Ok, next chapter has been written, typed, and betaed so it will be up next Sunday.

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John, Kyra2, thank you guys so much for your reviews!

Special thanks to my beta, PuNKyCoWGiRL!

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Hogwarts

Albus Dumbledore permitted himself a soft sigh as he entered the Great Hall. He truly hoped that they found a way to end the war that day, because he was honestly getting too old for it.

"Is everyone in place?" McGonagall asked.

"Yes. Now all that's left is waiting for Voldemort to arrive."

"I don't like this," she said. "We could have put up more wards to prevent them from entering the castle."

"It would only prolong the inevitable," he said. "We're just fortunate that he chose to attack when most of the students had gone home for the holiday. Otherwise this could be much worse that what it will be."

She could only nod in agreement as the doors to the Great Hall slammed open and deatheaters began streaming through. With a stern look on her face, she raised her wand and began fighting.

XXXXXXXX

At the sound of curses and hexes being thrown, Willow and Tara stepped out from a side door in the Great Hall surprising the deatheaters nearest them. They quickly incapacitated them before having to worry about defending themselves. Tara barely managed to dodge a killing curse and she shakily whispered, "Oh that was close." Then she turned her attention back to the fighting at hand.

Fred and George Weasley stepped out at the same time as Willow and Tara, only on the other side of the room, helping to create confusion. Despite the seriousness of the situation, the redheaded twins couldn't help but grin at each other.

"Great fun, should have done this years ago."

"Wonder what was stopping us."

"Mum."

"Oh yeah, silly woman," George said with a chuckle while he tackled a deatheater whose back was turned.

"Oy, mate! You're supposed to use your wand!" Fred called out.

"But it's not as much fun."

XXXXXXXX

The deatheaters were surprised that the school wasn't as empty as they thought and moved to leave the Great Hall - only to be stopped by Snape and Sirius who stood in the doorway.

"Severus," said one from behind his mask. "You've betrayed our Master."

"He never was my master," Snape sneered, raising his wand, but the other deatheater beat him to it. The next thing he knew, Sirius had pushed him out of the way and took the full brunt of the cruciatus curse.

"Sweet Merlin," Sirius gasped.

"You stupid mutt," Snape yelled. "What did you do that for?" He asked after releasing the curse.

Sirius shrugged. "Seemed like a good idea at the time. Oh, behind you."

Snape turned and threw a hex at a deatheater that was coming up behind them. "Stupid mutt," Snape muttered. "Don't think that this will make me like you."

"Never said it would," Sirius glibly replied, throwing a few hexes of his own.

XXXXXXXX

"Oh goody," Faith said from her position outside of the castle. "My turn to play." A huge troll came lumbering out of the dark forest. They had let the wizards pass by them to lure them into a false sense of security. Most of the wizards were stationed inside to deal with the deatheaters while everyone else was outside to take care of the demons.

Remus grinned at her. "Should we tell him that he's not invited?"

"I don't know. Thought you said trolls were dumb."

"They are."

"Then we'd better show them," she said, pulling out her crossbow. She fired several shots into its head before it finally fell to the ground. "That was disappointing. I was hoping for more of a challenge."

"How about that one?" Remus asked, pointing to another troll making its way out of the forest.

She just grinned at him before leaping out of their hiding place.

XXXXXXXX

On another part of the grounds, Buffy and Spike stepped out to confront the demons that were trying to enter the castle from their side. "Just like old times," she said as she ducked a swing before slamming her dagger into a demon's chest.

"Weren't we just doing this in Middle Earth?"
"Yeah, but those were orcs. These are just your run of the mill demons."

Spike laughed as he broke a demon's neck.
"What's so funny?" She asked.

"Never thought there'd come a day when you'd actually miss fighting demons."

Buffy let out a dramatic sigh as she kicked another demon.

XXXXXXXX

Draco heard Dawn's voice in his head telling him to drop. He quickly did so and the demon that had been sneaking up behind him burst into flames. "Thanks," he said.

"I'd hate to lose you now," she said with a grin.

"Would you miss me?"

"Always," she said before being knocked over. The pressure on her back was quickly gone as Draco pulled the scaly demon off of her and threw it across the field.

"Thanks."
"Nobody touches my girl," he said, helping her up.

XXXXXXXX

"I can't believe it," Wayne grumbled. "There's a huge battle with demons and deatheaters out there and what are we stuck with? Guarding four hobbits. Even Neville got to fight."

"Somebody had to protect the hobbits," Lavender reminded him. "They can't do magic and they can't fight against it."

"Doesn't mean we have to like it," Seamus said.

"Think of it this way - if they didn't trust us, we wouldn't have been the ones chosen to protect them," Padma pointed out. "They didn't have to let us help in the first place."

"That's besides the bloody..." Wayne began, but he stopped when he heard voices down the hallway. The four teens pulled themselves into an alcove and listened.

"Do you think the ring is in one of these rooms?" They heard a male's voice ask.

"I don't know, but Lord Voldemort believes it is here somewhere," said a woman.

Inside the alcove, the four teens exchanged silent looks and as one they stepped out into the hallway to face ten deatheaters. Without hesitating, Wayne and Seamus charged the evil wizards taking them completely by surprise. The girls stayed back and hurled hexes and curses. Wayne and Seamus created confusion by throwing punches and kicks. The poor deatheaters didn't know where to turn and before long all ten of them laid unconscious on the floor.

Lavender grinned. "See, they left us here and in charge for a reason."

Frodo stuck his head out of a door. "What happened?"
"Just some wandering bad guys. We took care of it." Padma said.

They began stripping the deatheaters of their wands and dragging them into an empty room.

XXXXXXXX

"Ouch!" Charlie Weasley cried out in pain. He clutched his arm and blood seeped out between his fingers.

Bill quickly set the demon that had attacked his brother on fire. "You alright there, Charlie?"

"I've had worse," the younger brother said as he placed a bandaging charm on it. "There's got to be an easier way to fight them though. Most of our curses and hexes don't work on them, and the ones that do work vary from demon to demon."
"That's why you use one of these," Xander said, coming up behind them. He handed Charlie a sword while Anya passed an ax to Bill. "These work a lot better, trust us."

"What about the two of you?" Bill asked.

"Always carry spares," Xander said, showing them another ax. "You never know when you'll lose a weapon."

XXXXXXXX

"Angel, remind me again why we're here," Cordelia said as she wiped the demon gore off of her face. The last demon in their section had exploded when they had pierced its heart.

"This is a chance to get rid of an evil wizard."

She shook her head and waved her hands. "No, I mean besides that. This is really gross. I could have done this at home."

"Because the dry cleaning here is better at getting out demon gore."

Cordelia brightened visibly. "I knew there was a good reason."

The vampire just rolled his eyes and sighed as he followed her towards other signs of fighting.

"Hey guys, wait up!" Came a voice from off to the side. They looked to see Fred and Gunn jogging up to them. "I think we've cleared out our nasties," Gunn said.

"How about you guys?" Fred asked.

"Other than the exploding one, ours were easy," Cordelia answered. "I think the trolls were on Faith's side."

"We should probably see how they're doing," Fred said and the four headed off.

XXXXXXXX

Neville's blood froze in his veins as he recognized the scream that came from a few yards behind him. He turned to see Blaise standing over top of two prone forms, who he assumed were her parents. She was bleeding from several cuts and the left side of her face was bruised. But still, she defiantly stood before the deatheater who was slowly advancing on her. Both her wand and weapon were missing.

The deatheater raised its wand and the world slowed. Neville knew that there was no way he'd get there in time to save her. His mind went blank as he tried to think of an appropriate spell. When nothing came, he pulled his dagger out of his waistband and threw it. The deatheater stopped in midcurse and clutched his arm where the dagger had imbedded itself. Blaise took the opportunity to place a solid kick to his head and he fell unconscious to the ground.

Neville ran over to her and wrapped his arms around her. "You ok?" He whispered.

"I am now," she said with a choked sob.

He pulled back and kissed her soundly on the lips. "Thank Merlin. I don't know what I would have done if I had lost you," he said. Seeing a small smile on her lips, he asked, "What?"

"You kissed me. Do it again."

"Now? We're in the middle of a battle."

"I don't care," she said. "Besides, I think we're in the clear."
He looked around and saw that she was right. All of the deatheaters in their vicinity were either dead or unconscious. Smiling, he turned and kissed her again.

XXXXXXXX

"Potter," came a sibilant voice across the field.

Harry turned to see the man responsible for so much pain and suffering in his life and in others.

"Let's end this," Voldemort sneered.

"Whenever you're ready," Harry growled back.

"We're right behind you," Hermione said from his right.

"You're not going anywhere without us, mate," Ron said from his left.

Remembering Galadriel's message to him from over a month before, he accepted his friends' help without arguing. With a grim smile, he advanced on the man who had been terrorizing the wizarding world for so long.

Ron erected a Wiccan shield that protected them from any curses that were being hurled at them, while Hermione threw curses and hexes of her own back at the deatheaters. They slowly made their way over to Voldemort and before long Harry was standing a mere five feet away from him.

"For too long you have been standing in my path," Voldemort said. "Your life ends now."

"You have to catch me first," Harry said.

"You filthy mudblood lover," Voldemort said, raising his wand.

Harry's eyes narrowed as he realized what he needed to do. There was no way he could defeat Voldemort with magic. The wizard was too strong and knew more than Harry could at his young seventeen years. But lucky for him, he'd had lots of help in other modes of fighting. Out of the corner of his mouth, he gave Ron and Hermione some quick instructions. He didn't have to look at them to know that they'd follow his lead.

"Avada ked..."

"Now!" Harry cried. Ron and Hermione split while Harry dropped to the ground. He swung his leg out knocking Voldemort off his feet. Harry quickly jumped back up and kicked Voldemort before he could stand back up. At the edge of his senses, he could tell that Ron and Hermione were fighting off any deatheater that was trying to interfere.

From his position on the ground, Voldemort tried to raise his wand, but Harry kicked it out of his hand. He slammed his foot down on Voldemort's wand hand and he could hear the bones breaking. "You should have paid more attention in Muggle Studies," Harry said with a smirk. "Us muggleborns tend to be a little more resourceful. I'm surprised you never thought of that since you're muggleborn yourself."

"What will you do now, Potter? You don't have it in you to kill me."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Harry said grimly, pulling out his sword. He shoved it down into Voldemort's chest.

Voldemort's back arched as he gasped out in pain. Then as he sagged back to the ground, a gust of power exploded forth from his body and rippled across the field and through Hogwarts.

Harry was knocked backwards and he landed hard on his back several feet away. After the wave passed, he gingerly pushed himself up on his elbows. "That was unexpected," he said, slightly dazed, before falling back in a dead faint.