A/N: Here we go.
I don't normally recommend music to go along with my fanfiction, but, if you want a song to listen to while reading the next few chapters, give Heat Above by Greta Van Fleet a listen.
Chapter Forty-Five: The Final Battle
Part One
Voices trickled through the haze of magic surrounding me, familiar, but I could not move a muscle to look for their owners. Mentally, I rattled the bars of my cage and wished that I could lift a wand. Something desperate was bursting forth in my chest, telling me that this was it. I had to get free.
"Why here, Master?" Came the voice of Ari Chang.
"My Falx have warned me that there is someone here who retains their consciousness even under their control," Hastings responded, his voice cold. I realized with a jolt that he was standing very close to me. Did he know that I was the one that he was looking for?
"Are we here to kill them?" Chang sounded eager at the prospect. It made me sick. I wondered if he had always been so twisted and evil, or if there was something that had happened to him recently that turned the boy who had helped animate posters to cheer on the Quidditch team and taken Nikki on dates to Madame Puddifoot's, of all places, into the man who now stood before me discussing murder with the same sort of enthusiasm as he had once used to congratulate our team after a win.
There was a rustle of movement nearby, but I could not make any part of my body move in order to look and see what was going on. "No," Hastings said, his tone so devoid of feeling that it sent a shiver through me, "I believe in cosmic balance. Better to know who my enemy is and keep them under my control, than to destroy them and then wait for someone else to step into their place. No, we shall simply keep a close eye on you, Minerva McGonagall. We shall see how strong you feel after you have watched us destroy your precious school."
There was movement again, this time right in front of me. If I strained, I could make out a blurred figure standing before me.
"What about her, Master? May I kill the Potter girl?"
It wasn't even the hope in his voice that made me ill, it was the longing. Though I had never done a thing to Ari Chang, it was plainly evident to me now that he wanted to kill me.
Hastings' fury was the opposite of Chang's sickening excitement, overriding his previous icy apathy. "No! Stupid boy. I wish to offer her a seat at my table. She is of no use to me if you have your fun with her now."
"At your table?" Chang had apparently forgotten himself in his incredulity. "Master, she has done nothing to deserve-"
The figure dropped out of my line of vision and screams filled the room. Trying desperately to tune out the sound of Ari Chang being tortured, I scanned the blurred shapes around me as best I could without being able to move my eyes. If I had held a bit more control of my body, I probably would have given myself away then by crying. The entire situation felt hopeless and far more terrifying than I had anticipated, though finding myself surprised at how scared I was to be in the middle of what had to be the end of the war-in one direction or the other-felt somehow childish.
"Enough," Hastings said, and the screaming stopped, to my immense relief. I was learning that I had no reason to feel any sort of good will towards Chang, but that still did not mean that I had any desire to hear him be tortured. "Let us go prepare."
I was still focused on the figure. The haze of grey magic that surrounded me made it hard to see, but I had to know what was going on. Frustrated, I grabbed ahold of my golden magic and let it chase the grey away.
When I realized what I had done, I froze. Mentally, of course. Physically, my body was still completely under Hastings' control.
Hannah Longbottom was standing before me, her face unobscured from within my head. Though her eyes glowed a brilliant white, she was not masked. If I had not already been sure that the war had reached its crux, this would have been enough to convince me, for Hastings clearly no longer cared to hide the identities of his slaves from anyone. Hannah must have been marked during the attack on Hogsmeade, but my attention was no longer on her.
After the Hogsmeade attack, when I was in the bathtub at home, I had shoved my magic aside. I could recall thinking that it was of no use to me then, but would have been on the night of the attack.
I had pushed the grey magic aside and taken control back over my line of sight.
Shaking with hope, I gathered my golden magic, letting it fill my head in thick swirls that did not block my view of the world the way that Hastings' magic had. My feet were moving, I realized as my surroundings shifted, and that was enough to make me hasten my attempts.
The SG had filled my line of vision as I scrambled with handfuls of swirling gold, their faces just discernible in the dim lighting that crept out from the castle. I did not feel that I would get another chance at this, and failure to take control of my body would undoubtedly mean losing the war.
Trying not to crumble under the pressure, I felt all of the magic in my body shudder as I tried to figure out what to do with it.
Familiar faces were equal parts terrified and horrified as they took in the faces of their loved ones marching against them. Quite a few people were staring at me, the looks that various members of my family wore unforgettable in their fearful horror. I knew that my current appearance, which undoubtedly matched the glowing eyes and blank expression that Hannah had sported, would probably be similarly etched into their minds.
"Marigold!" I heard the voice that I knew better than my own twisted in anguish as he called for me.
My body turned towards the sound. Jay was standing beside James, Freddy, Lily, and Ben. Five of the most important people in my world were shoulder to shoulder before me, and I could feel the grey magic urging me to raise my hand against them.
No.
My limbs of their own accord. They were shaking. I knew that Jay could see it.
"Phoenix," He said, just my name once again. There was no plea in his voice. He wasn't calling me back to myself. Jay knew that I was here, trapped in my own head. The word was a reassurance-though of what, I could not fathom.
My gaze then caught, not on my boyfriend, but on my twin. Something was pulled taut between us as he stared intensely at me, upper arms being held by Freddy and Ben, both of whom were white-knuckled with the apparent force that it took to keep him from running to my side.
He mouthed only one word.
Please.
Just as my shaking fingers began to curl in on themselves, I raked the golden magic through my head, clearing out the swirls of grey. Hastings' magic was sticky, gooey with something thick and dark that had not been present when the magic existed on Magus. It was obvious that he had been attempting to modify the magic, and this had the unfortunate side effect of making it incredibly difficult to remove every trace of him from my head. Still, I knew somehow that I must clear out every bit of his magic from my head if I wanted to be free, so I finally allowed the golden magic in my head to burst into flames, burning the sticky grey smoke away until there was nothing left. It was desperately painful, as painful as being marked had been and compiled into the span of several long seconds rather than what had to have been minutes when I was originally marked, but it worked.
A jagged shriek left my mouth as I staggered, hands coming up to clutch at my head. It may have been dissolving beneath my fingertips for the amount of pain that I was in, but through the pain I could feel that something other was being chased free of my body.
It was, in the end, a remarkably simple solution, but I knew that I would not have been able to accomplish it any sooner, for it had taken every single moment of playing Hastings' conscious puppet in order for me to figure out how to chase away his magic for good.
"Phoenix!"
Shaking my newly cleared head before wincing at the pain that the gesture caused, I realized that I could see properly again. The world did not exist at the end of a hazy tunnel, but at my fingertips. Golden magic hung heavily from my arms, but, at my prompting, streaked out to dive into the heads of the people around me. There were cries of pain as smoke was chased away by swirls of gold.
"Your nose is bleeding."
I hadn't even heard Jay approach, but it did not surprise me to find him standing before me. He smoothed his hands over my face, his fingertips coming away bloody. James was on my right, staring at me as though he could read every thought that I had ever had if he simply looked at me hard enough. The other members of the SG hung back uncertainly as the former slaves came back to themselves.
"Is it gone for good?" Jay asked me, hope shining in his eyes.
"I think so," I whispered in response, the words a tiny bit tremulous. I had done it. I was free.
Minnie stepped forward, her tall form immediately commanding attention. I was suddenly so overwhelmingly grateful that Hastings apparently believed in balance and had, therefore, opted not to kill her. Proceeding without her would have been unthinkable.
"We are at war," She said simply, refusing to raise her voice over the whispers that broke out at her announcement, which led to silence falling very quickly. "Though our opponents may look mostly human behind their masks, I can assure you that a good deal of them are not. Please, for your safety, make your way into the castle at once."
I didn't have time to wonder where Hastings had gone off to as we sprinted for the castle, Jay's hand in mine and James sticking close to our heels. Once we made it inside, we glanced at our Headmistress for direction.
"I'm not sure if we can get all of you out of here without breaking the wards completely," She admitted once we were gathered, her tone one of deep regret as she looked at her students. I wondered if this was simply a flaw in the wards of Hogwarts, or if the issue arose because Minister Hastings and his army were already here.
"Then we fight," Someone said, their voice full of conviction. It was one of Ben's friends from Slytherin, a very nice boy that I had only spoken to a handful of times. At his words, several people made noises of agreement.
Freddy nodded, turning to address the students that had gathered, whom I now realized were exclusively members of the SG. "This is what we've been training for. The other students are either in their Common Rooms or in the safe holds."
"You should all be in your safe holds," McGonagall said, sounding stern, distraught, and proud, all at once. The other professors were giving her looks that suggested that they thought she was mad, for it was rapidly becoming clear that she was not truly objecting to our involvement.
"We won't hide out and let the war be fought for us," Jack said, a fierce snarl curling at his lips. His eyes were wild, promising destruction. "We'll fight for our families, our friends, and our freedom."
There was a great cheer at his words. The other adults tried to command us to go wait in our Common Rooms, but the SG would not be silenced. Though I was fiercely proud of the group that my family had created, there was a tightness in my chest that was making it a bit hard to breathe as I realized that this could be the very last time that I saw some of the people standing before me.
"This is really it, then?" Conner asked me softly, his eyes wide. At my nod, he turned to face Ross. "This is shitty timing, but I've been in love with you for years. Like, genuinely, I always joke about it because I'm too scared of ruining our friendship with the sheer intensity of it all, in love with you."
"Well, that sucks," Ross said, not even giving the other boy long enough to look disappointed before continuing, "We should have done this ages ago."
Despite the situation, a small smile graced my face when he tugged Conner closer for a kiss.
"Fucking finally!" James shouted, a grin on his face and his hand in Coleen's. He was not the only one expressing joy for the two boys, though everyone fell silent as my brother's tone shifted into the one that he used when he was commanding the SG. "Now, spread out! Groups to the corresponding floor number. If you're in a group higher than seven, subtract seven and make your way to that floor. If you're confused, ask a friend or just follow your group members! If you're not going to fight, find Madame Scamander and help heal. Stay safe and watch each other's backs!"
Nikki grabbed me by my wrist before I could move, pressing a sound kiss to my cheek before grabbing Jay to do the same to him. I watched her turn to Don, Jack, and Arnold, the three boys seeming to understand what she wanted as they all turned their cheeks to the side for her to kiss. Ben was in Nikki's group, but I had little doubt that she would be kissing him, too, before the fighting began. I could feel something cracking in my chest as Jay gave my hand a gentle tug, pulling me around and away from our friends. It was impossible to miss the feeling that was growing within me that I would not be seeing all of them again, though I prayed desperately that it was just simple fear and not a premonition.
There were loud protests as we scattered, with several professors and the adults who had been called by Hastings attempting to grab students, who dodged and sprinted away amidst noises of dissent.
Jack had been right.
We would fight for our freedom.
As though he was reading my mind, I heard the voice of my friend shout, "Student Guard!"
The echoing shout inexplicably forced me to blink away tears. All other noise faded into the background as everyone began chanting "SG", the roar then slowly growing distant as we all went in separate directions. Once it was just the groups assigned to each floor, everyone fell silent once again.
Though my family had been put in charge of various groups, James had intentionally given my boyfriend and I partner groups. We were technically assigned to floor one, but there was an extra group assigned to that floor and a ton of adults there, so I followed my twin up the stairs, Jay at my side.
"The Order is coming," Jay told me, getting me up to speed as we climbed the stairs. "We called them as soon as we figured out how serious this was. I sent out a mass-message on the bracelets and Teddy responded."
I nodded at his words, grateful to hear them. We had been practicing battle strategy and dueling for months now, but I could still recall how easily we had been overwhelmed and outmaneuvered in Diagon Alley. If we found ourselves similarly out of our depth now, we would need all of the help that we could get.
Though it was illogical, a part of me expected that the battle would wait until our parents got to the castle, which was why I was surprised when I heard a distant crash and the sounds of spells being fired. It seemed somehow impossible that we would fight when they were not here to do so alongside us, yet already the sounds of war grew closer to where we stood.
"It's starting," James mumbled, his voice slightly numb with the same shock that I felt. A few of the other people in his group echoed the sentiment.
Almost as though they had been summoned by his words, a group of people in masks flew up the stairs on the opposite side of the corridor from us. We immediately fell into a formation that James had taught us as they began firing spells, trying to return fire without getting hit ourselves.
I yelped as a spell whizzed between Jay and I, sending us diving in opposite directions as it created a massive burst of fire. James grabbed my arm, firing a hex back at the person who had caused the fire and hauling me into a side passage as the rest of the group did the same in different parts of the corridor.
"James, we lost Jay," I protested as my twin hauled me along, though I already knew what he would say in response.
"We talked about this at the strategy meeting, P, though I know it's harder to put into effect than it is to talk about. You can't go back for people. You have to move forward and trust that they'll do the same. That's how you can keep the people that you care about safe," He told me, the words slightly mechanical for how many times he had said them over the past few months. His grip on me never loosened, as though he was afraid that I would sprint off at the first chance that I got. Clearly he did not realize that I was about as likely to willingly leave him in the middle of combat as I was to decide to abandon my family and join Hastings. I had already watched my twin brother go down once because I faltered at his side. It would not happen again.
I knew that James was right about needing to keep moving, but that didn't make it any easier to run in what was probably the opposite direction from Jay ten minutes after the battle began.
Though I had initially wondered where Hastings was, it soon became clear that he was holed up somewhere attempting to take control of death once and for all. His magic, deep grey and still oddly slimy, appeared in random patches that seemed to collect in corners and writhe about. I kept an eye on it, letting gold magic creep up my arms as I wondered just what Hastings was playing at.
My question was soon answered when the ground shifted underneath my feet, creating a sensation in my gut that was not unlike falling off of my broom.
"What the fuck?" James yelled as the hallway that we had been running down suddenly slid sideways, tipping us onto first the wall, and then the ceiling. Grey magic seemed to burst in and out of existence as the world rotated around us, and I heard the sound of distant laughter and unfamiliar voices before everything fell silent once more.
We both let out shouts as we were dropped unceremoniously on the ground in a heap, the corridor abruptly upright again. I brushed a bit of grey slime from my pants as I stood, understanding as I did so what was happening.
"Come on. It's time!" I shouted, not bothering to elaborate as I yanked my twin down the corridor before it began moving again.
Though I had, moments ago, been concerned solely with the Falx, Hastings' army, and the Minister himself, I was now more worried about the castle itself, which seemed to come alive around us as we ran desperately through the halls.
We climbed another flight of stairs, pausing to fire a few spells at a group of masked opponents before the section of the hallway that they stood on seemed to spin in place, leaving us staring abruptly at a patch of flooring and a wall that did not belong to the corridor that we were currently standing in. We sprinted down a hidden passageway before the castle could right itself and emerged at the end of a long hallway.
"Nix, James!" Freddy called as he and Roxy sprinted towards us, looking desperate. Something turned in my gut as I watched them run. I took a step forward, ready to race to their sides as we had in Diagon Alley, but my brother stopped me with a hand on my wrist.
"Phoenix, there's a barrier," James said urgently, tearing my attention away from the twins.
"What?" I demanded, but even as the question left my lips, I realized what he was talking about. A shimmery haze blocked the rest of the hallway from where we stood, undoubtedly keeping us from crossing.
Almost as soon as I noticed the barrier, I realized what the twins were running from as the ground behind them began to crumble away. Logic seemed to leave my mind as I watched half of the corridor behind them collapse.
"No!" I screamed, trying to lunge for them. The barrier threw me backwards, hard, and James came flying back to land at my side seconds later, apparently having tried the same thing. One look at him told me that his nose was almost certainly broken, though neither one of us paid it any mind as we began trying any spell that we could against the magical boundary that lay between us and our cousins. After a few moments, I began simply pelting it with golden magic, the effort of doing so leaving me panting, but it seemed that even the magic that Magus had gifted me had its limitations.
Amidst the chaos, one of the paintings in the corridor behind Freddy and Roxy caught my eye. It was a portrait of my father, Uncle Ron, and Aunt Hermione, though it was not one that I had ever seen before in my life. Even more uncanny was the fact that it was awake and all three occupants of the picture appeared to be shouting, though portraits of people were only supposed to come alive after the person depicted had died.
I shoved the thought from my mind, knowing that there was another explanation, and focused again on my cousins.
The twins were sprinting faster than I had ever seen either of them move, but the ground was quite literally crumbling beneath their feet. I knew that Freddy's werewolf capabilities meant that could probably easily outrun his sister, but I was also well aware that he would never do so. Despite the distance between us, I could hear Roxy desperately sobbing, "Don't freeze! Don't freeze!"
There were tears streaming down my face as I glanced at James and found that he had reached the same conclusion that I had. The barrier was impenetrable.
"It could be open on the other side!" I said desperately, knowing that we could not get there in time, but wanting my twin to have a solution that I had not thought of that made it so that we could. "Could we-"
James shook his head, cutting off my line of thought before I could finish it. "No, there's no way to get there fast enough."
Though there was a chance that falling would mean nothing more than broken bones once they collided with the floor below, the twins could just as easily be directly above a staircase or a piece of rubble from the collapsing ground that would go straight through them if they fell on it hard enough. Two of my best friends were, undeniably, in grave danger. The thought hit me like a ton of bricks, making my knees go weak. A desperate glance at my cousins showed that Roxy was growing tired, so I did the only thing that I could think of at that moment.
"Come on, Roxy!" I screamed, trying to send her strength mentally. "Run! Run, Freddy!"
James joined in, yelling encouragement and pleas as the twins sprinted. They had been running for almost a minute, but they still had a decent portion of the hallway to cover. For the first time in my life, I found myself cursing the size of the castle.
They were less than four meters away from the end when the ground all seemed to crumple at once. One second, Freddy and Roxy were sprinting towards us, the next there was a blur of sickly grey and then they were falling.
"No!" James and I screamed in unison, a feeling of despair gripping me as the twins dropped out of view.
Impossibly fast, a shot of orange flew after them. So focused had I been on Fred and Roxy that I had completely missed the figure that had been racing along behind them just before they fell.
I gasped as Freddy and Roxy rose back into view, both clinging desperately to their father. Uncle George was clearly injured, with blood covering his torso and both of his arms, but he held his children tightly as he slowly flew the broomstick upwards.
It was then that the boundary began to flicker.
That was also when the ceiling above the cursed hallway began to fall far more quickly than the floor had.
"Behind you!" James yelled, his voice cracking due to the volume with which he shouted.
"Fly!" I screamed at the same time, the word as much as sob as anything else.
Though the distance between us and the Weasleys was minimal, I could easily see that it was too far for them to cover before the ceiling dropped above them. Their broomstick was clearly struggling to stay aloft under the weight of all three of them. In addition to that, Uncle George was not only injured, but was also flying with his knees, as he was using both hands to hold onto his children.
As though he could read my thoughts in the same way that his daughter could, Uncle George seemed to make a split-second decision, swinging his arm back once before throwing Roxy at James. She screamed so terribly as she flew through the air that I wondered if people in other parts of the castle assumed that they were hearing someone die.
James caught her, flying backwards once again as she collided with his torso. Her wail did not stop after they hit the ground, though it did lessen slightly in intensity.
Uncle George then made to swing Freddy through the air in order to hurl him to safety, but a stone clipped the back of the broom. The scream that I let out hurt my throat as I watched the two flail desperately.
"Accio!" I cast the summoning charm in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to save my uncle and my best friend. It was probably the strongest version of the spell that I had ever cast, for failing was unthinkable.
The spell called their broomstick forward, though they were still losing height even as they flew towards me. Dropping my wand to the ground carelessly, I only just managed to catch hold of Freddy's hand before the entire broomstick plummeted straight down past the edge of the hallway, yanking me off of my feet and nearly tearing Freddy's hand from my grasp.
I gasped with pain as my chin collided with the floor, but I forced my hands to remain gripping Freddy's. A panicked scream tore its way out of my throat as my cousin slid sideways off of the drop, dragging me along with him. Gravity made me shoot forward towards the ledge, for I was unwilling to let go of my best friend even as holding on yanked me towards what would surely be a painful fall. Hands gripped my legs just as my torso began to hang over the edge of the hall, stopping all of us from plummeting to the ground below.
To my horror, I realized that the cursed hallway had been directly over a huge section of moving staircases, meaning that the drop to the ground below would most likely be far more than a single floor.
Freddy clutched his father's hands in his, but I could see that Uncle George was slipping. His fingers were slick with blood, making it hard for either man to retain their grip. The broomstick was long gone, not even visible due to the drop below us.
"Hold on, dad, please," Freddy sobbed, voice pained in a way that I had never heard before. "They're going to pull us up, just hold on."
True to Fred's word, Roxy, James, and I were all trying desperately to pull our group back over the edge. I could feel myself slowly sliding back onto solid ground, but it was hard work. Both of my hands held one of Freddy's, meaning I only had my legs to try and propel myself backwards. James and Roxy were doing their best, but they were pulling a lot of weight on their own.
"Try your wand," I heard James tell Roxy.
The entire group let out a holler as Roxy removed a hand from my leg, causing all of us to slide forward a few inches before she could replace her grip.
"I'm sorry!" She sobbed, her desperation clear in her tone. "I let go to get my wand; I won't do it again!"
Her slightly hysterical pleas were, I realized, colored with hopelessness. Even Roxy, our ever-optimistic Roxanne, knew that our situation did not have a happy ending. A tear dripped from my face, landing on my fingers, which were gripping at Fred's skin so tightly that he would surely have bruises later. I watched the drop of liquid slowly trail down his arm, and found my cousin was tracking its progress as well when I finally tore my gaze away. When he realized that I was staring at him, Freddy and I made eye contact for what felt like an endless moment. The look in my cousin's eyes made it clear that we had all come to the same conclusion.
Uncle George glanced up at me with a look of resignation on his face. His eyes flickered first to Freddy, then to Roxy, before once again meeting mine. I nodded, well aware of what he was asking. Assuming I survived the war myself, I would take care of the twins as best I could. I blinked back more tears as he gave me a look of gratitude.
"You didn't freeze," Uncle George called, looking past me now. "I'm so proud of you, Rox. I'm proud of you both. Fred, I'm sorry that it took me so long to show that, but you've both made me really proud to be your dad. I love you both so much."
"No! You're not dying!" Roxy screamed, pulling harder on my legs and succeeding in pulling us a few inches back, but no more than that. All of us were panting with exertion, and I knew that my arms couldn't be the only ones that were rapidly growing exhausted. Around my limbs swirled bright golden magic, but it did nothing to help, nor did any of the spells that I was trying to cast wandlessly.
"Dad-" Freddy began, voice breaking.
I could see Uncle George shake his head. "It's okay, son. Please tell your mother that I love her."
"I will," Fred said, and the tears in his voice were obvious. There was a fierce trembling that had started up in either his arm or mine, which was making it difficult to continue holding on. "I love you, dad."
"No!" Roxy shrieked, the word a howl of agony.
"I love you both," Uncle George whispered one final time, and then he let go.
He fell so quickly that I didn't have time to do more than open my mouth in shock. The anguished scream that Roxy let out was painful to hear, but more painful still was the look on Freddy's face when he raised his eyes to meet mine.
With one less body to lift, we were all on the ground again in no time. James quickly wrapped his arms around Roxy.
"Daddy!" She wailed, her arms stretching towards the edge of the hall as though she could bring him back with sheer willpower. James ran his hand over her head soothingly, whispering something into her ear as tears rolled down his face.
Freddy crumpled into my arms as I held them out for him, ignoring how badly they hurt as I did so. He clung to me, shaking, and it was painfully obvious that he was trying to compartmentalize what had just happened. I rubbed his back gently, trying to keep my own sobs hidden so that I didn't cause him to break down.
This was war, I realized, feeling stupid for the thought, but unable to think anything else. We had heard about it our entire lives, but only now did I feel that I truly understood. My uncle was dead. I knew it to be true, for he had fallen so far that we could not see where he had landed, but I could not make myself believe it.
"Kids?"
James and I exchanged identical looks of despair as our grandmother's voice reached our ears. She ran down the corridor towards us, a look of fear on her face. I wondered if our expressions clued her into the fact that she had just lost another child.
"He's gone!" Roxy told our grandmother in an anguished tone, undoubtedly confirming for our Grandma that her worst fear had just come true for the second time. "He saved us, but he's gone. Daddy!"
Grandma closed her eyes for a brief moment as Roxy directed her call over the drop, pain evident on her face as she took a steadying breath. When she opened them once again, her eyes were glossy, but her hands were steady as she reached for Roxy.
Roxanne leapt into her arms, clinging to the woman and sobbing so hard that I worried she would pass out. Grandma rubbed her back gently, shushing my cousin and pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
"I'm so sorry," I told Freddy very softly, only belatedly remembering his dislike of the empty sentiment, though I could not think of what else there was to say in that moment.
"It's not your fault. He saved us," Freddy responded, thankfully not seeming to hold my slip-up against me. His arms were wrapped around me so tightly that it hurt, and I knew that he was trying to physically hold himself together. I wasn't surprised when I felt James join the hug a few seconds later.
"Come here, my babies," Grandma called for us after a few moments. We all rose and moved to her side when she held an arm out. She gave us a hug as a group, before hugging each one of us individually. When it was my turn, I found my eyes burning and my chest aching at her embrace. A part of my brain wondered if this would be the last time that I hugged my grandmother.
"We need to get moving," Freddy said softly when I stepped back. His hand was holding Roxy's tightly. She sniffed when he turned to face her, bringing a hand up to wipe her face dry. "Rox-"
"I know," She told him, her voice shaking, and hiccuped once. "Give me a few seconds. I just need to breathe for a minute."
I stepped forward, gripping her upper arms as she closed her eyes tightly. Her free hand reached up to cover one of mine, but no one spoke as Roxanne tried to file her father's death into the back of her mind, to be processed later. When she tipped her forehead against mine, I gave in and punched a tiny hole in my mental defenses, chanting my love for her on loop until she straightened up again.
"Okay," She finally said in a minute voice. "We can go."
My hand found James's as we turned to follow our grandmother. It was only when he pressed my wand into my fingertips that I realized I had never picked it up after dropping it to save Freddy.
"Thank you," I told him, knowing that he had just saved me from suffering from a very foolish mistake.
His eyes were slightly red as he nodded at me. I reached up to fix his nose, which was obviously broken, but he brushed my hand off. The movement wasn't unkind, but rather an attempt to get me to focus on the ongoing battle at hand.
We barely made it through the next hallway before we were thrown back into the fighting. Thankfully, our opponents seemed to be entirely human. I was not ready to face the Falx just yet. Arnold, and, to my immense relief, Jay were already in the thick of things. Without needing to discuss it, the six SG members present fell into one of James's formations. Grandma and Aunt Penny were fighting together, but I could see both glancing at the six of us as we fought fluidly.
When things died down, we quickly moved through the next corridor and into a secret passageway. The moment we were safely inside, Jay rushed to my side to pick me up in a hug. Over his shoulder, I watched Arnold take one look at Roxy before wrapping his arms around her.
I pressed my lips to Jay's ear, making sure that my voice wouldn't carry. "Uncle George is dead."
His arms tightened around me. I felt him press a kiss to the side of my head. "I'm so sorry."
After a few moments longer, he gently set me down. I wasn't surprised when he walked over to Freddy, pulling him into a hug without a word.
"I'm so sorry, but we need to keep moving," Grandma told us after a minute had passed, Aunt Penny weeping at her side in a manner that told me that she had just been filled in on our family's loss.
We all nodded, and Roxy let out a shriek as the ground shifted beneath us, though it thankfully fell still a moment later. Arnold slid his hand into hers, both of their knuckles white as he tugged her into motion just behind Grandma and Aunt Penelope. Jay quickly made his way back to my side, with Freddy following close behind him. I felt Jay take my left hand in his right as we walked, both of us using our other hand to hold our wands aloft. Freddy walked just slightly ahead, clearly unwilling to be separated from us, which was fine with me.
We walked out of the corridor and straight into more fighting. There was very little time to react as we dove into the fray, but I had the presence of mind to grab Freddy's shirt and pull him in the same direction as Jay and me. The fighting was more intense, as the corridor was crowded, and I soon lost sight of the others. The windows were randomly shattering, shards of glass striking the people closest before rapidly reforming their previous shape. I wondered absently if the corridor we had just left would do the same before long, erasing any sign of the death that had occurred there. There were also several Falx present, which made my heart sink to my toes.
"We need to get to the Great Hall!" I screamed at the two boys over the noise. "Luna was supposed to set up there; we have to figure out how to stop the Falx!"
They both nodded. Feeling rather cowardly, we began working our way through the fighting. It took everything in me not to abandon our mission when I caught sight of my parents dueling side-by-side, Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron only a few feet away from them, all alive and well, as I had known that they would be. Jay gave my arm a tug as he undoubtedly caught sight of them as well, giving me an apologetic look as I nodded and continued pushing my way through the hallway. Once we were clear, we rushed into another secret passage, one that would take us only a few corridors down from the Great Hall.
We broke free on the other side, and I immediately blocked a blasting hex that had been aimed at Freddy's torso. A chunk of the ceiling fell on the masked figure who had sent it before I could retaliate. I tried not to look too closely at what was left of them when the plaster and stone fixed itself moments later.
Jay swore as a spell sliced through his calf. I grabbed his upper arm, keeping him upright, as Freddy returned fire on the person who had cast the spell.
"I'm okay," Jay told me through gritted teeth, though I didn't really believe him as I watched blood dapple the floor around his feet with drops of scarlet. "Let's move."
We fought in a triangle as we made our way towards the Great Hall, utilizing one of James's best strategies. I spied a familiar head of blonde curls amidst the chaos just in time to block a sickly-looking purple curse before it struck Alice in the back. She shot me a look of gratitude, signing her thanks as chasing after a streak of ginger. I prayed that the two would be okay, not willing to risk distracting them by calling Lily back to my side.
We made it into the Great Hall, where Luna quickly waved us over. The fighting was thick in the room, which caused bile to rise in my throat. This was supposed to be where people took the injured, yet the room was overrun by fighting. Most of the wizards on Hastings' side were already down, as well, which meant that the inhabitants in the Great Hall were facing the Falx and, unlike out in the hallways, they had nowhere to run once they realized that the Falx were unbeatable.
We moved to fight near Luna, setting up near a group of injured Hogwarts students. A quick scan of their faces told me that there was no one from the SG present, so Freddy, Jay, and I fanned out to defend them as best we could. The fighting was incredibly fast-paced; I quickly realized just how out-manned we were.
I ducked out of the way of a curse, letting out a shriek when I failed to move quickly enough. With a wave of his wand, Freddy put the fire that had started eating away at my sleeve out before rolling out of the way of another spell.
"Luna! There has to be something that we can do!" I shouted, the desperation in my voice obvious. This was far worse than Diagon Alley had been, for at least then our issue had been that we were not as skilled as our opponents. Here, we were simply holding off the Falx and praying for a miracle.
The golden magic that I held seemed only to irritate the Falx, which was still more than anyone else in the hall could do. I could see wounds forming where I blasted my magic outwards at the creatures, but they appeared to cause the Falx no more pain than they might have inflicted on a slab of marble. Each time that I thought I might do enough damage to one of the monsters to slow them down a bit, Hastings' thick grey magic settled over the creature's limbs, making them appear to fade in and out of existence for a brief moment, and then the magic slunk off to the corners of the room, leaving the Falx as whole as they had been in the moments before I turned my magic upon them.
Luna threw up a wall, stopping a nasty curse moments before it hit her and the people around her. "Certainly there is, but what? The only person that they would defer to over their master is Mors-none of us wield that power, and Mors themself may not intervene."
I froze, gaping at her. Before I could get the thought that had just struck me past my lips, I was tackled to the ground. A spell flew over my head, destroying the podium that sat at the front of the hall.
"Pay attention!" Freddy yelled as he conjured a boulder in order to shield us, his eyes golden with rage. Jay shoved himself off of me, also looking incredibly angry at my carelessness. I ignored them both as I pushed myself into a sitting position, still focused on my previous train of thought.
Years ago, just after we had been marked, when Luna had been explaining Magus Ortum to Minnie and I, she had told us that the Falx would answer to Mors even above the command of their master, but she had also said that she was certain that they would respond to Medella's command as well. At the time, her words had meant very little to me, but now…
"Luna!" I called, trying not to get my hopes up too much, but feeling as though everything was finally falling into place. "What's the Magus rune for the Falx?"
She gave me a dubious look, drawing the rune with her wand before strengthening her wall.
I drew it once, practicing. The rune shimmered in the air for a moment before disappearing. Hope was growing in my chest, despite how much I tried to stamp it down.
Could it truly be so simple?
I stood up, ignoring Freddy's shout of warning, and began to force my magic through my wand as I drew. The tip of my wand left a shimmering golden trail as I waved it carefully through the air. Putting as much power as I could behind it, I cast the rune for immobilize and, without pausing, the rune for the Falx.
I had only a moment to pray to the gods that it had worked. There was no spoken spell, but I had poured as much magic-golden and regular-into casting as I possibly could. For a split second, I was worried that nothing had happened. Just before I began to contemplate other ideas, the Falx that I had focused my runes upon froze.
Magus was the birthplace of magic. Luna had once explained that the wand motion of many of our spells today were actually Magus runes that spelled the meaning of the enchantments out, though they had been simplified over time.
With the magic of Magus flowing through my veins, I had used the runes to create a new spell, one that I had been able to make exactly what I wanted. Normally, people who created new spells did so accidentally, or through random experiments with latin words and makeshift wand motions. My spell, however, had made the Falx stop, which was exactly what I needed.
I didn't wait to see if it was permanent. Even a temporary break was enough. I quickly began casting once again, rendering another Falx immobilized before Luna caught on. Though she did not wield Medella's power, her wand left streaks of shimmering gold as she cast my new spell and the Falx that she focused on were immobilized.
"Teach me!" Freddy yelled, his wand already raised and ready. I could hear other people in the room echoing the sentiment, excitement bubbling in the air as the others realized that we might actually have a chance of making it out of the Great Hall alive.
"Push magic through your wand like you're casting a spell, but draw this instead," I told the room at large, demonstrating the runes-turned-wand-motion as I immobilized another Falx.
Jay was already casting, moving slowly across the hall as he targeted Falx on the other side of the room. He had undoubtedly memorized the exact motion of my wand from the first time that I cast my spell, and he had a good number of frozen Falx to show for it.
"Shit!" Someone gasped, and I turned to see the first Falx that I had cast upon beginning to move. Jay's back was mostly turned towards the monster, and I did not hesitate to step in front of him, my wand raised in anticipation of having to protect us both.
I watched in shock as, rather than cursing us, the Falx simply left the hall.
"Phoenix!" Luna shouted excitedly as we began drawing the runes once again. More and more people were picking up on how to do it, and there were only a few Falx left. "Translation can never be done perfectly, for there will always be double-meanings and things that are lost to the process! The rune that you drew does not mean immobilize-not perfectly, at least. It's just the best word that we have to explain the rune's meaning. Truly, it is more the act of making something unable to do what it was intended for. The Falx were instructed to fight, but now they can not. You have stolen one purpose from them, so now they shall return to another."
I grinned at her triumphantly, dodging a curse from one of the few remaining Falx as I did so. Jay made it his next target. It took me a moment longer to understand what, exactly, Luna was telling me. In attempting to immobilize the Falx, I had instead made it so that they were unable to fight in Hastings' war. Now, they would return to their original purpose-reaping souls for Mors.
"We need to spread out and keep casting. Teach anyone that you see from our side how to do it," I instructed everyone as the last Falx left the Great Hall, praying that the spell would spread quickly enough to save lives. "Luna, you should try to set up again in here. Now that we know how to stop the Falx, this should be a manageable area. I'll go and find Minnie so that she can redo the runes that she had in place here against them."
"Why do we need her?" A girl in a yellow sweater yelled from further in the room, the words slightly muffled by the cork that she had pulled out of a vial with her teeth, for she had apparently immediately moved to begin healing others in the Great Hall as soon as the fighting stopped.
"She's the Headmistress," I called back, glad to see that several other people began helping the girl heal the injured once they caught sight of her doing so. "The castle will allow her to do it."
The girl nodded in understanding, though her eyes were locked on her patient.
"Why can't she do the whole castle?" Someone else asked, and I realized that I was going to need to nip the question and answer session in the bud quickly if I wanted to get moving.
"Minister Hastings broke all of the protection runes that she had in place," I said, ignoring a few noises of shock at the Minister's name. "She won't have the time to do the entire castle now that her grid system is down, and it will be pointless if they're still inside. This is a more reasonably sized area. Anyone who isn't injured or healing, get up and start teaching anyone that you can how to stop the Falx."
There were noises of agreement, with a few more people moving to help the healers, but most of the room spreading out into the hallways, wands held aloft and determination in their gazes.
"Let's go!" Freddy called me over to his side. He was rising from where he had been crouched by Jay's leg, healing the cut that he had acquired previously. When I reached the two boys, Freddy immediately began crossing the room towards the door.
"Hey," I grabbed Jay's hand, pulling him around to face me before he could follow. "I love you."
He grabbed my face and kissed me hard. "I love you too. Try to stick together?"
"I promise we'll try, but I'll need to run after Minnie if we find her, and you and Freddy may need to cover me as I do."
"I can accept that. We'll stick together if we get separated from you, but only leave us behind if it's to grab McGonagall before she disappears, okay?"
"Okay," I agreed, giving his hand a squeeze and pulling him to the doors, where Freddy was waiting.
"Think you can make this thing work?" My cousin asked, holding a familiar piece of parchment out towards me. A glance at the yellowing paper showed the scrawls of the Marauders struggling to form, with only snippets of words and flashes of letters managing to properly take shape as the map fought to function.
I shrugged, holding my hands over the map and letting gold trickle off of my fingers towards it, praying all the while that I did not accidentally set the parchment ablaze. To my relief, the golden magic seeped into the paper, seeming to give the map what it needed in order to begin working again. The castle was a mess of names and footprints as it finally spread across the paper, but it only took Jay a few seconds to locate McGonagall.
"She's upstairs," He said, pointing to the name in order to help us locate it as well.
Freddy let out a huff of air. "This place is a madhouse. It's going to be hard to get to her. We all need to be careful and smart about this."
"I agree. We're going to cover them as Phoenix grabs her," Jay told Freddy, who looked relieved to learn that Jay and I had already been thinking along the same lines as him.
Freddy nodded before turning a stern glare on me. "Okay. Phoenix, you have to fucking pay attention, especially if we're not there to cover you. I can't-"
"I know," I told him reassuringly, both Jay and I lifting a hand to rest on his shoulders as his voice cracked. He ran the palm of his hand over his eyes, clearly trying to keep it together. "I promise I'll be careful. You two be careful as well, okay?"
They nodded at me. I then grabbed Jay's elbow, gesturing towards the map.
"Did you get a good look at that?"
Both he and Freddy looked deeply confused as Jay nodded in confirmation.
"Good," I said, vicious satisfaction clear in my tone even to my own ears. "When this is over, you've got a record of who was here in that head of yours. I was that man's slave for years. A lot of those names on that map, though? They're choosing to fight for him. When the war ends, I want you to turn every name on that map over to my dad and Uncle Ron, okay? Please?"
"Clever girl," Jay whispered affectionately.
The slight twitch of Freddy's lips told me that he, too, was thinking about a dinosaur movie that Jay had probably never seen, but it was neither the time nor place to explain it now, so instead I nodded towards the door, indicating that I was ready to get moving.
We raced through the hallways, unwilling to risk pulling the map back out to confirm that Minnie was still where we had seen her last, and therefore needing to move quickly enough that she did not go far before we got there. Any of the Falx that we encountered were immobilized and any familiar faces that we saw were taught my spell. Still, our success at figuring out how to stop the Falx did not change the devastation that had already been wreaked on the school. More than one body lay prone amongst the rubble and the floor was frequently slick beneath my feet. I forced myself to remain focused on fighting, lest any of the figures that we passed begin to look familiar.
The good news was, however, that Hastings was apparently trying different things with his magic, for the ground only shifted a few times beneath our feet. The room rolled once, like it had for James and I earlier, but we simply ran along the wall until it reverted back to normal. Another time, part of the ceiling collapsed in precisely the spot that I had been about to step. Though I did not tell the boys (for I knew that it sounded crazy) I could have sworn that I heard a voice that sounded a lot like Teddy's telling Lily to watch out, before another boy, whose voice I did not recognize in the slightest, laughed and asked if he "saw that too". Regardless, I managed to stop in my tracks just before being crushed by a pile of stone and plaster, so I wasn't complaining about hearing phantom voices.
After several long minutes, Freddy finally threw his arm up, pointing. "There!"
It was easy to pinpoint Minnie's tall figure, but the second that it took me to find her almost cost me dearly.
I dodged so last-minute that I could feel the heat behind the spell as it flew past my ear. Freddy had tugged Jay out of the way at the same time, both of them stumbling slightly as they tried to avoid going backwards down the stairs that we had just raced up.
I retaliated as the two regained their footing, my curse just missing the man who was trying to hit us. While the boys were still scrambling, I threw a shield charm over them, with it flickering into place just in time for a spell to shoot past me and in their direction.
To my horror, the spell did not hit my shield charm. Instead, it directly collided with the point where the ceiling met the wall just to the boys' left, reducing the entire structure to pieces. Though my shield kept Freddy and Jay from being crushed by rubble, it was forced backwards with the force of the explosion, shoving the boys back with it.
There was only a split second for me to take in the look on their faces before Jay and Freddy went careening backwards down the flight of stairs, half of the hallway following in their wake.
My opponent took advantage of my dismay to disarm me just as I was turning back to him. He was much closer than I had been anticipating, close enough for me to make out his smug expression as he caught my wand in his fist.
"Ha-"
Before he could finish his triumphant laugh, I punched him in the nose.
The man crumpled backwards, my wand falling to the side as he brought his hand up to his face. I didn't waste any time, diving for the slim piece of wood before he could recover. He blocked the first spell that I sent his way, but I was far too angry for him to get a chance to retaliate. Using every fluent spell that I could think of, I backed the man down the hallway without him doing more than jump aside and shield himself. Finally, he dodged one spell and stepped straight into the path of another, flying through the air with a bang. He did not get back up, and I knew that he was unconscious.
"Phoenix!" Professor McGonagall gasped, looking relieved, but I ignored her as I sprinted back down the hall to the pile of rubble that had once been a staircase. Through the giant hole that had been torn in the side of the building, I could see people desperately fighting on the grounds. It should have still been the middle of the night, but the sun shone down over the castle instead. The steps that we had come up only minutes prior were lost, for part of the floor above us had collapsed down onto ours when the ceiling and wall caved in.
"Freddy? Jay?" I called, trying to convince myself that they were okay. Though a lot of rubble had fallen, it might not have fallen on top of them. Perhaps my shield charm had done its job, creating a tiny circle of safety around them.
Assuming, of course, that they had fallen together. I realized very suddenly that I wasn't sure which of the boys I had cast the charm over.
"Phoenix," Minnie said once again, now standing at my side. "I saw what happened. It's…it's likely that they just went around to meet us by the Ravenclaw tower. Let's go that way and see if we run into them. If not…we'll make our way to the other side of this mess and find them, okay?"
I nodded, not taking my eyes off of the ruined staircase as I willed either boy to shout that they were okay. Despite my silent pleas, I did not hear Jay or Freddy as Minnie pulled me down the hall.
"Wait," I gasped as we rounded a corner and cut off my view of the ill-fated staircase. I glanced at my companions as I regained my senses and remembered why we had set about to find McGonagall in the first place. Professors Slughorn, Flitwick, and Neville stood beside the Headmistress, and I felt a surge of relief as I realized that the five of us may actually stand a chance at getting Minnie back to the Great Hall in one piece.
The more morbid side of my brain was also relieved that, should we fail in bringing McGonagall back to the hall alive, we also had the Deputy Headmaster in our midst. Not having Minnie was unthinkable, but letting Hogwarts fall was more so.
It crossed my mind to wonder where Professor Bernet was, for surely it was odd that we had three of the Heads of Houses but not the fourth, but I could not bring myself to ask after the woman's fate, for the expression in Neville's eyes made me think that I would not like the answer.
I waved my hands about in an effort to disperse the thoughts racing through my mind before addressing the group. "We figured out how to stop the Falx. Luna is setting up in the Great Hall, so we need to get you back there as quickly as possible. The entire grid system is down, so the hall is totally unprotected. Minnie, you have to re-ward it so that she can focus on healing people in there, because right now they're having to protect and heal at the same time. I'll show you all how to stop the Falx, so that we can do that as we go. Freddy and Jay know that we're setting up in the Great Hall, so we should go straight there. I'll…I'll come back, if they don't show up."
Minnie nodded, looking as though my words pained her as much as they pained me. Neville reached a hand out, setting it on my shoulder, and I tried to remind myself that my godfather would offer me comfort regardless of whether he thought Freddy and Jay were okay or not. The man had never been able to stand seeing me upset. With the back of my trembling hand, I quickly wiped my eyes, trying to remain focused.
I showed them how to cast the runes, and Minnie shook her head at the simplicity of the solution that had been staring us in the face all along. Obvious answers seemed to be the theme of the day, but I could not complain so long as we were finding them.
We began working our way back to the Great Hall, but there seemed to be far more of the Falx and Hastings's human allies in our way than on the route that I had come on. Once again, I felt a great surge of relief at the prowess of the companions that I had found myself with, for even with the training of the SG and my dueling lessons with Flitwick, I was woefully outclassed. Through a combination of luck and skill, we made our way through the thick of several fights, aiding our fellows whenever we could. I kept an eye out for Freddy and Jay, but saw no sign of them. Even as I engaged in battle, I prayed to every god that I could think of that they were okay.
I was nearly separated from the group when I ran down a side corridor to help Ben, who was desperately trying to hold off one of the Falx despite the blood that was running down his forehead and half blinding him, a battle between several students and Hastings's human allies raging on around him. With the Falx immobilized, I grabbed his hand and tugged him along, ducking spells and ignoring his alarmed shouts as I did so as Minnie yelled for me to keep up. Ben muttered every swear that he could possibly think of at me as we ran, in English, French, and Italian. Apparently, he was rather upset that I had run into the thick of a fight to haul him out of it. I couldn't find it in myself to care.
"Ben, shut up. I love you, you fucking asshole!" I finally screamed at him over the noise of the war raging on around us, livid that he had nearly taken another curse to the face because he was so busy sniping at me. Neville spared me a shocked glance, most likely at the swearing, though there was a small chance that he thought I was professing my love to the engaged Slytherin. "Of course I'm going to run into the thick of things to save you, because I cannot lose you, so stop swearing at me and pay attention!"
The demand did not stop him from glaring at me whenever I caught his eye, but he did at least decide to use his mouth for more useful things (such as verbally casting spells, rather than attempting to do so silently, which had not been working out very well for him) after I yelled at him.
The castle still seemed to be at war as well, though I was coming to realize that it was not fighting us so much as it was fighting itself. When a window exploded beside my face as we sprinted along, I caught a glimpse of a massive ship in the middle of the Black Lake through the shattered pane. When the glass reformed seconds later, the lake was empty once again.
We picked up Lorcan as well, and I dared not ask where his twin was. I prayed that the two had simply been separated, though they rarely did so. The boy looked scared and overwhelmed, but not devastated, so I had hopes that Lysander was still fighting.
It was on the second floor that our luck ran out completely. I took a risk and sent a spell to clean Ben's face as we were rapidly set upon by over a dozen of Hastings's men. Another spell wrapped a bandage around his forehead, and I deemed it worth the few seconds that it took my attention off of the battle-despite the glare that he sent me making it clear that he thought otherwise-as the dressing quickly became saturated with blood. The sheer number of foes surrounding us necessitated every one of us being at our best, regardless of what state that may currently entail.
We all turned so that our backs were towards one another as our adversaries formed a loose ring around us. Spells were already flying at a worrisome rate, but I soon discovered how disorienting battle could truly be when spells that the others dodged behind me made their way across the circle and flew past my ear. I struggled to hold a shield charm behind me as I dueled, not wanting to be hit in the back by a curse that I didn't see coming.
Despite Hastings's men having the numbers, we soon began to pull ahead in the fight. Flitwick alone was holding off two men and a woman, and two more figures were already unmoving at their feet. Lorcan looked overwhelmed, fighting through a haze of tears, but Neville and Ben had shuffled the boy between them and were doing their best to keep him safe.
Still, there was still a lot going on, so I nearly missed blocking the slicing curse that someone had aimed at Slughorn's face. He started back, looking shocked for a brief moment before giving me a look of thanks. We worked together to take on four opponents, downing one of them rapidly and sending another along behind her a few minutes later.
The last two men proved to provide a greater challenge. They had obviously worked together before, as they fluidly traded off defense and offense. Still, Professor Slughorn was a skilled duelist, and I was not above trying unconventional battle tactics. While Slughorn fended the men off, I summoned a tiny bottle from my bag.
I waved it in the air for a moment as I fired off a spell, ensuring that the professor saw it. Once I was certain that he was in on my plan, I uncapped the bottle and threw it as hard as I could. At the same time, Slughorn and I sent our most powerful blasting charms at our opponents, breaking their shield charm. With seconds to spare, I shifted my shield to our fronts, blocking the mass of thick grey liquid that exploded from the tiny bottle that I had thrown.
As soon as the liquid came into contact with anything, it solidified, creating a substance more unyielding than concrete. The men that we had been dueling, as well as a few on either side of them, were rendered immobile.
Professor Slughorn turned to look at me, a delighted grin on his face. The potion was one that he, Freddy, and I had once altered during one of our extra lessons, which we had given him permission to sell to Uncle George. We had never had the chance to truly use it before.
"Good show, Evans!" He said, a note of pleased humor to his voice.
I knew what was going to happen seconds before it did.
Though I was too slow to rotate my shield charm behind us, it wouldn't have made a difference even if I had reacted quickly enough. Magical shields are useless against killing curses.
The flash of green lit up the room for a brief moment. A faint note of horror rose on Professor Slughorn's face as the curse hit him square in the back, and I knew that it was magnified on my own expression as I watched the life leave his eyes.
There was a brief lull in the fighting as the Head of Slytherin house crumpled to the floor. It was as though everyone had to spend a moment processing what had just happened.
I shattered the moment when I spun, firing off a spell before I had stopped moving and hitting the woman directly behind where Slughorn had stood in the chest. She let out a horrified shriek as she caught fire, and I was relieved when Ben took care of my knee-jerk reaction and hit her with a powerful blast of water. The stream knocked her into the wall behind her, appearing to render her unconscious.
I continued to fire off spells, though I was more careful with what I cast. At one point, the killing curse flew just past the tip of my nose, missing only because Ben had yanked me backwards. With my back against his chest, I looked straight down his wand as his arm flicked forward, hitting the person that had nearly killed me in the face with a nasty-looking teal curse. They did not regain their footing. Once we had, in a rage-fueled haze, incapacitated all of our opponents, we all paused to stare at Professor Slughorn's body.
"We need to keep moving," Minnie finally said very softly, wiping a tear off of her cheek. I wanted to respond, but it was oddly difficult to breathe. Though I had, technically, watched my uncle die less than an hour earlier, there was something different about staring at a dead body and knowing that I had watched the life leave it. Ben's hand had found mine at some point, and I gave it a tight squeeze as I belatedly remembered that Slughorn had been his Head of House.
Professor Flitwick levitated his former coworker out of the middle of the hallway before nodding and gesturing for all of us to move. Neville fell into step beside me as we raced through the halls.
"Are you okay?" He panted, not looking much better than I felt.
I nodded, still not certain that my voice would work if I tried to verbally respond. He accepted my silent confirmation, much to my relief.
To my immense shame, my thoughts soon shifted from what I had just witnessed, to those of Jay and Freddy. A shudder ran through me as the image of Jay, with eyes as empty and unseeing as Slughorn's had been, lying at the bottom of the staircase on which I had last seen him, ran through my head.
I forced myself to focus on the matter at hand as we finally came into view of the Great Hall. I could see members of my family ahead, but neither Freddy nor Jay appeared in my line of view. Desperate to know if they were simply within the hall, I worked my way towards Roxy's curly head of hair. A familiar voice kept up a steady stream of spells behind me, Ben watching my back as we crossed the corridor towards my cousin.
"Fred?" Roxy and I asked at the same time, disappointment and concern instantly overtaking our faces. I grasped her free hand in mine for a brief moment, both of our fingers squeezing tightly before we let go.
There was no further time for conversation as we began defending the hall so that Minnie could get inside and protect it. Roxy spun so that her back was to mine, and I knew that not freezing was first and foremost in her mind as we began firing off spells.
I quickly immobilized one of the Falx before it could enter the Great me, I could hear Ben swearing loudly as something went up in flames. I dropped to one knee to dodge a nasty curse, reaching behind me to pull Roxy down with me as I did so, and then I glanced back up.
Everything that happened next seemed to do so in slow motion.
I saw the glint of a spell off of fine blond hair.
A figure, one much too familiar in stance and coloring, stood framed in an arched window, a hundred different spells lighting up the sky behind him. He was gazing wide-eyed at the monster before him, an expression of terror on his face.
Huge grey eyes reflected fire and an outstretched hand, a spell already fizzling at the creature's fingertips.
There was no time to do anything, motion having been necessary long before this point, but still my body lurched forwards, a scream working its way free of my throat.
The spell that had gathered in the Falx's fingertips shot towards my little cousin, who could do nothing more than stare at his impending death in abject horror.
Another flash of white-blonde entered the tunnel that my vision had become, reaching Louis seconds before the curse did.
And time seemed to freeze altogether as the body of Louis's sister crumpled to the floor, a spray of blood painting the boy's face red.
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