Chapter 50
Dean and Sam watched as Luna, Harry Ron and Hermione exited an unused classroom. They spoke urgently. The boys couldn't catch what they were saying, but they watched as Harry pulled a long silvery cloak from his bag and draped it around himself and Luna, and they vanished in an instant.
"Hermione, Ron," Sam called. The two students looked over and spotted them.
"Are you okay Sam, Dean?" Hermione asked, noticing a cut on Sam's arm. She pulled out her wand and healed him.
"Yeah," Sam replied. "Thanks, Hermione."
"Don't worry about us kiddo." Dean smiled. "We can manage."
"Now, how do we destroy this thing?" Ron mumbled as he pulled the Cup from his robes. Sam and Dean looked down at the object, curious as to why Ron would be carrying around a fancy Cup in the middle of a battle.
"How did you get that?" Hermione asked him in surprise.
"Nicked it"
"Why?" Hermione stressed. What if Harry realized it had gone?
"I have an idea," Ron told her.
"You still should have told Harry!"
"Don't you think he's got enough on his mind to worry about?"
"Okay, break it up you two!" Dean interrupted. "What's going on?"
Ron and Hermione looked at each other for a moment before Ron spoke. "We need to destroy this Cup."
"Why?" Sam asked.
"It's a piece of You-Know-Who's soul." Hermione looked at Ron, mouth agape. He told them?!
"His soul… gross…" Dean frowned.
"Ron!" she hissed.
"What? They could help!" Ron looked at Hermione's angry look. "And they'd be the least likely ones to rat us out to the Order!"
"Wait, what?" Sam sputtered. "Hold on."
Sam's questions were cut off by a Vampire charging at him, Dean yelled for them to duck as he swung his machete over his head and looped the Vampire's head off.
He and Sam took Ron and Hermione out of the hallway and into a classroom to avoid any more interruptions. They both looked to Ron to continue. "You-Know-Who split his soul apart using dangerous Dark Magic. This contains a part of it. We think there's two more apart from this one. Harry's gone to find out about one of them. So, we can make ourselves useful and destroy this one now!"
"Okay, um… So, what can we do? How do we destroy them?" Dean asked.
"Good question, Ron?" Hermione looked at her friend. "What's this plan of yours?"
"Remember the Diary?" Ron smiled, happy to be a part of the solution for once.
"Not really Ronald. I was petrified at the time," Hermione frowned. Ron's ears went pink.
"Bugger, I forgot…" Ron muttered. "But we did tell you," he pointed out. "Harry stabbed the Diary with a Basilisk fang!"
"Of course… You're brilliant Ron!" She beamed. "Basilisk venom can destroy Horcruxes! But do you think the skeleton is still down there?"
"Only one way to find out, isn't there?" Ron shrugged, a wicked grin on his face.
"Can someone please tell us what in the hell a Basilisk is?" Dean asked.
"It was a giant snake," Ron replied. "It lived in a secret part of the castle; called the Chamber of Secrets. One of the pieces of You-Know-Who's soul lived in a Diary. Ginny found it, and it led her to the Chamber. Harry rescued her and killed the Basilisk and used one of its fangs to destroy the Diary."
"Do you think it will destroy that Cup?" Sam looked to Hermione.
"Possibly, it worked on the Diary," Hermione replied. "Great, so where do we need to go-" Dean's words were cut off by a large explosion and something hitting him on the back of the head. "Son of a bitch!" he growled.
They turned to see a piece of the castle had been blown away to expose a large intimidating wizard in a black cloak striding towards the four of them.
"Dolohov," Ron glared at him, recognizing the Death Eater at once.
Hermione stepped forward; wand raised. "Get out of here, I can take him."
"You're barkin' Hermione." Ron stared at her. "I'm not leaving you here with him!"
The Death Eater chuckled. "Brave little Mudblood…."
"Don't be daft, Ron! Just go!" Hermione yelled as she started to battle with the Death Eater who had hurt her the previous year in the Department of Mysteries.
"I'll stay with her, you go," Sam instructed, looking at his brother. Ron nodded and raised his wand.
"Accio broom," he said, and a nearby discarded broom zoomed into his hand.
Dean jerked on Ron's arm, "Come on kid. We don't have time to waste." Ron and Dean took off in the opposite direction, dodging curses.
"How's it going, Sirius?!" Ron yelled with a grin as he spotted Sirius blasting Lucius Malfoy across the room with a jinx.
"I haven't had this much fun in years!" He grinned, looking a little bit like his former mugshots. "Where's Harry?"
"He's fine!" Ron yelled back as they continued their sprinting.
"This castle is too damn big…" Dean muttered breathlessly. "Isn't there a faster way to get there?"
"We're almost there!" Ron replied. They skidded into the second-floor girls' bathroom. Moaning Myrtle was hiding in one of the stalls, crying hysterically. Dean went to the source of the crying, thinking it might have been a student, shocked when he saw the Ghost of a young teenage girl there. "Hey, come on, the castle is under attack, you need to leave."
"Our Ghosts are bound to the place," Ron told him. "She'll be safe"
Dean nodded, realizing how much it sucked, but there was nothing to be done for her. Ron moved to the giant circle of sinks in the centre of the room and looked around until he found one tap that was different to the others. It had an engraving of a snake's head in the metal.
"How did you get in last time?" Dean asked, wondering what in the hell possessed a teenage boy to make the entrance into a secret chamber in a girls' bathroom.
"Harry, he spoke in Parseltongue," Ron told him, and then seemed to remember that Dean had no idea what that was. "Snake language."
"Is that common?" Dean asked. Ron shook his head.
"It's very rare to be a Parselmouth. Harry can speak it. We're not sure how, but we think it has something to do with his connection to You-Know-Who." Ron paused and looked at the sink, clearing his throat.
"Open," he said, but it wasn't English. His voice came out in a weird hissing noise.
"Woah… that's freaky…" Dean murmured. "How did you pull that off?"
"Harry talks in his sleep sometimes," Ron told him. "You get used to it."
"Okay then…" Dean muttered. "That's interesting." The tap began to glow with white light and spin, and then the sink started to descend into the floor and vanished, leaving a large open pipe.
Dean grinned. "Cool…"
"Let's go," Ron nodded. He lowered himself into the pipe and let go, sliding down. Dean followed down the slimy pipe afterwards. They landed in a dark, damp tunnel. The sounds of the battle were muffled, there was no telling how far down they were.
"Lumos," Ron muttered, and the tip of his wand lit up. Dean watched him and pulled out his own wand and did the same. They continued down the twisting and turning tunnel, finally arriving at a large stone wall with two entwined serpents engraved in it. Dean heard Ron make the same noise as he did in the bathroom. The wall separated, and they stepped inside.
They were standing at the end of a dimly lit chamber. Pillars lined the length of the room, carved snakes wrapped around them. At the end was a carving of a giant face. Ron shivered.
"The Diary made Ginny come down here when she was in first year. The Horcrux was trying to drain her life force, I suppose. She almost died." His skin was as pale as a sheet under the freckles. That's when Dean caught sight of the body of a giant snake.
"That's the Basilisk?" Dean asked. "Harry killed that thing?" Ron nodded. "Awesome…"
"Bloody hell, this is disgusting."
Ron approached the dead snake and carefully pulled a few fangs from the serpent's rotted mouth.
"Well, let's get to it," Dean said. "I'll do it," he said, stepping forward. He grabbed the Cup and the fang from Ron.
"Dean Winchester," a horribly familiar voice drifted from the Cup as an image of Sam appeared. "You dare call yourself my brother? Who are you compared to everyone else? You're not even human anymore. We don't need you."
"Yes, we don't," a female voice echoed, forming the beautiful face of Jo, but there was a fierceness to both faces. "You think you can protect your family? You've gotten them all killed, even Castiel. It was your fault. You have never protected them Just like you won't protect your child. You're useless Dean. I don't even know why I married you."
"Mom confessed," the wispy image of Sam breathed. "She said that she never really wanted you. She was going to hand you over to Azazel. Dad gave up his life for you. What gratitude did you give him? It's your own fault."
"And what about poor dead Castiel? He stood by you, and you turned your back on him, you vile-" the image of Jo cut off into a scream as Dean swung the Basilisk fang into the Cup. The loud scream that erupted from the now broken Cup faded into deathly silence. Dean's hands were shaking slightly as the fang fell from his grasp. Was it all true? The images had been repeating his fears, but it was when Castiel was mentioned that Dean's resolve broke. The grief was too fresh, too fierce. He doubled over and clutched the sides of his stomach.
"Dean?" Ron asked, his eyes wide. "None of that is true."
"I know. The thing's gone, now let's just get back," Dean replied in a lifeless voice, feeling slightly numb. "Hand me a couple of those fangs…." Ron did so wordlessly.
"How do we get back?"
"We have to fly out," Ron told him, wiggling the broom in his grasp.
Dean's eyes widened. "No way in Hell."
"It's the only way out of here," Ron pointed out and smirked. "Is the great Demonology Professor afraid of flying?"
"No…" Dean stood up defiantly. "Shut up." They both got on the broom. Ron kicked off from the ground.
⸸
Sam and Hermione were fighting Antonin Dolohov. They ended up a few corridors from where they started, spells flying left and right.
"Confringo!" Hermione exclaimed, pointing her wand at the gargoyle beside Dolohov. It exploded in shards of stone. Hermione and Sam coughed from the dust that was thrown into the air.
"Protego!" Dolohov roared. "Crucio!" The burst of red light hit Hermione, and she was on the floor. She screamed, the sound blood-curdling. She trashed in agony.
"Serves you right, Mudblood!" Dolohov jeered, taking enjoyment in causing pain. The words had barely left his lips before Sam pulled his trigger. The Death Eater dropped dead, a bullet hole leaking blood from his forehead.
Hermione went still at once, breathing heavily. There were tears in her eyes as Sam helped her up.
"Guns work faster," Sam grinned before he looked at Hermione. "Hermione, are you okay?" he asked. She nodded hesitantly. At that moment, a voice spoke from behind the dust.
"Hello Moose," a cool British voice echoed. Crowley stepped forward, wiping the dust from his suit. He looked rather calm despite the battle.
"Crowley," Sam glared, raising his gun.
"I see you survived Godstiel," the Demon noted. "What happened anyway?" he said casually.
"Death created another eclipse. Cas gave up everything," Sam replied, tone clipped, not even knowing why he was bothering to dignify his words with a response. "Not that you care."
"Good," Crowley replied. Sam took a step forward, his hand reaching for Ruby's knife.
"Cas is dead, Crowley," Sam seethed.
"Shame. Probably for the best," Crowley mocked with a smirk.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right now," Sam snarled. He drew his hand back and punched him. Crowley's eyes turned red, and he tackled Sam.
"Pertificus Totalus!" Hermione exclaimed. Suddenly, Crowley went stock still, unable to move. Sam smirked.
"You bitch!" Crowley spat.
"You bastard," Sam raged. "You pulled Cas into this mess. You teamed up with Voldemort to chase for Purgatory. You hurt my brother… Oh, and you toppled the wall." With the statement of each crime, Sam landed a punch, one after the other. Crowley grunted in pain. His eyes were still red, furious. Sam raised the Demon Killing Knife and grinned as he saw them widen. Sam shoved the Knife into Crowley's chest. The Demon's eyes and mouth lit up and flashed gold, and a strangled gurgling sound came from his throat. Sam pulled the knife out and Crowley fell to the ground with a dull thud.
"Wow Sammy," Lucifer smirked. "Well done buddy. I never liked him anyway."
Hermione's eyes were a little wide. "S-Sam…?"
"Are you okay, Hermione?" Sam asked. She just nodded in reply. Her gaze seemed suddenly distracted.
Hermione looked down the corridor. "Ron!" she exclaimed. Sam saw his brother and Ron coming into view.
"Hey, how'd it go?" he asked.
"It went fine," Dean smiled. "The Cup is finished."
"Thank Merlin," Hermione grinned in relief.
"We brought some more fangs," Ron told them.
"Sam? What the hell happened?" Dean interrupted, spotting Crowley's body behind him.
"Crowley ambushed us. I finished him off," Sam frowned. "Bastard."
At that moment, Harry rounded the corner and spotted them.
"Guys! Are you okay?" he exclaimed, taking in the corpses of Crowley and Dolohov.
"We're fine," Hermione assured. "Nothing we can't manage."
"Is that-" Harry asked, spotting Crowley. Sam nodded. "Good," he continued.
"Dean and I did a little Horcrux destroying," Ron smirked.
"What?" Harry asked. "How-"
"The Chamber of Secrets," Ron replied.
"It was brilliant! Ron's idea," Hermione gushed, and Ron's ears went pink.
"How did you get in there? You need to speak Parseltongue." Harry looked confused. Ron made the strange hissing noise that he used to open the Chamber.
"You talk in your sleep sometimes," Ron explained with a smirk. "We got the fangs, and Dean destroyed the Cup."
"Brilliant!" Harry grinned, offhandedly wondering if he had said anything else while he slept.
"Wait." Caught up in the moment, he looked at Sam and Dean.
"They know," Hermione told him.
"What! It was meant to be a secret," Harry looked shocked and a little angry.
"We thought it would be a good idea," Ron replied. "We need some backup here. We haven't exactly got a lot of time on our hands."
Harry knew they were right and eventually, he nodded.
"So?" Hermione asked, changing the subject and reminding Harry of his own mission. "Did Luna help you find the Diadem?"
"Yeah," Harry nodded. His scar burned a little, and he held back a wince. "I talked to the Grey Lady. She's the Ghost-"
"Of Ravenclaw House," Hermione realized.
"She told me Voldemort talked her into giving him the location when he was still at school. She hid it in a tree in Albania. Voldemort went there, and when he came back to ask Dumbledore for the DADA job, he must have stashed it in the castle!"
"Great, so now we have to search the whole bloody place," Ron frowned. "How in the bloody hell are we going to do that?"
"I have an idea on where it is," Harry told them excitedly. "The Grey Lady said it's 'in the place where everything is hidden. If you have to ask, you'll never know. If you know, you need only ask.'" he quoted.
"Blimey, you don't think she means-" Ron whispered. Harry cut him off.
"The Room of Requirement!"
"We'd better get going then," Sam advised. The group of five took off in the direction of the Room of Requirement. They dodged curses and Death Eaters as they made their way toward it. Harry thought desperately of the need for the room, needing it to appear to them as soon as possible. He had a brief memory of hiding his copy of Advanced Potion Making in that very room not long ago.
"Why can't it ever be simple with you wizards?!" Dean groaned as they continued running.
"It's a talent!" Ron yelled back. The giant door to the Room of Requirement appeared, and they rushed inside.
"What now?" Dean asked. "This room is huge…"
"Split up and start looking," Harry instructed.
They got to work, and it seemed like an age before Ron called. "I think I found it." Harry raced to his side.
"That's it!" Harry grinned, the glittering tiara matched perfectly to the one on the statue in the Ravenclaw Common Room.
"Hold it, Potter," a voice said from the door. There stood Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. Harry saw red, remembering the last time he saw that obnoxious smirk, although it wasn't so obnoxious when he had his wand pointed at Dumbledore. Harry's stomach twisted uncomfortably at the reminder of his Headmaster's death.
"How dare you…." He growled.
"So how come you three aren't with Voldemort?" asked Harry.
"We're gonna be rewarded," said Crabbe.
"What do you want? A damn gold star?" Dean glared at his former student. He raised his gun. "Go, get the fuck out of here before I lose my patience."
"Dean, they're kids…"
"And one of them is a murderer," Dean replied, turning on Malfoy.
Harry moved closer to Sam. "Someone who's also good at curses."
"What are you talking about?" Sam asked.
"Tell him Malfoy." Harry glared. "Tell him what you did to Madam Rosmerta and Jessica?"
"How did you-" Malfoy sneered, but it sounded fearful now. "You weren't there."
"What did you do to Jess?" Sam's voice was like ice.
"I was there. I was under the Invisibility Cloak," Harry fumed. "I saw it all."
"Shut up, Potter," Crabbe interrupted. "You're coming with us."
"No one is going anywhere until he answers my question. What in the hell did you do?"
"I put her under the Imperius Curse," Malfoy said. "Got her to feed information to that Demon and the Dark Lord."
Dean held Sam back before he could attack the kid.
"You mind-controlled her," Sam fumed. "I'll fucking kill you!"
"Sam, you can kill him later!" Dean urged.
"So, what's so important about a Diadem?" Malfoy kept up the bravado, ignoring Sam's furious stare and threats. Harry snorted.
"Like we would tell gits like you?"
"Crucio!" Goyle cast, looking furious. The group disbanded, diving for cover as a duel broke out. Harry dove after Malfoy.
"Expelliarmus!" he shouted, and Malfoy's wand flew from his hand.
"Like it hot, Mudblood?" Crabbe spat in disgust. Fire erupted from his wand. It quickly caught onto a nearby stack of books. Harry grabbed the Diadem.
"That's great! Set the damn books on fire!" Ron exclaimed.
"Guys, get out of here!" Dean urged. Sam picked Hermione up as a cabinet threatened to fall on her.
"GET OUT OF HERE!" Harry yelled. He pulled Ron with him as the Room quickly began to burn. Smoke began to fill the air, and they soon started coughing. There was a loud explosion from within. They rushed toward the exit. They collapsed onto the floor outside the room as the fire started to abate.
"No!" Harry exclaimed. "The Diadem fell into the flames."
"Shit!" Sam exclaimed.
"Crabbe… Crabbe…" Draco was choking out, looking back into the receding flames. He staggered back towards the inferno.
"No!" Dean stopped him. "He's gone." His voice was clipped. He was pissed at the kid and his cronies, but he wasn't going to let him walk willingly into the magical fire.
"It was Fiendfyre," Hermione coughed. "I don't know where he could have learned it! It's so dangerous!"
"Wait!" Harry exclaimed. He caught sight of blackened metal, recognizing the Diadem. As he approached it, it split in two, and Harry thought he heard a faint scream coming from it.
The Galleon began to burn in Ron's pocket. He pulled it out.
"Everyone's in the Great Hall. They've barricaded it," he told him.
Sam and Dean soon returned to the Great Hall, where the Weasleys and the hunters were.
Suddenly, the doors opened and a red-haired man with horn-rimmed glasses was revealed.
"Am I too late? Has it started? I only just found out, so I-" Percy Weasley spluttered into silence as he emerged. He had not expected to run into most of his family. There was a long moment of astonishment. Percy and the other Weasleys were still staring at one another, frozen.
"I was a fool!" Percy roared. "I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a, a-"
"Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron," suggested. Fred. Percy swallowed.
"Yes, I was!"
"Well, you can't say fairer than that," said Fred, holding his hand out to Percy. They shook hands as Mrs Weasley burst into tears. She ran forward, pushing Fred aside, 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. Mr Weasley blinked rapidly, then he, too, hurried to hug his son.
"What made you see sense, Perce?" inquired George.
"It's been coming on for a while," said Percy, mopping his eyes under his glasses with a corner of his travelling 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 Kingsley, and he tipped me off ten minutes ago that Hogwarts was going to make a fight of it, so here I am.
"Well, we do look to our prefects to take a lead at times such as these," said George in a good imitation of Percy's most pompous manner. "Now let's get out and fight, or all the good Death Eaters will be taken!"
"I'm guessing you two are the Muggle Professors?" he asked. He shook their hands.
"Yeah, Sam and Dean Winchester," Sam introduced.
"Nice to meet you," Sam replied.
His words were drowned as a different voice echoed throughout the Hall.
"I know that you are preparing to fight." There were screams among the students, looking wildly about for the source of the voice. "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. Give me Harry Potter, 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."
