Chapter 17: The Battle Has Begun

I was absolutely a nervous wreck the day of the match, reflecting the rest of the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor's teams' moods. Classes after lunch were let out-in the hours before the meal, I had already made three trips to the bathroom myself, my stomach was behaving so oddly. I needed to start following my own advice. I had to calm down...the anticipated event was never actually as bad as the nerves before. I'll be playing Quidditch, not reading my diary out to the whole school, I chided myself. And besides, I won't even be playing alone...I chanted this to myself and to other teammates throughout the whole day.

"Alright, team!" Eric bellowed down at the dugout. Julie and I hopped down from our perch looking through the tent flap at the bottom of Ravenclaw tower. We had been watching the steady stream of students trickle in, talking loudly and cheering excitedly, flaunting their many different varieties of their supported teams' colors.

"Huddle up everyone, join the circle!" my hands and legs were shaking so badly I could barely join hands with those next to me as we gathered together, linking our sweaty, tremblings arms in a form of terrified, pre-game union.

"This is the last game of the season," he paused, letting the only noise become background cheering as he looked each one of us in the eye. "Every minute of training, every victory, every defeat, has been leading up to this very game."

"That'll help our nerves, thanks," Lisa Turpin said sarcastically. Poor girl, she was in denial. Eric ignored her.

"We all need to pull together as a team-everyone, remember the strategies we discussed and fly your individual best-no distractions." He meet everyone's eyes again in a look of dead seriousness. "They have to beat us by three hundred points to tie, anything over that and they win the house cup. And as your captain-this is the seventh years' last game at Hogwarts, team! The last shot! Let's make them remember us! The last game for all of us together, the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. We can do this. On three!"

"One!" we put our hands in.

"Two!" the cheering grew louder.

"THREE!"

Madame Hooch's whistle blew, snapping through the sound-proof barrier that seemed to have enveloped me. The familiar long, shrill note had sounded-and the game had begun.

The quaffle was whipped around with extra force, and the bludger came towards me in the first half hour more times than I could count on both hands.

Many intense minutes later, the sun blazed orange, sinking slightly into the sky, tingeing the atmosphere pink in it's wake. The cheering of the students a deafening roar below me, my eyes flickered to the score board- Ravenclaw: 100, Gryffindor: 200.

This wasn't looking as well as I'd hoped, and there was no sign of the snitch. I calmed myself, remembering that they still had to get the snitch and six goals to beat us...I shuddered.

Where was that bloody snitch?

Exactly two hours later, it was in Ginny Weasley's hand, putting Gryffindor at the dreaded 310 points ahead of us. The Gryffindors erupted into jubilant screams as we flew to the ground, congratulating them.

The smile on my face was real-I was genuinely happy for them. Something inside me clicked-I wasn't dissapointed I hadn't got the snitch-rather, I was happy, because that had been the best game of my life It sounded cheesy, but it was true...because, no matter how I had been trying to cover it up, a tiny voice in me had been sounding in my head ever since I had kicked off the ground.

Enjoy it... something kept telling me to treasure that game...I had the oddest feeling that it may be my last at Hogwarts. I couldn't shake that sinister feeling.

"What are you grinning about?" Julie asked, baffled, as her, myself, and Lisa walked up to the castle, carrying our brooms far behind everyone else. We were the last ones still outside, savoring the last few seconds of the ending game to the season, even just changing out of our Quidditch robes.

"I dunno, actually. It's just...well, it feels like a happy end to the season to me," I smiled.

Over the next few weeks as the end of May neared, Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter-finally-began to go out. On the topic of love life, of lack thereof in my case, Draco was becoming increasingly, rapidly absorbed in the Vanishing Cabinet as he told me he was nearing completion. I knew it wasn't his fault, but I had almost no alone time with him, and he was even skipping most of his classes, so even seeing him was dwindling down to nothing. Dumbledore had called us to his office once more to re-run the plan again, just to make sure it was completely cemented into our brains.

Draco's POV

Breathing heavily, Draco drunk in the appearance of the glossy black vanishing cabinet. Outward, it looked the same...

But it was anything but.

It had finally, finally been mended.

Draco quickly begun to bury the spell books and other supplies he had been using that day so he could test it. A rushing sensation of grim satisfaction-and also terror-washed over him,but mostly, short-lived, he was exuberant. He had done it. Suddenly, without thinking, he began to whoop joyfully, loudly, in celebration of his well-waited for achievement- if only Astoria were here to celebrate with him. In this momentary pause in his gleeful shouting, he tensed at the sound of an intrusion-all senses alert that his aloneness was about to be disturbed-

The creak of the cracked open door was all it took to jolt Draco to action.

"...spades, possibly indicating a tall, dark stranger, likely born under the alignment of mars to-"

"Knox!" Draco hissed under his breath, heart racing wildly.

Searching through his mind, he threw out the first repelling spell he could think of-nothing could disturb his new progress, delay him any further-

"How-dare-you-argh!" With the smash of glass bottles, Professor Trelawney (as Draco had identified the intruder) was expelled into the hallway.

Jumping out the door, pushing it open so hard it banged roughly against the opposite wall, Draco bolted, not daring to light his wand until he had stumbled blindly down several hallways. Once he wasn't in danger of tripping down staircases to his death, he sprinted full out-he figured he wouldn't have more than a few moments to run before Filch or other Professors came running to the commotion.

Harry

"How-dare-you-argh!"

The noise was coming from a corridor nearby- with only fifteen minutes left to curfew most people had already returned to their common rooms. Harry sprinted toward the noise, his wand at the ready. He hurtled around another corner, and saw Professor Trelawney. Her head was covered with one of her many shawls, and several sherry bottles lay beside her, one broken.

"Professor-"

Harry hurried forward and helped the Divination teacher to her feet. Some of her glittering beads had become entangled with her glasses, leaving the frames hanging precariously by one ear. She hiccuped loudly, patting her hair, and pulled herself up upon Harry's helping arm.

"What happened, Professor?"

"You may well ask!" she said shrilly. She began to relate what exactly had happened, throwing in several references to the inner eye, to omens she had foretold...

Draco

Draco crouched under a dark, blanket-covered table, trying to slow his breath to hear the faint continuations of Potter and Trelawney's conversation until the voices drifted away. Yanking down the blanket, he stood up to see the door conveniently swing shut, and the lights re-illuminated the room. He was back in the room of requirement, he realized with a start. It must have more than one entrance.

He strode toward the cabinet once more. Something about the coal-blackness of the thing seemed to suck the light out of everything around it.

Panic seized him, a sense of terror overpowering him. He knew what he had to do next, had known it for months, even-but it was only just now sinking in.

The metal Slytherin ring on his right middle finger suddenly felt very heavy. The "get ready warning," pre-arranged.

With a small click the vanishing cabinet opened, revealing its insides.

They wouldn't be empty for long.

Draco slid off the ring, removing it from the place it had held on his hand for the past year.

He slowly set it down, but it still managed to clink loudly against the metal bottom, echoing faintly. It was a noise that would haunt Draco for years, an imprint of his act. The noise seemed to reverberate around the room, intensifying into a shrill shriek. And it stopped as soon as it started.

He watched as the shadows closed around the silver emerald ring as the door closed. He felt like he had enclosed part of his heart in with the ring, and his hand felt oddly light.

He waited several terrifying, numbing seconds that felt like hours, his heart pounding, reverberating with the sick feeling in his stomach. He could hear the blood rushing in his ears along with a dull ringing.

Re-opening the door, he yelled in frustration to see the ring, it hadn't wo-

Wait.

Lifting it up with clammy fingers, he saw that the ring was cleanly split in half. Rolling the pieces over in his hands a message was clearly but crudely cut into one half-well done.

It would happen tonight.

Astoria

I watched the plain brown owl approach, some of its feathers glowing a soft red from the ruby tint from the setting sun.

I pushed open the small portion of the common room window-they didn't open completely. The owl slipped in, hooting softly. All the sounds in the common room faded behind me-

I carefully unfolded the piece of parchment previously tied to its leg, trying not to rip it with my furiously shaking hands. Opening it revealed the handwriting of Albus Dumbledore, who had unwittingly just sent to me the most significant letter I would ever receive in my life.

Prepare yourself. It is time. This is the item we discussed-guard it with all of your will. You have done well, Astoria, better than even I could have taught you. The Order, and myself, will forever be grateful.

There was no signature. A small, glass vial with a pointed bottom rolled out instead, sealed at the top with a cork and hanging from a silver chain.

Holding the note in one hand and the vial containing the precious silvery memory in the other, I began to shake uncontrollably. I slipped the small but precious cargo around my neck with shaking fingers as the owl slipped back out, but not before giving me a reassuring nip on my finger. I dropped the vial down the front of my shirt-no one would know the better.

Then, stuffing the note into the inside pocket of my cloak, I ran, feet pounding, past the exclamations of younger students that it was just past curfew, toward the room of requirement.

"Draco! Draco!" I pounded desperately on the tapestry of trolls-no entrance was revealed, which told me exactly what I already knew-Draco was inside.

But no door appeared, no matter how desperately I tried to envision it. What if something had happened? What if Draco was dead in there?

On mid-pound an oak door appeared, and Draco pushed it open, looking hastily both ways before allowing me entrance-I ducked in quickly, massaging my throbbing fist.

"It's happening, Astoria. It's going to be-"

"Tonight," I finished, looking up at him with urgency in my eyes. "We don't have much time, do we?"

"Little to none. You shouldn't have come, it was too risky. They'll be here any moment."

"I had to."

"You have-?"

"Yes." I tapped the place where the vial sat. Then Draco was pulling me into his arms and I closed my eyes briefly, hugging him back, and we were holding each other more desperately than we ever had.

We pulled back at the same time, and when we locked eyes, it was more meaningful than an I love you.

"Be careful," I whispered as he stroked my cheek with his thumb.

"Always," he whispered. "We do not end tonight," he promised, eyes blazing. A chill went through me and I nodded. "Go, now, before they come." I pulled him close to me for one more brief second, savoring the feeling of our hearts beating together, one last time...and then I was gone.

When I left, my stomach was a mess-I was terrified. I had to stop myself from experiencing the return of my dinner-all I could think of was Bellatrix, the knife in my back, Fenrir's Legimens-the Death Eaters, how horrible they were, the way they controlled my parents-

I screamed at myself inside my head as I sank to my knees. I did not want to feel weakness.

Stop it, Astoria! I hissed silently at myself. If I was going out, I was going out fighting.

"A man and a wheelbarrow," the bronze, eagle knocker to the Ravenclaw common room announced to me. I tapped my foot impatiently, crossing my arms. I did not have time for this.

"Man adds something to the empty wheelbarrow to make it weigh less. What he puts in the wheelbarrow is not a gas."

I stared blankly at it, eyes widening in annoyance. I ground my teeth together-I had too much going on inside my brain to concentrate!

"Hello, Astoria," a dreamy voice from behind me sounded as Luna Lovegood came skipping up.

"Hey, Luna," I sighed, frustrated. A man filled an empty wheelbarrow with what to make it lighter?

"What's the riddle?" She asked, and the knocker repeated it. I barely heard a word; Draco's pale, worried face was flashing through my mind, followed by the Death Eaters' sneering ones-

"Hm...holes, would it be? To make an empty wheelbarrow lighter by adding something that's not a gas...holes, I suppose," she gave a small smile, blue eyes sparkling.

"Perfectly phrased," the door swung open.

"Luna?" I called her back as she began to skip away, carrying a pair of bright green shoes, hanging by their laces on her fingertips. "What were you doing out?" I questioned, hoping she wouldn't retaliate the inquiry.

"I had misplaced my shoes," she explained. "I suspect it was the Karblins. They tend to do that, you know-steal your shoes," she smiled dreamily.

"Erm-oh yeah, Kerblinds," I repeated as though I was familiar with the term. Truth was, I wouldn't know a Karleen-Kerblin-whatever if it approached me with a many layered cheesecake.

"Oh-and Luna?" I called her back once more. The girl deserved a warning for what was to come tonight, but hopefully whatever the Death Eaters were doing wouldn't concern any students.

"Keep your wand with you, tonight, alright?" I cringed at how strange that sounded. Then again, Luna had probably heard a lot stranger.

"Sure, I will," she smiled vaguely, waving before turning and hopping on one foot back to her room.

Luna Lovegood was the only girl I knew who would blindly follow such an odd request as this one, no questions asked.

I quickly scribbled a letter to Daphne warning to keep her wand with her at all times, and then ran upstairs, feet pounding, to send it on its way with my owl. And to warn my friends.

An ever-growing sense of impending doom was gathering around me like a black cloud.

I walked to the center of the room where my three best friends sat on the floor, doing homework collaboratively, heads bowed.

Hastily returning their greetings, I blurted-"Do all of you have your wands with you?"

"Yes...why?" I breathed a sigh of relief at this temporary moment of assurance as three answers similar to this sounded.

"Keep them with you," I urged.

"What's going on?" Lucy looked up from her Transfiguration book.

"Something's going to happen tonight," I answered, my minds eye seeing Draco as he watched me walk away, the Vanishing Cabinet sitting in the mysterious room. "And all of you need to be ready."

Harry

Harry turned. At once, there was that horrible sensation that he was being squeezed through a thick rubber tube; he could not draw breath, and every part of him was being compressed almost past endurance.

And then, just when he thought he must be seconds away from suffocation, the invisible bonds seemed to burst open, and he was standing in cool darkness, gasping in damp, salty air.

Draco

Draco pulled his face into a mask of hardness, canceling out all and any other feelings.

A rattling began to shake the Vanishing Cabinet. Gripping his wand, he took a step back, attempting to clear his mind even though he knew he was more than capable of alluding Bellatrix trying to invade it-it was her who had instructed him, after all.

His stomach knotted violently in anticipation as voices cut across the silent room like a rusty blade cutting flesh.

With a click, the black door began to open.

With the first Death Eater foot that stepped onto Hogwarts ground...the battle had begun.

Astoria

"-Don't understand-" Julie continued as all four of us walked down the stairs into the still-populated common room.

"Wait!" I practically screamed, overlapping Julie. Those nearest to us in the room turned to stare.

"Everyone, quiet!" I was not the only one to violently shush those around us. I began to tremble, locking eyes, my grim expression mirrored on those who had also heard.

I had not imagined it.

Someone was screaming.

As all sound drained out of the common room, looks of terror took form on students nearest the exit.

"Is someone screaming?" A seventh year boy asked, drawing his wand.

I wasn't the only one who ran to the door, pushing it open with a force of which I didn't know I was capable. My heart missed a beat as I observed the scene playing out before me-it was the beginnings of a battle.

Along the halls pandemonium had broken out-the Ravenclaws had not been the first students out of their rooms.

Teenagers screamed and ran, but some fought, as did the teachers. Curses were roared with flashes of light, shattering windows and blasting walls if targets were missed.

Worst of all, among the fray of Hogwarts inhabitants, there were Death Eaters. Not even bothering to mask themselves.

It took no more for the Ravenclaws to flood out, joining quickly as the fighting escalated.

I ran into the middle, leaping and twisting to avoid unconscious bodies and rubble, shards of glass and stone. A layer of dust was already settling in the air.

I didn't know where I was going, but I knew I had to join in the fight.

"Stupefy!" I roared at Amycus Carrow-a Death Eater with a twin sister just as fond of the Cruciatus Curse as he was. Amycus flew backwards, twisting through the air and slamming into the wall behind him, slumping to the floor, but not before yelling at me-

"I see you have chosen to disobey your parents, girl-now you will pay!" What was he talking about? I became unsure of myself, but I immediately snapped out of it. Sure as hell I had more important things to do at the moment.

The trembling third year he had been about to curse looked at me with wide green eyes, stuttering thanks, but just as one problem was averted, ten more cropped up. The hall was being blasted apart with every curse, and amongst the bodies and flying chunks of rubble, Death Eaters were escaping to other parts of the castle.

"Crucio!" I heard a scream from behind me, and instinctively jerking, the blast of red light flew over my shoulder, barely missing my. Whirling around, I saw the culprit must have vanished-there were several bodies lying unconscious-and hopefully nothing more-on the floor, and around twelve standing in various states of injury, all covered with grime, dust, and blood. I looked no better, and neither did the handful of Death Eaters left.

Where were the others?

A dawning sensation of horror settled over me as I realized that this was nothing more than a side attack, meant to employ the strategy "divide and conquer." Most likely, that meant that I had yet to see the worst.

As more Death Eaters subtly slipped away, I left with them. I was of no help here: the last of Voldemort's followers had just been stupefied by two fifth years.

"Reducto!" A shrill voice yelled. I cried out in pain as a shard of glass cut through my skin at the hairline of my forehead. Touching my fingers to the cut, they came away sticky red. The blood was matting itself into my hair along with the dust from the rubble coating itself everywhere.

I sprinted after the escaping Death Eater that must have been hiding when she blasted the window at me, trying to quiet the pounding of me feet, blinking blood out of my eyes. The cut was shallow, but I knew head wounds bled a lot. I clutched my wand tightly in my sweaty, bloody hand, scanning the otherwise empty halls. I stayed a safe distance behind the female Death Eater, only restraining myself from cursing her so she could lead me to the larger fight.

Screams and shouts grew from barely recognizable to loud, piercing noises the closer we got to the battle until suddenly, abruptly, I was once more in the thick of things.

"Stupefy!" The curse hit me in the back before I had time to gather my wits and I flailed through the air, twisting over the heads of bloody, dirty students locked in battle, dodging and flinging curses wildly.

I hit the ground and rolled, groaning on impact, the jarring shock vibrating though my body, bones shaking painfully. Thankfully, my legs had taken most of it as I twisted through the air so not to land on my head. I dragged myself on my forearms several feet away to a large pile of rubble slightly away from the main battle, hoping to stand behind it and fire curses unseen until I could stand again.

I dove onto my stomach, startled, as several large chunks of wall exploded to my right, flying over me.

The sounds faded away as a new noise found my ears-a pale hand lie limp on the floor-the body was on the other side of the rubble pile. The noise was a sharp, rattling intake of breath. I slowly crept over, scared of what scene might befall my eyes.

I gasped in horror as I saw the owner of the limp hand-a young girl with dirty, torn robes and tangled hair, the same as the rest of us-but there was one different, crucial detail.

As she turned her trembling head to face me and look up with her pain-filled blue eyes, I saw the huge gash running from her cheek to her chest. A pool of blood was gathering on the floor beside her. A tear traced down the opposite side of her face, the unbroken side, streaking through the grime. Her lips were trembling, slightly turning blue. For a few moments I could not tear my eyes away from the terrible cut-the robes had been slashed clear through, and I could not even describe what was poking out of the poor girl's flesh.

"I-I-I," she drew in a deep, rattling breath-even the effort seemed to cause her pain.

"Shh...shhh..." tears spilled over my own cheeks as I crawled to her side, kneeling and taking her hand. It was obvious she wasn't going to make it-not even magic could save her now, when she was in the arms of death.

I held her hand in mine and looked into her eyes, gently stroking her matted hair back from her forehead.

"I-tried-to-fight," she rasped.

"I know," I choked out. "You did so well. You were so brave," I whispered, taking a trembling breath. The noises of the ongoing battle had faded completely.

"That's what...the sorting hat said," she smiled weakly. I looked at the badge on her robes-Gryffindor. She was likely a first or second year. Much too young.

"I'm sure it did," I smiled, trembling from head to toe. "What's your name?"

"D-Dawn," her eyes fluttered.

"Dawn, you're the bravest girl I know," I gave her a watery smile, tears slipping down my cheeks, leaving trails in the layer of dust on my skin.

"Brave..." she whispered. Her already feeble grip on my hand seemed to weaken even more as the strength began to flow out of her body along with the blood coming through her wound and tattered robes. She exhaled peacefully one last time, looking deep into my eyes as her own glazed over-she became completely still. I let out a sob, but it had barely escaped my lips when a resounding crack reverberated through the halls-suddenly above my head a jet of green light shot through the gaping hole in the ceiling, into the black sky-with a sound almost like a roar it exploded, green on black into the cold air, the ultimate symbol of evil-the Dark Mark.

The green snake wound itself through the emerald skull's grinning mouth, almost appearing to smile itself as chaos increased around us at the added confusion of the Dark Mark directly above Dawn and me.

As I glared up at it with pure hatred I realized this was no mere projection-it was the proclamation of the first death.

Pulling myself up and drawing my wand, arm trembling with fury, I almost didn't realize that three figures were approaching behind me, and something in their weary faces alerted me right away that these were not Death Eaters. The first man looked quiet familiar, but I couldn't exactly place my finger on where I'd seen him. By the strange way he was looking at me I could tell he recognized me as well. The woman I didn't recognize, but the third man, the redhead, I knew to be Bill Weasley.

"Professor Lupin?" I gasped with shock as I recognized the first. The former professor stopped his advance, allowing the other two to move on ahead of him to begin fighting expertly.

"Ah, hello, Astoria," he gave a sad smile, but even that disappeared completely as hos eyes roved over to the body behind me. I looked at him, a bit surprised that he remembered my name.

"Be careful tonight," he advised me. "I must speak to you when the night is through," he looked at me meaningfully, as if I should have been grasping some sort of double meaning in his words.

Turning around just in time he began to duel Alecto Carrow as she cackled madly.

I was quickly engaged in a duel with a Death Eater whom I didn't know-he was grinning cruelly, dark eyes glinting evilly as he shot curse after curse at me. Eventually I was disarmed, fear gripping my heard-breathing hard, I backed up as he advanced, hands out in front of me. My foot hit what must have been the unconscious form of some unlucky victim-unlucky for me, also, because it stopped my retreat and any chance I had of escaping. My mind began to race wildly as he advanced even closer-my breath began to hitch in my throat, but I refused to beg for life, I wasn't going to spend the last few moments of my life grovelling to a bastard like him.

I wasn't going to die here...was I?

A\N-I bet you're hating me right now.:) Remember how they feel about cliffhangers, they keep the mind alive and wanting more of the story. Please review...use it as an excuse to vent your anger at me. :) Cassia