Toldya I'd update fast. This isn't so much because I have a holiday tomorrow as it is because Mackenzie has threatened to shoot me if I don't put a chapter up today. (mutters darkly under breath) Some best friend she is…

Chapter 40 (forty chapters!!)

Snapebite

Harry followed closely until they arrived at the second floor corridor, still panting to regain his breath. They stopped short as scene of chaos and devastation met their eyes.

The air was thick with flying spells, shouts, and screams. Remus ducked as a bolt of red light flew over his head, taking it all in with a glance. Harry blocked another streak of purple light, which rebounded and hit the Death Eater who'd sent it.

Remus dove into the fray, followed closely by Sirius. Harry stayed towards the fringes of the corridors, stepping over bodies and hexing anyone who sent a spell his way. He needed to know what was happening.

He couldn't tell. The room was in utter chaos. There were aurors, frightened students, Death Eaters, teachers… Harry didn't know what to make of it. An attack on the castle, he thought. It'll close, now, if anyone's killed.

That's a problem that should be farthest from your mind, the rational part of him snapped. You can deal with that later… after the Death Eaters are no longer trying to kill you.

Harry slipped up to the third corridor to find himself face to face with three menacing hooded figures. Harry raised his wand.

"Oh, look," one of them sneered, "it's precious Potter."

Harry didn't flinch, carefully keeping his back to the wall as they advanced on him.

"He thinks he can take us on, Abraxas," another one laughed. "All by his little self. What a big boy!"

Harry summoned up his Inner Sanctum and held it ready, boiling and twisting to be unleashed. He held his wand steady.

"The Dark Lord will reward us for removing him," the last Death Eater said, the pleasure evident in his voice. "Let's get him."

Harry blocked the two spells that flew out him without a problem. His mistake came when he relinquished the shield. The third Death Eater let fly another spell a split second after the other two, and it hit Harry.

The force of the spell threw him back against the wall, slamming his head against the stone. Blackness engulfed his senses for several long agonizing moments, long enough for ropes to spring out of the end of the Death Eaters' wands and wrap themselves tightly around Harry.

"Pity," one of them sneered. "I thought he'd put up more of a fight."

"How did you manage to get the Defense Against the Dark Arts post, Potter? I killed a second year back there who defended herself better than you."

Harry's mind reeled. Killed a second year…

"Oh, look," the one called Abraxas laughed. "See his face? We killed a student and he's traumatized…"

Harry groped desperately in the magic in the ropes. They were full of it, burning with the powerful force of magic, and he grasped it, commanding the ropes to untwist themselves. Before the Death Eaters could react, he rolled to his feet, holding his wand up to face them. He was breathing hard, but he was confident. "Atraconfundus!" he shouted.

Instantly, a shroud of utter blackness descended upon the room—one that Harry could not see. Only the Death Eaters had been blinded. He could very clearly see their confused faces, their groping hands, and he heard their calls to one another.

"Nice try, Potter, but you've blinded yourself as well," one of them smirked.

"Really?" Harry asked dryly, taking him out with a Stunning Spell directly to the chest.

"Lumos," one of them muttered. "Merlin, it doesn't work."

"You're Death Eaters," Harry sneered, dispatching another one with a full body-bind curse. "Surely you know how to defeat this darkness."

"Indeed," came a fourth voice from the other end of the corridor.

Harry looked up sharply. Advancing through the invisible darkness, holding his hand with a ball of flames in it—flames that penetrated the inky blackness—was Severus Snape.

Gritting his teeth and fighting to keep his temper under control, Harry said, "Professor! How good to see you!"

Snape laughed, sending a chill up Harry's spine. "You think you're so brave, don't you, Potter?"

Harry, without thinking, cut down the last Death Eater in the room, who apparently still couldn't see. He and Snape circled each other slowly, wands held aloft.

"Do you know what we're here for, Potter?" Snape hissed.

"Frankly, I don't care," Harry spat. "I just want you out."

"Bold words." He laughed coldly. "My, my, my, you have grown cocky."

"A sin you're hardly free from."

"Ah, no, Potter. You see, there's the difference between us. It is not cockiness when your skills can defend your level of confidence. I am confident. You are arrogant."

Harry remained silent, waiting for Snape to make the first move.

"I tried to teach you that for six years, you realize. That your downfall would come from arrogance. It's how your dear saint of a father died. But you were too conceited to listen. Just like he was."

"Shut up," Harry snarled.

"And now you're getting angry, another opening for me to kill you."

"Then why haven't you? You obviously hate me enough, and if I've left you that many openings, why am I still alive?" Harry waited for an answer, and when it didn't come, he sneered. "I don't think you'd kill me."

"Don't underestimate your enemies, Potter," Snape said softly.

Harry put his wand in his pocket and spread his arms wide. "Kill me, then."

Snape cackled. "Brash and reckless, Potter!"

"And yet, I'm still alive."

"Crucio!"

Harry released his magic from the palm of his hand. The spell flew up, knocked Snape's off of its course, and flew towards him. Snape put up a quick shield, laughing.

"A trick you learned from your auror friends, no doubt," he said, raising his wand once more.

"Harry!" came a sharp voice from behind him. Harry fought the urge to whirl around, knowing that Snape would not pass up an opportunity like that. He recognized the voice; it belonged to Professor McGonagall.

"Hello, Minerva," Snape sneered.

"Harry, let me handle this. Go back downstairs."

"No," he answered determinedly, not taking his eyes off Snape. "I can fight."

"I see, Minerva, that as advanced as he's gotten in magic, you still haven't managed to deflate his overdeveloped ego."

"I never have been good at deflating egos," she said dryly. "I seem to have failed with you as well."

"Be quiet," he snarled. "I killed the great Dumbledore. Don't think I can't kill you as well."

Professor McGonagall snorted derisively. "Yes, you killed him while he was hardly able to stand, had no wand, and surrounded by six other Death Eaters."

Snape gave a mocking bow. "Yes. Shall we begin, then, rather than wasting our evening conversing like a pair of old women?"

"Harry…" she said warningly.

"I'm ready." He held his wand steadily, aimed directly at Snape's head.

Harry was ready for what Snape attacked with. When his opponent shouted "Contremisco!" Harry snagged the magic in the air around him, asking it to lift him off the ground. Though the stones below his feet rolled and heaved as though an earthquake had hit, he was floating safely about a foot above the ground. Professor McGonagall obviously knew the countercurse because she was standing very solidly on her feet, unshaken.

"Do you really think it's fair," Snape began conversationally, "that it's two against one?"

"Well," Harry remarked, letting the air set him down again, "it's hardly two against one, since I'm so cocky as to be ridiculously incompetent. Sectumsempra!"

Snape dodged the spell narrowly, looking mildly angry. "How dare you use my own spell on me? Crucio!"

The battle took off. Spells ricocheted off the walls, chunks of ceiling raining down when beams of light hit them. Harry dodged and ducked, shouted, cursed, and hexed, but neither he nor Snape nor Professor McGonagall seemed to be getting anywhere. He hadn't known that three people could cause such chaos.

He blocked a purple beam of light that Snape sent his way, called "Incendio," and rolled to avoid another spell. The spell, though, was not aimed at him—he realized too late that it targeted the stone above his head. As though in slow motion, Harry saw a piece of the ceiling break lose and fall towards him. He rolled to avoid letting it crush his skull, but he couldn't get his arm out of the way on time. With a sickening crunch, the chunk of stone landed, shattering bone and crushing skin. Harry screamed.

He must have blacked out temporarily. When he opened his eyes again, squinting in pain, he saw Professor McGonagall leaning against the wall, clutching her side, and Snape advancing on him. He could only watch in agony as the traitor raised his wand, opened his mouth, and screamed, "Avada Kedavra!"

Harry was ready to die, to feel the green bolt of light hit his side and then feel… nothing. But it never came. Something flashed in front of him, absorbing the light that had been meant for him and landing on the floor with a thud. Harry, using his good hand, gasped, "Crucio!"

Snape fell to the floor, writhing in pain. Harry, pouring all of his hatred and anger and pain into the spell, did not let it up. He was lying on the ground and could not see his victim, but he could hear Snape's screams. And he relished them.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Harry."

All that he was aware of was an agonizing pain in his right arm, sending a throbbing pain that ripped through the rest of his body. He moaned in agony.

"Harry, hold still. This is going to hurt."

The pain in his arm doubled, and he opened his eyes to see the stone being lifted off of it. He nearly vomited when he saw a white corner of bone protruding from the skin. He screamed as whoever was in the room lifted his arm.

"The bone's shattered," the man said. "I can fix it, just hold still, Harry."

Harry held still, more from an inability to move than from any particular wish to obey the man. He felt something hit his arm, and instantly, it began working itself back into shape. It hurt, but after a moment, it felt better except for a slight ache. He sat up.

"Remus…" he muttered, seeing who was administering to him. "Remus, Snape was…"

"We know, Harry," he said gently. "Lie down."

Like the last time he had performed it, the Cruciatus Curse had drained him, leaving a void where his magic should have been. He knew it wouldn't last, but he hated the empty coldness that pervaded him.

"Where's Snape?" he asked.

"He got away. Most of the Death Eaters did."

"Pro… Professor McGonagall was here. Snape hurt her… where…"

"Harry…" Remus said gently. His voice shook. "Harry, listen. Professor McGonagall… she… she's dead, Harry."

Harry sat up straight. "What?" he said frantically. "No, she was just… no, she can't be. She was just right…"

Then he saw two figures kneeling on the ground over another form. The people kneeling were Sirius and Tonks, and the person on the ground…

"Professor," he said hoarsely, crawling gingerly over to the still shape. He felt tears burning his eyes, and he made no effort to stop them.

There was a bloody wound on her side, but Harry knew that this was not what had killed her. It was too shallow. He remembered in the second before he had cast the Cruciatus Curse on Snape that Snape had tried to kill him with the Killing Curse. Something had blocked it, jumped in front of it to stop it from killing Harry.

"She… she died for me."

He had to force the words out of his throat. They did not come easily. He stumbled backwards and buried his face in his hands, sobbing. "No… not again. No. Please…"

"Harry—" Remus started.

"How many more?" Harry interrupted, looking up bitterly. "First my parents, then Sirius, then Dumbledore, now her… How many more of you are going to die trying to keep me alive?"

"Listen, Harry," Remus said firmly, taking him by the shoulders, "you are not the cause of death. Don't blame yourself for this. She knew what she was doing. She did it because she loved you and she knew that you had to go on. It Snape's fault, not yours. You didn't kill her."

"But that Killing Curse was meant for me," he whispered bitterly. "She died to save my life."

"Harry, listen to me." It was Sirius this time, turning to face him. "She died for what she knew was right. Would you die for Ron and Hermione? Then allow her the same privilege without begrudging it."

"So many people…" he whispered.

"Harry—"

"Leave me alone."