WAR!
Okay, okay, I know this isn't an Air Supply song…but I just couldn't find any appropriate ones! So here it is, a popular war song by Edwin Starr, top chart position #1 on July 26, 1970.
Disclaimer: I don't own JK's work, I don't own Edwin Starr's work. Period!
Oh, and sorry for the cliffies!
Azkaban Island.
War!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing!
Absolutely nothing…
Harry dodged the bolt of green, and fired off his own Stunner, the blast striking through the Death Eater's Shield Charm and impacting on his chest. The white mask fell off as the man crumpled, and Vincent Crabbe's beefy face was exposed.
War is something that I despise,
For it means destruction of innocent lives,
For it means tears, in thousands of mothers' eyes,
When their sons go out to fight, to give their lives.
Ginny fought like a lioness, dueling Death Eater after Death Eater, knowing that each less Dark supporter meant one less obstacle in between her beloved and Voldemort.
War! What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing!
Say it again…
Absolutely nothing!
Hermione unleashed a barrage of spells, showing the spirit intellectual who would rather study being forced to fight.
But fight she did, for she had to repay Dumbledore's death.
It's nothing but a heartbreaker,
Friend only to the undertaker,
War is the enemy of all mankind,
The thought of war blows my mind.
The dead corpses of friends haunted Ron's mind, the screams of the wounded and the tears of family members echoed in his ears. He was determined to stamp out the Dark, that the screaming that filled his dreams would be stopped.
Handed down from generation to generation,
Induction in destruction,
Who wants to die?
In the course of battle, Harry saw friends and school-mates forced to fight, even kill. Maddened by the death of her little sister, Parvati Patil had actually used the Killing Curse. Many others, he was sure, must also have killed people in the course of battle, knowingly or not.
Whether the vitcims were Death Eaters, or that they died of their wounds, or that they richly deserved it, was no excuse.
War had turned the best of their generation into killers.
War!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing!
Say it again…
War!
What is it good for?
The sharp clink! of breaking porcelain rang around the battlefield, as a Death Eater garbed in flowing, dark robes crushed his mask beneath a heel. One of Voldemort's best lieutenants turned on his own compatriots.
Severus Snape could have cried, at having been forced to kill Dumbledore. But all this had already been planned.
(FLASHBACK)
War has shattered many a young man's dreams,
Made them disabled, bitter and mean,
Life is too precious to be fighting wars each day,
War can't give life, it only takes it away.
"Severus Snape, you will be faced with a decision one day. To choose between the right and the easy."
Snape sat stony-faced in Dumbledore's office. The Potter boy had just stumbled in with Diggory's body, and the Triwizard Cup-Portkey, blabbering about Death Eaters and Dark Lords.
"And, Snape, that decision may involve killing people that you love the most. You must have the courage to do it, nay, to do it with glee." Old Albus had foreseen everything. Snape had nearly wanted to take his own life, after Dumbledore's tragic demise, but he knew his capacity as a spy. He knew he had a job to do.
Later on, while at Potter's bed-side, Dumbledore had seen it important enough to tell him in front of everybody of his duty. Although no-one had guessed it right, Dumbledore's comment about the thing that Snape must do and would not like to do was to kill Albus.
And, facing the situation with sheer, cold logic, Snape knew that what Albus had said must be done. It would almost be bearable if he had been allowed to watch Dumbledore's funeral, but his Death Eater duties had prevented him from doing this.
It's nothing but a heartbreaker,
Friend only to the undertaker,
There must be some place for these things today,
They say we must fight to keep our freedom,
But Lord there's got to be a better way,
Better than war.
(END FLASHBACK)
And the result of Severus Snape having been man enough to do what was right instead of what was easy had helped Harry beat the odds and kill Voldemort.
For at the last moment, Snape turned on Voldemort's bodyguards, holding them off, giving Harry the small chance that he exploited to its' fullest.
War!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing!
Say it again…
Absolutely nothing!
The Burrow.
But, in the throes of victory, the acrid smell of sulphur permeated the nostrils of the revellers as they celebrated the victory of Light over Dark in the woods in Ottery St. Catchpole.
Hurrying in the direction of the smell and a rising plume of smoke that cast a dark shadow on the quiet, tranquil countryside, Harry and the Order of the Phoenix came upon the site of the Burrow. And indeed, it was a site only for the Burrow proper had been utterly destroyed. The scene showed all the characteristics of a magical fireball.
A Death Eater favourite, an SMD, a spell of mass destruction.
And there could only be one person who could have a motive in setting it off, for that person was the only Death Eater left alive.
Draco Malfoy. Long jealous over Harry's relationship with Ginny, he had plotted and planned with the best of Slytherin cunning. And, though he knew that Voldemort would die, he played along, because he knew that a new Dark Lord would take over. Lord Malfoy.
So he decided to bide his time, waiting for the right opportunity to strike back at Harry Potter, to defeat this icon of Light and take over the world.
But his actions had done little, for the Burrow was empty anyway, the Weasleys having decided to move to a new wizarding village being built in Godric's Hollow. There was only one fatality, a minor loss compared to the casualties taken during the entire war. But fatalities were still fatalities, and this one was a terrible loss.
For it was a Weasley who had died.