A/N: I'm evil. I lead straight up to the Final Battle and make you wait another week. My apologies all around, and I may give you the last two chapters together to make up for it. Maybe.

Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling and all recognizable characters, spells, and places are of her creation. I borrowed them and put them with my own characters for some amusement.

Warnings: Actually, none. I'll make up for it next week.

I Never Thought I Would Be A Hero

Original Dark Angel

Chapter 14: Prophecy Foretold

Hogwarts was not a comfortable place to live any longer. It was an army's barracks, with only one house devoted to the remaining children and their self-appointed guardians. Snape, Draco, Ginny, and Blaise continued lessons and activities to keep the few remaining children occupied. Harry, Luna, Neville, Ron, and Hermione slept in the Gryffindor house along with Remus Lupin and the younger aurors and fighters, such as Tonks, Shacklebolt, and the rest of the Weasley clan. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw had been devoted entirely to the rest of the order and various professors. Training was the only thing to draw Draco and Ginny out of their home and it was always finished as quickly as possible so they could return to protect what was left of their number. Harry and Neville devoted every second of their time to training for the coming altercation, while Ron, Hermione, and Luna rarely left the library in their desperate search for information.

It was a rare morning when Dumbledore joined the children for breakfast instead of the teachers, the order, or the ministry. Ian was sharing a chair with Ryan across the table from Blaise and with Snape on his right. Ginny sat between Snape and Draco, while Carrie was on Rowan's left. Dumbledore sat at the head of the table with Drew on his right and Blaise on his left. Dumbledore had just passed the peach marmalade to Rowan, when Drew's fork clattered to the floor.

All eyes were on him, but he stared into space unseeingly, his eyes glazed over. When he spoke, his voice was solemn and harsh.

Three and ten days shall see

A war fought by the bumblebee

Blood shall spill

Break our hero's will

Two seats away resides the one

Fighting a battle barely begun

Should thou leave or stay

A heavy cost you must pay

Star-crossed lovers torn apart

Beware the cracked and bleeding heart

A potion remedy to a deadly curse is found

Free the unicorn whose magic is bound

A gift of blood he shall make

Do not be afraid to take.

But, headmaster, take care

Only one is meant to have a share

The victor and unsung hero of light

Is the only one allowed to wake from death's cruel night.

Terror in twos and trouble in threes

Have a stony heart against their pleas

By the pricking of my thumbs

Something wicked this way comes.

Everyone stared for a second after Drew slumped to the ground. Then Carrie was on her knees with his head cradled in her lap. Draco accepted that this was a Ginny-situation and shepherded the two first years out of the room and using both Blaise and the glass dragon, Cosmar to distract them. Once they had relaxed a bit, he rejoined the others in the common room. Snape had moved both Third Years to the couch, and between him and Ginny, caring for them both simultaneously. Dumbledore was in a corner transferring his memory of the prophecy into a peniseive. Draco needed no such measures to remember the words burned into his brain. Three and ten days shall see/A heavy cost you must pay/Star-crossed lovers torn apart/Do not be afraid to take/Have a stony heart against their pleas. The last phrase had been a line from Macbeth and the significance could be deadly. Two seats away? Drew could have been talking about two people; either Blaise or Rowan. They would have to gamble with a life, and Draco didn't like the options. His best mate, or a tiny first year girl?

Accepting Dumbledore's whispered orders, Draco went to the fireplace and summoned Potter, informing him to gather only the top members of the Order of the Phoenix for a meeting in Dumbledore's office. Then he returned and had a quick discussion with Blaise before leaving him in charge of the children.

Draco and Ginny had been packing up the kids trunks, and warding possessions with a dedicated fervor. They refused to overlook one small detail that could save a life someday. For this year, they had been Ian and Rowan's only family. Carrie and Drew had been welcomed into their small circle, regardless of house or year. If the final battle went badly, then at least they would have provided one last line of defense for the honorary siblings that they had gained this last year.

The prophecy gave them such a tremulous lead, but only if Andrea had not given the prophecy to Voldemort from her captivity. The twins had never given a full prophecy apart before. Carrie had witnessed Drew's simultaneous recitation of the prophecy that Rea had made concerning Potter earlier that year. If Voldemort knew, if he took actions to prevent them from performing the necessary preparations . . . there was a very good chance that this battle would be lost.

On the morning before the prophesied battle, Rowan was found in front of the fireplace crying. She could not stop long enough to speak, and Ginny finally tugged a worn piece of parchment from her grip. It was a letter from the oldest of her brothers and it ordered her to return home or no allowances would be made for her in the final battle. If she stayed, then she was the enemy and they would kill her without a second thought. She would no longer be a member of their family.

With trembling fingers, Ian had picked up the note from the table where Ginny left it and read it through once more, his face going blank, but he must have tensed under Cosmar's perch on his shoulder, because the miniature glass dragon belched a mighty flame and burned the paper straight through. It had only taken Ian a second after that to crush the ashes to dust under his expensive boot.

Ian did manage to calm her down later and after she returned to her dormitory, sat in the common room alone save for his pet.

Blaise sat down in the chair across from Ian and gave a weak grin. 'Hey, Ian. How are you and Cosmar doing?"

The little boy gave him a guarded nod, and reached up to stroke the glass scales as in in reassurance that his beloved pet was safe.

"Things are getting pretty bad," Blaise explained softly. 'Pretty soon, we're going to be seeing the final stand. You're too young to be around when that happens." Blaise swallowed. "Professor Snape is practically your dad isn't he? He's always taken care of you?" There was no response, but Blaise already knew the answer. "Dumbledore is sending Snape away for the final battle. He's going to take Rowan, Drew, Carrie, and you with him."

"I know."

"But I'm not going."

Ian looked up in surprise. 'But Sev said . . . "

"I know, but I'm not going with you. I'm going to stay here and fight Voldemort with Draco and Ginny."

"Why?" Ian asked, ignoring the two fat tears slipping down his cheeks.

"When I was growing up, I always wanted to be a big brother. But my mum could never give me a little brother or sister. She was told that all of her other babies were stillborn. When I turned fourteen, I discovered that my father had them killed to avoid sibling rivalry over his money, as had been done in the Zabini line for centuries. I don't know how Professor Snape rescued you. I don't care. All that matters is that you are my little brother. My duty as an older brother is to protect you, even from myself. Which is why I have been following Professor Snape's orders and staying away from you."

"I thought that you liked me, and then you got mad at me."

"I wasn't mad at you. I was mad at a lot of things, but not you. You have to understand, Ian, that the night in the hospital wing was an exception. I was extremely worried, angry, and heartbroken. I lashed out at you because you were convenient. It was wrong. All my life, I wanted a little brother. Then I get one and screw it up by hurting you. So I guess this is my apology to you, Ian. My atonement."

"I was mad at you and I was hurt, but I don't want you to die in the battle, Blaise. I want you to come with me and Sev."

"You're still too young and innocent to understand this, thank Merlin. I'm not sure how to explain this to you in a way that you can comprehend. I have to try, but whether you're convinced or not, I want you to accept it." Blaise moved to kneel in front of his brother and took the younger boy's shoulders, making eye contact so that two pairs of honest blue irises met. "This war is about to end. If Voldemort wins, than you will be in danger. He will hunt you and everyone else down. I can't let that happen. I'm fighting to make sure that the light wins, to make sure that you can come back to Hogwarts some day, and play quidditch, and a whole other slew of things. My job as your big brother is solely to protect you and if that means dying in the final battle, I claim it as an honor. You're going to grow up, Ian, and nothing will keep that from happening. So this afternoon, when Professor Snape takes you through the Headmaster's floo, I don't want you to look back. Can you do that for me?" There was no verbal response, but the eleven year old threw his arms around his big brother in a silent obedience. They spent the rest of the evening talking about stupid mundane things like quidditch teams, the giant squid, and whether or not Rowan counted as a girlfriend or a girl friend, unsurprisingly taking opposite views on the subject.

The night before was the last night they would be together. Voldemort would attack in the morning, and the innocents under Professor Snape's care would floo out within seconds of his arrival. Dumbledore wanted to make sure that the deatheaters were given no time to find them prior to the battle, and once the fighting had begun, the order would keep them occupied so that they could have a head start. It was unsurprising that all of them were still up and sitting in silence when the clock tolled midnight. Then Ginny had had enough.

"Accio mattresses!" she shouted and ducked as three mattresses zoomed at her head. That would be plenty as the Slytherin beds were all queen sized and the common room floor was not very large. "Go get into your night things and grab your pillows," she ordered the younger students, crossing to a spare cabinet and pulling out heaps of blankets. Catching on, Draco moved to assist her, while Blaise supervised the children. She had half expected Snape to protest, but he merely accepted one of the blankets and claimed the couch for his own.

Sleeping en masse was an experience to remember. Ginny lay in the protective circle of Draco's arms, with Carrie only six inches away, Drew lying across the foot of the two mattresses pushed together. Rowan and Ian slept in a curled heap like puppies where the mattress met with the third one, which was mostly Blaise's. Ginny had been delighted to find that Ian and Blaise had made a huge step to dissolving the wall that had been there for the last five and a half months since the incident in January. By the time morning came around, they were all tangled together in a mess that Professor Snape felt obligated to capture on film, before waking them.

Draco didn't care if it was a sentimental thing to do. He hugged Carrie, Rowan, and Ian as they each stepped one by one through the floo. Voldemort's assault had been spotted less than a mile away. Giving Drew one last comforting look and a promise to do anything within his power to reunite him with his twin, Draco turned to Blaise. "Take good care of Ian, and send me an owl in a week, okay?"

Blaise clapped him on the back. "Sure, you better get going. Good luck." The second Draco left the office, Blaise dropped the trunk that he had been carrying and shoved Snape's in instead. "There you go, sir. Keep protecting Ian for me. Maybe I'll see you both when this is over." He darted out of Snape's grasp and headed for the portal, as he heard the fastest of Voldemort's forces reach the outer wards.

"What will Ian say when he finds out of this foolhardy action?"

"I told him last night. If I don't make it, reiterate the fact that I love him and I chose to do this to protect him." Without another word, Blaise darted down the staircase and running out of time, Severus Snape disappeared through the floo.

Dumbledore continued through the Forbidden Forest in a desperate race for time, on the word of a thirteen-year-old boy, praying that his twin had not given the same information to Voldemort. Hagrid's efforts had proven futile, and now only Dumbledore would search for the magically bound unicorn in hopes of finding a necessary cure.