It took only seconds to realize that even though I wasn't going to be able to help them, I could fight here. I would have to, to stay alive.

The back of my neck still tingled as a result of the Stinging Curse that had hit it earlier. Curses flew around me, beams of blue and red flying about, hitting portraits, causing marble columns to come crashing to the ground. I couldn't stop and watch the destruction around me.

A masked Death Eater chose me as it's target, and I found myself engaging in battle with him. He certainly wasn't their first line of defense, and I was doing a pretty good job of keeping him on his toes.

He ducked behind the bust of a wizard I didn't recognize to dodge a spell, but I blew the bust up, showering both of us in dust and chunks of marble. I could see blood falling from his now broken nose.

"Colloshoo!" he shouted through the blood dribbling over his mouth, and I found my feet glued to the floor. No matter how I twisted or turned my feet, they weren't coming up from the ground.

"Fuck," I shouted, without enough time and agility to free my feet from my laced up sneakers. If I bent down to untie my laces, I was effectively leaving myself a defenseless target. But I couldn't stay glued in one spot.

He walked toward me, a look of intent in his eyes, and I felt my blood pounding in my head.

"CONFRINGO!" a voice yelled from behind me, and the man was blasted up and backwards, into the stone wall behind him. He slumped downward, his head to the side, eyes closed. No longer a threat.

I turned, to the best of my ability, to see my big brother standing next to me.

"ROB!" I cried, so relieved for so many reasons. "Thank you, thank you-"

"What are big brothers for?" he asked, smiling at me. He lazily waved his wand to undo my laces, and I stepped out of my sneakers. "Now, come on, let's go."

He grabbed my arm and pulled me away, out of the Great Hall. I wasn't sure where we were going, but I trusted him. We made it about halfway down the hallway, when a booming voice stopped everyone in their tracks.

"You have fought," said the high, cold voice that sent shivers down my spine, "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."

Had Harry gotten to Voldemort? Was he still alive? What was prompting this retreat? I wondered about the state of my friends, and I thought of Adam, sitting upstairs on the third floor hallway, and hoped he was still alive. He was the only one I could easily get to, and I had to go there and see him.

"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 last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour."

The thought of Harry approaching Voldemort like that made my stomach turn, so I had to dismiss it from my mind. It was the only option right now.

Around us, there was a flurry of activity as people moved to care for the injured and dead.

"Adam's on the third floor, badly hurt," I said to Rob. "I tucked him behind a tapestry to keep people away from him but I have no idea what kind of condition he'll be in."

"Lead the way," he said, nodding. I desperately wanted to catch up with him, ask him what he had been up to, if he had heard from Dad- but now was not the time and we both knew that. I'm sure he had a thousand questions for me too. "Your dueling has gotten a lot better, Kat."

"I still needed you to get me out a sticky situation," I said.

He shrugged. "Can't exactly base it all on such a high pressure situation like this."

When we got to the third floor, I about sprinted to the tapestry where Adam was waited. I lifted it up, and couldn't immediately tell if he was still alive. I removed the silencing charm, and bent down.

"Adam?" I asked.

His eyes fluttered open. "You're awful stupid, Kat," he breathed, shaking his head slightly.

"Shut up," I said, angered by his anger. "There's been a retreat. I'm going to get you some Pain Potion and we'll see about fixing you up."

"Kat," Rob said softly, gazing at Adam. "I don't think there's much-"

"Help me move him," I pleaded. We gently carried him downstairs to the Great Hall, which had become the gathering place. Rob set him down on a bench and it was very clear he wasn't going to make it. He couldn't move his legs, they were laying at a weird angle. His entire pelvis looked crushed and swollen at the same time. His eyes fluttered up and down.

Madame Pomfrey was tending to who she could, giving out Pain Potion and healing broken bones. I got a Pain Potion from her and held his head up while I poured it down his throat.

"You're gonna be okay," I told him, holding in the tears. I sat next to him, holding his hand and trying to say soothing things. I ran my hand through his hair.

He looked like he was trying to say something, but his raspy voice couldn't really form words. I was sure the pain he was in, and the pain potion too, weren't helping. I just wanted him to be comfortable.

"I love you," I whispered to him. I knew he heard me because his eyes opened and he nodded. "Thank you for everything you gave me, Adam."

He started coughing up blood and Rob rolled him on his side. The blood splashed onto the stone floor… and onto my sock covered feet. The coughing subsided, and I watched as his breathing slowed down. I wondered if there was anything I could do to minimize his pain as his time grew shorter.

"Don't watch this, Kat. Please," Rob pleaded with me, wrapping his arms around me and turning me away. "This isn't what he'd want. This isn't how he would want you to remember him."

He was right, in a way. I thought back to the young man I'd fallen in love with two and a half years ago. The Adam that could always make me laugh, who I dreamed of having a future with. The apartment we were going to share in Diagon Alley. Days of watching him play Quidditch professionally. Those dreams had long since faded...

While life had pulled us in two separate directions and I had moved on, he was the first boy I loved and I would always love him. I felt guilt, knowing if he hadn't been associated with me then he wouldn't have had to spend his last year in hiding. I had robbed him of the last year of his life.

I pulled away from Rob and kneeled beside Adam, holding his hand tightly. His chest rose twice more, before falling for the last time.

My sobs in the Great Hall were not alone. Many people were mourning their lost friends and loved ones. But I knelt there, my head on Adam's still warm chest, and let the tears flow freely. He was a good person, and he was gone.

Rob stood beside me, his hand placed gently on my shoulder to remind me of his presence. After a few moments, the sobs racking my body stopped producing tears. I took a moment to collect myself, then stood up.

I zeroed in on Ron and Hermione, mourning across the Hall with the Weasley family. I looked around, but didn't see the black haired boy I was looking for. When they saw me, they both walked toward me, and we met in the middle.

"Snape's dead," Hermione said.

"Where's Harry?"

"I think he went to Dumbledore's office," Ron answered.

"Is the snake dead?"

"Not yet."

"Kat, where are you going-?" Rob asked, trying to catch up with me. "You should really stay here."

"I have to go do something," I said. "I promise it's important."

"Please don't leave," he asked. "I'm begging you."

"It's something I need to do, Rob. Please trust me."

I could see the conflict on his face. He only wanted to keep me safe, and I knew that. But I knew that there truly wasn't keeping anyone safe right now.

"I have something to ask of you," I said. "You're a Gryffindor. Should the Sword of Gryffindor appear to you, or anyone- get it to Ron or Hermione or me. We know what to do with it."

"What does that mean, Kat?" he asked.

"I'll explain later," I promised, walking backward in the direction of Dumbledore's office. I ran up to the third floor to the tower where I knew it was. I was lucky enough to have never been there before, but I had a general idea of where it was.

I had seen the castle this empty exactly once. Sixth year, while I was accompanying Adam on his Prefect rounds in the middle of the night. But somehow, tonight was different. None of the portraits were in their frames. There was not a single ghost to be found. Everything was eerily quiet in the dark hours of this terrible night.

A gargoyle met me at the entrance of the tower, and I hesitated when I realized I didn't have a password for him. He looked me up and down. I'm sure I was a sight to behold. No shoes, only bloody socks on my feet. My pants were torn and the rest of me was covered in the fine layer of dust caused by all the explosions of stone that had happened around me tonight. Then, he slowly revealed the first step of the staircase, a width just big enough for me to climb up.

I kept my wand up, because I really didn't know what I was going to find. As I came to the top of the stairwell, I saw a round room in front of me. There were probably a million books, trinkets, and portraits on the walls, but there was only one thing I was looking for now.

I found Harry laying on the carpet, staring at the ceiling. He was next to a Penseive, wand clutched tightly in one hand. His eyes were shiny behind his glasses.

He didn't acknowledge my presence, but I found myself laying down next to him. The carpet was dusty and smelled like an antique shop.

"Hi," I said, quietly. I stared up at the ceiling, trying to decide what he was looking at.

"Hi, Kat," he murmured. I waited to see if he had anything he wanted to share with me, and glanced softly in his direction. "I'm sorry about Adam."

"Me too," I agreed.

Another moment of silence passed. I both wanted to know why there were unshed tears in his eyes, and knew, in my heart, already.

"You're going to die tonight, aren't you?" the words were out of my mouth before I truly had thought them through.

He nodded, and squeezed his eyes shut. A few tears leaked out despite this, and I put my arms around him. "I'm the seventh Horcrux."

"Well," I said. I had no clue exactly what to say to him, and just continued to hold tightly to his body.

"I was never going to live through this," he said. "The length of my life has always been determined by how long it took us to destroy the Horcruxes."

"Good thing we weren't very quick about it, then," I said. He made a noise- almost like a chuckle, and I let my lips turn up in the smallest of smiles. "Because then I wouldn't have gotten to know how great it is to love you."

He shut his eyes and nodded. "It was so great, Kat," he said.

I couldn't envision what a real future would have looked like for the two of us, with such a roadblock in front of us this entire time. But that didn't mean I hadn't dreamed of summer vacations to the coast and lazy Sunday mornings and…

Well, it didn't matter now.

We lay there in silence for a few moments, aware of our entanglement and the events that would follow what felt like a frozen moment. I There was no way in the hell we were living that I was ever going to initiate us getting up. leaned down and kissed him, his dry, chapped lips tasting of dust.

Eventually, he pulled away. "I suppose it's time," he murmured.

I stood up first, and gave him a hand up. He stood next to me and nodded. "Well…"

"Can I walk you down there?" I asked. "Please?"

I could tell that he didn't want to bring me closer to Voldemort than he had to. But he wasn't exactly in the place to argue with me either. "When I tell you to run, you take the Invisibility Cloak back with you and you run. No exception."

I nodded, and grabbed his hand. He threw the Cloak over us, and we began our journey to the Forbidden Forrest.

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter! I really appreciate that there are still people around after all this time :) Here's the next chapter- please let me know what you think! This is unbetaed, so any mistakes are my own. Thanks for your support, and as always, reviews are appreciated!