Disclaimer: I own Nuffink

I'M BACK! I know I took a long time to write this next chapter but a lot has happened since the last time I wrote. I'm now a married mommy to a beautiful girl. You're jealous I know. I'm sorry about the way I wrote this chapter but I have a four month old, so I can only write when she's sleeping and time is contrained, you'll get all the details but I just couldn't bring myself to write about the battle as it happened.

Chapter Twenty Four: The Calm After the Storm

Christina lay sleeping in her bed. She rolled over in her sleep and a loud angry cat noise woke her up.

"Damn it, sorry Pudge." Christina stroked his fur. She snuggled down into the covers and tried to go back to sleep. She gave up after 20 minutes. She sat up and moved Pudge of the bed. For his part Pudge was not happy to be kicked out of the warm bed. He bit Christina's toes as she swung them over the edge of her bed.

Christina padded her way into the bathroom and got herself a glass of water. On her way back she noticed the fire was going in the living room. She stopped into her room to get Pudge, and then she joined her father on the couch in front of the fire.

"You should be asleep." Severus said, taking a drink of his tea.

" Couldn't sleep, bad dreams." Bad dreams wasn't accurate, hellish nightmares was more like it. For the last three nights all she dreamed about was the battle. "I see them in my dreams." She stated, then swiped his cup of tea. She nearly choked when the liquid that hit her throat burned the whole way down. "Firewhisky? You could of warned me you git!" Severus smiled, something he seemed to do more and more often lately, now that a few days had passed since the battle.

"It's rude to take another's drink without asking, so you deserved it" Severus said mildly.

"See there's some vital parenting lessons you missed, when you have a kid, whatever you're eating or drinking is fair game."

"Oh really, how did your mother handle this."

"I wouldn't drink her coffee, her Pepsi I was all over."

"Ah yes I remember Pepsi, weird stuff. Back to what you said earlier, who do you see in your dreams?"

"The Death Eaters, the people who died."

"I have some dreamless sleep potion if you wish."

"No thanks, they'll go away, besides when I dream of the people that died, I can see their faces one more time." Christina snuggled into Severus.

"Classes will be resuming tommorow."

"Really, are you still gonna be the hard ass potions master?"

"Of course, I can't stop being a bastard to my students, because if they stop fearing me, I will not get them to perform in Potions."

"Sure"Christina said sarcastically. She gave Severus one last hug then went back to bed. As she closed her eyes the battle came back to her.

From the begining the tension and fear almost tore apart the fighters on the side of light. The people in the castle had a few minutes warning because the Centaurs had seen the Death Eaters coming through the forest. They had sent a messenger who put the castle on guard. The Death Eaters had come hard and fast. Within seconds of their entry to the castle hexes and curses had been flying everywhere. For a split second Christina had been scared, but then she got angry. These people had no right to hurt her friends and family.While some people stood motionless Christina and Hagrid had pushed the head table over to provide cover. Immediately the house tables had gone over too, then the real fight began. Christina had hoped and prayed that Manda would show up in time, but the battle had begun without them. Christina knew DADA in theory, but when the time came to use the spells she learned they failed her, so she did the only thing she could think of, she fired off the fun jinxes she knew. Her first spell hit a burly Death Eater, he continued to fight for a moment before he realized his hair had turned pink and green. He was so taken back that he just stood there for a few seconds, those few moments cost him his life. He was hit with a well aimed curse and went down.

A lot of people had started fleeing for their lives when it looked like the Death Eaters were going to when, Christina screamed curses at them. After a 45 minutes of battle there were 40 or so Death Eaters and about 15 people still prepared to fight. Filius had fallen as had madame Pomphrey. Five house elves had died before Christina told them to retreat. Nearly half the students had been killed, before Albus had made them retreat. The only people still ready to fight were Christina, Severus, Minerva, Hagrid, Albus, Draco, Lucius, Hermione, Ron, Remus, Neville, Tonks,Grawp,Firenze, and Luna Lovegood. It was looking bad, Harry was still waiting in the Ante chamber for Voldemort. Instead of surrendering the remaining few stood together facing the Death Eaters. Severus took Christina's hand, and she took Remus'. Remus took Hermione's and Hermione took Ron's. Ron joined hands with Luna, and all the way down the line they joined hands and became united. The Death Eaters had laughed at them, but they had stopped laughing when the doors of the Great Hall flew open, and there stood Manda and what looked like half the witches and wizards in America. The battle began again, more fierce than before, and in the midst of this a terrible figure appeared. Hermione screamed out his name and he laughed. He stopped laughing when Harry appeared. There was no humor in Harry's face as he strode forward. The combatants backed away and Harry and Voldemort went at it. Curses flew faster than could be named.

It was looking bad for Harry when a Death Eater behind Voldemort covertly shot a spell at Severus. Christina saw it coming and pushed him out of the way, she was hit with it instead. She started screaming and writhing on the floor. Time seemed to slow for Harry. He took in everything.Christina on the floor, Severus and Remus trying to help her, and Voldemort's laughing face. Forgetting his wand and his common sense he lunged at Voldemort. His hands around the Dark Lord's throat. They tussled and struggled for minutes that felt like hours. Voldemort somehow managed to conjure a stone knife. He was inches away from stabbing Harry when Christina's piercing screams intensified. Harry found new strength. "THAT'S MY SISTER YOU BASTARD!" Harry wrestled the knife away from Voldemort and stabbed him in his heart. Voldemort was still laughing so Harry started screaming. He was unaware of saying words, but suddenly the knife began to glow. It became so bright that anyone looking had to turn their heads. The great hall began to shake and Voldemort screamed a horrid scream. When the light had lessened and the shaking stopped Harry was standing alone in the middle of the hall. Nothing but a black robe and a wicked looking wand remained of Voldemort.

Christina fell asleep still thinking of the battle and the future.