Chapter 19: Rivalry & Reunions

Dudley dove behind some cover at the last second as a spell sailed over his head.

"Impediment!" He shouted. The mud under the death eater's foot suddenly sucked him down a bit. The unexpected resistance sent the man sprawling. Another death eater clambered over his fallen companion. "Incarcerous!" The man's long billowing robes suddenly twisted up into his legs and he too landed in the muck.

"Look out!" A voice suddenly cried before an entire section of the courtyard's roof rained down. Dudley quickly ran under the more study doorway, sheltered from the brunt of the debris.

"Dudley!" Neville shouted after across the hall. The teen turned and flattened himself to the ground as Neville and two order members sent a volley of Weasley fireworks out of the doorway into a fresh wave of death eaters. Then all of a sudden the ground quaked and a loud blast sounded from somewhere across the castle. Everyone in the courtyard turned and gazed out towards the clock tower to see a massive explosion of fireworks. "HA! Seamus did it!" Neville said ecstatically before he grabbed Dudley's shoulder. "Come on! Let's go help Kingsley by the greenhouses!" The act of crossing the school was rather treacherous, though Dudley did get enjoyment out of blasting death eaters out of the sky with his stunner. Amazing what even a small moment of stumbling could do to someone fifteen feet in the air. They met up with Seamus in the transfiguration courtyard, where he, Dean, and Ernie were all shooting Fred and George's firework rockets at passing death eater.

"Hey Seamus!" Dudley cried as he shot a few more death eaters out of the sky. "Nice work with the bridge!"

"Thanks mate!" Seamus cried with a grin. "It's nice to use my gift as a force of good for a change!" When they arrived at greenhouse three Kingsley was looking at the plans he and Neville had cobbled together with Ron's help.

"All quiet here?" Neville asked in awe.

"For now," Kingsley remarked with a grin. "That display of pyrotechnics gave the enemy in this sector pause. They've withdrawn to regroup I think.

"Brilliant! I'll get sir Nicholas to send the hunt out here. They can patrol the woods and ward off an impending attack." Neville offered.

"I'm pretty sure the strawberry bushes have you beat," Kingsley said with a chuckle.

"Str… strawberry bushes?!" Dudley asked in confusion.

"Take a peek in the greenhouses," Kingsley said with a grin. Neville dashed towards greenhouse two and gapped.

"They're gone!" He cried in shock. "All of them! Even the venomous tentacula!"

"Yep," Kingsley said with a laugh. "All of the plants grew legs and charged into the forest. Some of the mandrakes limped back about an hour ago, but otherwise, that forest is teeming with some pretty pissed-off shrubbery."

"Blood hell… you've heard about the massive snakes yeah?" Dudley asked.

"Massive snakes?" Kingsley asked in confusion.

"There are about six massives, and I mean absolutely giant, stone snakes slithering around. They only attack death eaters, so I guess it's another Hogwarts defence mechanism, like the armour and the portraits, or apparently the greenhouses, but no one has any idea where they came from." Neville admitted with a laugh.

"I think the castle is pretty fed up," Dudley remarked with a chuckle. Kingsley laughed.

"Good!" Suddenly there was a loud barking sound before Snuffles leapt into the air and tackled Dudley to the ground with a sloppy grin.

"Oi! Geroff you bit mangy mutt!" Dudley laughed. The dog stepped off and changed back with a grin before getting sombre.

"Look who I found. Trying to sneak in without being noticed," Sirius muttered with a frown. Dudley looked over and gapped.

"What are you two doing here?! I thought you were in Canada!" Tonks huffed.

"If you thought I was gonna sit on my arse while Hogwarts burned to the ground you are sorely mistaken." the ex-Auror complained loudly. Remus sighed.

"I tried to convince her to stay, believe me… stubborn as a mule. And I'm not exaggerating! We had a mule on the farm and they got into staring contests." the werewolf complained. Suddenly a ghostly figure appeared on horseback.

"Lord Shaklebolt!" the ghost cried, sounding tinny and echoey in his helmet "I'm afraid the hunt has to fall back! Ready you defences! The enemy is sending the hounds!" then a whole wave of ghosts emerged from the forest, many on horseback, though some ere on foot. So did many of the plants, all of them moving with frantic energy, as though the entire forest was going up in flames.

"What do you-" but Kingsley cut himself off. The temperature suddenly dropped ten degrees and his breath clouded the air in front of him. "Shit! Patronuses!" everyone around them conjured a Patronus, from the flimsiest of shields to fully-fledged animals. Sirius's lion shook its head and roared, while Tonk's wolf howled to the shadowed moon. Dudley stood back in awe. But he could tell it wasn't working. Kingsley's breath was still fogging. What frightened Dudley the most was that judging by Sirius's reaction, they still couldn't see the dementors. So how many of them were there? He got his answer when the greenhouse started freezing over. Not a thin layer of frost, but a sheet of ice at least half a centimetre thick.

"It's no use King!" Sturgis cried as his Patronus faltered and then flickered out. "There's too many of th-" the man cut himself off and stared out into the forest. Dudley looked over himself, despite knowing that he couldn't see them. At least not the way the now stunned wizards could. He thought he saw a ripple of where they must be. But otherwise nothing. One by one everyone's Patronus disappeared. Suddenly Sirius started to whimper. His breath became stilted and he scrabbled at his chest frantically. Dudley stared at him with horror as the man began to sob in utter fear. He could feel it too of course. But Sirius seemed undone by their foul magic. Finally, Dudley could stand it no more. He grit his teeth and marched forward even as everyone else was pulling back into the castle.

"Dudley!" Remus cried in panic.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Dudley roared angrily.

The explosion blasted him off his feet and propelled him into Seamus and Neville. The temperature warmed and the ice melted instantly, flooding the courtyard with about two inches of water. Everyone was staring in amazement and shock.

Dudley's Patronus was a dragon.

And not a facsimile of one either. A full-sized, adult and very angry dragon. It turned to the approaching dementors, some of whom were already fleeing in terror and spewed a gout of ethereal blue flames at them. Then it beat its wings, sending shock waves after the fleeing monstrosities. Then it snapped a few stragglers between its jaws. They let out wails of anguish before disappearing in wisps of smoke. Finally, the dragon spewed one last peal of flame into the forest itself as if saying 'and stay out!' before dissipating into vapour.

"Bloody hell." Seamus finally whispered in awe.

"That was amazing!" Neville cried with a slowly blooming smile. Then someone started clapping. A cheer rose up and soon Dudley was being pat on the back and congratulated.

"My goodness…" Remus muttered in awe. "I didn't know you had it in you, Dudley…"

"Neither did I," Dudley admitted, voice somewhat hollow with shock.

"What memory did you use?" Remus asked.

"Memory?" Dudley asked in confusion. Remus's eyebrows skyrocketed.

"Was that your first time casting a Patronus?!" Dudley nodded slowly. Remus and Tonks exchanged a look of complete shock.

"My magics been acting really weird this last year… you know that incident with the ministry?"

"The windows? Yes, we read about that in the papers." Tonks said.

"I did that," Dudley admitted. "We thought it was Sirius, but I'm pretty sure it was me."

"Well…" Tonks said slowly. "Remind me never to piss you off." Dudley shifted on his feet worriedly.

"I think it only works when someone I care about is in danger of dying… all the other times I've managed to pull off some insane feat of magic like this it's cause Harry or Sirius is in danger… is that normal?" Dudley asked.

"Not particularly," Tonks said candidly. "But I suppose, giving your family's history I wouldn't be surprised."

"Huh?" Dudley asked in confusion.

"Your aunt saved Harry's life remember?" Remus offered with a sad smile. " a powerful magical sacrifice to save her son's life in the face of certain death?"

"Oh yeah…" Dudley said with a smile forming.

"Seems you've taken your vow to protect Harry to heart." Remus offered with a beaming smile. Dudley couldn't help but smile back.

"Come on!" Neville suddenly cried. "They need us back at the entrance. One of the dark's giants managed to knock one of the giant snakes off the bridge!"

"Shit!" Dudley cried before following his friend back into the fray.

Harry had never been in this room before. Susan had come in here when she'd hidden Snape's old potions book. She only described it vaguely as a 'temple to rubbish'. He was only now understanding what she meant. Tall as the great hall and at least five times as long and wide the room was packed nearly to the ceiling with all sorts of things. Spare furniture, broken apparati, old clothes of every size. Then there were the truly bizarre things. A massive stuffed troll in a tutu. A vaguely familiar dented old cage. One of what Harry was sure was Barty Crouch Jr.'s old foe glasses, cracked in half. He even thought he could see a heavily graffitied portrait of Gilderoy Lockhart somewhere in the back.

"Bloody hell Susan," Ron began as he looked around in desperation."How the hell are we supposed to find anything in here?"

"Well, we definitely won't by just standing here," Susan said firmly. "Fan out. Start from the bottom and work your way up. Remember, it looks like a bird with spread wings, and it's covered in sapphires." despite Susan's expert advice, Harry was keenly aware of time passing. Each second more and more people just on the other side of the door were dying. They didn't have time to sift through decades of stuff people wanted to keep hidden away. After what felt like an eternity but was probably only a few minutes he headed back to the clearing they'd first split off from. Ron and Hermione were also there. Ron was discussing a new strategy that involved splitting the room into sections, while Hermione was debating the merits of banishing everything that wasn't the diadem. Harry rubbed his eyes in exhaustion. Neither of those solutions were viable right now.

"Well well well." A voice suddenly called out icily. Harry froze and turned around. But he knew those faces well.

"Zabini." He sneered. "Nott… don't you have better things to do? Like crawl into a hole and mind your god damn business for a change."

"Well you see," Blaise began with a grin. "I heard a rumour that you and your little friends have been searching the castle, ever so frantically, so some kind of magical artifact, and I can't help but wonder, that if I managed to get said artifact first, and bring it to the dark lord… well… I'm sure to be rewarded now aren't I." Harry sneered angrily.

"Take another step into this room." He threatened. "I dare you."

"Bold words," Nott remarked. "But we outnumber you, Potter." Sure enough, Crabbe and Goyle emerged from the shadows looking as tough and menacing as always.

"If I hadn't worn one of them myself I'd wonder if either had brains inside those heads of yours." Ron snarled at the gormless pair furiously. "Do you ever think for yourselves? Or do you just stupidly lumber after the meanest person you can find?"

"Having lived with them!" Yet another familiar voice called from behind the Slytherins. "I can safely say that it is in fact the latter." And who should appear around the bend but Draco Malfoy. His hair was a bit longer than it had ever been, and a little more dishevelled. He was also wearing suspenders, and a scruffy coat that was at least a size too big. But his smug grin was the same as ever.

"Draco!" Blaise cried in horror, "my god what did they do to you mate?!"

"Stuck me on a muggle farm for three months," Draco said candidly before he swept his wand in an arc, sending Crabbe and Nott into the nearest rubbish piles, which collapsed on top of them. "Best time of my life." Blaise let out a choked gasp.

"You traitor!" He screamed. Draco looked around shiftily before he shrugged.

"Uh… yeah." He admitted.

"I FOUND IT!" Susan shrieked with triumphant glee, the hand grasping the delicate silver tiara above her head as if she'd caught the snitch at the World Cup. Blaise whipped around and fired a stunner at her. Instead, it hit the crown, knocking it out of her hand as she gave out an anguished yelp. There was a slight crashing noise as she dove to catch it. Then a moment of silence."I STILL FOUND IT!"

"INCENDIA!" Goyle shouted. But instead of a fireball, as would have been fired if he'd pronounced the spell correctly, a gout of sickly black flames dripped out of his wands. Harry flinched as he could feel its oppressive heat even from across the clearing. Then Goyle let out a scream. Susan rushed from behind the pile and balked.

"Fiendfyre!" She screamed in horror.

"Run!" Draco shouted in panic. No one else needed to be told again. The entire group, including Blaise, began running from the evil flames, which had already consumed Goyle and the pile of rubbish around him and was steadily growing. "This way!" He led them over a convenient bridge. "There!"

"Bloody hell how do you know where you're going Malfoy?!" Ron demanded in awe even as he tossed a look at the rapidly advancing flames.

"I bloody lived here in sixth year Weasley!" Draco reminded him. Sudden the flame, seemingly with a mind of its own rushed across their path ahead. "Come on!" Draco led them through a perfectly constructed tunnel of rubbish, the top of which was already on fire before turning once more towards the door. The way forward was clear. Suddenly Blaise changed forward and came to a stop.

"Sorry, mate." He said with a cold sneer. "But well, I'm sure the dark lord won't mind Potter's death that much." Then with a spell, he sent a tower of rubbish cascading into their path.

"BLAISE YOU UTTER WANKER!" Draco screamed furiously. Harry glanced back and saw the flames licking around the outside of the rubbish piles behind them.

"Where are we going now Malfoy?" Ron demanded with a twinge of worry.

"Ow!" Susan suddenly shrieked before she dropped the crown with a yelp. "It burned me!" She exclaimed. Then they watched in amazement as the crown righted itself and began frantically rolling away from the flames.

"Follow the crown!" Hermione cried. Instantly the five teens scrambled after the crown as it weaved around the growing flames. It seemed almost afraid as it bounced along.

"There!" Harry pointed as he saw the light of the open door.

"Help!" Blaise suddenly screamed, from where he was trapped under a pile of rubbish not far from the door that had collapsed and was quickly being devoured by the flames. Ron right past him without a thought. Hermione only hesitated for a moment, but Harry and Draco both immediately rushed to his aid.

"Hope you know I'm only doing this so I can push you back in myself!" Draco screamed furiously. Blaise sobbed in panic and pain as the flames drew closer.

"Harry!" Susan cried in panic from the door. Finally, the pair managed to extract Blaise, though judging by the slight smoking of his feet, the teen wouldn't be walking for a while. As they rushed for the door the flames followed.

"The crown!" Harry shouted as he watched it roll right past a panting Ron and Hermione. As he and Draco dragged Blaise across the threshold they tripped over the Slytherin's slightly charred feet.

"Close the door!" Draco screamed. Then suddenly someone rushed up and football kicked the crown back into the room right as Susan and Ron frantically closed the door. A small explosion from within made the wall quake and crack before going silent.

"Wow… I leave for a month and everything goes to Hell in a handbasket."

"ANTHONY!" Hermione squealed in delight, leaping into her husband's arms with glee. Ron also ran and gave the young man several firm slaps on the back.

"Harry…" Susan sobbed. Everyone froze and turned to see Susan holding Harry's head in her lap. Harry was staring up at her, vacant-eyed, gasping to gulp in a few short breaths. His whole body was shaking with effort as a dribble of blood dripped out of his nose. "Harry please…"

"Potter," Draco mumbled in shock as he knelt beside the boy. Harry blinked, presence flooding into his eyes, but his nose continued to bleed and he still quivered slightly.

"Tha snake." He choked out. "the snake."

"Shhhh," Susan begged as she stroked his hair with tear-filled eyes. "Shh, it's okay… just… just rest a bit."

"No…" Harry moaned as he tried to will his limbs to stand.

"Potter you look like a strong wind will finish you off before the dark lord does!" Draco complained.

"What… what are you doing here?" Harry demanded with a frown. "I thought you were staying with my aunt."

"I was. Mum still is." Draco confirmed, "but Dobby showed up and told Hestia what was happening and well… I wanted to help. It's half my fault that the castle went to shit anyway."

"You're… different," Hermione remarked with awe.

"Yeah well, I've been woken up by an annoyingly stubborn rooster that I swear learned how to fly every day for the last three months, been licked by a cow more times than I'd care to admit, milked said cow, got laughed at by a goat, that was an interesting weekend, and had to use a terrifying muggle invention called a 'front loader'. Honestly… I wasn't kidding before. It's been pretty great." The blond finished with a smile, running a hand through his hair.

"Scruffy looks good on you," Ron said with a grin. Draco smiled back.

"Thanks, Weasley."

"The snake," Harry repeated as he slowly, gingerly climbed to his feet. "He's with the snake… its… they're in the boathouse…"

"Potter are you sure you should even be walking? There's blood coming out of your nose." Draco remarked with a grimace. Harry hastily wiped his face, but all it did was leave a rather unsightly smear of blood across his cheek. Draco scoffed and shoved a kerchief in his hand. "If I hadn't met the woman I'd say a bloody wolf raised you."

"Well, Sirius helped," Ron reminded him with a snicker, "so he ruined all of Ms. Evans's hard work."Draco snorted.

"We need to get to the boathouse." harry repeated as he cleaned his face. Susan made a noise of distress. "I have to finish this."

"We." she corrected firmly, folding her hand into this. "We're going to finish this. Together." Harry stared at her, weariness eating at his bones.

"Sure." was all he mumbled, too tired to fight. Susan seemed to pick up on that and squeezed his hand comfortingly.

"Stupefy," Ron muttered pointing his wand at a still whimpering Blaise. "Don't know why you bothered with this piece of shite. I say he would have deserved it."

"Letting him die would make me no better than Voldemort,'' Harry said flatly. Everyone gave him a look. "What? The death eaters are already here. There aren't any wards up anyway. And I'm sick and bloody tired of that stupid dodge. Call him by his bloody name. Even if it's just the one he made up to make himself feel better or whatever, just bloody call him that."

"Well said." Anthony laughed before giving Harry a firm but conscientious pat on the back. "Now let's go get rid of him.'' Harry grinned before he led the way down the hall, where the sound of battles grew, drawing him ever closer to the monster who had ruined their lives.

A/N: Very exciting chapter this week! Lots of stuff went down. And plenty of beloved characters made their glorious return!

ILoveGeorgeEads: Thank you!

Aslan's Princess: I'm just imagining a death eater huddled in the corner of their cell in Azkaban quivering in fear at the stack of books now acting as their guard.

Definitely would be an improvement to soul-sucking depression monsters, who are very unreliable.

Draco is truly a changed man, and I am quite proud of how naturally he changed into someone with a more realistic foundation for his own self-worth and the worth of others.

Because cows are the best.

Thank you all for reading!

I cant wait to hear from you all again!

See you next week ;)

Don't forget to keep on reading!

-TTC