it at Alina.

"Avada-" Snape's body stiffened, and fell to the floor. The Death Eaters removed their hoods, and looked around to cave to see who had hit Snape with the body-bind. Jets of light were darting all over the cave, and the dementors were getting confused trying to figure out where it was coming from. The students were confused, too. They couldn't see anybody.

The Death Eaters and dementors were getting distracted, so Draco took this as his chance to retrieve his wand. He grabbed his wand, along with Alina's. He helped her up off the ground, and he ushered the group off of what seemed like a battlefield. They ran down the path, and didn't stop until they felt they were safe. Ron leaned against the wall, and ran a hand over his face. Megan leaned over, trying to catch her breath. Hermione slid down the wall to sit on the floor, as did Alina. Draco tried thinking up ways to get to the other path.

"What was that out there?" Ron asked when he finally found himself breathing regularly.

"The Order of the Phoenix." Alina said, still panting.

"The what?"

"They're a group of witches and wizards working against the Dark. Dumbledore sent for them after I had told him Alina was missing." Hermione explained.

"We'll levitate each other back up to the path." Draco spoke up suddenly.

"I say we continue down this path." Alina suggested.

"Do you know where this leads?" Draco asked.

"Voldemort probably didn't levitate himself and Harry to get to the other path. I'm guessing that this path leads to another place we don't know about. We should hurry up and go for it before it's too late."

"We should split up." Megan said. Draco shook his head.

"Negative. We wouldn't have enough time for that. Knowing our timing, Harry's probably-"

"Draco, don't say that." Alina said, holding up her hand. Draco smirked, and Alina rolled her eyes before turning back to the group. "I'll lead the way." She walked down the path before breaking into a run. She could hear the rest of the group panting behind her.

"I don't think this path will ever end." Alina looked over her shoulder at Ron. He stopped running and began to power walk. Alina grabbed onto his wrist.

"Don't be so lazy. C'mon." they kept running until they hit a dead end.

"Yeah, this path leads to somewhere." Draco grumbled.

"Shut up. There's got to be a button or something. Maybe a password to get past-"

"Alina, it's a wall." Ron said as he banged his fist against the wall. He winced, and pulled his hand back.

"Hey, I found something!" Hermione was kneeling, and running her fingers over something on the wall. Alina crouched down beside her. There was a tiny snake carved on the wall. "Voldemort is a Parselmouth. He talks to snakes. This snake has got to be some kind of passageway to another part of the cave." Megan, Ron, and Draco were now on the floor, too, examining the snake carefully.

"That looks just like the snake on the tap in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom." Ron commented.

"What snake on the tap in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom? Who's Myrtle?" Megan questioned.

"The ghost that haunts the broken down girls' bathroom." Hermione said. Megan frowned.

"What were you doing in a broken down girls' bathroom?"

"That bathroom led to the Chamber of Secrets." Ron explained, "And then Harry had to speak to the tap in Parseltongue to get to passageway to open up." Alina cursed.

"None of us are Parselmouths." She rubbed her forehead, "We'll never get to Harry."

"Hermione, can animals communicate with other animals?" Draco asked. Hermione looked at him with a questioning gaze. She turned back to the snake.

"Maybe. I'm not-" Draco pushed Megan towards the wall.

"Let Megan talk to it." Megan huffed.

"I am a *human*, too." She said irritably.

"Just talk to it. Maybe it'll open up." Alina said, her eyes pleading with Megan's.

"Fine. Move over, Hermione." Hermione moved aside, and Megan sat down in front of the snake. She stared at it for a while.

"We're not getting any younger here, Meg." Draco sighed.

"Shut up, I'm getting to it. I'm just trying to make a connection with-"

"You're beginning to sound like Trelawney." Megan rolled her eyes. She leaned forward.

"Open." She whispered. Nothing.

"She's a werewolf, Malfoy, not a friggin' Parselmouth." Ron said petulantly.

"Come on, open up. Please." Megan begged. Alina, Draco, and Ron were soon begging along with her.

"Open!"

"I command you to open!"

"Let us in!"

"Open, I..." Hermione reached out to the snake again. She ran her fingers over it before pressing it. There was a rumbling noise, and the students fell back.

"What's going on?" Alina asked as the wall in front of them parted.

"'Speak to the snake in Parseltongue.'" Draco said, trying to mimic Ron.

"'Can animals communicate with animals? Let Megan talk to it.'" Ron hissed back.

"How thick can the both of you get? It was a button the whole time." Megan got up off the ground and dusted herself off, as did the other two girls. Draco and Ron were still on the floor, arguing with each other.

"You two are both stupid for not realizing it was a button. Now let's go." Hermione said as she, Megan, and Alina started down another path. Ron glared at Draco before getting to his feet, and running after Megan. Draco shook his head, got up, and caught up with the group. There was another rumbling sound, and Draco spun around. The wall had closed behind them.

"I just want to hurry up and find him. I don't like..." Draco cut his sentence when he looked before him. Voldemort stood there, his hand around Harry's neck as he held him up off the ground. Harry was gasping for breath, and trying to free himself from the Dark Lord. There was blood dripping from the lightning bolt on his forehead, and his glasses were cracked.

Megan, Hermione, Ron, and Alina seemed to have been frozen in their spots, unable to say anything. The sight before them seemed to have paralyzed them.

"Look who crashed the party," Voldemort said coolly before he let go of Harry. He fell to the ground in a loud thump. "So, you all have come to save Potter? You finished off the dementors and Death Eaters without heroic Harry Potter's help?" Harry tried crawling towards them, but Voldemort pointed his wand at Harry and, "Crucio!" he fell onto his stomach, his hands in tight fists.

"Why are you doing this?" Hermione spoke up. Voldemort glowered at her with his scarlet colored eyes.

"Because I can." Harry tried lifting his body up off the ground, but Voldemort hit him with the Cruciatus Curse again. Hermione winced, and turned away. Draco put a protective arm around her, and she didn't seem to mind. "What? You can't stand seeing your hero defenseless?" he hit him with the Curse again. Draco pulled Hermione closer to him; scared Voldemort would get a hold of her. "Isn't anyone going to help him?" he asked, looking from one student to the next. When Voldemort looked at Ron, he took a step back in fear. "Potter's sidekick." He said with distaste, "You can't do anything without Potter giving you orders?" Ron was shaking with fury, and terror. He smiled nastily at his reaction. He pointed his wand at Harry, who was rolling on the floor in pain, to strike him again.

"STOP IT!" Alina screamed. She ran to Harry, and threw her arms around him, shielding him from Voldemort. He laughed. Alina didn't understand why he was laughing, and that sinister look he was giving her made the hairs at the back of her neck stand on end.

"That's how Potter's mother died. Protecting her child. You're just like her. Protecting Potter. You'll suffer the same consequences." He raised his wand.

"Expelliarmus!" Voldemort's wand flew in the air, and landed a couple of feet away. Ron smiled triumphantly. Voldemort started for it, but he wasn't quick enough. Draco retrieved it, and twirled it around his fingers while smirking.

"Young Malfoy, my wand, please." Hermione shook her head.

"We're going to make sure you are put in your place." She had her wand pointed at him, "Crucio!" Voldemort fell to his knees.

Alina felt Harry twitch under her. She looked down at him, concerned. Every time Voldemort was hit with a curse, it made Harry twitch madly.

"Imperio!" Ron hit Voldemort with the Imperius Curse. "Harry Potter is the greatest wizard. Say it!"

"Harry Potter is the greatest wizard." Voldemort said. Alina couldn't believe her ears.

"Who's the powerful one now?" Ron asked, tapping Voldemort's head with his wand. Alina looked down at Harry again. His scar was glowing. She looked back to see Ron standing over Voldemort.

"It'll always be me, you fool." Voldemort said, his head snapping upward. With one swift motion, his arm hooked around Ron's legs, and he dragged him down. Ron screamed, and Voldemort snatched Ron's wand out of his hands. He pointed it at him. "You actually thought that you little schoolchildren could take me down." There was a loud rumbling noise, and Voldemort looked up. The ceiling was shaking, and pebbles were falling all over the place. The cave was going to collapse.

A/N: I got you all at that part, didn't I? Ooh, I'm so evil. Well, I should shut up so I could get to editing the final chapters. I'm getting chills just thinking about it! -Gryffindor Heiress