Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling
Chapter 34: HBP 17: the 1st Battle of Hogwarts
(Young Luna's thoughts)
Old Luna's thoughts
Selena, Luna's mom's thoughts
The sword's thoughts
Parseltongue
One minute, Harry was in a session of the D.A. with Karkaroff, the next instant he was sitting at a table writing an essay that he didn't remember starting. He looked up. Hermione and Ron were sitting across from him doing their own homework.
"What's going on? How did we get here?" asked Harry.
His friends looked at him in alarm.
"Harry, what's the last date you remember?" asked Hermione.
"September 17th," said Harry. "Isn't that today day's date?"
"Bloody hell!" said Ron.
"It's May 24th," replied Hermione. "Your memories of the past few months have been erased by your soul's arrival. Hang on! I've got to go get something!"
Hermione ran up to her room and retrieved a book that she brought down to the common room.
"When we realized what had happened to you and Luna, I started keeping a diary for you so that you could catch up on what you'd missed," said Hermione as she handed the book to Harry.
At that moment, the door to Gryffindor Tower was knocked off its' hinges! Through the door came five shirtless men wearing grease paint on their faces so that they resembled skulls!
"Delibro!" shouted Harry as he cast the Onion Peel curse at the lead Death Eater. The Death Eater's skin began peeling off and the man began screaming. When the muscles started to peel away, the trend reversed as he began healing and his skin grew back.
"Werewolves!" shouted Hermione. Knowing that their opponents would be able to heal any injury not caused by silver, made them change their tactics.
Wordlessly, Neville summoned his cloak.
Ginny cast a Reductor Curse at one of the Death Eaters that blew a large hole in his chest. She could see it healing before her eyes.
"Stupefy!" shouted several students as their stunners failed to subdue the werewolves.
Four of the werewolves had wands, which they used to stun some of the students that had tried to stun them.
"Vaporo Conus!" hissed Harry as a jet of super heated steam erupted from the end of his wand and expanded into a cone shaped area that scalded two of the werewolves badly enough that they were out of action, temporarily.
"Bifidus Caedes!" shouted Hermione as a werewolf's blood appeared next to him in the shape of his heart and circulatory system. It stayed there suspended in the air for an instant before it fell to the ground in a puddle. The werewolf gave a piercing scream before he fell to the ground, convulsing. His muscles, when suddenly deprived of blood, all cramped up at once in a searing sensation that felt like when a marathoner hits "the wall". His heart was having a massive attack as it was completely deprived of blood. His brain, without blood to hold it up collapsed in a stabbing headache that turned into a stroke.
Neville's cloak had arrived by now and he reached into its' depths and pulled out his sword and a silver dagger.
Ginny cast another Reductor Curse at the werewolf's head, keeping him incapacitated.
Ron waved his wand and some snake-like tendrils shot out of the tip of his wand binding the lead werewolf. The werewolf flexed his muscles and broke free of his bonds.
Harry waved his wand and pushed a werewolf towards Neville.
Neville, in a figure "8" stroke, cut the limbs off the werewolf and stabbed it in the heart with the silver dagger.
"Bifidus Caedes!" shouted Hermione as she removed the little bit of blood that had regenerated from the werewolf she'd downed.
Ginny cast another Reductor Curse to keep her opponent down.
Ron re-bound his opponent, who then had to break free again.
With a wave of his wand, Harry pushed another werewolf at Neville, who dispatched it the same way he had the first.
Hermione, Ginny and Ron continued to keep their opponents subdued until each of them could get a chance to push their werewolf at Neville, who killed them all with his silver dagger.
"It looks like the 1st Battle of Hogwarts has begun, just as Luna foretold," said Harry. "Ron, Ginny, Hermione, gather up your squads and help defend the castle. Neville, get Susan and meet me on top of the Astronomy Tower. I'll go get the Slytherins. Unless Luna's wrong, we need to prevent the Headmaster's assassination."
Scene Break
Several of the Slytherins were studying in their common room when the door swung open. In walked a group of Death Eaters clad in their skull masks and black robes. The walked with a swagger that said they owned the place.
"Emily, raise the alarm," said Luna. "Amanda, Stan and I will deal with these Barf Greeters."
"Time for a re-match, blood traitor!" screamed Draco Malfoy as he pointed a finger at Luna. "Avada Kedavra!"
Luna summoned her sword from within her and harmlessly absorbed the Death Curse. She then flicked her wand and snake-like tendrils shot forth and bound Draco.
"Conseco!" yelled Amanda as she cast a dismembering curse at Draco. Instead of removing Draco's arm, as the spell had last time she faced him, all that was cut off was his sleeve, revealing that Draco's lost arm had been replaced by an artificial one that appeared to be made of living diamond.
Stan, silently cast a shielding charm to protect himself, Amanda and Luna.
"Serpensortia!" shouted Theodore Nott as he launched a snake at Luna.
"Stupefy!" shouted Blaise Zabini as his stunner bounced off the shield that Stan had cast.
"Stupefy!" shouted Millicent Bulstrode as her stunner felled Blaise.
Draco's fingers ended in pointed claws, which sliced through his bonds like paper. He then pointed his finger at Luna and shouted: "Avada Kedavra!"
Luna absorbed the death curse with her sword, then channeled it back at him in the form of an energy beam, while she turned to the snake and said: "Don't worry, I'll protect you."
"Delibro!" shouted Amanda as she cast the Onion Peel Curse at Theodore.
Stan cast another shielding charm on his friends.
"Protego!" Theodore was able to get a shielding Charm up in the nick of time to save him from Amanda's curse. However, the shield only protected his front.
Millicent cast a Reductor curse at the ceiling of the dungeon above Theodore and collapsed it onto him.
Draco absorbed Luna's energy beam with his arm and lunged at her, trying to cut her with his razor-sharp diamond claws.
Luna blocked his claws with her sword and tried to neutralize his magical arm by cutting it off. But she discovered that he sword couldn't cut through it.
Amanda, Stan and Millicent, all cast stunners at Draco. He was able to absorb two of them with his arm, but the third one got him.
As soon as he fell, Luna cut off Draco's head.
"Thanks Millicent," said Luna as she paused to catch her breath.
Millicent reached up to take off her Death Eater mask when-
"Delibro!" shouted Harry, who had just arrived.
Amanda dove and rolled in front of Millicent casting a shielding charm as she did so.
"She's on our side!" shouted Luna as she went to join Amanda in protecting their defector. "This is Millicent Bulstrode. She defected to our side months ago, remember?"
"Sorry," apologized Harry. "Look we need to get to the Astronomy Tower-"
"-to rescue Dumbledore," finished Luna.
Just then, Emily La Strange returned leading a group of students. As soon as they saw Millicent, they went on the attack. But between them, Luna, Amanda and Stan were easily able to block their attacks.
"SHE'S ON OUR SIDE!" shouted Luna.
"It looks like we'll have to take her with us," observed Harry.
Scene Break
After they had run into the magical barrier on the stairs, Neville Longbottom and Susan Bones shifted into the shadow realm and Shadow walked the rest of the way up the tower. They were supposed to meet the rest of Squad A at the top. Neville and Susan didn't know what would be waiting for them at the top of the Astronomy Tower. Would their friends be fighting for their lives? Was Dumbledore fighting for his life? Was it already too late?
When they stepped out of a shadow in the stairwell, they only had an instant to take in the scene before them. Professor Karkaroff was laying unconscious, a gaping and messy wound in his abdomen. A Death Eater was casting shields and counter-jinxes with blinding speed as Professor Dumbledore kept up a constant barrage against him.
With sword in one hand and wand in the other, Neville lunged forward and cut off the Death Eater's wand hand, just as Susan and Dumbledore had each cast a disarming charm. The Death Eater flew off the top of the tower and landed on his head with a sickening CRACK!
"Well done, my boy!" praised Dumbledore. He patted Neville on the back as they all went to the edge to look over at the body of the Death Eater who had fallen to his death from the top of the tower. "It looks like your Defense Association had prepared you well!"
What happened to Karkaroff?" asked Harry who had just arrived with the others.
"I'm afraid he caught an Entrail Exploding Curse," replied Dumbledore. I'm afraid he's lost a lot of blood and won't survive long enough to reach the infirmary."
"Leave that to me!" exclaimed Stan as he pulled a Blood Replenishing Potion from his bandolier and poured it down Karkaroff's throat. "He'll need another with when he gets to Poppy!"
"Hang on!" said Harry. "There's still a battle going on and Millicent here is likely to be mistaken for the enemy. Why don't you and she see to Karkaroff, while my Squad takes care of the mopping up?"
"An excellent idea, Harry," said Dumbledore as he flicked his wand and levitated Karkaroff.
Harry, Luna and their friends had already dealt with the most dangerous of the Death Eaters. They easily captured the remaining ones. Except for Wormtail, who, in his animagus form, was small enough to slip away unnoticed.
On interrogation, it was found that Wormtail had led the attack through the passageway from the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade to the Whomping Willow.
And on examination, it was found that the Death Eater who had fallen to his death from the top of the Astronomy Tower was none other than Severus Snape.
Authors Note
You are probably wondering about what happened to chapters 25-33. The answer is that I had writer's block on what to put in place of the HBP but I already had the ending of this fic planned. So, rather than subject you to ten chapters about Quiddich and tutors, I skipped ahead. If I receive a huge number of responses from people who want to know what happened, I may be inspired to write those chapters. But for now, I'm just going to write the climax and ending of this fic.