Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine, otherwise I wouldn't be writing fics about it and instead have them published in 27 different languages and distribute them around the world to earn megabucks. Also, there are direct quotes taken from the book.
Chapter 16 – Otus Birman
There was another yell and shout and this time it sounded as if it came right from beneath Dean. He quickly ran to the door and wrenched it open, running down the spiral staircase and only just managing not to trip. Dean had come to fight, no more delaying in the office.
When he emerged from the opening in the wall, Dean immediately ducked, just in time to avoid a jet of purple light which hit the stone gargoyle instead. The rest of the corridor was empty, but there were two people duelling right in front of Dean. One was a masked Death Eater, the other, was, Dean now recognised, Otus Birman. His huge golden eyes and messy brown hair – with two tufts sticking up, just where Dean had imagined Hoot's ears to have been – gave him a rather peculiar look. He was short and lean and seemed rather unsteady on his feet, his eyes always seemed to be on alert of the things happening around him. This gave him a permanently nervous look, but this anxiety did not at all show in his wand skill. He was duelling rather feverishly and the Death Eater seemed no match to him.
Otus, Dean imagined, was in his late thirties, like Theodore, though his face looked quite weathered. Every crease on his forehead, every wrinkle on his feet looked like it had its own story to tell. This man had undergone a lot. No doubt, the death of his best friend would have changed him quite severely.
Then there was a last yell and the Death Eater was stunned, with a flick of Otus' wand, the unconscious body was transfigured into a play doll. Otus turned towards Dean, his huge golden eyes were mesmerizing, then he shrugged, "It was the first thing that came to mind," he said in a very deep, smooth voice, startling Dean while he indicated to the doll lying on the floor.
"Otus," Dean whispered, looking at the man from head to toe and relating his features to Hoot's – and there were quite a lot which Dean seemed to recognise, the man was the exact human version of the owl.
"Dean Smith," the man said, with a pause in between the first name and the surname, then he sighed and turned away.
'Dean Smith,' the name echoed in Dean's head, like it was someone else's name, some stranger who had never crossed paths with Dean.
There was a sudden explosion at the other end of the corridor, as the window and wall blasted apart and the rubble hurtled through the air, Otus, as if in one swift movement, picked up the discarded wand of the Death Eater's, grabbed Dean's hand and led them down the stairs quickly.
They ran down so many stairs that Dean had lost which floor they were on. When Otus finally stopped and turned a corner, Dean wasn't sure whether he was on the first or second floor. It didn't matter though, the sight in front of them was horrific. The floor was covered in spiders and two particularly large ones were scuttling down the hall where Colin Creevey and Neville stood, both petrified, at there feet were millions of spiders.
"NO!!" yelled Dean, running towards the two who were standing like islands in a sea of spiders.
"Dean!" cried Otus, yanking him back and throwing the wand he had picked up to him, "Go! I'll handle this. Go! Go before the damn spiders smother you!"
Dean watched in horror as Otus began making his way towards the two, blasting away as many spiders as he could, then he quickly made his way back up, some of the spiders had already began climbing up the stairs.
"Confringo!" yelled Dean, as his feet made their way safely onto the next floor. He had expected the stairs to explode too, instead they seemed unharmed, while the force sent numerous spiders flying off and possibly killing them.
As he rounded the corner, a deafening scream reached his ears, Parvati Patil was being harassed by the man Dean recognised as Greyback, he looked more gruesome than ever and if Dean wasn't mistaken, what appeared to be blood was wiped across his face. As he ran towards the struggling pair, Parvati who looked extremely stressed because her wand lay a few feet away, saw Dean and struggled even harder. But it was no use, she was stuck in Greyback's arms, who was slowly transforming. The skin on his face and arms grew greyer and his hair, thicker, until Dean was quite sure he was staring at a werewolf, which Snape had taught them to recognise in their third year, during a substituted lesson. With a pang, Dean wondered if his old Professor, Remus Lupin was safe, and of course, his wife, Ted's daughter, however, Parvati's bloodcurdling scream brought him back to the present. The werewolf was preparing to bite her neck.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" cried Dean, he had never tried to levitate something this heavy before, though he did try it on Seamus' trunk once.
He was surprised when the wolf did hover a few feet above the floor, Parvati was able to scurry away and recall her dropped wand, while Greyback thrashed in the air. Soon, though, Dean lost his hold and the wolf landed on the floor with a thud. It immediately regained its composure, and was preparing to charge at Dean straight away when Dean yelled "Stupefy!" The wolf froze rigidly and his weight brought him crashing to the ground, though his legs still remained in standing position, and his eyes were still wide open. It was then that Dean realised Parvati had also performed the same spell at the same time to have such an affect.
"T-Thank you," said Parvati, still shaken and rather breathless.
"'S'ok," said Dean, noticing the wolf blinking.
"Quick," he said, "We better get out of here, Greyback will be up again quite soon."
Parvati nodded, visibly traumatised.
They ran back to the staircase and Dean leaned over the balcony, hoping to catch a glimpse of Otus and the others, but they were nowhere to be seen, however there were a few spiders scuttling about towards the two dead, giant spiders.
"C'mon," said Dean, opting instead to go up to the next floor instead of stepping on spiders again, as he turned around and took one last glimpse of the wolf and saw that its eyes were blinking, and its face was twisted into an expression of fury. Parvati swallowed and nodded, following Dean up the stairs.
They emerged onto a corridor where there were many duellers, jets of light streaked across the hallway from caster to victim making the corridor illuminated by multi-coloured glows. Through all the debris, damage, and spells, Dean could not distinguish the figure of Neville or Otus and he had been hoping to find Seamus here but his friend was not there. He could however make out the figure of Cho Chang, Katie Bell and Oliver Wood who were each fighting a Death Eater, their spells merely missing Parvati and Dean.
"Watch out!" cried Parvati as she whipped out her wand, but it was too late, the damage had already been done. Katie Bell had been hit with a body-bind curse, Cho Chang at once fired a hex at the Death Eater and Oliver tried to repair Katie's state of rigidness, leaving the two Death Eaters they had been fighting previously. One of them - and Dean recognised with a jolt that it was Dolohov - tried to use the moment of distraction to jinx Oliver from behind.
'No you don't,' thought Dean, as he pointed his wand at Dolohov and yelled "Stupefy!"
The jet of red light just missed the Death Eater, but at least Dean now had Dolohov's attention and Oliver had been forgotten.
"More of them, Travers," said Dolohov in a deep, hollow voice.
The man called Travers was now duelling Parvati who looked eager to fight, her previous state of shock undetectable from her swift and accurate movements.
Hexes, jinxes and curses were exchanged. Dolohov was relentless, every time Dean tried to catch his breath, another jet of light came his way and he became too busy dodging it.
"Furnunculus!" cried Dean, aiming his wand at Dolohov who was blasting statues and debris out of his way in order to come closer to Dean. The curse hit a statue and deflected off it, travelling across the room and instead hit Travers. There followed a loud, audible "Argh!" which Parvati exploited by stunning the Death Eater during his momentary confusion and pain.
There was a sudden loud "Wheeeeeeeeeee!" from above their heads. Peeves had zoomed past and dropped several Snargaluff pods, narrowly missing Dean and Parvati. Immediately the Death Eaters' heads were engulfed in wriggling, green tubers, which looked rather like fat worms and very disgusting. One of the pods managed to hang in mid-air as if it had landed on something invisible.
"Someone's invisible there!" shouted a masked Death Eater pointing at the suspended pod.
Dean, taking advantage of this distraction, sent a stunning spell at the Death Eater. Dolohov attempted to retaliate, aiming his wand at Dean, before Parvati sent a body-bind curse his way and the Death Eater's body snapped rigid.
"Thanks," Dean mouthed to Parvait.
"Your welcome," she mouthed back.
They advanced along the corridor, helping Cho, Oliver and Katie who were trying to regain their balance after slipping in pools of Snargaluff juice.
Parvati and Dean made their way down the stairs, sending random curses to random Death Eaters along the way. Parvati was keen to find her sister, Padma, who was apparently on the grounds.
"Dean!" cried an awfully familiar voice after he and Parvati had ran a few flights down.
His best friend came hurrying over to him, closely followed by Luna and Ernie Macmillan.
A surge of immense relief came over Dean which did somewhat surprise him, he hadn't known how worried he was about Seamus until he saw him safe and sound not to mention Ernie and Luna too.
Dean grinned, ear to ear.
"So, you got yourself a wand?"
"Yeah, some random Death Eater's," replied Dean, now wondering where Otus was.
"What's happening?" asked Parvati, "Any news?"
"Colin Creevey's dead," said Ernie sadly.
Dean nearly choked, he wondered desperately if Neville and Otus were still alive.
"And so is Fred, Ron's brother, we found his body…" said Seamus gravely, trailing off.
"But we saw Ron and Hermione and Harry," said Luna brightly, "They're safe."
The fact that Ron, Hermione and Harry were safe didn't altogether compensate for the deaths of Colin and Fred.
"And we're still alive," said Luna, after awhile.
Parvati nodded, "And while we are, we have the power to stop further deaths."
"Wise words," said Ernie, nodding, though even he looked sad and miserable.
Dean looked at Seamus, and for a moment they faced each other in mutual understanding. When you have so many emotions that you can't keep in, some will inevitably leak out, and that's why you have a friend, who will always be there in these moments and ungrudgingly share the psychological pain.
Then he heard it, a loud hoot amongst the many yells and screams of the castles, a hoot he would recognise anywhere and had longed to hear.
He was safe, for now.
"You guys better get going, I've got some stuff I have to do," said Dean, recalling the origin of the sound and making his way upstairs.
"No!" said Seamus, blocking his path, "Either you come with us, or I'll come with you."
"We should stick together," agreed Parvati.
"Look, you guys go ahead. Padma will be down there," said Dean, looking at Parvati, "and it's much safer there anyway."
"Oi," said Seamus, as Dean bounded up the stairs, "I'm coming with you."
"Me too," said Luna, like this was some sort of party.
"Weren't we just saying how lucky we were to still be alive?" said Dean angrily, running up the stairs.
He didn't want to hear it, but the unmistakable steps which followed his did allow him a sense of reassurance.
They reached the floor above, two men were duelling closest to them, Otus and an unmasked Death Eater.
"Birman, what a surprise, I thought you'd learned to keep your beak out of other people's business, or was the loss of your best friend not enough of a lesson?" crooned the Death Eater, sending a jinx towards Otus.
"If it wasn't for you Rookwood, Theo wouldn't have died, I've come to avenge his death," said Otus whose sudden determination was frightening as he blocked the jinx and sent curses flying continuously in Rookwood's direction.
"ROOKWOOD," bellowed Percy Weasley who was charging down the corridor, wand drawn.
Otus was temporarily distracted by Percy's sudden interruption and exposed to attack as Rookwood gave a devilish grin and was about to cast a spell. Dean immediately ran up to the duelling pair and yelled "Expelliarmus!" and at the same time Percy hollered "Petrificus Totalus!". Rookwood's wand hovered across the air and landed into Dean's outstretched hand while the Death Eater in question went rigid and collapsed onto the floor.
Before any of them could react however, a deafening boom echoed through the corridor and the walls on either side of them seem to collapse, portraits and statues tumbled through the air as the explosion rocked the whole castle.
"Dean!" yelled Otus and Dean felt the man's strong arms push him away so that he landed a few feet from the centre of the explosion and close by Percy who had jumped and landed beside Dean. Percy's body was crushed to the ground by a flying portrait which had landed right on top of him and Dean had slammed into Luna, knocking both of them onto the ground. For a moment it looked like the two of them were about to be crushed by a hurling statue when Seamus and Ernie suddenly changed its course using a levitation charm. Parvati ran towards them and helped them both up.
As the mist cleared, Dean could make out a body lying motionless where the explosion had taken place, it was Otus' and Rookwood's body was nowhere to be seen.
"NO!" shouted Dean, running towards the limp body.
But Seamus, who had grabbed Dean's arm, did not let go.
"Come on Dean, it's dangerous!" said Seamus fiercely.
"But – I," began Dean
"Dean," whispered Parvati, "It's too late, he's –"
"I'm sorry, mate, I really am," said Ernie, quietly, patting him on the back, "But we should go now, before there's another explosion."
They dragged Dean down the stairs, with the exception of Luna, who walked beside him silently.
There was too much to think about. When Dirk and Ted had died, he had been angry, frustrated, miserable, depressed, now he was, he hated to admit it, immensely disappointed and betrayed. Disappointed yet again that someone else had died because they had bothered to save him. Disappointed because he didn't deserve to be living while these people were dead. Disappointed that he had never saved anyone in his life. Disappointed that he hadn't known who Hoot really was until now. And betrayed. Betrayed of the answers which Otus could have answered, about himself and his father. Betrayed of the relationship that could have been between them. Betrayed of his one last living link to his father.
As Seamus led him down the stairs and Dean obediently followed, the walls began talking, with a shrill, cold voice, which froze all of them in mid-step.
"You have fought valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery. Yet you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste." Here Ernie snorted in disgust. "Lord Voldemort is merciful . I command my forces to retreat, immediately. You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured." At this, Dean immediately turned around, ran back up the stairs and into the dusty haze rising from the debris to find the body of Otus.
"Dean! Wait! Wait for me!" yelled Seamus after him.
"I speak now, Harry Potter, directly to you," continued Voldemort, "You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommences. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour."
Dean picked his way quickly around the rubbish until he finally saw Otus, he was badly bruised and there was an open wound on his arm and forehead. His eyes were closed and he looked relatively peaceful. He looked like he was sleeping, but Dean knew he was dead. At least his face was more relaxed than it had probably ever been after the death of Theodore.
There was movement behind him, at first Dean thought it was Seamus but then a slender woman emerged. She had dark hair, like Otus and those large, golden eyes. And she was crying. Wordlessly, the two lifted Otus' body and proceeded to carry him out of the rubble. After a few minutes, Seamus arrived and the three began carrying the body down the stairs silently.
The Great Hall was filled with people mourning. Dean walked past the pale, lifeless, yet peaceful faces of Lupin, Tonks and Fred, unable to generate any more emotion than the silent storm which was now fighting in him. He tried to say something, but his throat was dry and sore.
They placed Otus down in the centre of the Hall, where most of the bodies lay. After that, the woman sat down quietly and took Otus' hand in her own, she stared into his face, smiling softly as the tears came out.
Dean tried to ask her who she was, but the words wouldn't come out. Instead he walked out of the Hall. He doubted that fresh air would help, but it was better than being in a room filled with tears.