Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, but JK Rowling does.
Emily – nope, I only just found out about that after you told me.
High Serpent King – Speaking of your story, I'm really sorry that I haven't been reading that but since I just went through exams I should be able to catch up on it now – you should see a review coming from me relatively soon.
Dancerrdw and Tria Marie Val – Thanks!
Chapter 48 – The Last Battle (Part 1)
Lupin burst into Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore looked around, looking phenomenally tired and weary.
"Albus – Tom Riddle's alive. He broke through your barrier – he knows where Headquarters is! He tried to kill Ron as well."
"And didn't succeed? What happened to him?"
"Ron said he just – went away. Like mist."
Dumbledore started up and moved towards the fireplace, but was stopped when Ginny Weasley slammed the door open, ashen-faced.
"Harry – he's in danger!"
Mere minutes earlier…
Harry was walking outside merrily in the snow along with Parvati and Ginny, generally having a good time except for the awareness of Draco's mysterious absence. Hagrid had apparently been combing the forest left and right for any sign of Draco but couldn't find him – as Hagrid himself had expected ("they won't be found when they don't want to be, centaurs") – but no signs of either the centaurs or him could be found, which had been putting quite a damper on Ginny's moods.
"That's odd – Crabbe and Goyle?" Parvati said.
Ginny gritted her teeth. She still hadn't told anybody about her experience with the Death Eaters – or specifically, Crabbe and Goyle. She had been planning to do so for days now, but still hadn't gotten around to it.
Crabbe and Goyle slowly approached, lumbering along, clearly smiling. They cracked their knuckles as they came to a stop deliberately and directly in front of Parvati, Ginny, and Harry.
"What are you two here for?" Harry said, his voice controlled.
Crabbe didn't mince words. He pointed a finger directly at Harry. "You."
Crabbe's fist swung out like a tree trunk directly at Harry's head, but Harry ducked fast and kicked him in the shins. Parvati readied her wand, but Goyle grabbed her forcefully around the stomach and slammed her to the ground, instantly knocking her out.
Something's not right here. Even Goyle's not that strong.
"Ginny! Get Dumbledore!" Harry yelled loudly as his wand popped into his right hand and he readied his left with wandless magic, slowly backing up to stay out of reach of Crabbe and Goyle's humongous fists.
Goyle swung at Harry's stomach. Harry leapt into the air, dodging the punch effortlessly with wandless magic, his feet spinning around Goyle's head. His feet knocked Goyle's head three times directly before Crabbe suddenly grabbed his foot in mid-air. Harry stayed suspended before Crabbe gathered all his strength and slammed Harry to the floor with terrific strength. Harry winced momentarily before rolling over on his now heavily bruised stomach three times to avoid their frenzied kicks.
Way overhead, Dumbledore and Remus watched momentarily before they both hurtled down the stairs, Ginny close behind.
Back down in the snow, the fight still wasn't going well for Harry. He had given up trying to beat up Crabbe and Goyle, knowing that Ginny was soon going to get help here, and was resorting to ridiculous acrobatics with his wandless magic – spinning, flipping, rolling, cartwheeling – everything Harry could think of, he was doing. He suddenly had an idea – a tree. Crabbe and Goyle wouldn't be able to get him if he had the higher ground. Harry leapt up, narrowly avoiding Crabbe's humongous fists, and soared on to the tree, hiding in the branches. However, this didn't seem to deter Crabbe and
Goyle whatsoever – on the contrary, they smiled and approached the tree. Goyle wrapped his arms around the massive tree, and slowly uprooted it. Harry, not willing to believe what was happening, stayed perched in the tree before it actually started to fall, and then rocketed upwards with all his strength, landing in the cold snow right next to the lake in a crouch, but suddenly collapsed exhausted, and barely keeping consciousness.
Suddenly, though, the two seemed to lose their nerve. Goyle beckoned to Crabbe and pointed in a direction before the two of them both ran off to the Forbidden Forest. Harry dimly saw a white light approaching before everything went black, and he lay against the snow, unconscious.
An hour later…
"Will he be alright?" Parvati asked Madam Pomfrey, hovering around the entrance to the Hospital Wing. Despite both Lupin's and Dumbledore's assurance that Harry would be perfectly fine, for some reason she couldn't believe it for sure. Not to mention that she actually needed some rest as well from being knocked out, but after being quickly revived and examined it was shown that she didn't really have any major injuries, just a few bruises.
"Yes, he'll be fine, soon."
"Can I see him?"
Madam Pomfrey gave her a sympathetic look. "Miss Patil, Mr. Potter is asleep at the moment. I assure you that as soon as he is awake you will be allowed to see him for a few minutes."
Parvati, disgruntled, nodded as she left along with an unsurprised and oddly quiet Ginny. The two fell silent on the way to nowhere in particular before Parvati broke the silence.
"Ginny, what's wrong?"
Ginny didn't answer right away, clearly thinking out her answer. "It's just… a lot of bad things seem to be happening lately. First I'm captured by Death Eaters, then Draco is taken away by centaurs, and now? Crabbe and Goyle somehow have super-strength and nearly kill Harry, before running away. It's all leading up to something, and whatever it is I don't like it."
Parvati nodded, unsure of what to say. The two continued on to the Gryffindor common room.
Remus arrived at Godric's Hollow about an hour after he had left, somewhat tired but more prevalently very confused. He collapsed onto the chair, running his hand through his graying hair.
"Remus?" Ron asked. "What's going on?"
"Well Ron," Lupin started. "Harry was attacked by Crabbe and Goyle today. They were apparently granted super-strength by Lord Voldemort, probably in an effort to counter your own strength, Ron. Harry will be fine," Lupin hastily continued before Ron asked. "He just needs rest."
"And Riddle?" Hermione inquired.
"Well Dumbledore has some theory that Riddle put other safeguards on preserving his spirit that would allow him to repair the diary. In any case though, he certainly poses a problem – since he's not entirely human he's capable of shifting through magical barriers but is as tangible and powerful as any full-grown wizard. Dumbledore also thinks," here Lupin grimaced, "that Voldemort's been gearing up for some huge attack lately. He in fact suspects that it will happen very soon – within the week even."
"But what can he attack? He can't reach Hogwarts anymore, and as long as Harry stays over there, what will the attack accomplish?" Hermione asked.
"Oh, Voldemort's not going to attack Hogwarts. He's going to attack here. Riddle can shut down the magical barriers and the Fidelius Charm that Dumbledore has set up, since he can basically see through magic. Not only that, but we don't have enough time to relocate. We'll have to fight the battle, and win, but it'll be tough. Voldemort will likely gather all his forces – giants, dementors, whatever can aid him."
"Well he can't really win, can he, unless Harry is here. So why don't just keep Harry at Hogwarts?"
"Because, realistically, we can't win the battle without Harry killing Voldemort, and even then it'll be hard."
An eerie silence fell over the room, as if the attack was going to happen any second now.
"Do you have any idea what day they will attack?"
"Dumbledore's guessing on Monday, since that's the only day that you will be busy with Minister of Magic elections, and any working members of the Order – virtually all of them – will have to Floo over here."
"We'll have to prepare, then," Ron said. "Mark and I have been preparing plans for attacks on here ages ago."
Lupin glanced up at them, surprised but pleased. "Really? Dumbledore told me you two might have been planning for something like this."
Ron gestured with his hands and sheets and sheets of parchment rolled out. Hermione could vaguely make out both the scrawl of her disheveled boyfriend as well as the somewhat loopy handwriting of Woodbury everywhere, as well as in-depth drawings and maps of wildly intricate maneuvers and positions.
"Let's see…" Ron mumbled, throwing parchment everywhere, clearly looking for a sheet or two specifically. "Ah good!"
Ron grinned and brought out. "Now, this is the plan that probably most corresponds to the current situation." And to her shock, Hermione didn't see one or two sheets of paper but twenty-five or thirty sheets haphazardly stacked in his hand. "It may look a little complex, but I'm sure we can explain it to you…"