October sixteenth and the war has begun. Voldemort has regained his power and has attacked. It was only a matter of time before he came to Hogwarts and so Dumbledore gathered the students during dinner. No one from the Slytherin table was present, they had all gone to join their parents and Voldemort on the dark side. A few students from each table were missing as well since their parents had pulled them out of school. "As you all know, Voldemort has returned to power. We are going to need all the help we can get, and I am asking for the help from sixth and seventh years. The rest of you I am sending home immediately. Sixth and seventh years are only being asked on a voluntary basis, no one is being required or forced into this," Dumbledore said in a sullen tone. Majority of the sixth and seventh years stayed, a few had parents who were making them return home, and a few just didn't want to fight. It was a sad day when the students not fighting left. Many of the students staying had siblings who were going home which made for tearful departure. The day after all of the students not fighting had left Dumbledore addressed the students. Dumbledore looked around and was proud to see how many students had decided to stay. "I'm pleased to see how many students have decided to remain loyal to the light side. The remainder of the teachers and I are going to be teaching skills that you will need to fight, this includes first aid spells, defense spells among many other things. I am asking for you all to sign up for different parts of war. It would make more sense to train you in a specific area as opposed to training you in all of them. On this scroll there are three columns, first aid, fighters, and planners. Examine the skills you already have, and choose which part you would be most successful in. I would like you to all sign up right now, and then split up once you have signed up. Fighters will stay here, medics will go to the hospital wing, and planners will go into professor Snape's classroom. Thank you." Harry, Hermione, and Ron along with majority of the Gryffindor house signed up as fighters. Majority of the Hufflepuffs signed up as medics, and majority of the Ravenclaws signed up for planning. Once all of the medics and planners had departed to their designated areas Dumbledore spoke to the fighters. "I, along with professor Snape, and Hagrid are going to be teaching you the essential skills you will need to fight successfully. But, despite all of the skills we teach you, I want you to remember one thing, and that is to fight with dignity. Don't stoop to their dirty fighting, uphold the things that we have taught you." On October twentieth the Death Eaters attacked Hogwarts. Adult fighters were sent in as soon as possible, but there was so much fighting everywhere that it was hard to transport fighters. The war turned ugly fast, no one was killed with just the killing curse, most were tortured first, and hostages were taken and tortured, raped, and finally killed. The light side fighters didn't stoop to their level yet, most just used the killing curse and ended it there, that was until Dumbledore was killed infront of their eyes. Lucius Malfoy made a huge scene of killing Dumbledore in the middle of the field when the light side was down. After that the "fight with dignity" saying that was upheld was suddenly ignored. The light side was always down; people from the light side switched over to the dark side in fear of being killed. Friends were killing friends, family was killing family, a very sad sight. On top of that, the Death Eaters were now recruiting children and elderly. Children barely old enough to go to school were being taught the killing curse and using it to the best of their ability. Elderly, usually seen knitting and telling stories were killing and torturing light side fighters. The Death Eaters only fought at night, during the day they retreated to their hidden headquarters. Once dawn arrived the light side fighters pulled themselves back into Hogwarts. People were sent out to carry in the dead or deeply wounded. After a while though the dead and wounded were just left out there, no one had the energy to go carry in bodies. Skin and bones were strewn across the lawn and forest. Every once in a while body parts would be found from where some of the Death Eaters had taken tongues, fingers, toes, and other smaller appendages were taken as souvenirs. In most cases those appendages were strung together to make necklaces to scare light side fighters. The war was not looking good for the light side; the Death Eaters vastly outnumbered them. The Death Eaters were constantly recruiting new fighters on top of that; no one wanted to join the light side since they were losing so badly. Villages were burned, Muggles were dying as well, and nothing was getting better.