VERY IMPORTANT: The following chapters contain a lot of descriptions and I tried as much as I could to make them as vivid as possible. But you still must turn on your imagination to picture it all on the whole. Good luck. I hope it won't bother you a lot.
Chapter Thirty Seven: The Siege of Hogwarts
The morning of the eighth of May was met with anxious alert. Patrols were more frequent and everyone was waiting. Waiting for something. Of course, nobody knew exactly what to wait for. They just knew that they would be attacked and needed to defend their lives and the castle.
The feeling of completeness settled in the castle. Everybody knew that tonight was the night: Voldemort would die or survive; the latter wasn't the favorite option. All the students were prepared by professors for the evacuation, but they didn't know where to go. So, basically nobody was informed about anything, except Dumbledore and Snape, who had spent all the previous week on the roof. The major preparations and construction work was held there by more than twenty goblins.
The question was: why goblins if they must be at Gringotts to guard the gold of the wizarding world? But they were working there and were building something big. The Goblins were mute like graves, not even half a word escaped their lips. It was assumed that there was a secret weapon of some sort. Actually, it was, but we'll return to it a bit later, when the night comes.
But the night wasn't here yet. Lunch was spent in silence, but disappointed expressions started to appear on the students' faces. When dinner came, disappointment changed into indignation and frustration. The fact that the students were informed about the day of the attack hadn't been approved by the staff, but the Headmaster stood his ground. He considered them to be his most important allies and giving them such information was a gesture of trust.
During dinner, the children were relaxed and kept up the friendly chat, coming to the conclusion that nothing interesting was going to happen today. They were wrong.
At eight o'clock, during the dessert, the doors of the Great Hall burst open and Bill Weasley made the long awaited announcement, "They are coming from the Forest," he said matter-of-factly, but for everybody to hear.
The noise from the people's talking became louder, but was stopped by Dumbledore's imperious voice, "Silence!" Instantly the Hall became mute and all heads turned to him. "Children from the first to the sixth year, please, follow professor Malfoy, Mrs Weasley and Miss Tonks. Anybody who wants to stay and help with the defense doesn't leave their seats. But I must warn you, your choice can be fatal not only for the attackers, but for you also, so choose your priorities."
The younger students stood up and hurried after the people mentioned above. Of course, Ron couldn't understand what the Hell Malfoy was doing there, but he wasn't the only one. The crowds of students, whispering to each other, were led down to the dungeons and through its maze to the wall with nothing on it. Draco came forward and clearly spoke, "Vendetta!"
The stone moved, revealing a room of green, black, purple and silver. Draco swiftly turned to face the snickering children, probably gryffindors. He looked around with a glare and said icily, "This is the place where you'll spend the night. I want to get it into your thick skulls that this is the place that will save you from a very painful death and I hope you will be grateful for it. That's why no acts of vandalism are allowed. If I return and see that something is wrong, you will be severely punished. If I die and don't return, don't assume you are lucky, because I'll ask somebody else to check on the safest place of Hogwarts, the Slytherin Common room."
Somebody grunted. "Not my words, Dumbledore's. Now you'll be left under the guard of Mrs Weasley and Miss Tonks, don't bother them much. Now that everything is clear, welcome," Draco finished with a sarcastic smile.
He moved away and the children started to pour into the Common room. When the last kid entered, the wall slid back into place. Tonks and Molly Weasley took their places in front of it. Draco bowed slightly and started walking away. "Hey, Malfoy!" Tonks yelled. "We'll check on the room!" Draco nodded without slowing his pace and disappeared behind a corner.
Now, I would like to lift you up to the roof. The best observant deck for us to see the battle below on the Hogwarts grounds. Due to the howl of the security siren, which told that something dangerous was nearing the castle, professor Snape observed the territory in front of the Forbidden Forest. It was still clean. "Can't they turn that damn alarm off?" he muttered, frustrated. "It's more than clear that we are under attack."
His statement was proved by a large grey cloud above the Forest that was quickly reaching the castle. "First – load, second – be ready to turn, third – turn twelve degrees to the left!" Snape ordered still looking through his charmed Omniculars at the cloud. The Moon was full and gave much needed light, so he could now more or less see clearly what the first move of Voldemort was.
The goblins started to fuss over three huge constructions, fulfilling Snape's orders. These constructions were three catapults, loaded with balls of air lava and a few more components, which provided death or major injuries to werewolves, vampires, giants and gargoyles and other dark creatures which were possibly on Voldemort's side
The whole Forest turned into a wasps' nest. The drone of thousands of voices, or more likely groans and roars, filled up the depths of the forest. "First – fire!"
The dark sky was lit up by a single fireball, which flew gracefully through the sky and landed in the beginning of the cloud, which turned out to be a flock of harpies. From the very start, they lost one of their members. That really pissed them off and they charged at the source of the attack. It wasn't very good thinking; before they reached the castle twelve more harpies went to the ground with a one way ticket.
"All – fire! Where the heck are they!" Snape's words must've been heard, because a flapping of wings was heard and no less than fifty hippogriffs appeared. They decided that harpies were dirtying the sky, so they should be removed. To my mind, their opinion was quite right.
Still, the job of the catapults wasn't done yet. The Forest seemed to become too small and the fighters moved out of it onto the Hogwarts grounds. The fangs of werewolves and vampires, the weights of giants, the arrows of centaurs and the horns of unicorns; everything was in use in this mess of dark and light creatures.
Almost all the inhabitants of the Forbidden forest were fighting their way to return to their living place or for the power to seize it away. The castle was completely dark, it looked absolutely lifeless, the only movement was on the roof, from where fireballs were constantly sent.
"Look, we aren't winning," Snape stated in a tone of a neutral observant. "Second four, no, three degrees to the right and wait for my order to fire. First move two – Second fire! Yeh, first move seven degrees to the left and five down, six vampires is the target. (That meant the ball must have more Garlisium potion in it.) Hell, Macintosh has been down already. This barbeque will last till morning! And the Moon gives them so much power!" He again looked through his Omniculars. "They are retreating…No way. All – fire all the time on the edge of the Forest as much as you can. Oh, and add a bit of gunpowder," Snape instructed with a sadistic smile.
"Gunpowder?" one of the goblins squeaked.
"Yes, you heard me right. Hurry, they are running too fast with their tails between their legs," Snape commented, chuckling, using his instrument for observing. "Yeh, that was a good blow," he said satisfied, looking at a few werewolves, who were being fired at.
The gunpowder made lava balls like real bombs, which blew up on contact with a surface. The pierces of lava flew towards everything in a twenty foot radius, that's why the edge of the forest came to be on fire.
Voldemort's army was trapped. In the front was a wall of fire and, certainly, nobody from the forest wanted to help them escape. To Voldemort, they were just leftovers of the losers, who promised to take the castle without him moving a finger and now nothing had been achieved. The first battle was a complete failure.
The reason was quite simple – Voldemort's smugness. He thought that Dumbledore wouldn't find any animals to fight for him and was very surprised he had organized rows of centaurs, unicorns, Thestrals, gnomes and dwarfs in the middle of the forest. The Dark Lord expected to see Aurors, professors and even students, well, human beings. People against animals are condemned to lose, because no hexes or charms can protect them from wild hunger fot blood or the passion to kill and torture. Well, his assumptions weren't right and already that fact had started his downfall.
But let's return to the castle. The remaining dark creatures died, trying to penetrate through the fire into the forest or from Snape's fireballs, but soon the lawn was cleared; of alive creatures anyway. The creatures still alive were welcomed to Hogwarts. But the dead animals couldn't move anymore. The green of the grass became brown from blood, dead bodies were lying everywhere. The grounds looked more like a food place for crows and carrion crows than a place where children played and flirted not more than a week ago.
Snape spat in disgust and turned to the goblins. "That is all for now. We can go to bed. The work is finished for today."
The goblins only nodded and went down to their apartment right under the roof. Still, Snape's work wasn't finished yet. He returned to his chambers to take equipment needed for his outdoor expedition, and was pleasantly surprised to find his room not empty. He came towards his bed and shook her lightly by her shoulder. "Macbeth, wake up." 'She looks like an angel when she is asleep, but I like her more when she is an awaken tigress.'
Halflife slowly opened her eyes, but became fully awake when she recognized the face of her beloved. "Are you all right?" she asked, running her eyes all over him, looking for any injuries.
"Yes, yes, nothing is wrong with me. The roof was almost indestructible. Nobody could harm us there."
"What do you mean "almost"? There was still a possibility?" she asked with slight panic.
"There always was a possibility. Even Hogwarts could have been taken tonight if something had gone wrong. Now why are you here? You are supposed to be with the students, aren't you?"
"I waited for you. Just to check that everything was okay," she answered a bit shyly. "I was so tired that I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. It was not more than five minutes ago, I swear," she said, making excuses.
"No problem," he turned and headed to the cupboards on the wall. "I have one more thing to do. You can stay, if you like."
"What thing?" Halflife asked with a frown.
"A very important thing."
"I am going with you," she stated with determination and stood up from the bed.
"Are you sure you want to?" Snape asked, turning from the numerous bottles and vials he was putting in a large bag.
"I don't want to miss anything important."
"As you wish, but put your cloak on, we are going outside."
"Outside? Are you crazy!"
"I told you it was important. And everything important has some craziness in it, especially in my case."
"No comments on this one," she said, shaking her head.
"Odd, missing a chance to tease me?" Snape asked definitely in a flirt mode.
"Go to Hell," she muttered.
"Well, we are going right there. Common."
They walked through the dungeons, but not to the Entrance Hall. Snape led her through several corridors to a small door that creaked to reveal Hogwarts Greenhouses. "Quite useful when I need some herbs for potions," he answered her unspoken question he knew she wanted to ask.
"So we are here for some herbs?" she asked a bit disappointed.
"No some other stuff."
They passed the Greenhouses and reached the battle field. Snape looked around thoughtfully then went to the nearest dead centaurs. He kneeled down and started to cut off its hooves. "So you decided to be a marauder for tonight?" she asked wanting to throw up; From the sight of a dead animal, his actions or both.
"You can put it this way, but look on the other side."
"Nah, complete darkness."
"He won't need them anymore, that's for sure, but there are more than thirty potions where centaur's hooves are used. Some of them are antidotes to dark curses and poisons, so its made itself very useful after its death. Especially, taking into consideration that the price for them is enormous. These animals can be donors for hundreds of people absolutely for free. Nobody can miss such a chance." Snape moved to another nearby creature, which happened to be a werewolf.
"When you explain, it becomes absolutely clear. I am sorry," she stepped closer to him, but was immediately stopped.
"Stay back," he warned. "You don't have protection on you."
She deferred from the werewolf and watched Snape work from a safe distance. He removed the werewolf's fangs, nails, fur and even took some blood. "Never thought werewolves could be so useful."
Snape only nodded and moved to another body. It took them about two hours to inspect all the dead bodies that were suitable for taking parts, because some bodies were too burnt or too near to the forest or simply blown up. On their way back, they met Draco, who dragged himself to his bedroom. He nodded in greeting, but then noticed Snape's blood stained robes and gloves.
"Oh, sorry, father. I must've done it, but I was so busy in the hospital wing. It's a real mess in there. Sorry again. Can I go to bed now?" he asked, visibly more tired than his voice sounded and probably in mind too, because Draco Malfoy never asked permission to go to bed, especially since he was eighteen.
"Yes, of course, Draco. Everything is alright. Rest as much as you want. You have a big day tomorrow," Snape said with reserve, but also with fatherly concern.
Draco nodded a few times and continued his trip. When he disappeared behind a corner, Snape asked with deep frown, "What mess in the Hospital Wing? Why didn't you tell me! He is exhausted almost to death! I could have helped him!"
"I was there right before I met you. They expanded the Wing – it takes the whole floor now. All the wounded animals were placed in there. A lot of students volunteered to help with medicine and stuff. They were all excited to touch a real unicorn, you know."
"Such kids still," Snape said, shaking his head.
"Well, it doesn't matter. Draco took a small room in the corner of the wing and it seemed he replaced the whole laboratory worktable in there. Used seven cauldrons and everything," Halflife described with a bit of childish fascination. "He made every potion Madam Pomphrey asked for. Right then and there. If it wasn't for Virgie, he probably - "
"Virgie? Who is this?" Snape unceremoniously interrupted.
"He calls Ginny this. New nickname, I presume."
"He gave her a nickname?" he asked with a wry glance.
"Why not? She is his partner and friend and they - " but she stopped herself and returned his look of conspiracy.
By that time they had reached Snape's chambers. "Does your invitation stay as it is?" Halflife asked him in front of the door.
"You have the right, you warmed the bed already."
They entered, and after visiting the bathroom and doing everything needed to go to bed, Snape occupied the couch and Halflife settled in bed. "The bed isn't that warm, Severus."
"You have your wand, use a warming spell," Snape grunted from under a blanket.
"You know that your bed is much more comfortable than the couch and I am freezing here. I am sure we can help each other."
'She is playing with me. What a thing!' "Your arguments seem to be reasonable."
"Knowing you to be a rational person, you won't wait any longer and come here," she ordered, revealing her impatience.
"Or you'll freeze to death," he rolled he eyes, stood up and made himself comfortable on his own bed.
"What took you so long?" she asked with a pout of pure innocence, but with devils in her eyes.
"Shut up or you won't get a good night kiss," Snape drawled.
She instantly became silent, but five minutes later she opened her mouth again. "So where is my kiss?" Halflife demanded.
'We can die tomorrow and she is bothering me with some stupid kiss.' Still, he turned to face her and kissed her with so much force and passion that she thought her skull would break. "Is that enough?" he asked huskily.
"Yes," she breathed out, still in a daze.
"Good night then," he turned his back to her and prepared to fall asleep.
"Can I call you Sev?" she whispered into his ear.
"Not even my mother dared to call me that," he muttered.
"Well, I am a strong woman, I can dare, Sev."
"But not in public, ok?" Frankly speaking, he liked her calling him like that. It sounded personal, more intimate. Like a language of their own.
"Ok, only in our…I mean, in your bed."
"Buy the ticket at the nearest door," he mumbled and fell asleep.
She settled herself as closely to him as possible, hugging him on the waist. No protest was heard.
The screaming siren served as an alarm clock for the castle inhabitants. It was noon, but everybody was soundlessly asleep because their restless night ended not earlier than three o'clock. The awakened people were the Auror on night patrol.
Still, the signal was met with readiness for action. The school volunteers were the first down to the Entrance Hall. They were all seventh years without any exception, even all the hufflepuffs were present and some sixth years. Also their rows were increased by older students from Durmstrang and Beaxbottons. So all in all there were about seventy students. Then count also the Order and no less than a hundred professional Aurors, and you could say that Voldemort would have his ass kicked pretty hard.
Everything still depended on only one person, only one boy, who was standing in a secluded alcove, not wanting to be seen by anybody. His only company were his closest friends, but soon their sanctuary was discovered by an intruder. "Potter, my last words for you," Draco said sternly.
His weak state from the previous day was gone. He looked collected and strong. To Harry, it seemed that power radiated from him. Harry followed him to a nearby classroom. Ten minutes later Harry emerged from it with a determined expression on his face. Glancing at him, Ron, who felt a bit nervous and repeatedly was clenching and unclenching his wand in his robes pocket, said with a weak smile, "You look like you are ready for everything."
"I am," Harry answered.
The Grand Doors slowly began to open. From the outside came sounds of explosions and fragments of orders. Halflife faced the students, being the DADA teacher and also the professor in charge of the teens members of the Hogwart's Army, and greeted her wards, "I am happy to see you all here. I want you to have a happy experience about all this. Headmaster Dumbledore let me make this day your N.E.W.Ts DADA exam. So you won't do it twice. This battle will show vividly your skills in protection and attack. So go and get as much as you can!"
She turned towards the opened doors and exclaimed with sparks of excitement in her eyes, "Terranamow!"
The picture that opened their eyed wasn't the one they expected; hundreds of black robes filled up the lawn and huge fireballs were falling from the sky. The Aurors left a bit earlier and now were viciously fighting with the Death Eaters. There was almost chaos, but it wasn't from panic, but from the mess of people and dead animals' bodies that were left from the night before.
We will again move high above the battle field to the lonely black figure on the roof with his Omniculars. He looked at the azure-black ocean of people below. Azure was the color of the Aurors' robes. The expanse of the lawn was large, so it was difficult to see what was happening on one end, when you were on the other.
"Yesterday was a barbeque, now we have a slaughter house," Snape said with disgust. "Where did he find so many pureblooded idiots? Perhaps, their brain is also pure – with no convolutions in it. Second – three degrees to the left and fire! Well, everything seems to be under control. Yes, there is her ponytail. Uuuh," he made a grimace of mock disgust. "That was a nasty hex, dear. Serves him right. First, second – fire, third – twelve degrees to the right! Hurry up! Reinforcement is coming!"
He looked more closely at the edge of the forest. He didn't like THOSE black robes. The wall of fire was still present, but when they went through it, it died down and traces of ice appeared on the trees' branches. Dementors arrived at their feast. They weren't dangerous to the Death Eaters – they had no happy memories to suck from them, but the Aurors and especially the children, who weren't hardened by the problems of the real life, were food served on a silver platter.
"Damn them! Hey, you move your lazy butts! Dementors are coming!" Snape roared at the goblins, which at once started to move quicker because the Dementors were associated by them with the heralds of Apocalypses. "Fire on them, you dolts! Don't stay stupefied!"
Still, that wasn't enough. There were too many Dementors for three catapults to burn. And they also looked too much like Death Eaters and aiming at the crowd wasn't safe. That is why the last Dumbledore trump card was used; the dragons with their riders. They appeared in the sky from behind the castle and flew above the roof, almost touching the catapults, as if trying to parade.
Ten minutes later Snape checked on them. "Let's see, what those upstarts are capable of. Uuum, nothing in particular. Stupid riders," he shook his head. "Dragons are immune to the Dementors, but riders are humans, for Merlin's beard! What can a young dragon do with a crazy rider on its back? Fools!"
He directed his Omniculars to the other side of the lawn and cursed under his breath. "First – turn two degrees to the left, second – seven to the left, third – stay where you are and fire, fire, fire! We have some trouble makers near the Lake. Mountain Trolls decided to make it even messier."
Passions were running high below. More and more people turned from standing to lying positions. It didn't mean they were dead, but, certainly, incapable of fighting anymore and only hoping that others would be more successful. It wasn't clear who was winning. Waves of black were covered with other colors, but still they were present and desperate to win. Light and Darkness locked together in a deathly battle, knowing that its outcome would fulfill their dreams and they had no other chance at it.
The Death Eaters ruthlessly tried to push through the masses of Hogwart's Army to get access to the castle, but all their attempts were in vain. Hogwarts proved to be the most safe and impregnable place in the wizarding world. Not only because it was protected by numerous charms, but because there were people ready to defend it, risking their lives.
Still, high spirits can't block torturous curses and unpredictable troll attacks. Even the Aurors were drained from eternal curse casting. "Don't give up, don't do it," Snape chanted from his post. "We need just one blow, something fresh to finish them off. Just one blow."
His prayer was heard, but that help was so surprising and sudden that it was unbelievable. A silver dragon rose into the sky, it appeared from thin air. It called two other dragons in their special language and led them to the rescue. The sight was so fascinating that Snape couldn't take his eyes from it. The dragons practically burnt the Death Eaters down.
But the battle wasn't over yet. The point of all this wasn't liquidated yet. But where was Voldemort? Had the Final Duel happened already? Nobody knew. The silver dragon disappeared as suddenly as it emerged. Snape already thought that everything was over, but his face made a painful grimace and he clenched his heart side with his left hand. "God, help him," he breathed and blacked out.
A few seconds later, a huge explosion of light came from the side of the Quiddich Pitch. If you had been there, you'd have thought that a nuclear bomb had been sent off on the pitch. The pole of light was so high and bright that people were blinded for a few seconds. It subsided after a few minutes, but the sparks were still in the air as if winking at the spectators.
The Hospital wing looked like a wasps' nest. All the students were released from their sanctuary and enthusiastically helped Madam Pomphrey to heal numerous patients, who had been injured during the battle. And there was more than a lot. The whole floor was occupied by beds with white sheets and rigid bodies on them. Ten mediwitches were delegated from St. Mungo to help. Ginny was running back and forth with bottles and even cauldrons full of different healing potions needed for cut injuries.
"Madam Pomphrey, we have run out of potions and professor Snape is still out. What shall we do?" Ginny asked in panic.
"Bring me in there," came a faint whisper from one of the beds, still Ginny heard it and was instantly near the bed.
"He is definitely crazy," commented Ron, who happened to be in the nearby bed. He wasn't seriously injured, but still needed some medical treatment.
"Draco, you are barely awake, you can't even stand," Ginny whispered back with deep concern, tilting down so nobody could hear her.
"I can't, but you can," Draco said softly.
"But I can't do any -"
"You can and you will. Bring me in there. We'll do it. As we always do."
Ginny looked into his eyes and saw that he was completely serious. Even if he was deathly pale and unquestionably weak to the point of being unable to move, his piercing and stern glance said that he wasn't delirious.
"Mam, we are moving professor Malfoy to the Storage Room."
Without waiting for Pomphrey's permission, she levitated Draco's bed to said room. "Why does HE get a separate room?" Ron asked pouting. Little did he know that it was less pleasant than just lying on a hospital bed.
"I don't know, Draco. So many lives depend on me. I am not sure if we can risk this."
"We are partners, remember? I'll give you instructions, just follow them correctly."
"But what if I mess up?" Ginny asked on the verge of tears.
"Give me my wand."
"Huh?" She searched in his robes' pockets and finally grasped the slender wood. "Here," she put the wand into his fingers, still not understanding his reasoning.
"Cross your wand with mine. Maybe the potion of the partnership will help us again."
Ginny did what she was told, and with the touch of her wand to his, she felt like something was penetrating into her body and her hands began to glow. "Wow, I feel like I was born to make potions!" she squealed, no traces of the earlier panic in her voice.
"So what's the first one?" Draco whispered.
"Kanabera, the painkiller," Ginny answered, checking up the list in her hand and simultaneously making the water boil under five cauldrons in front of her.
"Ok, firstly chop the cannabis leaves…"
Draco continued to give her instructions in a very soft voice, but she somehow heard every word and managed to finish seven potions in three hours.
Another day went in liquidating the consequences of the siege of Hogwarts.
Three days later, almost all the patients were released and were gathered by Dumbledore on the same lawn where the fight took place. "Good evening, Ladies, Gentlemen and other guests," Dumbledore began. "I invited you all to announce a very victorious news." Everybody held their breaths. "The Dark lord was destroyed in the Final Duel. His Death Eaters are also dead, so the wizarding world can sleep in peace from now on."
The crowd cheered, everyone in his, hers or its way, but everybody was undoubtfully happy. "Still, I want to mourn over the present casualties," came Dumbledore's voice above the masses. Silence filled up the grounds. "I won't mention all the names, however at the same time, I am glad the list isn't long. But they were and will always will be people, who gave their lives for the great cause. And we'll always remember them and their sacrifice.
But the saddest news is that we have lost half of the library, which was burnt down with a simple spell that ricocheted from the wall. In her own battle for knowledge and for children also, we lost Madam Pince. She was Hogwart's librarian for almost thirty years and was a professional, who won't be easy to substitute.
But enough of grief, we are still alive and will continue our way on this road of life. I want to remind my dear students that the Magical Talent Show will be held in three weeks in the Great Hall. So you have time to prepare some advanced spells to show us. And also I want to announce that instead of an average ball, we will have a masquerade. You must wear masks and can be dateless. Quite interesting, to my mind. Now, help yourselves to a small feast the House Elves prepared for you."
Dozens of small tables appeared on the grounds and nobody looked twice at the food, they just ate it. The Dream Team occupied a small table near Hagrid's Hut. Most people who passed them, tapped Harry on his back with words like, "Nice work, mate," or "I was sure, you'd do it." Harry only nodded, saying nothing.
"So what really did happen there?" asked Ron, putting another cookie in his mouth.
Ron wasn't the only one who was anxious to know about Voldemort's end. The Gryffindors had come to a silent agreement that Harry would tell them everything tonight in the Common room, but their hopes were in vain. "It's not my place to tell," Harry answered, looking at the castle.
"But there were only two of you and you are the one who survived," Hermione pointed out.
"Odd. I thought you of all people must have known that I hadn't been alone there," Harry said.
"What do you mean?" Ron asked, thinking Harry made no sense with his statement.
"I'll tell you in due time," Harry said with a wink.
Ron groaned.