Draco-

Harry Potter was standing in front of me, Weasley and the Mudblood Granger arranged on either side of him, all with their wands drawn- except Potter's wand was not his wand. I stared at him, all of my confused emotions bubbling closer to the surface than they ever had. He had the people on his side. He had the girl I wanted. And now here he stood, waving around my wand as if it were his own as well. He had everything I wanted, and he didn't even know how much I wanted it.

"That's my wand, Potter," I smirked, trying to remain composed.

"Not anymore, Malfoy. Winners, keepers. Whose wand are you using anyway?" Potter taunted, motioning with my wand towards the one I was holding.

"My mother's," I admitted, and despite the fact that saying this made me cringe inwards, I managed to remain calm on the outside.

Potter laughed, although I could not understand why he found this so humorous- Crabbe, Goyle and I were all stood with our wands pointed directly at him and his friends. Admittedly, Crabbe and Goyle were not a large threat magically speaking, but all three of us were still Death Eaters- no matter how much I wanted to remove that status from above my head.

A fight was inevitable. Potter wanted this Diadem, whatever that was, and I knew it couldn't be a good thing if he had it. He had come all the way back to Hogwarts, risking his life and the lives of everyone who fought on his side, just to get an old, tarnished piece of jewellery? It was important. That much I understood. I did not know if Crabbe and Goyle understood this as well, or if they just wanted the kill Potter for the glory it would bring them, but they remained beside me, wands drawn, their ugly faces contorted into expressions of excitement and anticipation.

Crabbe suddenly jerked forwards, ready to cast some sort of spell, but I stopped him furiously.

"If you wreck the room, you could bury this Diadem thing!" I snapped, throwing his wand arm away from me in disgust.

Crabbe stared at me, his eyes burning malevolently.

"Who cares?" he asked, his lip curling upwards as he looked at me.

I was momentarily shocked- who was he to talk to Draco Malfoy like that? What did he mean by it? Was he really as stupid as he looked?

"Potter wants the Diadem. That must mean-" I started, but Crabbe cut me off.

"I don't take orders from you no more, Draco," he sneered, staring at me derisively. "You and your dad are finished!"

I stared at him, gobsmacked, fully aware my mouth had fallen open slightly at this outburst. I heard Goyle behind me snigger, and I rounded on him, but before I could say anything, Crabbe aimed a curse at Granger. Suddenly everything came very sharply into perspective. These were Ginny's friends and her brother. Ginny was- it pained me to think about it, but there was no denying it- in love with Potter. Any harm that befell these three blood traitors would cause her unimaginable pain as well, and I suddenly realised how much I did not want that.

I felt my stomach drop. Crabbe had shot the killing curse at one of Ginny Weasley's closest friends. He missed- but he was aiming the next one at Potter.

"Don't kill him! DON'T KILL HIM!" I yelled furiously, the words out of my mouth before I could stop them.

Only minutes ago, I had wanted him dead myself. I knew that if he was dead, I would have a clear shot at Ginny- only, reasoned a small voice inside my head, I wouldn't, would I? I thought very, very quickly, everything flashing before my eyes in seconds- Ginny sobbing over her dead love, who had been murdered by one of my supposed 'friends', how would she ever bring herself to love anyone as much as she loved Potter again, especially one of his enemies?

"NO!" I screamed, throwing myself in pursuit of Crabbe, who had foolishly decided to set a fiery serpent after Potter and his friends using the Fiendfyre curse. "YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO STOP IT, YOU IDIOT!"

My voice was drowned out by the sudden roar of fire as a column of precariously balanced furniture went up in flames. I stared open mouthed at the chaos for a moment, then turned on my heel and fled towards the door, trying to overtake the fire as it wended it's way over every object in the room, but it was no use, the fire was too quick, we had no way of stopping it- Crabbe had thrown aside his wand when the fire refused to stop pouring from the tip- I saw Goyle beginning to climb up a column that was not yet on fire, and I followed, without thinking about it. It was only when we reached the very tip of the column that I realised two things- Crabbe was nowhere to be seen, and Goyle and I were now trapped.

"What do we do?" I screamed at Goyle frantically. "What do we do?"

But Goyle, of course, had no solution. I remained perched on top of the column, which was now beginning to smoke at the bottom as the curse flames reached it, and my thoughts turned once more to Ginny. I hoped, for her happiness, that Potter would get out of here, make it through this night alive, although I knew, even if he escaped the fire, he could not defeat the Dark Lord. Once more, an image of Ginny sobbing over her boyfriend's dead body came to mind, and I winced as fresh pain that she would never be mine washed over me.

The flames were getting higher. I was going to die in here. There was no way out. I heard a crash beside me and turned to see Goyle, who had passed out, fall and hit the furniture beneath him. He was beginning to slip- I reached out and grabbed him with both hands, holding onto him with every ounce of strength I had left, determined not to let him plunge into the growing flames below.

And suddenly, Potter was there, Potter and Weasley on broomsticks, flying towards us. Potter stretched out his arm, and I reached up desperately, trying to get a solid grip- but his hand slid from my grasp. I heard Weasley shout something, but couldn't make it out, the roaring of the flames was now so loud it was blocking out everything. Potter pulled the broom around and came back, his hand stretched towards me once again, and this time, this time, I caught it, and his hand didn't slip from mine, I was being pulled onto the broom, I was out of the column of flames. I turned to see Goyle being pulled onto Weasley's broom, and I unashamedly threw my arms around Potter's waist and held on for dear life.

"Get to the door!" I shouted, and I felt the broom accelerate as Potter shot off towards the beam of light that was our escape- but then he was turning, he was diving towards something. "No! The door, the door! GET TO THE DOOR!"

Potter pulled back up out of the break-neck dive and sped towards the door. We were going to make it- the fire wasn't going to consume us- we would live-

We collided with the wall outside the Room of Requirement. I fell off of the broom, my vision flickering, my lungs screaming as the cool, clean air began to penetrate my system again. I coughed violently, convinced I was going to throw up, and then raised my head slightly to see if the others had escaped as well.

Goyle lay, still unconscious, on the floor not far from me. I saw Weasley and Granger embrace, and I retched again. Potter was staring at a tiara on the floor, which was leaking a black, tarry substance- so he had managed to get it after all, for I undoubtedly knew that this was the Diadem, this was what he had risked so many lives for. It didn't look worthy of the risk. I closed my eyes again.

"Crabbe…" I stuttered, suddenly realising I hadn't seen him since he set the curse. "Crabbe…"

"He's dead," snapped a cold, harsh voice that I knew belonged to Weasley.

Dead. One of my oldest companions, gone forever in a fiery blaze of his own creation. I momentarily remembered his outburst just before the fight had begun, where he had told me I was finished, and felt glad for his death- but the moment passed very quickly, and I felt suddenly cold and lost. I had an empty pit in my stomach that I knew was to do with the loss of a friend. Vincent Crabbe was dead.

I loud crash resonated through my head. The fight, I remembered. The fight was still raging. People I had known since the beginning of my first train journey to Hogwarts were risking their lives in order to protect Harry Potter. I raised my head again and saw that the Golden Trio had disappeared, and I realised I had to protect Potter as well. The realisation hit me like the Septumsempra curse Potter had hit me with the previous year. I felt as though I was being cut once more into little pieces, but I knew it was the right thing to do.

If I wanted Ginny to get through this night with minimal pain, then I needed to protect the one she loved. That person, regrettably, was not me. It never would be me. The pit in my stomach seemed to deepen as I finally accepted this fact.

I needed to make sure Harry Potter succeeded.

Ginny-

I dodged a blast that went soaring past me, throwing myself out of the way. The Death Eater who shot it was aiming another curse at me when I shot one straight back- it hit him in the chest, and he stopped moving very suddenly, falling to the floor. I knew I had very little time to get away from him- the Impediment jinx was only temporary. I ran past him, tearing into the entrance hall, dodging past the teachers, students, and enemies who were warring there, keeping my eyes peeled for anyone who looked to be in immediate danger, who looked like they needed support.

I saw Luna throwing hex after hex at a large, burly looking Death Eater whose mask and hood were still firmly in place. The dreamy look Luna always had was gone- her face was contorted into a look of pure hatred and concentration as she aimed a particularly strong Stunning Spell at the Death Eater- it hit him full in the face, and he fell with a crash to the floor, his mask flying off. The spell seemed to have hit him in the nose, which looked to be broken. Blood was flowing from it, and it looked incredibly bent.

"Nice one, Luna!" someone shouted above the noise, and I turned to see Seamus and Dean, battling side by side as they swept through the hall.

I heard a piercing scream come from somewhere in one of the overhead corridors, and I turned and sprinted towards it as fast as I could, shoving through the crowded battle as though there was nothing there to harm me.

"THERE'S SOMEBODY THERE IN AN IVISIBILITY CLOAK!" shrieked a voice, and I turned to see a Death Eater pointing at a spot down by the door, where some green roots, which I recognised as tubers, where running through to the doors, seemingly on their own.

I hesitated, unsure of whether or not to follow, because it was undoubtedly Harry, Ron and Hermione who were hidden under that cloak, no one else had one remotely like it, but then I heard the scream again, and I made my decision. Whatever they were doing, Harry and the others were perfectly capable of doing it without my help, as they had done countless times before. I continued to sprint up the staircase, running headlong down a corridor to my left-

I came face to face with Fenrir Greyback. The werewolf was bent low over a girl with long blonde hair, streaked with blood, and he was about to bite into her throat.

"NO!" I screamed, throwing a hex at him.

It missed. It hit the wall just next to him, and an explosion rent the air. I heard him howl as the rubble hit him, and I ran straight into the debris to try and find the girl who he had attacked. A stone block grazed my shoulder as it tumbled down from the hole in the wall, and I saw Greyback buried under a pile of stone and mortar, his long, unkempt, clawed hand thrown out loosely to the side. He wasn't moving.

I continued to look for the girl, but when I found her- it was too late. Lavender Brown was lying on the floor with a large wound in her stomach that looked as though it had been made by a slashing of claws. She wasn't breathing. She was dead.

I stared down at her, tears filling my eyes at the unjustness of it all, when for the second time that night, You-Know-Who's voice reverberated through my skull.

"Lord Voldemort is merciful," the voice was saying. "I command my forces to retreat, immediately."

What? He was retreating?

"You have one hour… dispose of your dead with dignity… treat your injured…"

I continued to stare at Lavender as the tears began to spill. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Dispose of the dead who would not be dead, if it weren't for him. Merciful? If it weren't for the situation, I could almost have laughed.

You-Know-Who was speaking to Harry now. He was saying that if Harry didn't hand himself over, then You-Know-Who himself would enter the fighting, and would kill everyone. It hardly seemed to register with me. As suddenly as it had started, the fighting had stopped. The castle was filled with silence. I conjured a stretcher, placed Lavender on it, and proceeded down the staircase.

People were carrying the dead into the Great Hall, and I followed them there, the stretcher carrying Lavender's body floating beside me. I heard the moans of those who had lost people they cared about, heard a sudden scream of anguish as Parvati Patel spotted her best friend. I relinquished control of the stretcher to Professor Trelawney and Parvati without having to be asked, and glanced around once at the people, dead and alive, who had congregated in the hall.

My heart seemed to stop. My family were in a huddle at the far end of the hall. They were around a body, but I couldn't make out who it was. I started to walk towards them, my feet carrying me of their own accord. I didn't want to believe it was someone we loved, please, not someone we loved.

I passed by two bodies on the floor, and glanced down at them without thinking. Remus and Tonks lay, side by side. They were both dead. I let out a gasp, more tears streaming down my face. They were both so young- they had just had their son, the son who they were so proud of. Another family ripped apart, another orphaned baby, all thanks to You-Know-Who and his followers.

"Ginny!" someone gasped and I looked up to see Mum stumbling towards me, her eyes red in her pale face. Tears where streaming down her cheeks, and she looked as though someone had ripped out her heart.

"Mum…" I whispered, "What's happened? What's… what's wrong?"

"Oh… Oh Ginny," she sobbed.

Mum put her arm around me and guided me gently to where my family stood around a body. I didn't need to look down to know who was on the floor. George's behaviour was enough to ascertain which of my family had died. I looked down never the less, and saw, lying there, dead, broken, a ghost of a smile on his face, my older brother, Fred.

"No…"

My voice broke, and suddenly I was sobbing unrestrainedly against my mother's chest, sobbing as I had never sobbed before. Percy came and put his arm around my shoulders, and I let him, not caring about how much of a prat he'd been the past couple of years, because how could anyone care about something so trivial now?

My brother, Fred Weasley, was dead.

A/N: If there's one thing I have hated writing about in this fanfiction, it would be the deaths of Remus Lupin, Dora Tonks, and Fred Weasley. I hope you think I did it justice. As always, please r&r, and I hoped you enjoyed the chapter, even if it is a sad one.

Thanks!

Love,

Beccari

xxx