Well, what more is there to say at this current point? Let's continue with the cumulating peril! R&R!
Chapter Fifteen
The Great Siege of Hogwarts
Severus watched the fires in Hogsmead with a growing agitation. He had secretly spied on the Dark Lord for nearly sixteen years, and all that was about to boil into the open. He could only shudder slightly at what fury the man would fall into when he realized that Severus had never truly been his loyal servant, and what punishment was in store for him if the man got through to him.
Atop one of the lower towers of Hogwarts, Severus watched as the encroaching army turned their sights on the school, and slowly began the make their way through the burning village to the gates. Standing there, imposing himself between the Dark Lord's forces and the school was Faykan, staff gleaming in the light of the burning town.
Even as the hordes of dark creatures and Death Eaters passed the last burning building, they whooped and shrieked at the sight of the single figure barring their path before Hogwarts, and started a desperate charge at the gates.
Faykan stood unafraid, like a calm mountain before the raging sea, as the swarms of orcs rushed toward him. Even as they approached the high stone walls around Hogwarts, Faykan merely lifted his staff, obviously speaking a spell that Severus was too far away to hear, but the results were spectacular. The gates slammed shut of their own accord as magic burned through the air above the walls.
Faykan apparated at that point and the walls started to shine with pale blue light as the orcs rushed them. The first to touch the walls, attempting to start scaling over, was disintegrated instantly, the Valar blessed spells burning it away on contact.
Severus smirked at the wisdom of the delaying tactic, almost as though Faykan had planned for these sorts of defenses being needed from a year ago when he assisted Albus in strengthening the wards.
Now they had extra time to fortify and plan for the attack while the Dark Lord fought and scratched at the walls until he figured a way through the wards. It could be hours, but with what Severus knew about the Dark Lord and his tactics, they may have mere minutes at the most before the battle fully commenced.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Bellatrix frowned angrily as the Istari threw up an impenetrable wall of light around the school. It was a sickeningly weak thing to do, delaying the inevitable at best, cowardly at worst, to hide behind a wall.
Through the lines of orcs she walked with the Dark Lord to the front lines. The man was quiet, uncharacteristically so, and that unnerved Bellatrix more than anything. The man should have expressed his anger, something. But no, he was calm, seemingly collecting his strength and magic. "So," he said slowly, observing the wall before them, "Alatar is buying time for his warriors and their supposed 'chosen one'…"
Bellatrix was confused by her Master's words, but had little opportunity to ponder them as the Dark Lord brandished his wand, speaking words that grated on Bellatrix's ears and made many of the nearest Death Eaters shrink in fear at their darkness. The ring upon the Dark Lord's finger flared brightly with power as he spoke his dark spell, magic seeping from the wand like a fine mist, before flying out and colliding forcefully with the wall.
The concussive blast from the dark mist meeting the shimmering light was astounding, but within moments the wall of light shattered, followed by its stone counterpart under a rain of bombardment hexes.
"Attack…" the Dark Lord commanded, and Bellatrix cackled as the hundreds of nearest orcs snarled in triumph and pushed forward through the breach. Bellatrix turned to see her Master withdrawing to a location where he could observe the battle, and the most loyal followed obediently.
As soon as they mounted the small rise, where Bellatrix remembered the Shrieking Shack stood, they turned and viewed the first defenses that the Light had to offer. Trenches had been dug into the grounds of Hogwarts, each filled to bursting with heavily armed goblin warriors.
The little beasts leapt at the oncoming orcs with their small knives and battle axes, ripping through the orc's dark armor with ferocity and starting a bloody swath just inside the gates of the school. Meanwhile, from the battlements of the castle, a signal flared up into the sky, and from every tower or other vantage point spells rained down onto the rear lines of orcs, raining destruction upon the ranks of creatures.
Bellatrix smiled however, if this was all they could muster so soon, than they had a lot to learn of what the Lord of the Earth was capable of.
Voldemort turned to the other being on the hill with them, and gave a single nod of command. The Lord of Azkaban, a great horned helm further shrouding the features of the dread wraith. With an ear piercing shriek, the towering figure stormed away, reappearing astride a maddened black warhorse.
The dementors swarmed over the hill as the Wrath King charged the breach, their cries rending the air and the auras of fear clouding the sky like their tattered cloaks. The swooped down, rotting hands clawing at goblins left and right, even as their lord drove his steed in the midst of them, a burning sword punishing every goblin that dared approach the Lord of Fear.
The goblins fell back, retreating further up toward the school, and orcs thronged in their place, establishing a forward outpost amid the abandoned and corpse ridden tranches by the gate.
Once the breach was made, the Dementors withdrew, and their Lord returned to Bellatrix and the Dark Lord's side, while orcs and Death Eaters reinforced the new forward front into the grounds, the wizards starting to return fire up at the castle while the orcs pursued the goblins across the lawns.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Harry waited nervously as the orcs chased the goblin forces towards the castle, along with Faykan and the small contingent of Rohirric cavalry. They had only a few precious moments while the Dementors were retreating again to counterattack. If they could keep the breach in the wall as long as possible, more children could be evacuated from the castle.
As the last of the goblins leapt into the next row of trenches, Faykan drew Glamdring, signaling for their cavalry to charge. Hadhafang flashed in moonlight as Harry's mount thundered alongside his closest friend. The leapt over the trench, landing heavily among the orcs and their Death Eater allies, scattering those in the front as the Rohirrim followed behind.
After they passed, the goblins rose up out of the trenches again, wielding long spears and bows, pressing in on the stragglers from the charge, pushing the advancing forces back toward the wall. Harry's arms burned from the exertion with sword and staff, but he fought on desperately, knowing that they had to draw out Voldemort himself by whittling down his forces as much as possible.
Spells and arrows rained down from the castle, blocking off another oncoming wave of orcs from outside the walls, but the streams of orcs just kept coming, like the unending waves of the sea. It was clear that Voldemort had mustered his full strength for this attack, and they were facing overwhelming odds. Mad Eye was right, they were insane to fight here, but somehow the thought made Harry smirk instead of despair. Let the madman come, they were willing to fight to the very end against him.
The cavalry swept in a long arc around the remaining forces within the walls, cutting off their escape to the rest of their army, and allowing the goblins to mop them up in a pincer movement between the wall and the castle. The goblins them retook their forward trenches and Harry, Faykan and the Rohirrim horsemen withdrew closer to the castle, safely away from the arrows and spells of the besieging army.
If Voldemort thought he was going to easily take the lawns with a simply infantry rush, he was sorely mistaken. The horses pawed the ground impatiently, eager to run once again. With luck it would be a short while before they needed to repeat the same strategy, but Harry doubted they'd get the chance. Voldemort was smart enough to not fall for the same trick twice.
Moments later Harry was proven correct when the ground started to rumble. Large boulders were being thrown through the air by massive trolls and giants, crashing into the stone walls surrounding the grounds, widening the gap through which Voldemort's army could funnel through.
Through these poured easily five times the number of orcs they previously fought, along with several massive armored trolls wielding great clubs and axes. There were far too many for a standard cavalry charge to push back this time, they needed further reinforcements to hold the front.
Harry reacted instantly as the goblins began to be pushed back once again by the waves of orcs and trolls, slamming the base of his staff on the ground at his horse's feet with an echoing crack, sending a signal.
Even as the goblins once more fell back to the rear trenches, the ground that the enemy forces passed over started to quake anew. Deep chasms broke open on either side of the orc battalions, revealing hundreds of heavily armored and angry Dwarves.
"Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu!" King Thráin shouted as he led the charge of his people, instantly flanking the newest wave of orcish and troll warriors. Flaming axes were hurled with great force, splitting armor and piercing even the hardened hides of the trolls. The goblins quickly turned about once again, catching the force between three fronts of battle.
The trolls swung wildly, confused over which direction their out to proceed to fight and they were quickly taken down by the powerful weapons of the Sons of Durin. With the trolls removed, Faykan and Harry led another charge of the Rohirrim to clean up the infantry once again.
Voldemort was clearly expecting their counter in some fashion as this, as the moment that Harry and Faykan surged forward, there was a massive blast of magic from the direction of the shrieking shack. New waves of forces were coming, and from the shambling outlines in the darkened ground outside the demolished wall, Harry correctly guessed that they were the Dark Lord's army of inferi.
The army of the dead spilled through the holes in their walls, clawing and biting at anything that moved, friend or foe, and the forces of Light had to bid a hasty retreat to be able to reform a defensive perimeter to catch the rushing horde upon. Behind the inferi, dark wizards were coming slowly, casting their dark spells on the casualties of the previous engagements, reinforcing their hordes with fresh corpses.
Such desecration of the dead was violently offensive to Harry, and he felt a burning white desire to charge out, alone if need be, and slaughter the recently reanimated dead and their necromancer masters with the power of the Valar, but one look at Faykan told him that would be most unwise, even though his fellow Istari clearly felt the same way.
Doing what he could however, Harry lifted his staff, allowing the grace and power of the Valar to flow through him like a river of light, erupting from the emerald jeweled staff like a beacon. At his side, Faykan was performing the same level of powerful Light magic, cutting great swaths through the ranks of the dead, but regardless there were simply too many, and like a putrid tide they washed over the defender's position, biting and clawing.
Many fell to the diseased bodies, and far more fled back toward the castle in a full retreat. Harry fought on, struggling to keep moral with the nearby warriors up, lashing out with sword and magic alike to cut down foe after foe.
Nearby, Faykan's knot of soldiers wasn't faring as well. Dozens had been cut down, and Faykan himself was sporting wounds from the claw-like hands of the dead, when the Blue Istari sharply cracked his staff upon the rocky soil, causing a shockwave in all directions, which faltered the inferi long enough for him to give out a bellowing groan, which echoed throughout the grounds.
Up the slight rise from their position, the Whomping Willow instant started going berserk, arms flailing wildly, trunk trashing from side to side as it desperately trying to strike at anything nearby. Then, with a massive groan, the entire tree lifted itself from the roots, almost like many small, many toed legs, and waded into the melee, whip-like limbs sending all around it flying through the air with the force of its blows.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
The Dark Lord smirked as his forces surged in behind the legion of the dead. The necromancer, Abdurahman, was well adept at his work. The undead animated from the battle, while currently being cut down in droves by the ever weakening defenders, were easily being replaced as the necromancers advanced behind their undead minions. Even the pesky tree that had joined the fray was of little consequence, and the Lord of the Earth spotted Abdurahman himself conjure evil fire upon the annoyance, making the tree bellow and groan in agony as it burned.
But what even the Dark Lord Sauron didn't expect to happen was for a second bellowing groan to roar out from the forest, precluding a house sized boulder flying out from amid the trees, abruptly crushing the necromancer and his entourage of fellow sorcerers.
"Rise up, defenders of the forest! Smite the defilers of the land, brurahoom!" roared a deep, groaning voice from the tree's edge. The Dark Lord attempted to locate the source of the sound, recognizing another of his ancient enemies, when the underbrush of the forest exploded with all sorts of creatures, horse-men, unicorns and the like, while the sky above the forest became dark with many winged shapes. The very natural world rose up against him.
So be it then, Sauron decided, if the very planet would fight him to the end, then he, like Melkor the Morgoth before him, would simply obliterate this Middle Earth from existence, and laugh as the Valar failed in their missions they were given from before the beginning.
Under the arms of this newly arrived force, and without the Necromancers to replenish their ranks, the dead were swept away quickly, and the forces of the Light rejoiced once again in their small victory, charging the tide of orcs once again in a desperate attempt to keep their footing on the grounds of the castle.
But he, the Lord of the Earth, would not allow them to mock his power any longer. With naught but a nod to both his lieutenants, he himself stepped from the vantage point and made his way to the front. The next charge was to be led personally, and it would not fail.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Draco cheered from his point just inside entrance hall as the massive Ent known as Quickbeam led their next surprise assault from the forest, crushing the inferi and their handlers, and sending the forces of darkness into disarray once again.
If they kept this up, they could whittle Voldemort's forces away and force the man to give up the day to them, or come out to battle himself and hopefully slay the madman once and for all.
Exiting the castle with a fresh batch of reinforcements, both of Rohan, Dwarven and goblin races, Draco immediately made his way to Harry and Faykan, who were steadily watching the next wave of evil rushing the walls. "He is here…" Harry said suddenly, when a massive blast from the oncoming tide shook the ground upon which they stood.
The sword of Elendil flashed brightly from Draco's scabbard, flames alight as he watched the great orcs running at their lines. And then he spotted him. Voldemort, clad in black metal armor and wielding both wand and a great heavy mace, leading the attack himself.
It was insanity, to think that this could all be over so soon. Draco braced himself as the warriors all around readied to receive the assault. What they weren't prepared for was the Dark Lord to deal the first blow, swinging the mace high, and Fiendfyre erupting from the massive spiked end, launching forward to decimate an entire side of their ranks, as well as cutting off one avenue of escape.
The flames also prevented Quickbeam from coming to their aid, as the massive Ent was still attempting to tend to the fallen Whomping Willow, bellowing curses in many languages at the Dark Lord for his blatant disregard of nature.
"Elendil!" Draco roared, surging forward with the rest of their warriors, meeting the charge head on. Andúril shone in the darkness, cutting a flaming path through each orc that stood in his way, and Draco know that beside him, the elven blades of the pair of Istari were being as devastating to the orcish regiment.
And then the Dark Lord himself was upon them. The mace swung, scattering entire platoons and knocking them into the air with the magically amplified force of the blows. The aura of fear was so strong, and many fell back from the man, whose eyes shone red in the darkness.
There was nothing for it, with soldiers falling for fleeing on all sides, Draco yelled for a retreat, and they ran, some still maintaining their seats on horseback, back to the castle gates, with their foes on their heels. As soon as they cleared the flames of the Fiendfyre, Quickbeam appeared, bellowing his rage as he crushed entire knots of orcs under his massive roots.
Draco continued to run, there was no option to turn and fight, as it seemed every orc and other dark creature belonging to Voldemort had taken to the field after their Lord. Werewolves scampered across the lawns, leaping at those who got separated from the massive contingent of the Light, their howling mixing in with the night. Vampires and Dementors sailed overhead, delighting in the pain and fear of their victims.
Another gout of flames blossomed behind them, and Draco turned in time to hear the painful roar, and see that even Quickbeam had been set alight. The cursed fire, created to clear large paths through forests, was more than a match for the magic of the lingering tree herder, and although he continued to fight for several moments, the mighty Ent soon fell with a crash.
"NO!" Faykan yelled, stopping and turning to face the hordes that followed them. Harry looked as though he would stop as well, but Draco grabbed his arm, knowing that Faykan was not foolish enough to allow himself to die again. Bellowing in elvish, Faykan conjured an orb of pure energy at the top of his staff, aiming it down the center row of their enemies, and firing. The orb plunged through ranks of orcs, annihilating everyone that it encountered, before exploding deep in their midst, sending many a dark creature flying through the air.
Quick as a flash, Faykan was with them again, and they sprinted for the castle door, which was slammed shut as they passed by a mixture of warriors from all the Light's allies.
Both Harry and Faykan swung their staffs at the closed door, casting powerful enchantments to keep the doors sealed from outside influences, and strengthening it to resist any attempt at battery. They were safe for the moment, but how many had they lost in delaying this long?
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Hermione cried out as spells erupted from the recently lost grounds, flying all over the castle walls and towers, blasting holes in the stone and knocking many of the students, teachers and other wizards flying backward.
The cracks of apparation were heard and suddenly combat exploded all around them, spells and curses flying in every direction. The Death Eaters were trying to take the battlements and work inside the castle. Hefting her elven bow, Hermione took careful aim, and sent an arrow flying directly into the hood of a newly arrived Death Eater.
The man fell, gurgling, but Hermione had no time to ponder the effects of taking a life, as several more were already upon her and the other group of wizards with her on the forward battlements. "For Hogwarts!" she yelled, rallying her nearest allies, who yelled in return, charging at the Death Eaters. A large pair of sixth and seventh years drew their swords, barreling straight at the largest knot of dark wizards, and Hermione sprayed several arrows over their heads to distract and confuse the adversaries so they wouldn't blast the pair of boys into oblivion.
Wizards on the whole were woefully unaccustomed to melee combat, and the metal swords that were conjured by Hogwarts itself proved to be most effective in bashing, cutting and stabbing through the unarmored dark wizards.
A pair of animated statues flew out of an upper tower, and Hermione looked up to see the students there backed into a corner, while more Death Eaters whooped at their victory. The flash of green tore at her soul as she saw young children crumple to the floor of the tower.
Forcing herself to fight on, and resist despair, Hermione concentrated, digging deeply into the small well of formless magic that she could access. The bow grew hot in her hands, and when she looked, a powerful arrow of white hot flames was fashioned there. Taking aim at the tower, she let the arrow of her vengeance fly.
The fire slammed into the inside of the tower, exploding outward in a cascade of white hot flames, and the screams of the Death Eaters pierced the night as their fled, burning and flailing as they attempted to extinguish themselves.
A roar from below tore Hermione's eyes back to the grounds, where her heart skipped a beat. The orcs and other ground forces had not been idle while the wizards had struck from above. Ladders, hundreds of them along with other mechanical devices, were being hauled up from some other location, and the orcs were charging the castle walls itself. While the ladders weren't nearby high enough to reach Hermione and those on the battlements, they would certainly lead to the first and second floor windows, allowing the vile creatures to spill into the middle of the castle, cutting off both grounds of defenders from each other.
"Come on!" Hermione cried to those around her, pointing her bow and taking aim at the lead orcs and their ladder. Unleashing a bolt of terrible lightning, she watched as it slammed with a massive thunderclap directly upon the ladder, sending a shockwave that knocked all the orcs holding it to the ground. The others, seeing the danger that those ladders possessed, started raining down spells on the orc hordes, while statues and those with melee weapons kept out a sharp eye for more Death Eaters attempting to stop them from delaying the ladder carriers from reaching the walls.
Not that they could do much about those still on the ground, bombarding the walls with their curses. Hermione thought she heard the familiar cackle of Bellatrix LeStrange as a curse sailed past her ear, singing her hair as it passed, but she paid the spell little mind as she fired arrow after arrow at the orcs, trying to stop or kill as many as she could.
When at last she went to draw and found no more arrows in her quiver, she knew that it was time for them to withdraw into the castle. Several more had been hit by spells from the grounds, and the orcs just kept coming, taking up the ladders where others had dropped them.
Firing a signal spell into the sky, Hermione called for retreat, and all around, those that had held off Death Eaters from their crenulations and towers fled within the relative safety of the castle, where she hoped they may cut off the orcs imminent arrival on the first and second floors.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Bellatrix laughed as she spotted the bushy haired Mudblood friend of Potter, fleeing into the castle with the rest of her soldiers. The orcs were relentlessly charging at the castle, sticking the long ladder ends into the wet ground and heaving them upward, smashing windows and balconies where they landed, before dozens of creatures at a time would start hauling themselves up, eager to enter the castle and butcher the inhabitants.
Meanwhile, another group was bashing the front gates with a large ram, struggling to break down the oaken door, but failing due to its infusion of magic. But it served the purpose of a distraction for the time being, keeping the defenders cowering inside no doubt as they waited for their doom to be decided.
How she would have liked to be part of the vanguard, Bellatrix mourned, but her lack of a wand arm made it less than ideal for her to face off against anyone, and she served how she could, acting as a commander to lead the Death Eaters and other humans in the Dark Lord's army.
The man was watching the scene before them with a muted, almost thoughtful expression, obviously calculating the best route of attack to take the castle with as little cost. It then surprised Bellatrix when he turned once again to the Lord of Azkaban. "You know what to do…" he said, and the Wraith King shrieked again, storming away to reacquire his steed, even as the Dementors took to the air, wheeling and circling over the castle.
The Lord, once fixed in the saddle once again, spurred directly to the gates, where the orcs were starting to get frustrated with the gates that would not budge an inch under their attacks.
Once arrived, the Lord of Azkaban started to chant, high and cold in his eerie dark language, waving his sword high, and the ram started to glow a dark purple, nearly black. The orc struggled to wield it for a moment, before the whole item dropped from their arms. With nary a word, the Wraith King called forth several trolls, who each looked large enough to lift the small beam alone, but it still took three of the massive creatures to adequately lift the battering ram and continue where the orcs left off.
The wooden door, and its enchantments, started to shudder with greater fervor than previous, and Bellatrix grinned, eager to reenter the castle as a conquering victor at last.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Harry watched with muted horror as the Lord of the Nazgûl cast his dark magic over the orcish battering ram, enchanting it to break other magic, when resumed the beating down of the Hogwart's front doors. With every strike the wards and spells sealing the dark forces out cracked ever so slightly, slowly yielding to the relentless strikes.
Returning down to the Great Hall, which had been hastily transformed into a battle side hospital, he joined Faykan and the others as they discussed what they were going to do next. Or more accurately, he joined Draco, Hermione and Ron in trying to figure out what to do next, as Faykan was preoccupied with Severus. Sometime during the battle, Death Eaters had attempted to enter the castle through Ravenclaw tower, while some students were still inside, and the Headmaster had charged to their rescue with a force of teachers and students behind him, being grievously injured in the process of repelling the invaders.
Whether the man would live or not, Harry did not know, but the tension was heavy in the air as they watched Faykan gingerly trying to heal Severus. Chanting in English as well as Elvish, Faykan was closing wounds as fast as he could, before suddenly Severus jerked painfully, coughing and sputtering blood from the mouth. From the Headmaster's lips, a voice emerged, but it wasn't the one that belonged to the body before them.
"You have betrayed me, Severus Snape…" the voice said, and at first Harry thought it was Voldemort's, but something about it was badly off. It was the same sound, but the inflexion, the rhythm of the speech was completely different, only a subtle thing, but clear to him.
"See now the price of your foolishness, and a warning to your friends, that a similar fate awaits all those who resist me and my power!"
Severus jerked again, and blood spurted from his left arm, where the Dark Mark resided. The flesh there had split wide open, and although Faykan immediately went to try and seal the wound with magic, nothing he could do would stop the bleeding.
"Fay…" Severus said weakly, even as he bled out. Harry froze, amazed at the man's sense of control, even as he lay dying. "Fay… do not waste your energy trying to save me…" Severus muttered deliriously, his eyes closed to save as much energy as possible.
"No," Faykan said, his voice shaking, "I can't lose anyone else, it's too much Sev!"
"Death is a… natural part of life, Fay…" Severus continued, his voice growing weak as blood pooled on the stones below him. The dying man smiled once, before asking for Harry of all people. Confused, Harry approached touching Severus on the arm to indicate that he was present.
Severus opened his eyes, black pools that had once long ago held nothing but cold hatred for him or Faykan, but now were filled with warmth so deep that Harry could scarcely tell that he was the same man as before.
"You have your mother's eyes…" was all Severus managed to say, before his breathing slowed, his eyes shut, and he was gone.
Everything was dreadfully silent for a long while, aside from the relentless pounding of the battering rams outside. Harry wanted to say something, but it felt inappropriate to even think of it. Faykan looked completely crushed, crouched by the body of one of his close friends, and Harry remembered implicitly when he thought that Fay himself was dead, and the same emotions that had run through him were playing in rapid succession across the Istari's face.
From across the room, Ceolwulf approached the group, adjusting his armor after being treated for a wound on his torso, "Lord Alatar, you must be strong, for all those who are still fighting the good fight."
"Where is the horse and the rider?" Faykan replied mournfully, "Where is the horn that was blowing?"
And, knowing that the Lord of the Mark had heard of this expression before, Harry allowed him to reply, "They have passed like rain on the mountain, like wind in the meadow. The days have gone down in the West, behind the hills into shadow."
"How did it come to this?" Faykan finished, his head bowed and still very sorrowful.
Harry, recognizing a situation very similar to this from his own past, repeated the same words that the aged wizard before him once said in advice. "So say all who live to see such times, but it is not for them to decide… all we have to decide is what to do with the time that we are given…"
Faykan managed a weak chuckle, "using my own words on me are we, Harry?" he said. Nevertheless, he stood at last, sparing a final sorrowful glance at Severus' body, before steeling himself to the world around him. "It's time we end this, and put that monster down for good." Faykan said, magic coiling around him in his suppressed wrath.
"What ought we to do about the little committee attempting to welcome themselves onto our front door then?" Harry asked, smirking weakly. There was little joy or humor to be had at the moment, and the Weasley twins were preoccupied with sealing the many secret passages out of the castle to take up the job, so he made do with what he had to work with.
Turning his back on the makeshift infirmary, Faykan took a deep breath, "Firstly, let's see whose knocking…" he said as he started for the first floor, and the same windows that Harry had first spied the group attempting to break into the castle.
When they arrived, and Faykan had had his look, the turned back to the rest of them, "Well, that's a rather grim sight," he stated flatly, "but we do have a few things on our side, and I know what we need to do."
Turning to Hermione, Faykan issued orders to gather the centaur herd that had congregated in the largest ground floor classroom, and for Harry and Ron to summon the Order of the Phoenix, and every able bodied wand wielder they could. They sprinted through the castle in their haste to obey, calling for everyone who would stand and fight to gather in the entrance hall prepared for battle.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Draco shifted nervously in the entrance hall as the pounding at the front doors grew steadily louder. Nearby, the herd of centaur shifted, their armor clanking as they awaited instructions from Faykan or Harry.
A pair of the larger unicorn stallions had joined the fight as well, humbly offering themselves as mounts to the two Istari, while Ceolwulf had supplied spare horses for Draco, Ron and Hermione, as well as those others among their group that could ride. It was a desperate gambit, what they were attempting, but there was a time and a place for such things, right?
"It seems that this may yet be our end…" Ceolwulf said to Draco, glancing at Faykan. Harry bristled at first at the man's words, but the King of Rohan pressed on, "but if it is to be so, then I would have it be this way; on the field of battle, and not merely caught as an old badger in a trap. When the doors break, I and my warriors will charge forth to find whatever evil awaits us. Will you ride with me at the front, heir of Telcontar?"
Draco was uncertain. On the one hand, it sounded risky and downright suicidal, but at the same time there was an almost unsettlingly desirable ring to it; going down in the heat of battle with the bodies of foe surrounding you on all sides.
"A death worthy of songs or tales…" Draco mused to himself.
"If there be any who live hereafter to write of such things…" the older king acquiesced. Draco was about to respond, when the door splintered with another shuddering crash, and the wards collapsed around them, leaving the only barrier of wood and metal preventing the evil forces entry.
Everything seemed to slow down in Draco's vision, like he would memorize every detail of the castle as it was before all chaos broke loose: the stamping of hooves on the stones, the stretch of bowstrings and the smell of nervous sweat. Everyone around him even seemed to freeze, from Faykan's stern watching of the door, to Mad-Eye Moody's whirling eye in its socket. Draco could even hear his own heartbeat within his chest, counting down the seconds until the doors were broken open.
Then the moment passed, and with a tremendous crash the doors were split asunder. And as the dust settled a single figure started to make its way in, precluded by an aura of intense fear. "Do not give in to fear!" Faykan commanded, and Draco felt warmth surge through him at the Istari's words, even as the powerful wizard rode forward to meet the Nazgûl Lord.
"You shall not enter here!" Faykan commanded, "Return to the Abyss prepared for you… Go back; fall to the nothingness that awaits you and your master, go!"
The Wraith Lord did not bother with a reply, merely raising its sword high, flames leaping from the blade even as massive shapes started to lumber through the settling dust.
"Volleys, fire!" Harry yelled, and the crisp snap of bowstrings and shouts of spells nearly drowned out the clang of swords between Faykan and the Nazgûl Lord as the pair cantered in a circle, trying to outflank the mount of the other. That was until Harry launched into the melee, Hadhafang catching and throwing the Witch King's blade, just as Harry pulled forth the Phial of Galadriel.
"Aiya, Eärendil Elenion Ancalima!" he yelled, and the resultant blast of pure white energy sent the Black Rider fleeing, shrieking, into the night.
"Now is the hour!" Ceolwulf shouted to the assembled cavalry, "Riders of Rohan, remember the oaths you have taken! Now fulfill them all to Lord and land. Forth, Érolingas!"
The combined force surged forward, catching the heavily wounded battle trolls off guard, and cutting them down within moments before spilling past through the doors of Hogwarts.
The grounds were completely infested with dark creatures and evil wizards, but for once, Draco did not care for his own safety. They had to make their stand here, in life or in death, to show the world that Britain would not submit to Voldemort's evil without fighting to the death first.