72. Voldemort's Last Stand
She appeared in the entrance hall, where everybody was making their way out the front doors and down to the grounds. She could hear people outside yelling, "No!" and "Harry!" as she followed the crowd. The hissing voice shouted out, "SILENCE!" and then there was a loud bang before everyone went quiet.
Coming to a stop amongst the rest of her comrades, Callie surveyed the line of Death Eaters standing a ways away, before her eyes settled on the Dark Lord himself. You Know Who. He Who Must Not Be Named.
"Voldemort." It was the first time she had ever spoken his name, as well as the first time she'd ever seen the man, if he could be called that. He was not human - his skin was impossibly white, his eyes dark red, and he had no lips or nose, only two slits in the middle of his face.
Just like those of the giant snake that was wrapped around his shoulders. The very God-forsaken creature that had nearly killed Snape.
"It is over!" Voldemort called out. "Set him down, Hagrid, at my feet, where he belongs!"
For one confusing moment, Callie thought the half-giant had ended up turning traitor. But the devastated expression on his face as he gently lowered Harry's lifeless body to the ground told her otherwise. He looked completely broken, defeated.
"You see?" Voldemort went on. "Harry Potter is dead! Do you understand now, deluded ones? He was nothing, ever, but a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him!"
"He beat you!" Ron suddenly shouted, and the rest of the Hogwarts defenders broke out in a roar of outrage, before Voldemort aimed his wand and silenced them again.
"He was killed while trying to sneak out of the castle grounds," the vile being lied. "Killed while trying to save himself-"
But he was cut off when somebody broke from the Light Side crowd and charged at him. Callie let out a terrified yelp as Voldemort shot at Neville, knocking him to the ground, and she made to run forward but somebody grabbed her from behind and pulled her back.
As Neville groaned in pain, Voldemort seized his wand and tossed it aside. Meanwhile Callie struggled against Theo Nott, who clapped a hand over her mouth and whispered, "Don't! He'll kill you if you go at him."
If I die, then so will Snape. If I try and help Neville, then Voldemort will kill us both. Still with Nott's hand over her mouth, she nodded, and after a moment, he released her.
"And who is this?" Voldemort asked with a sickening grin on his lipless face. "Who has volunteered to demonstrate what happens to those who continue to fight when the battle is lost?"
A shrill, cackling laugh sounded out, and Bellatrix Lestrange replied, "It is Neville Longbottom, my Lord! The boy who has been giving the Carrows so much trouble! The son of the Aurors, remember?"
"Ah, yes, I remember," Voldemort said. It was all Callie could do not to shoot a Killing Curse at the fucker as she watched Neville struggle to his feet, completely defenseless, his wand lying several yards away in the grass. "But you are a pureblood, aren't you, my brave boy?"
Showing not a hint of fear despite the vulnerable position he was in, Neville shot back, "So what if I am?"
"You show spirit and bravery," Voldemort replied, almost as if he were proud of him, "and you come of noble stock. You will make a very valuable Death Eater. We need your kind, Neville Longbottom."
And the boy who had once been afraid of his own shadow looked him dead in the eye and shouted, "I'll join you when hell freezes over! Dumbledore's Army!"
There was a deafening cheer from the Light Side, and Voldemort's attempt at another Silencing Charm seemed to have failed. "Very well," he hissed. "If that is your choice, Longbottom, we revert to the original plan. On your head, be it." He waved his wand, summoning, of all things, the Sorting Hat.
"There will be no more Sorting at Hogwarts School," he went on. "There will be no more Houses. The emblem, shield, and colors of my noble ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, will suffice for everyone. Won't they, Neville Longbottom?"
Again, Nott had to hold her back as Voldemort aimed his wand at Neville, placing him under a Body-Bind Curse as he shoved the Sorting Hat down on his head. "Let me go!" she shouted. "Damn it, let me go!"
"Neville here is now going to demonstrate what happens to anyone foolish enough to continue to oppose me," Voldemort said. He flicked his wand, and the Sorting Hat burst into flames.
"NO!" Callie screamed at the top of her lungs. And at that very moment, all hell broke loose.
Hundreds of people were rushing towards the castle, shouting and holding their wands at the ready. A giant appeared from behind the castle, and two others that had been on Voldemort's side charged at it. Then arrows were flying at the Death Eaters, who fanned out, some drawing their wands, other disappearing into thin air.
Throughout all this, Callie's eyes were locked on Neville; she had to get to him. But just as she stomped on Nott's foot, forcing him to release her, her knight in shining armor sprung into motion, knocking the hat off his head and pulling a long shiny object from inside it.
She stood frozen as she watched him raise the sword and slice the giant snake's head clean off.
"Look out!" somebody shouted, yanking her to the side just as one of the giants' feet smashed into the ground where she'd been standing only a half-second prior. Once again it was pure chaos - the centaurs had joined in the fight, and several skinny, winged, horse-like creatures (So that's what a thestral looks like, she thought vaguely) were flying at the giants and scratching at their faces. One of them stumbled backwards and fell to the ground with an earth-shattering thud, and Callie saw Neville climb over the creature in a hurry to get to her.
"Fuck this!" he yelled, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her towards the castle. "Get inside!"
She didn't have to be told twice. Everybody else had seemed to have the same idea, as the entrance hall was flooded not only with wizards and witches, but also a handful of centaurs and what must've been the entire house-elf staff. Nott had recovered from the foot-stomping, and was holding his wand on a Death Eater who was cowering against the spiral staircase.
As Callie ran past, she heard the man beg, "Please, son, don't do this!"
"You killed my mother!" Nott growled, and Callie nearly tripped over her own feet at the shock of that bit of information. The last she heard of the father and son's conversation was the boy shouting, "Avada Kedavra!"
The battle was moving into the Great Hall, so Callie headed in there. But almost immediately she was knocked to the ground, her wand flying out of her hand, and her old friend Greyback was on top of her, grinning devilishly and dripping drool over her face. "Mouth-watering, you are," he said as Callie struggled to fight him off.
"Oh, no you don't!" Neville yelled, blasting the werewolf off of her. As he and Ron went at the bastard together, Callie frantically searched for her wand, unable to locate it before somebody picked her up by the neck and slammed her up against a wall.
She knew who he was; she'd seen his picture in the paper along with his wife's. Rodolphus Lestrange. Perhaps he'd heard about Callie trying to strangle his woman earlier, because he seemed dead set on choking the life out of her now, squeezing his hand tightly around her throat. "I don't need a wand to take care of you, lass," he snarled.
Though her own was lost somewhere amongst the hundreds of duelers, she was smiling inside, because she still had her dad's. Still protecting me, even in death, she thought. She retrieved it from her belt and mentally incanted, Crucio!
Lestrange dropped to the floor, releasing Callie, who came crashing down with him. But she was back on her feet in a second, while he was still wondering what the hell had just happened. Before he could figure it out, she turned the beech wand on him and shouted, "Avada Kedavra!"
He was hit with a jet of green light and fell backwards, still as a statue. Dead.
Callie simply stared at him for a brief moment, before somebody came barreling past her, knocking her aside. It was Mrs. Weasley, running towards Bellatrix Lestrange, who was in battle with Hermione, Luna, and Ginny.
"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" the redheaded woman screamed with all the ferocity of a mother bear. "OUT OF MY WAY!" She began to duel the psychotic Lestrange, and Callie and a few others ran over to try and help. But Mrs. Weasley yelled, "No! Get back! Get back! She is mine!"
As Callie retreated, she shouted out, "Don't worry, Bella! Your hubby will be waiting for you!"
Everybody backed up against the walls, watching the two women duel on one side of the room, while Voldemort was taking on McGonagall, Slughorn, and Kingsley Shacklebolt on the other side. Callie kept her eyes on Mrs. Weasley and Lestrange. The latter had been the one person she'd most wanted to see dead the whole night, and she finally got her wish when the redhead struck her square in the chest with a Killing Curse. As the rest of the room cheered, Callie simply smiled to herself. Frank and Alice send their regards. Rot in hell, you sadistic cunt.
Meanwhile, Voldemort was screaming, and his three opponents were blasted off their feet before he turned his wand on Mrs. Weasley.
"Protego!"
For a moment, everybody - including Voldemort - looked around for the caster of the Shield Charm. And then, out of nowhere, in the middle of the Hall, stood the relatively unharmed and completely alive Harry Potter.
The crowd erupted. Callie's mouth hung open at the sight of the Boy Who Refused to Die. And just as quickly as the screams of shock had come, they died down, all eyes locked on the mortal enemies as they stared off and circled each other.
"I don't want anyone else to try and help," Harry said. "It's got to be like this. It's got to be me."
"Potter doesn't mean that," Voldemort hissed. "That isn't how he works, is it? Who are you going to use as a shield today, Potter?"
"Nobody," the boy replied. "There are no more Horcruxes. It's just you and me. Neither can live while the other survives, and one of us is about to leave for good."
The two went back and forth, discussing things that made little sense to Callie, but eventually they came upon a subject of which she had a solid understanding. "Dumbledore's dead, but you didn't have him killed," Harry said. "He chose his own manner of dying, chose it months before he died, arranged the whole thing with the man you thought was your servant."
Her eyes widened. Harry knew? Had he known the whole time? Did Dumbledore tell him?
"Severus Snape wasn't yours," he continued. "Snape was Dumbledore's, Dumbledore's from the moment you started hunting down my mother. And you never realized it, because of the thing you can't understand. You never saw Snape cast a Patronus, did you, Riddle?"
A Patronus? What the hell...?
"Snape's Patronus was a doe," Harry said, and Callie wondered what that had to do with anything at all. But the boy explained, "The same as my mother's, because he loved her for nearly all of his life, from the time when they were children."
Callie was absolutely stunned. Had she really heard that right, that Snape had loved Harry's mother? For "nearly all of his life," since they were children?
"When I was a boy," he had said that night that she'd kissed him, "I had a rather... special friend... I was in love with her."
She remembered the picture that Winslow had shown her of the Slug Club. He'd pointed out himself and Snape... and Lily Potter, nee Evans. They'd gone to school together. They had been in the club together. She hadn't thought anything of it at the time.
The special friend he'd been in love with and had his first kiss with... That was Harry's mum?!
"Whatever happened to her?"
"She married someone else, I never saw her again... She was killed in the first war."
Suddenly her head was spinning. She heard Harry say, "He was Dumbledore's spy from the moment you threatened her, and he's been working against you ever since!" And everything after that was a bit of a blur. Christ in Heaven, it was as though every last piece of the puzzle had fallen into place. That was why he had turned against Voldemort, and why he was so God damn bitter and miserable, why he'd never married or had any relationships. "Nearly all his life" - he'd been in love with a dead woman the last seventeen years.
There was some bullshit about an "elder wand," but she really didn't care what either Harry or Voldemort had to say anymore. She checked her watch. It had been a little over an hour. She had to get back to the Shrieking Shack, and she was maybe two seconds away from Disapparating when Voldemort shouted, "Avada Kedavra!" at the same time that Harry yelled, "Expelliarmus!"
The two spells ricocheted off each other in midair, and the Killing Curse flew back at Voldemort, hitting him in the chest and knocking him backwards to the ground. He was dead.
There was a beat of silence before the entire Hall exploded in cheers, and everyone ran at Harry, hugging him, congratulating him. Many had tears of joy running down their cheeks. Everybody was embracing and thanking whatever deity they worshipped that Voldemort's three decades of terror were finally over.
Callie hadn't moved. The last several hours had been non-stop running and fighting for her life and the lives of her comrades. And then to be shocked with yet another of Snape's endless secrets, and then to watch the most powerful and brutal dark wizard that may have ever lived be struck dead. She felt that there was very little else that she could take right now. Her mind was so wildly overrun with everything she had just experienced.
But she still had work to do. She forced her legs to walk, and grabbed the closest person she could find, which was Seamus. With a rather dazed expression on her face, she said, "I need your help."