As much as I wanted to linger in my grief, there would be time for that later. Harry had died, but he left us with a mission, and I was going to honor that as best I could.
I slowly climbed the rest of the stairs into the castle, and set out to find Ron and Hermione. I needed to let them know what had happened so we could figure out where to go from here. I headed towards the Great Hall, since that was the last place that I had seen them.
The hall was crowded with an abundance of people. I tried to push my way through the crowd, looking for Ron's familiar ginger hair. I stood on my tip toes, and finally spotted Ron across the crowd, near the entrance. Somehow, I had missed him. He looked up and we locked eyes. He grabbed Hermione's arm, and we met in the middle.
"Where's Harry?" Hermione asked.
"I…" I began, and didn't know how to finish. I should have spent a moment figuring out what I was going to say before I found them, but every minute was precious.
I did not have the time to articulate things, before a booming voice bounced off the stone walls of the Great Hall: "Harry Potter is dead. He was killed as he ran away, trying to save himself while you lay down your lives for him. We bring you his body as proof that your hero is gone."
Fresh tears filled my eyes, and I looked up at them and hoped they would understand. Hermione had a hand clasped over her mouth while tears leaked out of her tightly closed eyes. Ron put an arm around her and shed his own tears.
Around us, chaos erupted, but I paid no attention to it. "He's counting on us to finish what he started."
Voldemort's voice filled the Hall once more.
"The battle is won. You have lost half of your fighters. My Death Eaters out number you, and the Boy Who Lived is finished. There must be no more war. Anybody who continues to resist, man, woman, or child, will be slaughtered, as will every member of their family. Come out of the castle now, kneel before me, and you shall be spared. Your parents and children, your brothers and sisters will live and be forgiven, and you will join me in the new world we shall build together."
The masses around us started to push their ways out the door to the courtyard.
"What do we do?" I asked, pleading with them. We could not admit defeat.
"We're going to wing it," Ron said, grabbing both of us and heading outside. It was true chaos out there. I wasn't sure that I would be able to handle seeing Harry dead and lifeless. That wasn't how I wanted to remember him. I wanted to remember our sweet kisses, his beautiful dark green eyes, the soft hair on his face rubbing against my skin, the urgency with which he held me close…
Ron led us both to the front of the crowd. I could see his face was puzzled, calculating. I had faith that Ron would come up with a plan, that he would get us out of this mess, that he would not let Harry's death be in vain…
I felt a hand on my back and flinched, only to turn around and see my brother. "It's just me, Kat," he said. "I wanted to be close."
I reached out and grabbed his hand and squeezed it. Rob's presence was a source of such comfort to me on this otherwise disastrous day. I looked up, and saw Voldemort's crowd moving towards us all. Without much thought, my eyes darted around, looking desperately for Harry. Hagrid's large body loomed over the rest of them, and it was there, in his arms, where I saw him.
He looked especially small, held by the half-giant. His limp body seemed especially pale and dirty. I couldn't help but let out a sob as the reality of everything that had happened sunk in.
In my entire life, I had loved two boys. Both of them died today.
My mind also wandered to the countless families that were now missing loved ones, I looked to Ron, and envied his ability to push aside his grief for Fred to focus on the task at hand. Though his eyes were wet, the blank look on his face turned to anger.
"HARRY! HARRY!"
Sounds of grief echoed around us, and for a moment I felt compelled to move towards Harry's lifeless body. Robs arms circled me and held me firmly where I stood.
"It's not worth it, Kat, please don't get yourself killed," he breathed into my ear.
I nodded, and wiped the hot tears from my eyes. I didn't have it in me to join in the shouting, but kept my cries to myself.
"SILENCE!" Voldemort shouted at us all, waving his wand to force us quiet. The quiet surrounding us was eerie and made my stomach turn.
"Hagrid, set him at my feet, where he belongs."
Voldemort strolled back and forth, before looking up into the crowd. He smiled maliciously before addressing us. "Harry Potter is dead! Do you understand now, deluded ones? He was nothing, ever, but a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him!"
My stomach felt like it had twisted itself up into a million different knots and my knees buckled. While Rob had relaxed his grip on me, he tightened it upon feeling me sway.
"YOU'RE WRONG!" Ron bellowed from beside me, and I was shocked when his voice spread throughout our crowd. "HE WON!"
"He was killed while trying to sneak out of the castle grounds," said Voldemort, and there was relish in his voice for the lie, "killed while trying to save himself—"
"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" I found myself shouting, before I could really register what was coming out of my mouth. I couldn't help it. Nothing this vile creature was saying was true, and I wouldn't let anyone think otherwise.
Ron stepped forward, breaking free from the crowd. Hermione gasped, "No, no, no."
Voldemort flicked his wrist and Ron was flattened to the ground, his wand flying off in Voldemort's direction. He stepped forward.
"Ronald Weasley."
Ron struggled to get to his feet. I worried for him, without a wand, he was defenseless. What could he possibly do at this point to make things better? I briefly wondered if he had come up with a plan while we'd been standing there, but the look on his face made me doubt it.
"You are of noble blood, boy," Voldemort said. "And loyal too. You would make an excellent Death Eater."
Ron curled his idle hands into fists. "I will never join you."
"Very well," said Voldemort, a malicious smile appearing on his face that made my stomach wind itself even tighter than it had been before. "You have made your choice."
He flicked his wand once more, and at first, I saw nothing happen. I looked to Ron, and he appeared unharmed. It was only when I began to look around that I saw Voldemort had summoned the Sorting Hat. It landed in his hand.
"At Hogwarts, there shall be no more sorting. There shall be no more Houses. The noble house of Salazar Slytherin shall suffice for all students. Won't they, Ronald Weasley?"
Ron's slumped body became rigid, and Voldemort forced the tattered hat onto his head and over his eyes. The crowd shifted towards him.
"DON'T HURT HIM!" Hermione cried from beside me. I reached out to hold her hand, to stop another of my friends from doing something stupid. The Death Eaters all raised their wands at the crowd.
"Ron here, is going to show you all what shall happen to anyone who dares oppose me," Voldemort shouted, before waving his wand and setting Ron's head on fire.
The crowd grew wild around me, screaming at him. I couldn't bear to see Ron in what was inevitable, searing pain.
"STOP IT!" I screamed.
In the next moment, chaos exploded around me. Grawp charged at the castle, challenged by the giants that Voldemort had fighting for him. At the same time, the centaurs decided to strike, sending arrows flying into the crowd of Death Eaters, who scattered themselves.
I saw all this action in my peripheral vision, as I was focused on Ron, burning in front of me, his body tightly bound and rigid. This would not kill him, but… I couldn't even continue my thought.
In one swift motion, I saw his arms move from his sides, where they were balled up into fists. His entire body gained mobility, and he threw the hat off his head and to the ground.
Through the roar of the crowd and chaos around me, I miraculously heard a clink as the hat fell to the ground. Ron must have heard it as well, because he reached down, and produced the Sword of Gryffindor.
I gasped. We had what we needed to kill the snake. Once the snake was dead, we could do what we needed to do. A cold wave of relief made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Ron snatched the sword up quickly, and went swiftly towards the snake.
"YES!" Hermione and I both cried, glancing at each other and sharing a knowing glance that meant our jobs were almost done.
The sound of the sword slicing through the flesh of the snake gave me goosebumps, but the scream of absolute grief and fury that escaped Voldemort's mouth gave me a small, fledging sense of hope. Maybe we could do this after all.
As Ron shifted back, away from the furious monster and his snake, who lay on the ground in two pieces, my eyes shifted downwards to where Harry's body had been.
He was gone.
"WHERE'S HARRY?" I screamed. "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HIM!?"
But before I could get an answer, the crowd broke free from the semi-order we had been in before. With gentle force, Rob turned me away from the direction Harry's body had been, and toward the doors to the castle.