Hello, faithful readers..........I see that I have left you wondering what
Severus is going to do....but really, what do you think he'll do? Would he
kill his lover, or would he risk his own life to save the dark side?
Read on, and perhaps the answer will unfold itself....
When Harry opened his eyes, he found himself lying on the floor, feet away from Setarina. When he sat up, he was hit by an intense wave of dizziness. He shook his head, and his vision cleared.
"Lileana!" Setarina cried as she rushed toward a girl kneeling on the floor beside Harry.
"Is she okay?" He asked, standing up.
"I'm fine," the girl said, running her hands through her hair before she straightened up. "Just a little shaky, that's all."
Harry held his hand out to her. She took it and he pulled her up.
"Thanks," she said, smiling nervously at him. He grinned reassuringly and looked at her sister.
"Setarina, what the hell have you just done?"
"I blew him up," she said without fear of retribution.
Harry shook his head. Then he started laughing.
"What is so funny?" Lileana asked him, staring at him like he had an arm growing from his head.
"You both have the same powers," he began. Then he became deadly serious. "The same powers as me."
There was silence between the three of them.
"You finally figured that out, Potter?"
Harry spun around.
"Goyle." He spat out.
"Yes, that would be me." Goyle said. He was soon joined by his son and the two Crabbe's. "But I'm sure that our lord would be so proud to know we were the ones to destroy the one that holds the faith of all in the wizarding world."
The other three laughed.
"We enjoyed your presence, Potter," The youngest Crabbe said, drawing out his wand.
Harry backed up so he was between the two girls, who had their wands in their hands.
"Take my hands," he instructed them. They did. "Now I want you to concentrate as hard as you can, on reading my mind and focusing my powers through you."
"Why?" Lileana asked.
"Just trust me and do it. When I say a spell or curse, it should go through you to your wands, okay?"
"Okay," Setarina said, the fear lining her voice. Harry squeezed her hand.
"You know," Crabbe's father said slowly, "It's a shame that you could possibly expect a couple of useless girls to be able to help you in this situation, Potter. One would begin to think you are, shall we say, weak?"
"Does it matter whether or not I choose to have two friends, girls or not, help me fight to keep the wizarding world alive?" Harry asked. "No, it doesn't. Because it's my choice and theirs, if they should want to sacrifice everything they know and love for a purpose."
The four Death Eaters laughed.
"Sacrifice their lives......yes, their lives will be sacrificed." Goyle said. They raised their wands.
"Crucio!" Lileana tensed, doing everything in her power not to scream, while her sister moaned in agony.
"Protego!" Harry shouted. He could feel the power of the spell course through his hands. Within seconds, there was a shield around him and the girls, blocking the Cruciatus spell from doing further harm.
"Repelius Exemar!" Harry yelled, and once again, the spell went through him and erupted from the girls' wands as a bright teal light. It rushed towards their attackers and swept them off their feet and into a nearby wall.
Goyle was the first to recover.
"Corabandus Disunitus!" He yelled. The spell plunged through Harry's shield and split the three up so forcefully that each were knocked to the floor.
"Now what?" Setarina exclaimed.
"Think fast and do whatever comes to your mind!" Harry said back to her. "Even if it's wandless magic, do it anyway!"
"Petrificus Totalus!" Vincent Crabbe yelled, aiming for Lileana.
She threw herself back to the ground and rolled over onto her feet again. "Stupefy!" She shouted, and Crabbe, being as slow as ever, didn't react fast enough and fell over unconscious.
They were evenly matched now, but with an unequal balance of power. Harry knew he could take on the Death Eaters with no problems, but he also knew that the two girls had yet to learn how to properly use their powers. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough time to teach them and wasn't sure if they'd live long enough.
Setarina was battling the eldest Crabbe, who didn't seem to realize that his son was knocked out. Instead, he was concentrating on throwing fireballs at Setarina, who was trying her best not to get hit. She seemed to be doing a fairly decent job.
Until he began shooting them three at a time. She couldn't keep her eyes on all of them and got hit. Immediately, an aura of red light surrounded her. She let out a scream and tried to ignore the pain. She put so much of her energy in this that she started to push it away, out of her body. The aura faded, and the fireball flew back to its owner and exploded on contact, leaving him dead.
Setarina took a look around her. Everyone in the Hall was fighting someone, and it seemed like it was a never-ending sea of curses and spells. She saw her sister with Gregory Goyle and Harry with Goyle's father. Harry seemed to have control over what he was doing, but Lileana looked like she was about to break. Setarina walked over to her and took her hand.
"Now isn't that sweet?" Goyle said tauntingly. "You guys look so cute holding each other's hand."
"Not as cute as you're going to look when we're finished with you," Setarina said vehemently.
"You really think you could do anything to hurt me?" Goyle asked. "Your sister can't even touch me."
"Watch us," Setarina said heatedly.
"Crucio!"
Together, the sisters did all they could to block the effects of the spell. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as it could have been, because the castor wasn't as experienced.
"Is that the only spell you know how to use?" Lileana asked him. "Because it really sucked."
"Not to mention it's getting a little old," Setarina added.
Goyle opened his mouth and raised his wand, but he never got passed that point. The sisters concentrated on him and only him, and with a wave of their hands, he blew up.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted, and Goyle's father's wand soared through the air. Harry caught it and aimed it at its owner.
"Would you like me to use this against you or snap it in half?" He asked. "Because either way, you're going to end up dead."
"You think so?" Goyle asked.
"No," Harry replied. "I know so."
"Yeah, right." Goyle said, trying to be fierce, but his voice cracked slightly.
Harry took Goyle's wand in both hands, keeping eye contact with the other. Wordlessly, he bent Goyle's wand, slowly. He relished the look of deep torture on Goyle's face as he continued to bend the wand.
Suddenly, it snapped.
The look on Goyle's face was absolutely priceless as he watched Harry throw the two splintered pieces of his wand into the air and blew them up.
"Painful, isn't it?"
"You son of a bitch!" Goyle hissed.
"Yes, I know." Harry replied. With a flick of his wrist, Goyle too was reduced to the smallest of ashes in the air.
When the fighting was over, and Voldemort had left with what remained of his followers, the Hogwarts staff and remaining students in the Hall took in the damage and loss.
"Oh my goodness," Professor McGonagall whispered. Her robed were stained with blood and torn from the left sleeve to her wrist. She turned to the headmaster. "Albus....." she trailed off.
Dumbledore looked extremely somber. He too wore robes that were stained with blood, with scorch marks along the bottoms.
There were bodies strewn across the hall, everywhere. None were moving, and most were covered in blood. The Hall was dim, as most of the candles had been destroyed in the fight, and it was difficult to see past one of the House Tables with the dust that remained in the air.
"Looks like the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg," a voice commented dryly from the midst of the Hall. Everyone turned towards it.
Jeans burned and covered in his own blood, shirt soiled with the remains of curses and exploding potions, hair standing on end, wand in his left hand, stood Harry Potter.
"43,000 people died that day in 1863," he said, voice devoid of any emotion. "Ironically enough, it was the enemy who won that battle, but lost the war in the end."
"Two groups, once part of the same nation, the same kind of people, fighting each other," Harry continued, still emotionless. "One side favored the slavery of people who had different color skin, while the other side declared it unconstitutional, that it contradicted the Declaration of Independence. The same Declaration that the nation was founded upon where Thomas Jefferson said: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness'. 55 years later, the whole world was wrapped up in another war, several times worse than ever before. 40 million people lost their lives in that war, because some Nazi dictator wanted to rule the world and rid it of all who were not blue-eyed and blond-haired (though he was neither), or Anglo-Saxon, the race he considered far superior to any other."
He turned to meet the eyes of those who survived their fight.
"They were fighting for freedom," he said. "Freedom that some would not be able to really have for nearly a century more." He paused. "This war isn't just any war. It's not about power, good or evil, or anything that it looks or sounds like it's about. We aren't fighting for any of that. We're fighting for freedom. Nothing more, nothing less. But how many people are going to have to die at the hands of Voldemort, who is just as bad as Hitler? How many more innocent children are going to be sacrificed before we finally stop him? How long will we have to wait for freedom?"
There was silence for several moments as his words sunk in. Suddenly, with a flash of emerald light, Harry was gone.
The funerals for the 107 students who were killed took place in the first two weeks of April. They were done in groups, so as not to prolong the suffering of individual services. 3 teachers had also been killed in the fight. Several students were in the hospital wing, some barely alive. Afterwards, things seemed to be stuck in slow motion, as though time itself was dying. Even the weather was just as dismal as the atmosphere.
While Harry had attended each service, he talked to no one. He nodded and shook hands with some, but as soon as he could, he vanished. Even Severus couldn't talk to him. He buried himself in the misery that had come over everyone and threw himself into his schoolwork. When he wasn't doing that, he walked outside, far away from anyone. He didn't seem to notice the rain that fell, and hadn't really stopped since before the funerals. He found the rain to be peaceful, the only source of serenity he could find in such a cruel, violent world.
The rain ended days before May began. Things were slowly returning to normal at Hogwarts, but their fight still lingered in the backs of everyone's minds. However, they had to put this aside because exams were coming very soon. The Gryffindor common room was relatively quiet as students finished essays or studied.
"Harry?"
It was Tuesday evening. Harry was sitting in one of the chairs by the fireplace that wasn't lit. He looked up at the sound of his name and saw Hermione standing next to him.
"Yeah?"
"Listen, I just want to—"
Harry shook his head. "Hermione, the argument we had is nothing compared to what we're going through now, so why let it bother us?"
There was a moment's silence between them.
"That speech you gave, it was great."
"Thanks."
"How's Ron?" Harry asked.
"To be honest, I really don't know," Hermione replied. "Madam Pomfrey doesn't think he's going to make it."
Harry bowed his head. He felt bad that Ron was in such bad shape, but there was little he could do about it but wait.
"I have to go and finish my work," Hermione said. "I'll see you later."
"Bye," Harry said.
Okay, so I didn't address Severus' dilemma in this chapter. I'm trying to fill in the gaps in time because I never really laid out the story for Harry's sixth year. This is going to be such a long story. I should do what Enahma did and do a series or something like that. Regents exams start for us this week. If I'm lucky, I'll have another chapter ready when it's over, which is in just over two weeks. I probably won't post again until the end of June. Until then, I wish you all the best, good luck especially to those who also have to take these stupid tests.
When Harry opened his eyes, he found himself lying on the floor, feet away from Setarina. When he sat up, he was hit by an intense wave of dizziness. He shook his head, and his vision cleared.
"Lileana!" Setarina cried as she rushed toward a girl kneeling on the floor beside Harry.
"Is she okay?" He asked, standing up.
"I'm fine," the girl said, running her hands through her hair before she straightened up. "Just a little shaky, that's all."
Harry held his hand out to her. She took it and he pulled her up.
"Thanks," she said, smiling nervously at him. He grinned reassuringly and looked at her sister.
"Setarina, what the hell have you just done?"
"I blew him up," she said without fear of retribution.
Harry shook his head. Then he started laughing.
"What is so funny?" Lileana asked him, staring at him like he had an arm growing from his head.
"You both have the same powers," he began. Then he became deadly serious. "The same powers as me."
There was silence between the three of them.
"You finally figured that out, Potter?"
Harry spun around.
"Goyle." He spat out.
"Yes, that would be me." Goyle said. He was soon joined by his son and the two Crabbe's. "But I'm sure that our lord would be so proud to know we were the ones to destroy the one that holds the faith of all in the wizarding world."
The other three laughed.
"We enjoyed your presence, Potter," The youngest Crabbe said, drawing out his wand.
Harry backed up so he was between the two girls, who had their wands in their hands.
"Take my hands," he instructed them. They did. "Now I want you to concentrate as hard as you can, on reading my mind and focusing my powers through you."
"Why?" Lileana asked.
"Just trust me and do it. When I say a spell or curse, it should go through you to your wands, okay?"
"Okay," Setarina said, the fear lining her voice. Harry squeezed her hand.
"You know," Crabbe's father said slowly, "It's a shame that you could possibly expect a couple of useless girls to be able to help you in this situation, Potter. One would begin to think you are, shall we say, weak?"
"Does it matter whether or not I choose to have two friends, girls or not, help me fight to keep the wizarding world alive?" Harry asked. "No, it doesn't. Because it's my choice and theirs, if they should want to sacrifice everything they know and love for a purpose."
The four Death Eaters laughed.
"Sacrifice their lives......yes, their lives will be sacrificed." Goyle said. They raised their wands.
"Crucio!" Lileana tensed, doing everything in her power not to scream, while her sister moaned in agony.
"Protego!" Harry shouted. He could feel the power of the spell course through his hands. Within seconds, there was a shield around him and the girls, blocking the Cruciatus spell from doing further harm.
"Repelius Exemar!" Harry yelled, and once again, the spell went through him and erupted from the girls' wands as a bright teal light. It rushed towards their attackers and swept them off their feet and into a nearby wall.
Goyle was the first to recover.
"Corabandus Disunitus!" He yelled. The spell plunged through Harry's shield and split the three up so forcefully that each were knocked to the floor.
"Now what?" Setarina exclaimed.
"Think fast and do whatever comes to your mind!" Harry said back to her. "Even if it's wandless magic, do it anyway!"
"Petrificus Totalus!" Vincent Crabbe yelled, aiming for Lileana.
She threw herself back to the ground and rolled over onto her feet again. "Stupefy!" She shouted, and Crabbe, being as slow as ever, didn't react fast enough and fell over unconscious.
They were evenly matched now, but with an unequal balance of power. Harry knew he could take on the Death Eaters with no problems, but he also knew that the two girls had yet to learn how to properly use their powers. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough time to teach them and wasn't sure if they'd live long enough.
Setarina was battling the eldest Crabbe, who didn't seem to realize that his son was knocked out. Instead, he was concentrating on throwing fireballs at Setarina, who was trying her best not to get hit. She seemed to be doing a fairly decent job.
Until he began shooting them three at a time. She couldn't keep her eyes on all of them and got hit. Immediately, an aura of red light surrounded her. She let out a scream and tried to ignore the pain. She put so much of her energy in this that she started to push it away, out of her body. The aura faded, and the fireball flew back to its owner and exploded on contact, leaving him dead.
Setarina took a look around her. Everyone in the Hall was fighting someone, and it seemed like it was a never-ending sea of curses and spells. She saw her sister with Gregory Goyle and Harry with Goyle's father. Harry seemed to have control over what he was doing, but Lileana looked like she was about to break. Setarina walked over to her and took her hand.
"Now isn't that sweet?" Goyle said tauntingly. "You guys look so cute holding each other's hand."
"Not as cute as you're going to look when we're finished with you," Setarina said vehemently.
"You really think you could do anything to hurt me?" Goyle asked. "Your sister can't even touch me."
"Watch us," Setarina said heatedly.
"Crucio!"
Together, the sisters did all they could to block the effects of the spell. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as it could have been, because the castor wasn't as experienced.
"Is that the only spell you know how to use?" Lileana asked him. "Because it really sucked."
"Not to mention it's getting a little old," Setarina added.
Goyle opened his mouth and raised his wand, but he never got passed that point. The sisters concentrated on him and only him, and with a wave of their hands, he blew up.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted, and Goyle's father's wand soared through the air. Harry caught it and aimed it at its owner.
"Would you like me to use this against you or snap it in half?" He asked. "Because either way, you're going to end up dead."
"You think so?" Goyle asked.
"No," Harry replied. "I know so."
"Yeah, right." Goyle said, trying to be fierce, but his voice cracked slightly.
Harry took Goyle's wand in both hands, keeping eye contact with the other. Wordlessly, he bent Goyle's wand, slowly. He relished the look of deep torture on Goyle's face as he continued to bend the wand.
Suddenly, it snapped.
The look on Goyle's face was absolutely priceless as he watched Harry throw the two splintered pieces of his wand into the air and blew them up.
"Painful, isn't it?"
"You son of a bitch!" Goyle hissed.
"Yes, I know." Harry replied. With a flick of his wrist, Goyle too was reduced to the smallest of ashes in the air.
When the fighting was over, and Voldemort had left with what remained of his followers, the Hogwarts staff and remaining students in the Hall took in the damage and loss.
"Oh my goodness," Professor McGonagall whispered. Her robed were stained with blood and torn from the left sleeve to her wrist. She turned to the headmaster. "Albus....." she trailed off.
Dumbledore looked extremely somber. He too wore robes that were stained with blood, with scorch marks along the bottoms.
There were bodies strewn across the hall, everywhere. None were moving, and most were covered in blood. The Hall was dim, as most of the candles had been destroyed in the fight, and it was difficult to see past one of the House Tables with the dust that remained in the air.
"Looks like the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg," a voice commented dryly from the midst of the Hall. Everyone turned towards it.
Jeans burned and covered in his own blood, shirt soiled with the remains of curses and exploding potions, hair standing on end, wand in his left hand, stood Harry Potter.
"43,000 people died that day in 1863," he said, voice devoid of any emotion. "Ironically enough, it was the enemy who won that battle, but lost the war in the end."
"Two groups, once part of the same nation, the same kind of people, fighting each other," Harry continued, still emotionless. "One side favored the slavery of people who had different color skin, while the other side declared it unconstitutional, that it contradicted the Declaration of Independence. The same Declaration that the nation was founded upon where Thomas Jefferson said: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness'. 55 years later, the whole world was wrapped up in another war, several times worse than ever before. 40 million people lost their lives in that war, because some Nazi dictator wanted to rule the world and rid it of all who were not blue-eyed and blond-haired (though he was neither), or Anglo-Saxon, the race he considered far superior to any other."
He turned to meet the eyes of those who survived their fight.
"They were fighting for freedom," he said. "Freedom that some would not be able to really have for nearly a century more." He paused. "This war isn't just any war. It's not about power, good or evil, or anything that it looks or sounds like it's about. We aren't fighting for any of that. We're fighting for freedom. Nothing more, nothing less. But how many people are going to have to die at the hands of Voldemort, who is just as bad as Hitler? How many more innocent children are going to be sacrificed before we finally stop him? How long will we have to wait for freedom?"
There was silence for several moments as his words sunk in. Suddenly, with a flash of emerald light, Harry was gone.
The funerals for the 107 students who were killed took place in the first two weeks of April. They were done in groups, so as not to prolong the suffering of individual services. 3 teachers had also been killed in the fight. Several students were in the hospital wing, some barely alive. Afterwards, things seemed to be stuck in slow motion, as though time itself was dying. Even the weather was just as dismal as the atmosphere.
While Harry had attended each service, he talked to no one. He nodded and shook hands with some, but as soon as he could, he vanished. Even Severus couldn't talk to him. He buried himself in the misery that had come over everyone and threw himself into his schoolwork. When he wasn't doing that, he walked outside, far away from anyone. He didn't seem to notice the rain that fell, and hadn't really stopped since before the funerals. He found the rain to be peaceful, the only source of serenity he could find in such a cruel, violent world.
The rain ended days before May began. Things were slowly returning to normal at Hogwarts, but their fight still lingered in the backs of everyone's minds. However, they had to put this aside because exams were coming very soon. The Gryffindor common room was relatively quiet as students finished essays or studied.
"Harry?"
It was Tuesday evening. Harry was sitting in one of the chairs by the fireplace that wasn't lit. He looked up at the sound of his name and saw Hermione standing next to him.
"Yeah?"
"Listen, I just want to—"
Harry shook his head. "Hermione, the argument we had is nothing compared to what we're going through now, so why let it bother us?"
There was a moment's silence between them.
"That speech you gave, it was great."
"Thanks."
"How's Ron?" Harry asked.
"To be honest, I really don't know," Hermione replied. "Madam Pomfrey doesn't think he's going to make it."
Harry bowed his head. He felt bad that Ron was in such bad shape, but there was little he could do about it but wait.
"I have to go and finish my work," Hermione said. "I'll see you later."
"Bye," Harry said.
Okay, so I didn't address Severus' dilemma in this chapter. I'm trying to fill in the gaps in time because I never really laid out the story for Harry's sixth year. This is going to be such a long story. I should do what Enahma did and do a series or something like that. Regents exams start for us this week. If I'm lucky, I'll have another chapter ready when it's over, which is in just over two weeks. I probably won't post again until the end of June. Until then, I wish you all the best, good luck especially to those who also have to take these stupid tests.