AN: This is a longer chapter because I couldn't bring myself to split it at the usual 2000 word mark. I hope you like it, there are certain parts that I was very happy to be able to include in this chapter. If I end up writing the sequel then there will undoubtedly be elements of this chapter which are explored in greater detail. I hope you enjoy reading and don't feel that there is too much action and not enough plot development. Enjoy!
Chapter 22
Severus Snape had done something that no one since Albus Dumbledore had dared to do; he directly challenged Voldemort while putting himself in between the Dark Lord and his ambitions. Severus was a very capable wizard who had fought in many battles on both sides during Voldemort's first and second attempts to conquer the world. Now he had shown his former master where his loyalties truly lay and was prepared to deal with the potential consequences of his actions.
On the first floor Harry, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Ron, and Cho had been joined by Fred and George Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks, and Remus Lupin. The ten defenders of Hogwarts were afforded enough time for a brief series of greetings before they were faced with a wave of Death Eaters that made the former battle seem trivial. The group spread out as much as possible but they were confined by the narrow hallway. The Death Eaters faced the same problem but were so numerous that the chance of them eventually breaking through the line of defenders was very high. Although the Dark Lord had claimed Harry the others who stood beside him were fair game.
The four fresh wands provided by Fred and George Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks, and Remus Lupin would be a deciding factor in the upcoming battle against the Death Eaters. Harry and Neville reluctantly let the Weasley twins take their place in the center of the line. They could not argue against the wisdom of taking a peripheral role in the upcoming battle in order to be prepared for whatever the group would find when they reunited with their comrades in the Great Hall.
When the Death Eaters turned the corner and began to swarm the hallway where the defenders of Hogwarts had taken refuge Fred and George began casting a series of spells at the ground; from where their spells hit swampy patches began to spread. In seconds the corridor's floor had been turned into a swamp. The first of the Death Eaters were slowed tremendously by the marsh and stalled the arrival of the rest of the army. This gave the Weasley twins time to complete the Transfiguration required to turn the marshy water into cement, locking the Death Eaters into place and causing their comrades to accidentally step on and kick them in their haste to advance upon their enemies.
Hogwarts' defenders were tactically retreating behind the sand barrage that Hermione, Luna, and Cho had created, which the twins had moved upon coming downstairs in order to derive the most protection. As expected, the sand bags took the brunt of the Death Eater assault and were looking much worse for wear after only a minute. From their position behind the bags everyone except Harry and Neville was rapidly casting spells into the body of the Death Eater army. Many Death Eaters fell and the defenders became optimistic as they saw the end of the enemy wave.
Katie Bell and Alicia Spinnet had stoically bared the grief that they felt for the loss of Angelina Johnson. Ernie McMillan, Susan Bones, and Hannah Abbot stood by the pair and offered their condolences when they heard the terrible news. None of the Hufflepuffs could understand how it felt to lose a comrade who stood with you in combat and they realized that sometimes the best remedy was time. Unfortunately in a battle that had already brought death so close to home, time was a luxury that the group could not afford. After a few solemn minutes Ernie knew that the group needed to move on to help the others who were resisting Voldemort and his forces. He did not want to seem callous or uncaring but they had already been ambushed once in this corridor.
"I'm sorry to rush you girls, I can only imagine the kind of pain that you must be feeling right now but if we don't move then a lot more people will die at the hands of the Death Eaters."
"Ernie," warned Hannah and Susan at the same time.
"I'm sorry, but we have already found out that this corridor isn't safe. We need to move on," answered the concerned Hufflepuff.
"Susan, Hannah its ok. Ernie is right, we should be moving," declared Katie as she took another look at her fallen friend. "We should move downstairs and see what we can do to help. There is no way that that was the entire army."
As the group walked past the statue of the one-eyed witch Katie focused all of her rage and lifted her wand before slashing it through the air and yelling "Bombarda!"
The statue was demolished under the power of Katie's blasting spell. Although she could not bring back Angelina, destroying the passage that allowed the Death Eaters to enter the castle brought some satisfaction to the distraught girl. Unfortunately, Katie's action had come too late; a group had already come through the passage and, after seeing the devastated corridor made their way up the closest staircase assuming that once they arrived at the dormitories they would find their comrades fulfilling the Dark Lord's command to make an example out of those houses that would stand against him in resistance.
Alicia, Ernie, Hannah, Katie, and Susan made their way downstairs in a very somber march. They couldn't help but compare the state of the unblemished corridor they were traveling through to the corridors that they had just engaged the Death Eaters in. There would be massive clean-up and reconstruction efforts required to repair the damage that they had caused to the castle. They shuddered to think of the amount of damage that the other battles had caused to the magnificent castle. As they got closer to the stairway that led to the first floor they heard the unmistakable sound of battle and the unforgettable sound of the Weasley twins trying to annoy someone.
"Do mine eyes deceive me, my good sir Fredsalot, or do these peasants think that they can challenge our divine power," queried George as he cast another strengthening charm on the bags of sand in an attempt to buy the group more time.
"Sir Georgiahad, I do believe that they have vastly underestimated the power of our forces," quipped Fred as he maintained a steady stream of Ricktusempra curses that the Death Eaters were having a terrible time seeing since Ron had used his Put-Outer on the lights of the corridor.
"Indeed brother, mine. That mistake will surely be their undoing," exclaimed George as he took the offensive and cast the Estampido Sónico spell to send a blast of compressed air at the Death Eaters to knock them off of their feet. Ron had the blast that his brother cast and followed it with an overpowered Aguamente that overcame whatmeager resistances those suffering the effects of the Ricktusempra curse were able to raise. Hermione heard the splash of water and figured that in the worst case scenario she would be able to give the Death Eaters treacherous footing by turning the floor to ice as she cast a freezing charm. Luna and Cho took it upon themselves to protect the group by casting shield charms immediately after their comrades' spell light revealed their position in the darkened corridor.
For a moment things were quiet. Then the group heard rushing behind them and quickly turned around to confront the new threat. Ron, not thinking of what the consequences would be, returned all of the lights to their original positions causing all of those whose eyes had become accustomed to the dark to go temporarily blind. Fortunately, the new comers, Katie, Alicia, Hannah, Susan, and Earnie, were not as affected by the return of the light and were able to see a barrage of spells that had been fired in their direction. Katie tackled Harry, Alicia grabbed Fred, Hannah pushed Hermione, Susan jumped on Neville, and Earnie knocked Cho in such a manner that they all landed on the ground in a heap that somehow managed to ensnare Luna also. Lupin had pulled Tonks close to his body and cast a shield charm in the direction that he believed faced the Death Eaters. Unfortunately, his shield charm could not resist the power of the killing curse and the pair fell to the ground, together in death in a way that the world had prevented them from being in life.
The others did not have time to become awkward because of the accidental groping that occurred when they went down. If the memory was ever looked upon in a Pensieve more than one of them would end up blushing furiously. However, the Death Eaters had just taken two more of their friends from them and they needed to be stopped. Harry and Neville rejoined the battle and the group was able to finish off the Death Eaters who had escaped the frozen tomb that the youngest Weasley boys and Hermione had inadvertently created.
The group took a moment to pay their respects to the one-time professor of Defense Against the dark Arts. Ernie gave a summary of what had transpired on the third floor briefly reporting the reason that Angelina Johnson was not with them. The Gryffindors present all became somber when faced with Angelina's death. Ernie wouldn't let the group sink into despair and asked Harry to recount what had happened on the first floor. It looked like the corridor had been through a war and that wasn't far from the truth. Once everyone was on the same page Harry and his group agreed with Ernie that it was time for them to join the battle on the ground floor. When they were passing the frozen Death Eaters Katie hit the mass of ice with the Bombarda curse, shattering it and all of the frozen Death Eaters held within. In their haste to get downstairs no one commented on Katies uncharacteristic action.
In the Great Hall Severus Snape's challenge to Lord Voldemort had caused everyone else in the room to halt their own battle in favor of watching the event that was about to unfold. Severus' absence during the earlier part of the battle had been the elephant in the room that everyone on the light side had tried to avoid mentioning; however, that was excused because he had shown up when things had appeared to be the darkest and was attempting to rise to the occasion in a spectacular manner. Severus was prepared to back his speech with action even though he knew that he did not have a very good chance of winning the upcoming duel.
Severus took another step toward the Dark Lord, although other Death Eaters had been more zealous and had more financial resources it was Severus Snape that the Dark Lord had considered to be his most powerful follower. Severus had exhibited many of the characteristics as a boy that were present in young Tom Riddle Jr. perhaps, if Severus had been born before Riddle, he would have been the one to pick up Grindelwald's mantel as the newest Dark Lord. However, that was not the way things happened, Severus had joined the Death Eaters after being promised riches, power, and influence beyond his wildest dreams. If these things were bought with the lives of mud-bloods and blood traitors then that was a price that Severus had been ready to pay.
Severus had used his powers and abilities as a Potions master to become an invaluable spy for Voldemort's dark regime. He had gathered information that had brought many notable witches and wizards to their untimely demises and had relished in the enemy's inability to counter his skill set. Had it not been for one fateful night, he probably would have continued to serve the Dark Lord and gather information on Voldemort's enemies until he had integrated himself as an integral component to the Dark regime. Once he had succeeded in that endeavor he would have rallied disillusioned followers to his side before staging a coup against the Dark Lord. So really the confrontation was inevitable, however it was the way that Voldemort had applied some of the information that Severus had gathered that brought them to an impasse.
Severus had been wracked with guilt when he realized that the Dark Lord had interpreted a prophesy, that Severus had heard Sybill Trelawny telling Albus Dumbledore, as the promise of one who could destroy him being born to Lily Potter. Based on this train of thought, Voldemort had hunted the Potters day and night until he was able to coerce Peter Pettigrew into joining the Death Eater cause and exchanging the lives of his fellow Gryffindors for his own life. Since Peter had been the Potter's secret-keeper his defection to the dark side had sealed their fate.
Taking one more step toward his former master brought Severus into proper dueling range. Snape wanted the duel to be between himself and Voldemort, so he played the older wizard's ego by giving him the slight bow that duelists exchanged before their duel began.
Voldemort scoffed at the antics of the traitor. "There, was that so hard Severus? You assume your rightful position, bowing to my power."
"You are but a shade of the wizard that banded the Death eaters together all those years ago. You have done much, admittedly," severus paused before continuing. "But it is I who have achieved mastery of this castle. If you wish to take it from me then you will have to defeat me in combat."
"With pleasure!" shouted Voldemort as he whipped his wand above his head to summon the fire from the candles suspended beneath the ceiling and directed the tongue of flame at Severus.
Severus elected to push his magic through the flame in order to create a giant flaming serpant that reversed direction and shot toward Voldemort.
Voldemort decided to bring down the chandelier in order to absorb the magic of the fiery snake. The magical chandelier was able to absorb the magic but, in doing so, it was supercharged with magic and began to melt. Voldemort banished the melting chandelier at Severus and quickly animated the melting arms so that they would wrap around his turn-coat follower.
Snape cast a magical barrier around himself to prevent the burning metal from coming into contact with his skin and then forced his magic outward shredding the metal cocoon that the melted chandelier had formed around his barrier. Reigning his magic in he caused the shards of metal to hover before transfiguring them into a swarm of bees and using the Opugno spell to set the bees on Voldemort.
Voldemort was too wary for this tactic and created a Finite-barrier around his body. As the swarm of bees passed through his barrier they were returned to their original shape before they fell to the ground. Behind his barrier Voldemort eyed his opponent warily as he chided himself for not having prepared the ritual that would allow him to raise the dead as Inferius. Instead he transfirured a giant felled column into a stone golem that was steadily advancing upon Severus.
Severus looked around the room for any base material that could be used to combat Voldemort's creation. Not finding the material he desired, Severus chose to go another route. He pulled a vial from his robes and drank from it. Instantly he was filled with magic. He turned to face the golem and blasted it with an Expulso curse to take it down. Then he used a series of banishing charms to direct the rubble at Voldemort.
Voldemort destroyed all of the rubble that Snape shot at his with a series of incredibly fast blasting curses. It was very impressive for all who beheld, but the strategy was not as fool-proof as Voldemort had anticipated. One of the pieces of rubble that Voldemort blasted was not completely destroyed and a small chip continued in its trajectory and succeeded in making a small cut on the face of the Dark Lord.
This made the Voldemort furious; a dog had turned against its master and would have to be put down. Severus' death had been assured when he interrupted Voldemort's monologue to present himself as Voldemort's opponent. Voldemort began his signature spell-chain with the Relámpago charm and shot a bolt of lightning at his opponent.
Severus was fast enough to get out of the way, but a group of spectators was blasted from their feet near where the spell impacted upon the ground. Realizing what would be coming next, Severus used the Levicorpus spell to lift the body of one of the fallen death Eaters into the path of the bone-breaking curses and the severing charm before slashing back with the Sectumsempra curse.
Voldemort saw the spell that Severus was casting and decided that they would determine who the master of the blood-sword spell was. Voldemort's Sectumsempra slashes countered Snape's as the pair fought an invisible duel with their wands blurring in and out of focus.
Both combatants received several minor cuts during the bout but neither could overcome the other's defense without leaving themselves open to attack. When this was realized they both jumped behind the nearest cover. Voldemort channeled his fury through his wand and attempted to crush Snape by banishing the large chunk of stone that the former head of Slytherin house had chosen to hide behind. Snape managed to heave his body out of the way of the giant stone but his unaturally billowing cape got caught and caused Snape's left leg to be severed by the pressure of the stone slamming into the wall at such a high speed.
Severus' experience with the Cruciatus curse had given his body a resistance to shock; he gritted his teeth as his vision wavered and he knew that his time was running out. He quickly cauterized the wound with a small Incendio spell before he summoned a peg and used a sticking charm to stick it to the stump that remained of his leg. When he stood to face Voldemort's again he knew that the next exchange would, in all likelihood be his last. Be that as it may, Severus Snape was determined to go down fighting.
AN2: Uh oh, all things are leading to an inevitable confrontation. I hope that you enjoyed the chapter PLEASE review. They do two things: make me want to write and prevent large gaps from appearing between publish dates.