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I was half in trance as I made my way through the castle. The Death Eaters had finally managed to enter and it was absolute chaos. I dodged a sirring green light that would have undoubtedly been my end and it crashed into an armour right behind me that subsequently lost its head.

I looked up to see what idiot had actually tried to kill me – for it had to be a Death Eater, none else would have used the Killing Curse – but it was impossible to make out in the crowd.

There was an incredible loud crash and the castle shook even harder than before. I never saw where it came from but it could not mean anything good.

I hurried towards the marble staircase leading into the entrance hall – climbing out of the window at this state of the battle was plainly ridiculous.
I skittered to a halt on top of the staircase, absolutely taken aback by what was unfolding beneath me. I did not know what I had expected. I knew that nothing could have prepared me, though, for the sight of children – for even if they were already seventeen, they were still children – fighting for their life. Knowing that behind the masks they were fighting were people I knew very well; knowing that some of them deserved every last blow that hid them and that some were victims of circumstance.

Another curse was suddenly flying in my direction, but before I could even raise my wand to block it, there was a loud cry of "Lorraine!" and hand roughly pulled me out of the way.

I slammed hard against the nearest wall and blinked, confused, trying to recognize who had just saved me.

"Rod," I breathed as the man in front of me pulled of his mask. "Thank you."

"What are you even doing here?" he hissed. "We're in the middle of-"

"I'm well aware what we're in the middle of, thank you very much," I bit out.

"I need to get you out of here. Does he even know-?"

"Of course he does!" I told him. "Don't be ridiculous."

But out of here meant back to him and I did not even know how I could ever step in front of him again.

"I'm Draco Malfoy! I'm Draco, I'm on your side-"

Rod and I shared a panicked look and we both darted from our hiding place. Draco was pleading with a masked Death Eater I did not recognize. Said man did not seem to recognize the boy at all and I was ready to shout out for them when the Death Eater suddenly crumbled and fell in a heap to the floor.

"What-?"

Just then, Draco fell backwards, too, his mouth suddenly bleeding as though he had been hit in the face.

"And that's the second time we saved your life tonight, you two-faced bastard!" an unseen voice yelled.

Draco looked utterly bemused when I finally reached him, frantically searching for the faceless voice.

"What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question," the boy bit back, reaching up to touch his bleeding mouth. "Am I bleeding?" he muttered to himself as if he could not quite believe it.

"Yeah," I said, holding out a hand to help him up. He ignored it and struggled to his feet, holding on to the railing. "Listen to me, Draco, I want you to go and hide-"

"No way-"

"I said go and hide," I repeated loudly. "Listen, this might very well not be a good night for us and I don't want you caught in the middle of that."

"I'm not a child!"

"I never said you were," I snapped. "But you were just almost maimed by our own people, so, please. Do as you're told for once."

"I have more!" a voice suddenly screamed. "More for any who want them! Here-"

We both sharply turned to see a very thin, very flimsy woman. With surprising force, she hauled a crystal ball at the fighters below and as I looked down, I found that Fenrir Greyback was lying, unconscious, in the midst of crystal splinters.

"Check that grin," Rod said gruffly. "You wouldn't want anyone to think-"

I don't care what they think," I said. "Let's go."

I gave a parting nod to Draco and then Rodolphus and I hurried down the staircase. When we were halfway down, the heavy wooden doors burst open. I screamed at what came into view. Spiders, huge spiders, at least 10 feet in height, thick, black and hairy. I stopped abruptly and caused Rod to stumble into me.

"There is karma," I breathed. "Fate just came up with the worst possible death for me."

"Don't be silly," Rod said, though he, too, sounded slightly panicked. "You won't die."

As if to prove his point, he shot a Stunning Spell at the nearest spider, which of course hardly affected the animal. He was not the only one, though. Death Eaters and Hogwartians alike sent their spells towards the spiders. I raised my wand and sent a curse of my own at a spider that actually buckled a bit.

"Not bad. How-?"

"I picked a bit up over the years."

Dark Magic had never been my favourite thing to do, but sometimes it just got the job done.

Under the onslaught of spells from all directions, the huge spiders slowly retreated, causing the attention to drift back to actual fighting. Rod and I had to drop painfully onto the stairs to escape a particularly well directed jinx. Ducking, we hurried down the stairs.

We had made it across the Entrance Hall halfway as Rod suddenly yelled, "Watch out!"

One of the students had aimed their wand at me, but I reacted before I could think. "Impedimenta!"

The boy flew backwards and crashed into a group of fellow students. I did not look back to see the damage, see if maybe the diversion had caused any of their deaths and instead ran after Rodolphus and into the cool night air. Even outside, the fight was at its height.

A heavy shadow fell upon us and I screamed when I raised my head to see where it came from. I pushed Rod to the side and jumped aside myself, practically onto him. We were just on time, for a gigantic food stomped into the ground right where we had stood seconds ago. Breathlessly, I gaped at the huge figure above us.

"Is that a giant?" I gasped.

Rod barely managed to nod at me. He hauled me to my feet and we took off again, having to jump aside again and again to not be crushed by the uncaring feet of two giants fighting.

We were running across the grounds but we were not fast enough. Right next to us, a group of bushes suddenly exploded and we both whirled around. Two of our enemies had spotted us and before we could react, one of them yelled, "Secato!"

I attempted to sidestep the curse, but it cut right across my cheek. The pain shot through me and I felt the blood gushing out of the wound.

"Fuck," Rod cursed and then sent a Stunning Spell in their direction. They had their Shield Charm up at once and I growled.

"That's not enough," I snapped. "Confringo!"

Halfway between us and our opponents, the ground exploded and we were separated by the sudden wall of fire.

"Run," I yelled to Rod over the new screams and we both took off again, toward that horrible moving tree.

When we reached it, it was in full motion, lashing out at us.

"How-?" he started and I gestured to the knot at the trunk.

"We need to press it..." I made out a twig lying on the ground close to the knot and with a flick of my wand sent it flying against it. The tree froze immediately and Rod's eyes widened in amazement.

"You're hurt," I said. "You should-"

"Get back to fighting," he said. "You'll be fine now. Go."

"But-"

"Go!"

I nodded to him and then crawled into the tunnel. The further down I went, the quieter it got. And there, in the loneliness and quiet, I realized what I was going back to. He would know. There was no possible scenario in which I could hide what I did from him. There was also no scenario in which he let me live. I was undoubtedly going towards my own death.

Yet I would not turn around and attempt to flee. If I was going to die, then it should be him to do it.

I reached the end of the tunnel and heard voices again. I gingerly walked over to see Narcissa Malfoy tending to a few injured Death Eaters. It were very few indeed and I figured that most did not dare to return even if they were hurt.

"Lorraine!" she called out as she spotted me. "Oh dear, what happened-?"

"Just a Cutting Curse," I said. "Nothing to worry about-"

"Oh, no, let me-"

"Just some dittany, Narcissa, please."

Much to her credit, she obeyed at once and went to fetch the dittany. That very moment, a terrible scream sounded from upstairs. Narcissa almost dropped the jar she was holding and I bounded out of the room and up the stairs. I stopped dead in my tracks in the door way.

Severus Snape was leaning crumbled against the wall, his neck torn open. Nagini hissed dangerously at me, her fangs dripping with the man's blood.

I could not form words. I stood, staring, my eyes watering considerably.

"Have you got the diadem?"

My eyes found Tom, who seemed unfazed by what he had just ordered.

"You monster," I whispered. "You don't know mercy..."

"Have you got-"

"No!" I yelled, my helplessness replaced by a sudden wave of anger. "No, I haven't!"

"Lorraine-"

"He got there before me," I said but did not attempt to make the lie convincing. I knew it and he knew it, too, for he hissed, "Liar."

"Prove it," I challenged.

He hissed dangerously at me and then pushed me hard against the nearest wall right atop of the stairs, causing my head to bang painfully against it. I groaned at the impact and then screamed out in pain. Forcefully, he broke through my mental barrier and reality wavered before my eyes while he rummaged through my memories. He saw it all. My talks with Arthur Weasley, how I warned him – and finally, the worst betrayal I could have ever committed.

He was gone from my mind just as suddenly as he had arrived and my eyes could focus on his face again, contorted with hatred. His white, long fingers wrapped around my throat, almost gentle and careful in his squeezing. I stared up at him, trying to hold the tears back even as my eyes watered. It was unfair to cry now, unfair to make this out to be his fault when it was undeniably mine.

"Do it," I whispered and my words were neither vicious nor defiant. "Do it. I don't deserve to survive you, anyway."

"You've betrayed me," he breathed.

"Yes."

"You said you loved me."

"And I did," I answered. "I want to say I still do but who'd believe that?"

His expression was unreadable. "You're a liar, you tried to manipulate me-"

"I think," I said slowly. "That when you broke yourself, you broke me, too. And I let it happen."

It was only the briefest of moments before he averted his eyes but in that fraction of a second I believed to have seen him pained, penitent, perturbed.

"It was my job to pull you back, you know, to watch over you and make sure this doesn't happen and I failed. I failed you as much as I failed myself. So do it. Please, just do it."

"And show you mercy?" he said suddenly. "You deserve to be tortured for weeks on end."

"I'd deserve everything you could do to me," I choked out. "But it won't change anything."

He abruptly let go of my, taking a step back as if he had been burnt. My hand flew up to rub my throat, eyeing him warily. What was he doing?

"Get out of my sight," he ordered.

"Tom-"

"Go! I'll deal with you when this is over."

Despite the fact that I had promised myself not to flee, I could not help myself. I darted down the stairs at this opportunity, leaving him behind me.
This did not make any sense! Why would he let me live? I could not quite believe my luck, which in turn led me to believe it was no luck at all. He would think up the most gruesome death, for sure... It was not that I was afraid to die. But weeks of torture were not a promising outlook, deserved or not. For I had sure deserved it.

"Lorraine? What happened-?"

I looked up, confused, at Narcissa who watched me warily. "Snape is dead," I said as if that explained anything.

Narcissa covered her mouth with her hand as her eyes widened in horror.

"You have fought valiantly."

We both flinched at the cold voice echoing throughout the hut.

"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. Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately. You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured.
I speak now, Harry Potter, directly to you. 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 the 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 was tried to conceal you from me. One hour."