A lot of this chapter was taken from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book. Since I have you here, I just wanted to say thank you for reading this story and that it's coming to an end shortly, but I was planning on writing a prequel or a sequel for the story, so let me know what you would like to read more;)
Chapter 23
The War Begins
While Harry was out, Kingsley and uncle Remus came through the portrait, shortly followed by Bill, Fleur, Arthur, and Molly. I guessed someone must have notified the Order members that something serious was about to happen in Hogwarts. The room was filled with loud chattering, everyone wanted to start fighting, to start doing anything really, and I wasn't an exception. My whole body, although appeared to be a stone-cold statue, inside I could nearly feel my heart start beating again with adrenalin. This was the moment I'd been waiting for for over 300 years. The portrait opened once more and out of it another four people came into the room. I noticed Edward's mouth twitch in a small grin, an old Gryffindor quidditch team was joining us, Oliver Wood stood at the front, just like he did when he was the captain. Behind him, were Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet, I knew them better than the rest of the team, we were in the same year and shared some of our classes together. The last girl was Katie Bell, I barely ever spoke to her back in school, seeing how she was best friends with Cho, and I was definitely not a fan of the latter.
The main door, which led into the castle, opened and I noticed Harry slip down a few stairs in shock. To be fair, the room was packed now, far more crowded than when he had last been in here.
"Harry, what's happening?" said Remus, meeting him at the foot of the stairs.
"Voldemort's on his way, they're barricading the school…Snape's run for it….What are you doing here? How did you know?
"I sent messages to the Order," Dean explained.
"They're evacuating the younger kids and everyone's meeting in the Great Hall to get organized," Harry said. "We're fighting."
"I knew we came at the right time!" Emmett clenched his fists in excitement.
There was a great roar and a surge toward the stairs, Harry was pressed back against the wall as everyone ran past him, the mingled members of the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore's Army, and the old Gryffindor Quidditch team, all with their wands drawn, heading up into the main castle.
"Come on, Luna," Dean called as he passed, holding out his free hand, she took it and followed him back up the stairs.
The crowd was thinning. Only a little knot of people remained below in the Room of Requirement, including my family, and Harry joined us. Only now, when the loud chattering seized, I noticed that Molly was struggling with Ginny. Around them stood Uncle Remus, Bill, and Fleur.
"You're underage!" As Harry approached them, Molly was shouting at her daughter, "I won't permit it! The boys, yes, but you, you've got to go home!"
"I won't!" Ginny's hair flew as she pulled her arm out of her mother's grip."I'm in Dumbledore's Army-"
"A teenagers' gang!"
'Mom's right, Ginny," said Bill gently. "You can't do this. Everyone underage will have to leave, it's only right."
"I can't go home!" Ginny shouted, angry tears sparkling in her eyes. "My whole family's here, I can't stand waiting there alone and not knowing and…"
Her eyes met Harry's for the first time. She looked at him beseechingly, but he shook his head and she turned away bitterly.
"Fine," she said, staring at the entrance to the tunnel back to the Hog's Head. "I'll say good-by now, then, and-"
There was a scuffling and a great thump. Someone else had clambered out of the tunnel, overbalanced slightly, and fallen. He pulled himself up to the nearest chair, looked around through lopsided horn-rimmed glasses, and said, "Am I too late? Has it started? I only just found out, so I…I…" Percy Weasley spluttered into silence.
Evidently, he had not expected to run into most of his family. There was a long moment of astonishment, broken by Fleur turning to Remus and saying, in a wildly transparent attempt to break the tension. "So- 'ow eez leetle Teddy?"
He blinked at her, startled. The silence between the Weasleys seemed to be solidifying, like ice.
"I…oh yes…he's fine!" Remus said loudly. "Yes, Tonks is with him…at her mother's…" Percy and the other Weasleys were still staring at one another, frozen. "Here, I've got a picture?" He shouted, pulling a photograph from inside his jacket and showing it to Fleur. I came closer to look. A little baby with blue hair was staring at me from the picture.
"He's very cute." Fleur and I cooed at the same time.
"He got his mother's gift." I added, "But definitely looks like you." I noticed Remus smiling at the picture and then at me.
"I was a fool!" Percy roared, so loudly that Remus nearly dropped his photograph. "I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a…"
Mrs. Weasley burst into tears, she ran forward, and pulled Percy into a strangling hug, while he patted her on the back, his eyes on his father.
"I'm sorry, Dad," Percy said. Artur blinked rather rapidly, then he too hurried to hug his son. "It's been coming on for a while," said Percy, mopping his eyes under his glasses with a corner of his traveling cloak. "But I had to find a way out and it's not so easy at the Ministry, they're imprisoning traitors all the time. I managed to make contact with Aberforth and he tipped me off ten minutes ago that Hogwarts was going to make a fight of it, so here I am." Arthur let him go now and Percy looked at Bill and Fleur. "So, you're my sister-in-law now?" He shook hands with Fleur and the three of them hurried off toward the staircase.
"Ginny!" barked Mrs. Weasley. Ginny had been attempting, under cover of the reconciliations to sneak upstairs too.
"Molly, how about this," said Esme. "Why doesn't Ginny stay here, then at least she'll be on the scene and know what's going on, but she won't be in the middle of the fighting? We'll get both twins, ours and yours to sit with her."
"I..."
"That's a good idea," said Arthur firmly, "Ginny, you stay in this room, you hear me? Wait for your brothers, Vanessa and Savannah to come."
Ginny did not seem to like the idea much, but under her father's unusually stern gaze, she nodded. Arthur, Molly, and Remus headed off to the stairs as well, I motioned Emmett and Jasper, who were too enthusiastic about getting into the fight to join them.
"I'll send a Patronus home," I spoke and separated from the group.
I conjured my mountain lion, thinking of the day Savi and Nessie were born, and spoke firmly, "Apparate to Hog's Head, Aberforth will tell you where to go. Stay with Ginny, don't let her leave."
All of us left the room after I was done to gather in the Great Hall. I thought it was smarter if my family would come the last, people would have less chance of noticing our presence. When we entered the Great Hall, I noticed a few stares, but mostly the attention was on Professor McGonagall who was instructing everyone on the fighting and evacuation plan.
"...evacuation will be overseen by Mr. Filch and Madame Pomfrey. Prefects, when I give the word, you will organize your House and take your charges in an orderly fashion to the evacuation point."
Many of the students looked petrified. However, as I saw Harry skirting the walls, scanning the Gryffindor table for something, Ernie Macmillan stood up at the Hufflepuff table right next to him and shouted; "And what if we want to stay and fight?" There was a smattering of applause.
"If you are of age, you may stay," said Professor McGonagall.
"Where's Professor Snape?" shouted a girl from the Slytherin table.
"He has, to use the common phrase, done a bunk," replied Professor McGonagall and a great cheer erupted from the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws. "We have already placed protection around the castle, but it is unlikely to hold for very long unless we reinforce it. I must ask you, therefore, to move quickly and calmly, and do as your prefects…"
But her final words were drowned as a different voice echoed throughout the Hall. It was high, cold, and clear. There was no telling from where it came. It seemed to issue from the walls themselves.
"I know that you are preparing to fight." There were screams amongst the students, some of whom clutched each other, looking around in terror for the source of the sound. "Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood."
There was silence in the Hall now, the kind of silence that presses against the eardrums, that seems too huge to be contained by walls.
"Give me Harry Potter," said Voldemort's voice, "and they shall not be harmed. Give me Harry Potter and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter and you will be rewarded. You have until midnight."
"You don't even know what's coming for you." Emmett grinned.
The silence swallowed the rest of the room. Every head turned, and every eye in the place seemed to have found Harry, to hold him forever in the glare of thousands of invisible beams. Then a figure rose from the Slytherin table, and I recognized Pansy Parkinson as she raised a shaking arm and screamed, "But he's there! Potter's there. Someone grab him!"
Before Harry could speak, there was a massive movement. The Gryffindors in front of him had risen and stood facing, not Harry, but the Slytherins. Then the Hufflepuffs stood, and almost at the same moment, the Ravenclaws, all of them with their backs to Harry, all of them looking toward Pansy instead, the wands were emerging everywhere, pulled from beneath cloaks and from undersleeves.
"Thank you, Miss Parkinson," said Professor McGonagall in a clipped voice. "You will leave the Hall first with Mr. Filch. If the rest of your House could follow."
I heard the grinding of the benches and then the sound of the Slytherins trooping out on the other side of the Hall.
"Ravenclaws, follow on!" cried Professor McGonagall.
Slowly the four tables emptied. The Slytherin table was completely deserted, but several older Ravenclaws remained seated while their fellows filed out; even more Hufflepuffs stayed behind, and half of Gryffindor remained in their seats, necessitating Professor McGonagall's descent from the teachers' platform to chivvy the underage on their way.
Kingsley had stepped forward on the raised platform to address those who had remained behind. "We've only got half an hour until midnight, so we need to act fast. A battle plan has been agreed upon between the teachers of Hogwarts and the Order of the Phoenix. Professors Flitwick, Sprout, and McGonagall are going to take groups of fighters up to the three highest towers - Ravenclaw, Astronomy, and Gryffindor, where they'll have a good overview, excellent positions from which to work spells. Meanwhile, Remus, Arthur, and I will take groups to the grounds. We'll need somebody to organize a defense of the entrances or the passageways into the school…"
"Sounds like a job for us," called Emmett, indicating himself, Alice, Rose, and Jasper, Kingsley nodded his approval.
"All right, leaders up here and we'll divide up the troops!"
"Potter," said Professor McGonagall, hurrying up to him, as students flooded the platform, jostling for position, receiving instructions, "Aren't you supposed to be looking for something?"
"What? Oh," said Harry, "Oh yeah!" He started making his way closer to her.
While Harry was still speaking to Professor McGonagall, I made my way towards Professor Sprout with Edward by my side. Facing the head of my house once again made me feel anxious. She always treated me in a grandmotherly sort of way.
"Professor Sprout?" I called gingerly.
"Oh, dear!" The woman cried and hugged me first, she then proceeded to cup Edward's face and look him over before hugging him too. "Kingsley told us that you were alive, but I couldn't believe it until I saw you two with my own eyes."
"I hope that even though we're no longer your students, we can still join the rest of the house," Edward spoke with a smile.
"You'll always be Hufflepuffs, just because you're no longer students, doesn't mean anything." She smiled warmly and led us to the rest of the students wearing yellow ties.
"I assume we'll be the ones on the Astronomy tower?" I asked.
"Precisely."
"Bella and I can shield people; our skin repels any kind of magic," Edward spoke.
"That would be very kind of you, dear."
"We'll meet you there, then," Edward spoke and grabbed my hand. We ran down the busy hallways, our wands at the ready, and for the length of one corridor the little painted knight, Sir Cadogan, rushed from painting to painting beside us, clanking along in his armor, screaming encouragement, his fat little pony cantering behind him.
We hurtled around a corner and found Emmett and a small knot of students, including Lee Jordan and Hannah Abbott, standing beside an empty plinth, whose statue had concealed a secret passageway. The wizrads' wands were drawn, and they were listening at the concealed hole.
Aberforth Dumbledore stood blocking the corridor ahead, his wand held ready. Edward and I stopped in our tracks.
"Black! I've had hundreds of kids thundering through my pub!" He spoke, not even looking surprised at the speed we were going.
"I know, we're evacuating," I spoke, "Voldemort's attacking because we haven't handed Harry over."
"Yeah," said Aberforth. "I'm not deaf, the whole of Hogsmeade heard him. And it never occurred to any of you to keep a few Slytherins as hostages? There are kids of Death Eaters you've just sent to safety. Wouldn't it have been a bit smarter to keep 'em here?"
"They are still just kids, and I doubt it'd have stopped him anyway." I gave him a strict look. How can he even suggest that we should keep kids as hostages? Some of them aren't even teenagers yet!
Aberforth grunted and tore away in the opposite direction.
We started running again, and then around a final corner and with a yell of mingled relief and shock, I saw them: Harry, Ron, and Hermione; the latter with her arms full of large, curved, dirty yellow objects, Ron with a broomstick under his arms.
"Where the hell have you been?" Harry was shouting.
"Chamber of Secrets," said Ron.
"Chamber...what?" I saw, opening my mouth in shock. Harry turned to look at us, he didn't notice our presence before, but the other two did. Hermione had a full smile on her face as she looked at Ron.
"It was Ron, all Ron's idea!" said Hermione breathlessly. "Wasn't it absolutely brilliant? There we were after we left, and I said to Ron, even if we find the other one, how are we going to get rid of it? We still hadn't gotten rid of the cup! And then he thought of it! The basilisk!"
"What the…?"
"Something to get rid of Horcruxes," said Ron simply.
"Oh, cause eight vampires in the castle just wouldn't do it." I chuckled.
Harry's eyes dropped to the objects clutched in Ron and Hermione's arms and then back at us.
"How did you even get in there?" Edward asked, staring from the fangs to Ron. "I thought you need to speak Parseltongue!"
"He did!" whispered Hermione. "Show him, Ron!" Ron made a horrible, strangled hissing noise that made my ears hurt.
"You sleep talk," Ron explained, looking at Harry.
"He was amazing!" said Hermione. "Amazing!"
"We have to go, be safe you three!" I nudged Edward and as we started running again, I heard Harry say to the rest, "I know what the diadem looks like, and I know where it is. He hid it exactly where I had my old Potions book, where everyone's been hiding stuff for centuries. He thought he was the only one to find it. Come on."
As the walls trembled again, I looked at Edward and saw he was smiling, wide and not even trying to hide it.
"What?" I asked surprised.
"Another Weasley has found his partner for life." He grinned at me now.
"What?"
"Ron and Hermione kissed in the Chamber." He spoke and I felt my mouth widen up in a smile.
"Well, it's about time!" I giggled and continued running.
As we reached the Astronomy tower, I noticed the battle has just been starting. Flashes of green, red, and blue lights were coming our way. The barrier around the school was still holding, but with the amount of trembling that we have experienced coming this way, I doubted it would hold for much longer.
It was another fifteen minutes before all my fellow Hufflepuffs gathered in the tower and stood at the windows with their wands ready.
"Okay, kids, the lessons are over." Sprout spoke. "Time to show what you've learned in the past few years."
There was a roar of pride and readiness, but it quickly dialed down when I noticed the shielding charms break around us, they cascaded to the ground like a rain of shooting stars. It was time.
I pointed my wand at the first black hooded figure I could see and screamed, "Stupefy!" A red light flew out of my wand tip and reached its target, forcing the hooded person to fall to the ground. "Petrificus Totalus!" I yelled once again and saw another figure stop mid-run. At that point, however, a few Death eaters noticed where the spells were shooting from and started firing their own spells at the windows of the tower.
I saw a few green lights making their way towards the window beside mine, where an unknown to me boy stood.
"Watch out!" I yelled and ran up to cover the boy from the spell. It hit me across my back, and I sank to the ground for a second, breathing heavily. The killing curse…They were shooting killing curses at children!
"Bella?" Edward spoke to me, still facing the enemies and shooting his spells.
"I'm fine." I groaned and stood up, taking my position at the window.
With another loud noise that erupted from the Forbidden Forest, I noticed the trees were falling, letting someone a lot bigger and stronger pass. The giants…and they were coming here. Crap!
"Protego!" I pointed at the person to my right, when I noticed another green light coming toward us.
"I'm going down there, can you keep the fort?" I asked.
"Be careful, love." He spoke.
"Always am," I spoke instinctively and jumped out of the window. While falling to the ground, I sent a few spells toward the Death Eaters. I felt much more comfortable on the ground, breaking necks was easier than constantly shooting spells, besides I doubted giants would be stopped by one.
"Emmett, I have a challenge for you!" I yelled, hoping he would hear me. I could only assume since he was so adamant about fighting every bear, we came across, he would be angry with me if I just took those guys all by myself.
I decided not to wait for my brother, I was sure he would know what I meant when he comes outside. I ran to the bridge that was still dividing the Death Eaters from the people of Hogwarts. As I tore through the crowd, I broke people's necks or threw them out of my way left and right. The main goal was to get rid of the bigger enemies, the hooded figures were just Voldemort's pawns.
The first giant that I came across made me question my ability to take them on. It towered over me like a skyscraper…Not literally, but it was about 25 feet tall and wider than two school buses combined. I didn't even know where to start, so I decided to wing it. I kicked him in the shin with all my strength and heard a loud groan erupting from the creature's mouth. Aha, so he feels my strength…The giant looked straight at me, his eyes filled with anger and the need to kill. I jumped up, holding onto its robes, making my way up to its body until I reached its ugly face.
"You have to move faster than that, pup." I heard my father's voice in my head. He used to tell me that every time he would try to teach me how to fly my broom as a kid.
Right that moment, I had to duck. The giant's hand was traveling around its body, trying to get me, as one would do with an annoying mosquito. I was just an insect to him. Mosquitos…that gave me an idea. I climbed a little higher and was now standing on its shoulder, with a quick motion, I dug my nails into its neck, tearing the flesh apart. The blood spilled over me like a waterfall, its scent disgusting me so much, that I felt like I was going to hurl. It smelled even worse than cafeteria food, worse than the Quilette pack back in Forks.
The giant started falling and I was falling with him, at the last second, I jumped and stumbled onto the ground. As I looked up, I noticed one of the other giants was bleeding heavily too. Emmett got my message. Although I wasn't sure if my way was the easiest way to get rid of the giants, I decided to follow it.
It took a while, but with Emmett's help…Oh, Merlin, he's definitely thinking of our attack on the giants as a competition, I won't be surprised if he starts bragging later that he killed more than I did.
"Bella!" I heard Alice's yell coming from the castle and immediately looked in that direction.
"Emmett!" I yelled in my brother's direction, pointing at the castle.
Spiders…And not regular domestic ones…Gigantic spiders, most likely the same size as hippos, were crawling up the castle.
"The hell?" Emmett spoke but was quick to grab me by my arm and lead me back to the castle.
"Arania Exumai!" I shouted mid-run, pointing my wand tip to the spider that was closer to the window.
I saw another spider, climbing the walls, making its way into the hole in the castle. As I was ready to jump and kick the spider off, I heard someone scream, and then two voices shouting the same spell that I just used. The monster was blown backward, its legs jerking horribly, and the spider fell onto the ground right next to us. I nodded to Emmett, who immediately ran off to fight off other spiders that were climbing the walls. I noticed the rest of my family was on it as well. I jumped into the hole, only to find the trio, Percy and…Fred sitting on the ground.
"It brought friends!" Harry called to the others, glancing over the edge of the castle through the hole in the wall that I just came from. I looked out and saw more giant spiders were climbing the side of the building, liberated from the Forbidden Forest, into which the Death Eaters must have penetrated. Harry fired Stunning Spells down upon them, knocking the lead monster into its fellows so that they rolled back down the building and out of sight. Then more curses came soaring over Harry's head, I ran up to shield him with my body.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I yelled at Fred.
"Harry needed the room for something and well he destroyed it in the process. What else was I supposed to do?"
"Are you feeli…"I started.
"I'm controlling myself."
"Where are my daughters?"
"They are with Ginny and George." He spoke. "Savi has her shield on them." He added, which made my anxiety calm down just a tiny bit.
"Let's move, NOW!" I screamed after seeing at least four green lights coming our way.
I rushed everyone through the corridor, which was now full of dust and falling masonry, glass long gone from windows, and many people running backward and forward, whether friends or foes I couldn't tell. Rounding the corner, Percy let out a bull-like roar: "Rookwood!" and sprinted off toward a tall man, who was pursuing a couple of students.
"Did you get the diadem?" I asked.
"Yes, it's gone," Harry spoke.
"What's left, do you know?"
"We need…the snake, we've got to kill the snake!" said Hermione.
"Nagini?" Fred asked.
"Yes, she's the last Horcrux," Harry answered.
"You need to find out where Voldemort is because he'll have the snake with him, won't he? Do it, Harry…look inside him, I'll protect you." I spoke, shielding him with my body.
Harry dozed off and wasn't coming back for a couple of minutes. With a gasp, he was pulled back and opened his eyes at the same moment my ears were assaulted with the screeches and cries, the smashes and bangs of battle.
"He's in the Shrieking Shack. The snake's with him, it's got some sort of magical protection around it. He's just sent Lucius Malfoy to find Snape."
"Voldemort's sitting in the shrieking Shack?" said Hermione, outraged. "He's not...he's not even fighting?"
"He doesn't think he needs to fight," said Harry. "He thinks I'm going to go to him."
"But why?" I asked confused.
"He knows I'm after Horcruxes…he's keeping Nagini close beside him…obviously I'm going to have to go to him to get near the thing…"
"Right," said Ron, squaring his shoulders. "So you can't go, that's what he wants, what he's expecting. You stay here and look after Hermione, and I'll go and get it."
"No, that's just stupid. I will go." I joined the conversation again."
"No, all of you stay here, I'll go under the Cloak and I'll be back as soon as I…" Harry cut us off.
"No," said Hermione, "it makes much more sense if I take the Cloak and…"
"Don't even think about it," Ron snarled at her. Before Hermione could get farther than "Ron, I'm just as capable…"
The tapestry at the top of the staircase on which we stood was ripped open.
"POTTER!"
Two masked Death Eaters stood there, but even before their wands were fully raised, Hermione shouted "Glisseo!" While I, at the same time yelled "Stupefy!" The stairs beneath their feet flattened into a chute and we hurtled down it.
"Duro!" cried Hermione, pointing her wand at the tapestry, which was now falling on us, and there were two loud, sickening crunches as the tapestry turned to stone and the Death Eaters pursuing us crumpled against it.
"Get back!" shouted Ron, and he, Harry, Hermione, and I hurled against a door as a herd of galloping desks thundered past, shepherded by a sprinting Professor McGonagall. She appeared not to notice us. Her hair had come down and there was a gash on her cheek. As she turned the corner, I heard her scream, "Charge!"
"Don't do anything stupid, I'll go see if McGonagall needs help," I spoke and left the trio.
The dust had clogged the air, the falling stone, the shimmer of spells...The corridors of the castle looked like a nightmare. I ran down the staircase and found myself in a corridor full of duelers. The portraits on either side of the fighters were crammed with figures screaming advice and encouragement, while Death Eaters, both masked and unmasked, dueled students and teachers. Dean Thomas had won himself a wand, for he was face-to-face with Dolohov, Parvati Patil with Travers. I raised my wand at once, ready to strike, but the duelers were weaving and darting so much that there was a strong likelihood of hurting someone of my own side if I started casting curses. Even as I stood braced, looking for the opportunity to act, there came a great "Wheeeeee!" and looking up, I saw Peeves zooming over me, dropping Snargaluff pods down onto the Death Eaters, whose heads were suddenly engulfed in wriggling green tubers like fat worms.
Death Eaters were everywhere I looked: Yaxley, close to the front doors, in combat with Flitwick, a masked Death Eater dueling Kingsley right beside me. Students ran in every direction; some carrying or dragging injured friends. I sent a Stunning Spell toward the masked Death Eater; it missed but nearly hit Neville, who had emerged from nowhere brandishing armfuls of Venomous Tentacula, which looped itself happily around the nearest Death Eater and began reeling him in.
I sped to the marble staircase: glass shattered on the left, and the Slytherin hourglass that had recorded House points spilled its emeralds everywhere so that people slipped and staggered as they ran. Two bodies fell from the balcony overhead as they reached the ground a gray blur that I took for an animal sped four-legged across the hall to sink its teeth into one of the fallen. The same monster that attacked uncle Remus when he was a kid was now trying to sink his teeth into Lavender Brown.
"No!" I shrieked, and with a deafening blast from my wand, Fenrir Greyback was thrown backward from the feebly struggling body of Lavender. He hit the marble banisters and struggled to return to his feet. Then, with a bright white flash and a crack, a crystal ball fell on top of his head, and he crumpled to the ground and did not move.
"I have more!" shrieked Professor Trelawney from over the banisters. "More for any who want them! Here…"
And with a move like a tennis serve, she heaved another enormous crystal sphere from her bag, waved her wand through the air, and caused the ball to speed across the hall and smash through a window. At that exact moment, the heavy wooden front doors burst open, and more of the gigantic spiders forced their way into the front hall.
Screams of terror rent the air: the fighters scattered, Death Eaters and Hogwartians alike, and red and green jets of light flew into the midst of the oncoming monsters, which shuddered and reared, more terrifying than ever.
I was the only one who dared come close to the monsters. I ripped their bodies apart, one by one, limb by limb. I didn't know how much time it took me to get rid of this infestation, but when I finally noticed there were no more alive spiders around a loud voice of Voldemort spoke again.
"You have fought," said the high, cold voice, "valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery. Yet you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste. Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately. You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured. I speak now, Harry Potter, directly to you. You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommences. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour."
Knowing Harry, and what his beliefs are, I couldn't help but feel despair. I let him go without me, and I wasn't sure anymore if I would ever see him again…
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