I didn't realize how short this one is. The end is fun though. There are about 8 chapters left so we'll be done by this time next month. The word count break down goes something like this: next chapter is short again, the next next chapter is 1600 words, after that it's short again, then the next two are around 2k, the last one is a little under 4k, then this sort of epilogue-y one is actually around 14k(!) and the absolute last chapter is back down to about 3k.
Awaiting a Guardian
30 minutes to midnight May 1st
Post-Hogwarts
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Jo watched as the teachers hastily threw protective enchantments up around the castle but Dementors sailed through before the shield closed. There was a spell she and Leili had been working on since their met their Patronuses in Dumbledore's Army, one that had yet to work properly. They hadn't known anything about creating or modifying spells then but Jo'd had the idea that if a Patronus could be used to send messages, maybe they could create a Patronus that didn't need constant re-casting.
For two years they worked on it, reading up on Latin and spell creation, poring over magical theory textbooks, writing letters to Charms experts, including Professor Flitwick. Leili's Magic Theory class had helped.
They had narrowed down the possibilities to one incantation, roughly translated to 'I await a forever guardian'.
"In Perpetuum, Expecto Patronum!" Jo cast, with Leilani echoing the phrase. It turned out a life or death situation was just what the spell needed to work. Jo's Fire Salamander charged at the Dementors, Leili's dolphin hot on its tail and together the Patronuses chased the Dementors out through a fast closing gap in the shield. The Patronuses would patrol the outside of the shield, doing what they could to keep the Dementors at bay.
They were safe. For now.
The protective enchantments lasted long enough for Kanani and other former students to sneak the young ones away from the castle. Some floo powdered out, others, led by Kanani, were hustled through Ariana's portrait and into Hogsmeade, from there they were floo powdered home. Kanani opted to stay with the young Slytherins whose parents were on the wrong side of this war, they were just kids and they had nowhere else to go.
Most of them were scared. Some of them were trying to escape to meet up with their parents to help the Dark Lord—as their upbringing told them they ought. Others wanted to fight for Hogwarts, it was their school, their friends and Slytherins were a loyal bunch.
Aberforth shuffled Kanani and her charges into his wine cellar where they covered the floor in cushions. Kanani set every magical defense around the pub's basement while Aberforth locked them in for their protection before he left to join the fighting—a conversation with Ariana's painted self changed his mind about being too old.
By the time he got there, the shields around the school had shattered. The Death Eaters and their allies were swarming the school. Curses were flying every which way causing Witches and Wizards on both sides to die.
Jo took the hand of a boy who'd been hit with a knockback jinx. He'd hit his head on the ground and was left dizzy and unsteady. She grabbed his hand to keep him upright while she got him to a safe place to sit down.
As they moved through the crowd, "Relashio!" blasted his hand from Jo's. Jo looked around for the offending Death Eater and found herself staring down the length of a wand.
"Anteoculatia!" she hurriedly jinxed in return.
Antlers sprouted from the offender's forehead, knocking off his mask. Her heart thumped harder in her chest. She chalked it up to adrenaline as the mask fell off and it was Marcus' face beneath it.
"Colloshoo!" she fired, going off to find the poor concussed boy before he got trampled. She grabbed his hand, hoisted him upright and dragged him along behind her as she headed for safety.
Marcus watched her go as the antlers began to outweigh his head and he tried to figure out how to counter the hex when the counter spell required six complicated steps, ending with him on his head, holding his wand with his feet, which were presently glued to the floor.