Neville Longbottom was extremely uncomfortable. He had never wanted to be a leader and he was always terrible at lying, but now he was in the middle of a deception that had to succeed. As Harry Potter he was, naturally enough, at the very centre of the action. The DA had been split up into groups and had joined the Aurors and Order members who were defending the castle grounds. The good news for them was that, true to Dumbledore's word, not one Dementor could enter the castle grounds so long as he was alive. The bad news was that the protection did not work against giants, Death Eaters or, much to the horror of Parvati Patil, snakes. "I hate snakes," Parvati said again after stunning the fourth one that had headed in her direction.
"We know, Parvati," Neville said, trying to make himself sound like Harry. "We've got to deal with them though. And the Death Eaters." As he said this, Neville directed a stunning spell towards Nott, who was leading a group of Death Eaters in their direction. Nott hastily erected a shield, then replied with a curse of his own.
"Well said, Potter," little Professor Flitwick interjected squeakily. "We won't let any of them into the school if we can avoid it." To the surprise of several of the students, the tiny charms teacher was proving to be an effective and mean spirited fighter. Showing why he was once a duelling champion, he had already downed several of Voldemort's lesser servants with some fairly innovative charms.
The group, comprised of Parvati, Neville, Flitwick, Sprout, Bill Weasley, the Auror Williamson, Ginny, Terry Boot, Susan Bones and Elphias Doge, were putting up a very good fight. However, the Death Eaters and Voldemort's snakes just kept coming.
"Professor Sprout, behind you!" Ginny suddenly called out. Sprout turned round just in time to avoid the group of boulders that an enemy had levitated and tried to drop on top of her.
"Thank you, Miss Weasley," said the herbology professor.
"Where did You-Know-Who get this many followers?" Terry Boot asked. "From what you've said in the past, Harry, he's never had this many before."
"I've never seen this many Death Eaters before, no," said Neville. "But I understand he had hundreds of followers in the last war, not all of them Death Eaters."
"I'm afraid Mr Potter is correct," said Flitwick, lapsing momentarily into his teaching role. "There were hundreds of people devoted to him, many of them not of their own free will. You didn't know whom to trust. It was very fortunate that Hogwarts was always a safe haven for those who opposed him."
"I don't think this is the time, professor," Bill put in. "We really need to concentrate on the Death Eaters." As he spoke, his words were underlined by the appearance of another group of Death Eaters, this one led by Karkaroff.
"Karkaroff?" said Susan in surprise. "I didn't realise he was a Death Eater."
"We knew he was in the past," Doge interjected, "but we didn't know he'd rejoined You-Know-Who. The last anybody in the Order had heard he was still on the run somewhere in Eastern Europe."
"In any event he's here now," Bill said. "Ginny, watch out for those snakes."
Ginny looked to her left and saw four large, bright green snakes closing in on her fast. "Reducto!" she shouted, the spell ploughing into the ground just in front of the snakes and sending them flying through the air. One of the snakes landed on top of a Death Eater and instinctively bit him. The Death Eater, screaming in pain due to the snake's potent venom, soon collapsed to the floor dead. Other Death Eaters came to take his place, however, and in spite of their resistance the group was in danger of being overwhelmed. Before the Death Eaters could make their numerical advantage tell, however, Fawkes arrived carrying the red envelope of a Howler. Fawkes deliberately dropped the envelope in the midst of the Death Eaters where, after a brief moment, it burst into flames and the deafening voice of Dumbledore called out "RETREAT TO THE CASTLE. A NEW SET OF DEFENCES HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED THERE." The nearest Death Eaters to the Howler fell to the ground clutching their ears, which were bleeding because their eardrums had burst due to the immensely loud voice. Several other Death Eaters were confused and temporarily unable to hear. Seeing their foes withdrawing they attempted to curse them, but many of their curses went awry, some of them backfiring badly enough that their robes burst into flames.
In the midst of this chaos, the group managed to reach the castle. They swiftly went inside and closed the front door, but not before Sprout had an idea. "Wait a minute," she said. "Accio Mandrakes!" Minutes later, half a dozen or so flower pots had arrived, obviously containing Mandrakes. "I'm going to set these up to delay the Death Eaters," Sprout explained. "When they break through the doors and enter the hall, I will shatter the flower pots, the Mandrakes will naturally enough cry out …"
"Which will incapacitate the Death Eaters," Neville finished. "But Professor Sprout, won't their cry kill us too?"
"I intend to be the only one near enough to be effected, Potter. In any event, these Mandrakes shouldn't kill. They're slightly too young for that."
"It will still be dangerous, Professor," Bill said. "Can't we set up some way to set them off safely?"
"I'm afraid we don't have time, William," Flitwick said. "And it's clear Professor Sprout wouldn't do that even if we did. You aren't going to persuade her to change her mind; she's far too stubborn for that. What we all need are some earmuffs." With that, Flitwick set about conjuring up several sets of earmuffs so they wouldn't hear the Mandrakes' cries.
"Why aren't you going to wear any earmuffs, Professor?" Susan asked her head of house.
"You've seen what can happen when you try casting a spell and you can't hear, right?" Susan nodded so Sprout continued. "I'm not going to take the chance that I misspeak the words of the spell or something else because I can't hear."
"Put your earmuffs on, everyone," Flitwick squeaked. The sound of pounding on the doors could be clearly heard. The Death Eaters were doing their best to break through. "I doubt they will hold much longer." The others rushed to obey. Almost as soon as they had donned their earmuffs, the doors splintered into many sharp pieces, blown inwards with an immense force. Several of the shards collided with members of the group, causing quite nasty cuts. About a dozen bloody Death Eaters could be seen standing in the now empty doorway, while others were on the floor, some breathing heavily while unconscious, others clearly dead. The defences built into the doors had clearly done as they were designed to and had taken their toll upon the Death Eaters. The still standing Death Eaters poured triumphantly into the castle, halting in surprise in front of Sprout and her flower pots. Sprout took full advantage of their confusion, repeatedly crying "Reducto", blowing up the pots one by one. The Mandrakes inside were less than happy to have their sleep disturbed and began to cry out. Moments after hearing the cries of the Mandrakes, the Death Eaters and Sprout had collapsed unconscious to the floor. Flitwick, taking great care to get the spell right, cast a silence charm upon each of the Mandrakes. Once this was done, everybody removed their earmuffs.
"Is she all right?" Susan asked worriedly.
"She's fine," Terry replied after examining her and the Death Eaters. "They're all right too. What should we do with them?"
"Well, Hogwarts has a perfectly working Dungeon, does it not?" Williamson suggested. "Why not put them there? From what I remember, Filch has plenty of chains I'm sure he would be willing to lend us for the purpose."
"I think you're correct, Williamson," Flitwick said. "Terry, Susan, take Professor Sprout to the infirmary along with the wounded Death Eaters. Tell Madam Pomfrey to make sure the Death Eaters are restrained. She won't like it, but she'll understand." Terry and Susan left to carry out Flitwick's instructions. "Harry, Ginny and Parvati stay here with Williamson. Make sure that no Death Eater gets inside if you can avoid it. William, you stay here too. You're in charge. Elphias and I will take the Death Eaters to the dungeons and get some chains from Argus. We'll be back as soon as we can." Doge and Flitwick headed off in the direction of the dungeons, the unconscious Death Eaters immobilised and levitated for ease of transport. Neville and Ginny turned back to the doorway, making sure that no Death Eater would sneak in behind their backs.