Sirius pulled in every way possible on the ropes that bound him to Remus. They sat back-to-back, with Dudley tied up in the opposite corner. He'd already tried transforming into Padfoot, but the restraints were enchanted.

"Dudley," Remus spoke into the gloom for the first time since Grindelwald had tied them up. "Can you be honest with me?"

Dudley's response came in the form of a shuffling sound, presumably meaning that Dudley had moved to face them.

"Where's Tonks?" Remus asked. His voice seemed to be laced with emotion that Sirius hadn't really heard before.

Dudley sighed. "She's with Greyback. She gets fed and has plenty of water. I try and help her sometimes. So does Chiara,"

Remus swallowed, creating an audible gulp. "Is it true she's pregnant?"

Sirius heard the hesitation in his voice and closed his eyes in silent frustration.

Dudley was too quiet for too long, and Remus knew he had his answer. "How far along?"

"Three, nearly four months," Dudley said, as though he was reading it from a list.

Remus pulled on the ropes, not in an effort to escape, but in a natural reaction of sitting up. "How is that possible? We haven't-"

"Spare me the details of your sex life with my cousin, please," Sirius interrupted.

"Fuck off, Sirius, this is serious,"

Sirius chuckled to himself and got a jab in his back from Remus's elbow.

"There's a candle. It's enchanted… she sits around it all day, she has no choice in the matter. It accelerates the growth of the infant," Dudley explained, again, as though he was reading someone else's instructions.

Remus let out a strangled cry. "Where is she?"

"Greyback's headquarters," Dudley continued. He didn't seem to care about withholding information. "I don't know where it is, and I don't know how you can find it."

The sound of iron hinges brought them all to a hushed quiet. They heard boots clicking as a man walked down the stairs to the cellar. A large ball of light appeared, and hovered in the center of the room, bringing everything into view as Grindelwald stepped into the cellar, followed by Snape and Alyssa.

The raven was still perched on his shoulder, bobbing its head and looking at Sirius teasingly.

He wondered if it was the same bird that kept appearing in and around Potter Manor before the Third Task.

"You all have many questions, I'm sure," he began calmly. "I'd like to preface this discussion by filling you all in,"

"I don't care about your reasoning, Grindelwald," Sirius spat. "I don't want to hear it,"

Grindelwald spared him a look that clearly indicated that no one would be let out of this cellar any time soon, and he didn't really care what Sirius thought. "I left Nurmengard for many reasons, but as you well know from young Percival and William Weasley, along with the veela girl, the prime motivation of my actions was the one who is many, the Chamber Girl,"

"Ginny," Remus summarized.

Grindelwald nodded. "You see, that girl is the key to… everything,"

"You can't keep saying that and expect it to mean something to us," Sirius interjected. "Like, I'm sorry but as impressive as it sounds, what is she the key to? Does she hold knowledge none other can possess? Is she just… different? Give us answers. More answers than a century-old divination book, and a fifteen-year-old boy could figure,"

Grindelwald chortled to himself and nodded in Sirius's direction. "I always appreciated your family. In spirit, at the very least. Your brother especially,"

"Don't talk about Reg," Sirius shouted. The volume of the conversation took a rather dramatic turn. "Don't go there,"

Grindelwald had a glint in his eye. Like he knew something Sirius was entirely unaware of. "Alright, I won't. Know that you may soon have to discuss the topic, however," he cleared his throat and went to pace around the room. Snape and Alyssa stood guard at the base of the stairs, watching. "I met with the raven, and we found our motivations were well aligned. Ginny Weasley was the future, and we had to guide her choices accordingly,"

"Who the fuck is the raven?" Sirius interrupted, again.

The bird squawked and seemed to laugh a little. Grindelwald's teasing smile didn't help things. "That is another story, for another time," he cracked his knuckles and continued. "So, as Voldemort's impending rise to power continued to approach, I went to Italy in search of recruits. You see, a revolution does not happen overnight, and I needed our foundations to be strong. Once The Key and the Chosen One return, we need to be a respectable faction. They need to see us as a legitimate option,"

"So, you're building a front to recruit two kids?" Remus asked, confused.

Grindelwald laughed rather loudly. "Why, yes, that is part of it, but as it so happens, there are benefits to building more than just a front. Why not go back and right my wrongs? Create a feasible solution to the Wizarding World's ever-worsening plague of bigotry. I decide that the only way that can truly occur is through the complete upheaval of the system,"

"Revolution," Remus supplied, easily connecting the dots.

Grindelwald nodded. "Yes, and I don't mean a small group of people with signs and flags in the streets. I mean a true reset. Destroy the past, let the world burn, and from the ashes…" he held his arm above him, his eyes closed, reveling in the thought of it. "Rebuild it,"

"With Ginny and Harry at your side?" Sirius asked.

Grindelwald waved him off. "They can come into play later, or earlier. It doesn't really matter. What does matter, however, is that we let go of the past. Some will need a bit more of a push, and that's alright, they'll have to move on," he inspected his nails carefully and then turned to his raven friend. "If they don't… they'll die with it,"

"For a man wishing to right his wrongs, you sure seem keen on holding power and repeating your mistakes," Remus admonished.

Grindelwald did not laugh, then. He slowly walked over to Remus and crouched to speak at eye level. Sirius couldn't see him now, but he could hear the menacing tone in his voice.

"I am a man who has done nothing but soak in his faults for the better part of a century. I know where I went wrong and believe me when I say that no matter how strong the pull, no matter how difficult it may be, I will not seek power. I will establish a society that has positions open for those who deserve to lead. Those who can control without controlling. Those who can guide without guiding,"

"Respect is earned. Maybe once I see this reset of yours, you'll have garnered some of mine," Remus growled. Sirius's pride in his friend swelled.

Grindelwald stood up and swept off toward the exit. "If you were in charge, boys," he said casually. "Where would you say the past dwells deepest? Where its rotting roots are intertwined so completely with its identity, that it cannot possibly escape it."

Sirius shrugged. "The government?"

Grindelwald whirled around and pointed excitedly at him, like a passionate professor. "Close, very close, but that's not quite it! Is it? What promotes that government? Molds society to its whim, no matter who is in charge,"

Remus suddenly went very still. "Education," he muttered so softly that Sirius thought he'd misheard him.

Grindelwald clapped and nodded. "Correct! Those institutions, no matter how separated they are from the nation's government, do nothing but promote their ideals! They reinforce tradition and ignorance. They put everyone in a little box and label them. Few manage to escape it. Quidditch players, authors, whatever falls in between them… sure, they can get out just fine," he wiped his nose and backed towards the doors. "But they are such rare gems… they appear so infrequently that they are frowned upon. Tell me, is that worth fighting for? Worth backing?"

Sirius didn't get the opportunity to speak, because Grindelwald quickly continued.

"It's all got to go. It's all got to fall, and tonight… it will."

"You're going to attack a school? That's how you're going to introduce your 'progressive' faction, are you?" Remus shouted bitterly. "Do tell how well that'll do for you. You most certainly won't be creating enemies. No, not at all,"

Grindelwald clicked his tongue. "You really think they'll know it was us?" he shook his head disappointedly. "It appears I gave the two of you far too much intellectual credit. They won't know about The New World. All they'll see is their own Ministry trying to quiet their freedom of speech which they hold in such high regard,"

Sirius closed his eyes, thinking about the implications of an attack on Hogwarts. Dumbledore, surely, would be able to fight whatever came after them.

"Don't be so sure, Sirius Black," Grindelwald scolded. "Who's to say Dumbledore is still there?"

Sirius didn't respond. He felt his mouth go dry and looked at Snape to see what he thought of this. Despite what he thought of the man, he knew he cared for Dumbledore on some level.

Sure enough, Snape's eyes were sad. Those black pools of nothingness could show emotion after all.

"Dumbledore is dead?" Remus asked.

Grindelwald nodded silently. He too seemed to have some level of remorse for the event. "Yes. Yes, Albus has passed,"

"When?" Sirius croaked.

"Six minutes ago, on the tallest tower," Grindelwald said quietly. He took a deep breath and set his shoulders. "Which is why it must happen tonight. The schools will burn, and those who escape will be filled with a vengeance the likes of which no modern wizarding government has had to face."

"What do you mean, 'schools," Remus asked warily.

Grindelwald had his back to them now, he was leaving the cellar. "The world will be turned to ashes so that she can rise…" he paused again to look over his shoulder. "And rebuild it."

Grindelwald climbed the stairs, his raven accompanying him, along with Snape and Alyssa, and Sirius realized.

It wasn't just Hogwarts.

Regretfully Uncaring

Chapter 46: A Melody of Lies

"I think I know where your sister is," Daphne said, quite seriously.

Ron held her gaze for a long time. His hands fiddled with the spare buttons stitched to the side of his trousers to occupy his hands. "Where?" he whispered.

Daphne, still holding his line of sight, pointed to the drawing of the clock, of the in-between. "Trapped in a dream, guarded by Death. In a land that is impossible to enter,"

Ron swallowed. "Trapped in a dream… or dead."

Daphne ignored him, she moved with renewed excitement as she fiddled with the clock diagram. "Grindelwald said that to return, I would have to learn how to break a dream," she dropped the pages. "The only trouble is that I have absolutely no idea what that means,"

Ron screwed his eyes shut and tried to think.

How do you break a dream?

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Luna piped up, once again surprising Ron and Daphne. Why had he let her join them again?

"You'll find that we evidently don't believe it's obvious, Lovegood," Daphne hissed.

Luna rolled her eyes, smiling serenely. "You break a dream by figuring out what gives it away,"

"What?" Ron recoiled, perplexed.

Luna sat back on her blue chair. "Think! What always gives a dream away? What makes you realize the morning after that it was all in your head?"

Ron thought about his most mundane nights of sleep. "I mean… I guess the fact that I didn't recognize where I was and nothing made sense?"

"You're both very smart, and very stupid, Ronald Weasley," Luna observed with a sad smile. Ron wasn't exactly offended, but his patience with the girl he'd been too lazy to shove off was growing thinner by the second.

"Time," Daphne whispered from behind him, and Ron saw Luna's eyes widen and her smile broaden.

"Precisely!" Luna chirped. "A few minutes… or a decade can go by in your head when really you've only been asleep for eight hours," she played with the strap on her satchel. "That is what gives it away as a dream, and not a memory,"

"Yes," Daphne muttered, apparently to herself, "And if the memory is old. Say… from your childhood. That would give it away as well,"

"Yes, that too," Luna agreed, "Like the memory of my mother dying, for instance,"

Ron felt his skin crawl in discomfort at how easily Luna dumped trauma on them, but Daphne had a look on her face as she stared up at Luna that seemed to sympathize with the young Ravenclaw.

Daphne folded her hands in her lap. "Then I've already figured it out," she said quietly. "I already know I'm dreaming… every time I dream,"

Luna furrowed her brow. "Maybe now that you know that you're breaking the dream, it'll fall apart right away. Perhaps knowledge is the key!"

Daphne nodded slowly. "Maybe,"

"We need to get her back," Ron said firmly. "We need to break into that… dream and get her back," he looked up at Daphne. "I need you to help me. Hell… you may be the only one who can do it,"

Daphne gaped at him and stood up, backing away from him. "I can't,"

"Yes, you can! She's important to… everything," he ran a hand down his face, fighting to divulge all information. Daphne wasn't an ally. He had to remember that. "We can't win this war without her, and, well, she's my sister."

"What war?" Daphne asked incredulously. "There is no war. The Ministry has won, Dark Lord or not,"

"You know it's wrong!" Ron countered.

"It doesn't matter! What am I supposed to do about it?" Daphne defended. "Why would I fight a system that supports me? My family has been neutral for longer than yours has known its name! How do you expect me to go against all of that… for… for some petty ideological conflict!"

Ron couldn't help but feel the burn of her harsh words run deep inside him. "That isn't you talking, is it? It's your dad. Or your friends. Or maybe even your sister,"

Daphne blinked rapidly and ignored his equally scathing remark. "Tell me how you expect me to do that,"

"Because this isn't some petty conflict," he sighed, disappointed. "And it's the right thing to do, Greengrass,"

Daphne held his look for a moment. "It is me talking. Maybe one day, I'll say something different. The harsh reality that you need to realize, Weasley, is that I'm not the person you think I am,"

As Ron was going to interrupt, a blaring alarm sounded from within the room. It resonated from the very walls.

"I have never heard that sound in my life," Ron shouted over the noise. "What the hell?"

"All students must migrate to the Great Hall immediately. Do not bring along any personal items. This is an emergency," a monotone female voice spoke from the walls. It repeated itself over and over again, and Ron felt chilled to the bone.

"Let's go," he said, and the others followed him without any need for questions. The halls were still lit as they ran down the dozens of flights of stairs to get to the ground floor of the Defence Tower. "Come on!" he shouted, waving them over to the door to the suspension bridge. Daphne was tall but Luna wasn't, and the Slytherin girl wasn't about to leave her behind.

Ron led the charge over the wooden bridge and found himself in knee-deep snow. "What the?"

"All students must migrate to the Great Hall immediately. Do not bring along any personal items. This is an emergency," the voice continued outdoors, and the panic building in Ron's chest only continued to progress as the effort it took to push through the snow grew.

Daphne, in her skirt, was worse off, but she didn't complain. She kept moving. As they finally made it into the faculty building, it was complete chaos. Due to their proximity to the Gryffindor common room, he knew the place quite well, but so did the rest of the student body.

Cats, owls, trunks, and students were everywhere. Running around frantically.

"OI!" Ron shouted after nearly getting shoved to the ground. Daphne and Luna were right behind him. "What's going on?"

No one answered at first, everyone being far too preoccupied with themselves. He had to repeat it twice before a first year, tears glistening on his cheeks, shouted, "Professor Dumbledore is dead!"

Neville sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. His knee was bouncing excessively and kept ramming into the bottom of the table. It hurt like hell, but he couldn't settle his nerves. He was waiting for Ron.

At the table across from him, Hannah Abbott sat down with her friend, Ernie Macmillan. She looked up at him and they made eye contact. She smiled reassuringly and nodded, before turning back to her fellow Hufflepuffs.

Neville dropped his face into his hands.

Then, with a cold gust of wind, a flood of students entered the hall. Some, despite what the alarm had said, were carrying personal items and bags. Neville didn't care, he sat up tall and scanned for any sign of red. Down the table, he could see Fred and George doing the same.

Two blonde girls, one short and one tall were the last to enter, but then, peeking out behind them, Ron strode in. Snow coated his hair and shoulders. Fred and George got to their feet and ran towards him.

The doors to the Great Hall drifted shut, and Ron walked confidently towards Neville, followed by his brothers. The girls split off and went to their respective tables.

"What's with the snow?" Neville asked.

Ron blew the hair out of his face. "It's enchanted," he turned to Fred and George, "Just like the storm at Nurmengard," the twins paled and Neville decided not to ask.

"STUDENTS!" Umbridge screeched, she stood at the head of the hall, where Dumbledore used to stand. "As stated by Educational Decree number twelve," Neville hadn't been keeping track of them, so he wasn't about to check it, "In the event that the current Headmaster fails to fulfill his duties, I must step up and take his place. The deputy headmistress will continue her post as per usual," she nodded to McGonagall, who was not doing well to hide her scowl.

The Great Hall erupted into various confused shouts and mutters, before Umbridge waved her wand, making a horribly loud sound that had everyone turning to the front of the hall and covering their ears.

"Now," she said breathily. "I regret to inform you all that Professor Albus Dumbledore has passed. We believe it to be due to a curse inflicted upon himself many months ago, but-"

"That is not true!" Madam Pomfrey bellowed, walking briskly into the hall. Her eyes were wide, her march was frantic. All eyes turned to her. "He was murdered! At the top of the Astronomy Tower!"

Before the collective student body could react to this news, a spear soared through the closing gap of the Great Hall's doors and impaled Pomfrey in the chest. With the momentum of the object she was thrown to the floor, the spear sticking out of her lifeless body.

Students jumped to their feet, screaming and crying out as they latched to their friends and family. They scampered to the corners of the hall, but none approached the entrance.

Umbridge was frozen in shock, stare fixed on the great oak doors where the spear had originated.

Just as they were about to close, they stopped. Something had gotten in the way.

With footsteps that seemed to shake the room they stood in, the doors opened again, and out walked an enormous wolf. Its human-like eyes jumped to every face in the hall. It walked on its hind legs, its tail dancing behind it.

"Dolores!" the wolf roared; its voice scratchy. "Payment. Now."

Fred and George, recovering from their shock, were ready to fight. Their wands were drawn.

"Don't!" Ron hissed, his back pressed against a pillar. "This isn't our fight,"

"Damn right it is," Fred muttered angrily. "He killed our brother! He killed him, Ron!"

"I know! I know! But we can't! We just can't!"

"We're seventeen. This is our fight. More than it ever has been," George whispered, but he lowered his wand nonetheless.

Fred's breathing sped up, and his grip on his wand tightened.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about, wolf! Get back!" Umbridge shouted.

"Lies!" the wolf spat. "I killed your target, you pay. It's how this works!"

Umbridge shook her head fervently. "I am a Ministry Employee, as well as a Professor of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! You will not tell me what I have or have not done! You will not frame me for crimes I have not committed!"

Now, Ron's wand was in his hand. She was lying. To all of them.

"Get back, you filthy half-breed! Or may the full might of the Ministry break your back!" Umbridge concluded proudly.

The wolf howled deeply, amplified by the shape of the Hall. "Full might of the Ministry? So… are those your dragons racing across the horizon? Is that your army in the sky, ready to reign terror over this school?" he reached down and plucked the spear from Pomfrey's body.

Umbridge's lower lip wobbled. "What?"

"Don't act so oblivious!" the wolf shuddered, its entire body twitching. Ron had the distinct impression that the thing wasn't meant to walk like that. "YOU ordered me to kill Dumbledore, and now your government has come to finish the school off, haven't they?"

The wolf was now up to Umbridge's plinth. "Tell the truth and pay me" he growled.

Umbridge shrunk back from the wolf and brought her wand to her throat. Her voice, magically amplified, said, "All students, along with the staff, return to your house common rooms immediately. Await further instruction,"

The staff were appalled. Watching the proceedings with a mixture of fear and anger.

"I said leave! As your headmistress, you must obey!" she shrieked.

Like the floodgates had been opened, everyone fled the hall. Pouring out the various exits of the Great Hall. The doors that lead outside were unable to move, presumably from snow buildup, which only accentuated the crowded hallways. People fell and were trampled over. He heard screams and pleas for aid as the students of Hogwarts stampeded to the grand staircase. In every direction, there was a constant stream of people moving to their common rooms.

Ron was tempted to return to the Great Hall and see what had happened. To see the wolf tear Umbridge to shreds.

But he knew that was too good to be true, just as he knew there was no point in seeking out revenge. Not now.

They were only a few scars on his hand, after all.

Once he finally reached the Gryffindor common room, he was one of the last to arrive. It was packed. So full, in fact, that some tables had been levitated to support the students who wouldn't fit on the ground.

The portrait hole swung shut behind them, and for the first time in Ron's stint at Hogwarts, he heard it lock.

"What was that thing?"

"What about the dragons? Is he telling the truth?"

"Umbridge would never order Dumbledore's death, it's all rubbish,"

The varying opinions and perspectives from everyone in the room were dizzying to Ron. He found himself leaning against a wall, taking steady breaths to try and center his thoughts.

"Ron!" he heard Neville shout his name. He wearily made his way over, stumbling slightly on various people's feet. "Do you know who that was?"

"The werewolf?" Ron asked, finding that he needed the clarification.

Neville nodded. "I sort of assumed it was something else entirely. I've never heard of a werewolf acting like that,"

"That's because you don't study Greyback in school," Fred interrupted, stepping up alongside George and Lee Jordan. "That wolf is exactly what Perce and Bill described,"

"They've fought Greyback?" Neville asked, wide-eyed.

"I wouldn't call it much of a fight," George pursed his lips, and Ron sighed.

"That's how Charlie died. Greyback killed him," Ron explained.

Neville paled. "Do you think… what he said about the dragons-"

An ear-splitting roar resonated from outside the castle. Every window in the Common Room shattered. Glass flew everywhere as students screamed and ducked for cover.

From his spot near the boy's staircase, Ron looked out the window opposite him. In the dying light of the setting sun, he could still see the forbidden forest. Some of it was out of the enchanted storm's reach.

There was no wind. The trees were completely static.

Yet outside those windows, the intermitent displacement of air was like that of a hurricane.

Another roar, this one far louder than the last, left Ron on the floor, clutching the sides of his head. His vision blurred from the sound until finally, he came to the conclusion that the wind was no storm.

It was wings.

Just as the roar ended, and Ron felt like he could stand again, the room shook with the force of a hundred of Fred and George's fireworks. Out of the window, Ron could see a faint tinge of orange.

Fire. Dragon's fire at the base of the castle.

Daphne had never been more grateful for the size of the Slytherin common room. Though it was far from comfortable, there was room to move around, at least.

Right now, she was looking for Astoria. Her heart was beating in her throat. She could barely breathe, and that was on top of everything that had already happened today.

She'd kissed Theodore Nott in an impossible room, found an ancient, supposedly missing artifact for the Ministry of Magic, and then had her entire worldview challenged by a boy she'd developed a crush on in the span of a few weeks, only to be placed on near opposite sides of an increasingly extreme conflict.

The walls of the common room began to shake. Dust fell from the ceiling, and the glass that faced the Black Lake cracked. No water seeped through, not yet, but it was enough to send dozens of students to their knees, and even more to go running away from the windows.

Daphne fell from the force of the earthquake. Her knees buckled in a way that sent her falling backward, and slamming her head into the stone floor.

"Astoria!" Daphne shouted from the ground where she'd fallen. Her entire body felt like it was going numb. "Astoria!"

An arm wrapped around her middle and hoisted her to her feet. Whoever it was spun her around so her body faced theirs.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, it was Theo. Panic-stricken and dripping with sweat, he'd fared better than most in the inexplicable earthquake. She herself could feel warm liquid oozing from a spot at the back of her head.

"Are you alright?" he asked, frantically smoothing her hair back.

"Fine," she replied shaking her head. She felt incredibly off-kilter. Like her head had been disconnected from her body. Everything was just so bright.

Theo frowned. "Are you sure, you don't look alright,"

Daphne was having trouble focusing on Theo's face. "I'm just… dizzy, it's fine," logically, she knew something was wrong, but that wasn't her concern right now.

"I need your help," Theo asked quickly. "Come with me to my dormitory. I've got to get… you know what," he gave her a meaningful look and she nodded, understanding the implication of the diadem. Every time she nodded, she felt it was inadequate, yet it hurt so much to do so.

"Can you stand?" Theo asked.

What a stupid question, she thought impatiently, and pushed herself away from Theo to prove that fact. All she ended up proving was that he was right to be concerned. She could've sworn the world was spinning. Just as she was about to fall, Theo caught her again.

"I'll hold you, then," said Theo.

Now more than ever, Daphne felt a pressing need to get to Astoria. She hated having to rely on other people like this, only her sister could fill this void.

Not Theo.

"I need to find Astoria," she repeated over and over. "Where is she?"

Theo quickly scanned the room. "I don't know, but no one is going anywhere, and the common room wouldn't have sealed shut if everyone wasn't inside,"

Daphne nodded, even though she still wasn't exactly comfortable with the situation, and made a hand gesture to invite Theo to guide her to his room.

Together, somewhat awkwardly thanks to Daphne's concussed state, they made their way through the crowds of scrambling students, and to the hallway of doors, each leading to a different dormitory.

"Ours is just this way," said Theo, needlessly. It's not like she didn't know where the fifth-year boys' dorms were. She wasn't an idiot.

Except she found she didn't have the energy to say that. It wasn't important anyway.

They made it to the right door, and Theo turned the handle. He hauled her in and set her down on someone's bed. It was perfectly kept, so it belonged to either Theo or Draco, thanks to the fact that he hadn't been here to ruin the sheets.

The bed was rather comfortable. It seemed to hug her body and invite her to sink further into its depths. The room was dimmer than the other one. Her headache seemed to be going away. She repositioned her body so she could lie down fully and sank into the warm bed.

She could hear Theo rummaging around in the corner, but it soon blended into the white noise of the screams and the sound of distant crashes and explosions. The world was falling apart around her, but she felt perfectly comfortable here in this bed.

Another shuddering earthquake rippled through the castle. This time she heard the unmistakable sound of water.

Like a switch had been flipped, the adrenaline in her body spiked, and she sat up. Theo was still looking for his bloody tiara. She swung her legs off the bed and let her boots hit the floor.

She heard a splash.

Looking down, she found a thin layer of water making its way through the room. "Theo!" she cried. "Look!"

"Shit!" he shouted, jumping away from the water and stumbling over himself. "I can't remember where I put it!"

"You hid it a few hours ago, how could you have forgotten?" Daphne squeaked.

Theo ran an aggressive hand through his hair, cursing under his breath. "We all have very similar trunks. I wonder if Crabbe or Goyle… hell maybe even Zabini… maybe someone took it?"

"You put it in your trunk?" Daphne shrieked. "You said it was important!"

"Which is precisely why I put it in my trunk!" he shouted back.

Daphne got to her feet and dusted off her robes. Her headache was pounding ferociously. "I'm going to find my sister," she walked to the door and hesitated. "Goodluck,"

She exited the dormitory and found the water level to be roughly the same in the hallway, which still wasn't a good thing. It had already gone up a couple of inches in the time since she'd noticed it.

Splashing through ever-deepening water, she ran back towards the common room.

Then, for the second time that night, the walls spoke their warnings.

This time, they said, "All students of Slytherin house, evacuate immediately. To the remaining houses, stay in your common rooms. Await further instruction,"

The water was rising faster now. It reached her knees, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore her rather evident concussion. "Astoria! Astoria can you hear me?" she yelled over the chorus of screams and shouts as students climbed the steps to get out of the dungeon common room.

Finally, she entered the main hall and got a look at the damage.

An enormous portion of the glass wall which once shielded them from the might of The Black Lake was gone. Water flooded in at a pace that had it sounding like a great waterfall, not the underwater tomb it was soon becoming.

"No, no, no," Daphne whimpered, trudging through the water, it would soon reach her waist. As the water poured through, it enlarged the original hole. The Slytherin common room was flooding, and Astoria was nowhere to be found. "NO!"

Ron couldn't believe his eyes. From the vantage point of Gryffindor Tower, he had an obscured look at the castle. From his count, there were only two dragons, each larger than anything that had been shown at the Triwizard Tournament. Around their necks was a glowing red collar with a Ministry emblem engraved into the metal.

He watched as one of the dragons unleashed its fire on the bell towers. That of the east crumbled under the heat and fell down on top of the greenhouses. The glass shattered under the weight of the stone, but the dragons didn't relent. Flames over flames, which only ignited any flammable gas the castle produced. The Astronomy Tower stood tall above the inferno. Ron could only hope that help was on the way.

McGonagall had joined them. Her old age showed itself in the way she walked and hovered over her students. She was just as frightened as they were and had no idea how to come to a solution.

Ron's heart leapt into his throat as Umbridge's castle-wide broadcast began again, only this time it did nothing but spell certain doom for the Gryffindors.

"All students of Slytherin house, evacuate immediately. To the remaining houses, stay in your common rooms. Await further instruction,"

The room fell silent. Ron saw the hope drain from their faces. McGonagall closed her eyes and turned her face to the heavens in silent prayer. To what, Ron didn't know.

He sure as hell didn't like the implication, however.

Ron shook his head, dispelling any thoughts that could put a roadblock in a potential escape. They'd tried pushing through the portrait hole, but it had remained sealed. They'd attempted an unlocking charm, but that had been proven futile as well. Even then, what was the point of escaping to the castle when it was being destroyed before their very eyes?

Springing into action on the grounds of an idea that had little to no merit, Ron ran to the boy's staircase.

No one stopped him, there was no point in doing so.

He barged into his own dormitory and dug through his trunk. Past endless clothes and meaningless trinkets. It was all so unimportant now.

Finally, his hands found the frayed edge of an old bit of parchment, and he bolted down the stairs, and back to the common room.

"What is it you've got there, Ron?" Seamus asked from his spot watching the dragons' attack. His face was illuminated in orange thanks to the flames below.

"Breaking out," he said in explanation.

"That's not possible," McLaggen scowled. "Only the Slytherins are allowed out, thanks to our gracious headmistress,"

"Right, well, she's a bitch and I tend to disagree with her," Ron replied, unfolding the parchment and bringing his wand to its crumpled form. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!"

Ink danced along the pages as a map of Hogwarts wove its way into view. Just as Ron had been hoping for, the map had greyed out the places that had been destroyed. Not for the first time, he sent out a silent thanks to James Potter for coming up with such a brilliant tool.

"What is this Mr. Weasley?" McGonagall asked, coming to stand next to him.

"A map of Hogwarts…" he said, still inspecting the map, "Which just so happens to keep an updated record of the place,"

"Where exactly did you find this?" she asked, her tone far more curious than reprimanding.

Fred and George joined them. "From us, but it isn't our invention,"

McGonagall raised an eyebrow in question, and Ron folded the front flap over so she could read the name.

A small smile formed on her thin lips. "Why am I not surprised,"

"At this point, Professor, you really shouldn't be," Ron jibbed, looking up at the closed portrait hole. "Have we tried blasting it?"

"No, we haven't," Seamus joined the group, and together they seemed to unintentionally draw the entire house's attention.

"If I remember correctly, Mr. Finnegan, you have a particular proclivity for pyrotechnics, so if I had to choose one student," she turned to him, "It would be you,"

Seamus grinned and leveled his wand at the Fat Lady's unsuspecting back. "Confringo!"

The blast splintered the wood, but it didn't get very far.

"Away with the hesitation, Finnegan! Blast her to the library if you have to!" McGonagall admonished.

"Bombarda!" Seamus roared. The spell did the job a little too well. Vaporizing the portrait, and flying across the tower, destroying the outer wall.

"Ten points to Gryffindor," McGonagall muttered, before turning to face the rest of the students. "You will follow Mr. Weasley! He alone carries a map of Hogwarts," she sighed, "Do trust his judgment,"

Every set of eyes landed on Ron. He gulped and took a deep breath. "Follow me then,"

And so, one by one, the Gryffindors crawled through the portrait hole, and into Gryffindor tower. Glass and rubble lay everywhere. Portions of the ceiling had collapsed, and dust filled the air.

"Lumos!" Ron shouted, holding the light high above his head as a beacon to those following him. "We'll move slow! Keep someone in view. Don't get lost!"

McGonagall fell into step next to Ron. "There is a point to be made that I should be holding that map and leading my students to safety," she observed, but then she turned to look up at him with a proud smile. "But of your brothers, you were always my favourite,"

Ron felt his cheeks heat, and an odd nostalgic pride swelled in his chest. "Thanks, Professor,"

"Anytime,"

Cedric Diggory took two crystal glasses and brought them together to draw his Common Room's attention. Everyone, save a few outliers, turned to face him in silence.

"I don't care what that old hag has to say," he shouted to his fellows. "The way I see it, The Ministry is responsible for this attack, and I'm not going to listen to their puppet!"

Professor Sprout hadn't returned from the greenhouses. For all he knew, she could be dead. He was a seventh-year, and head boy. There was a burden on his shoulders that had to be upheld.

"Anyone who can produce a blasting hex, join me at the entrance. We have to get out of here before the ground above us caves in!"

Dozens of volunteers joined him at the wall of barrels that marked the hidden exit of their common room. Together, they began to fire every spell they knew to destroy the enchanted wall.

Cho Chang bit her upper lip. She wasn't one for bravery or adventure. That was Cedric's thing, or Harry Potter's. She didn't do much of anything, really. She got good grades, stayed in line, and played Quidditch. That was all there was to it.

Her mother had warned her not to go against Umbridge, as had Marietta's.

The entirety of Ravenclaw house stood together in their common room. Though Ravenclaw Tower was not the tallest by any means, it still granted them a view of the castle.

What they saw was worse than Cho's most terrible nightmare. Fire everywhere.

Of course, Dragon's fire was different than that of regular nature. It caught on any surface and stayed burning for hours on end. Its multicoloured flames were beautiful in paintings or storybooks, but seeing it level the infirmary was not so beautiful. It was sad.

Looney Lovegood, the girl who never seemed to stop smiling, was weeping where she stood, staring up at the ceiling.

Michael Corner stood in the corner, looking out the window with a pained grimace. He glanced over at her, and for a moment Cho found it quite spectacular; the way his eyes danced in the firelight.

Then, a tremendous roar crashed through her senses, and she was left strewn on the floor as the roof was torn clean off. Chunks of rubble fell all over. Various dismembered limbs could be seen poking out from under it all. Something was itching right under her left rib.

Cho looked down to find a wooden beam had cemented itself in her stomach. She felt the foundations of the tower shudder, and like a great cascading rockfall, Ravenclaw Tower, along with all of its occupants, collapsed into the surrounding castle, and onto the mountain below.

Ron tried to make his way down the stairs as competently as possible, but he kept having to avoid large chunks of rock and wood to do so. Half of the tower had been completely torn away, and by Fred's estimate, it couldn't stay standing for longer than another hour, and that was if they were lucky and the dragons chose to focus on other parts of the castle.

They'd all frozen in shock when they saw Ravenclaw Tower fold under its own weight, collapsing into the darkness. There was little chance of anyone surviving that.

Now, however, they were making progress. Everyone had lit their wands and they were making steady progress down toward the entrance hall. Massive amounts of snow drifted in through the damaged or nonexistent walls. It was bitterly cold and though their robes were thick, he knew that if they had to spend any prolonged amount of time in the artificial storm, they would certainly lose people.

Finally, Ron's foot landed on consistent, flat floors. They were down the stairs and closing in on the Entrance Hall.

From the map, he could see Greyback's name next to Umbridge's still in the Great Hall.

McGonagall didn't stop with her students, bringing Ron's attention away from the map.

"Professor!" Ron shouted.

She didn't respond. Instead, she came to a halt a few feet away from the Gryffindors and held her wand further above her head. "If Hogwarts is under attack," she said, her voice once again resembling that of her classroom and not the gentle aunt of earlier. "There are many tricks hidden up this old castle's sleeves,"

She cleared her throat and brought her offhand up in line with the other. "Piertotum locomotor!"

A crash sounded from up ahead. Ron looked down at his map but saw no approaching figure. Perhaps the map had been damaged? Heavy footsteps thudded toward them, and finally, Ron's wandlight shone on the target.

It was a statue made of stone. More loud crashes followed, and one by one, a veritable army of stone figures came to their aid.

"Hogwarts is threatened!" McGonagall called. "Stand by the students, protect them! Do your duty to our school!"

The army continued to grow in number and created a narrow passageway for the Gryffindors to slip between. As the group moved toward the Entrance Hall, so did the statues. Together, with Hogwarts protecting them, Ron guided them down the steps, and to the great oak doors that stood between them, and the dragons. The Entrance Hall itself hadn't faired too well. The roof was gone, for one thing, and the snow could fall unhindered.

A cacophony of footsteps alerted Ron of the mass influx of students joining them. The Hufflepuff colours shone brighter than ever as Cedric Diggory snuck between the army of statues.

"Professor! What's going on?" Cedric asked, eyeing the statues warily.

"We're making our escape," she answered, simply.

More footsteps came, and there were the Slytherins. Professor Sinistra leading their ranks. "Minerva," she said, bowing slightly.

"Right, how do we get out then?" Cedric asked nervously.

Ron looked down at the map. "The Clock Tower is gone, so we can't get out through there. We could make our way through the dungeons and come out under the bell towers, but at least one of them is gone, so that's a big if."

"The dungeons are a write-off," a Slytherin prefect interjected. "Completely flooded,"

"Then there's only one way out," Ron said, speaking louder this time over the roar of the not-so-distant dragon's breath. "Across the viaduct and through the central hall. The Greenhouses are destroyed, which means there's a viable opening. Get past the wall, and we're out,"

"How do you know all this?" Professor Sinistra asked. Though it wasn't pointed anywhere near him, Ron noticed she had her wand at the ready.

"It's a map of the school. It's accurate and up-to-date. We haven't got enough time to debate whether you can trust me. You've got no choice," Ron said flatly.

The astronomy professor didn't seem all too keen on it, but she nodded all the same.

"One way out?" McGonagall asked very quietly. "Is that really all there is?"

Ron swallowed and nodded. He looked up from his map and over to the Slytherins in a hopeless search for comfort.

Only there was no blonde hair standing out in the crowd. No shocking grey eyes making his skin crawl.

Daphne wasn't there.

"To the greenhouses, I suppose," Cedric broke the tense silence.

The statues began to move of their own accord, guiding the group forward. They raised their shields above their heads to create a sort of canopy.

"It is me talking. Maybe one day, I'll say something different. The harsh reality that you need to realize, Weasley, is that I'm not the person you think I am,"

She was a fool. A beautiful, intelligent, ignorant fool.

"Neville!" Ron found his friend in the mosh of slow-moving students. "Take this, and whatever you do, don't lose it,"

"What? No!" Neville refused the offer, backing away slightly.

"Please for the love of all that is magic take Harry's map!" Ron said through gritted teeth. "Lead them to the Greenhouses, get them to safety!"

"What about you? What are you doing?" Neville shouted as Ron fought against the stream of students to get to the Slytherin dungeons.

"Something incredibly stupid, that has a stunning likelihood of getting me killed," he threw a reassuring smile over his shoulder, "Or worse,"

Neville shook his head in disbelief and turned to race ahead of the group to guide them.

"Where is it you're running off to now, Weasley?" McGonagall asked, bringing up the rear of the student group.

"Going to save a friend," Ron explained quickly. He faltered on the top step and looked over at McGonagall.

"Nothing I say will stop you from going, will it?" she asked wearily.

"No," Ron stated firmly.

She pursed her lips, looking at the remaining population of Hogwarts and back to Ron. "You've come very far, you know,"

Ron let himself smile this time. "I like to think so,"

McGonagall smiled back. "Harry would be proud, as well as, I expect, your sister,"

"No way of knowing, really," Ron shrugged, stepping back down the stairs. "Go, Professor. I'll be fine,"

She reluctantly turned and ran off after her students, and Ron bolted down the steps.

Down he went. Rushing past fallen suits of armor and various debris from the tower above. Snow coated every surface, and his shoes slipped easily.

Then, saved by the light at the end of his wand, the staircase ended abruptly. Ron teetered on the edge, his arms flailing about madly before he regained his balance.

The stairs had collapsed in a way that left a scalable, though nearly vertical decline. Ron could faintly make out the ripples of water below. Carefully as he could, he climbed down the mound of rubble, and into the waist-height, and deepening water.

It was a terrible feeling, to come to terms with the fact that you were about to die. Daphne was not a remarkable swimmer in the best of conditions. This water was freezing, constantly moving, and her head was reeling.

"Astoria," she whimpered, her fist banging against the rock in front of her as she desperately treaded water just outside the entrance to the Slytherin common room. The water would only continue to rise, and soon, she'd have no air pocket. She couldn't leave though, not yet. Astoria was on the other side of that wall. Still in the Common Room. She could hear her tiny screams, her hand slapping against the stone on the opposite end. If only they'd found each other earlier.

Every whip kick left her sinking further into the water. Her mouth hovered just over the waterline.

Finally, she let out a dry sob. It was hopeless.

The sound of water splashing behind her barely caught her attention until the perpetrator shouted, "Daphne!"

She used her arms to spin around and blinked owlishly at the wandlight approaching her. Clutched between his teeth, Ron's wand brightened the way. His concerned blue eyes focused on nothing but her as he swam to her.

"Are you alright?" he asked, but Daphne didn't reply. The shivering taking control of her body left her unable to respond.

Ron plucked his wand from his mouth and muttered a warming charm over her. It felt better, but it only worsened her headache. Ron was looking around frantically for something, she didn't know what.

"Come here, follow me!" he said, tugging on her arm, but she shook her head. "You'll die if you stay here!"

An enormous portion of the ceiling a few feet away from them collapsed into the water, splashing the pair of them, and creating yet another outlet for the Black Lake to empty itself into.

Daphne cried out for her mother, her father, and anyone who would listen.

"Daphne come on!" Ron shouted, hauling her over to a stone pillar. He wrapped her arms around it with some difficulty, and she found that her feet had a hold on a protruding portion of the pillar. "Are you steady?" Ron asked, moving his arms around him, desperately trying to keep himself cold.

Daphne nodded.

"Right…" he spun on the spot, looking for a way out. The way he'd come in was closing by the second. "We'll have to swim over there. I don't know about you, but I don't fancy holding my breath for that long,"

Daphne shook her head.

"Then we'll have to go now, while there's still air,"

"No!" Daphne croaked, shuddering with cold and emotion. "Astoria."

"What? What about her?" Ron asked, panicked.

Daphne raised a shaky hand to the wall she'd just been treading water over. "Other side,"

"Shite," Ron cursed under his breath. "Stay here, alright?"

"No, Ron, you'll drown!" she said through chattering teeth.

Ron shook his head, put his wand back in his mouth, and swam over to the Slytherin entrance.

Daphne shook with the weight of her sobs. "Ron!"

Ron dived under the water, and with him went the light. It seemed so clear now. He was her only way out, and she'd just sent him away because of her sister.

"Ron!" she wheezed. "Come back!"

Five seconds passed. Then ten seconds.

Twenty seconds went by, and Daphne screamed for Ron to come back. Her vocal cords stung, her head pounded, and her fingers went numb.

The silence broken by nothing but the sloshing of water pouring in and against the walls was suddenly destroyed by Ron bursting from the water, a girl's body balanced on his shoulder. He rolled her over, making sure that her mouth and nose had access to air, and kicked furiously towards the exit, his wand still clutched between his mouth. "GO!" he shouted with his teeth clenched around the wooden object.

"Astoria!" Daphne cried, swimming after Ron wildly. The water continued to rise, she felt her back press against the stone roof and took a deep breath.

Diving beneath the waves, she followed the blurred light of Ron's wand up to an outcrop of rubble that happened to form a sort of climbable wall.

"Is she alive? Is she breathing?" Daphne asked desperately, running over to where Ron was setting the girl down on the rocks, and breathing hard.

Sure enough, Astoria's eyes were open, and her breaths came out in laboured gasps, but she was alive. Daphne crouched down, holding her sister's face between her hands. "Oh, Astoria,"

Daphne flattened her sopping wet hair back and watched in confusion as Astoria lifted a small pouch. "Theo needs you to bring this to dad," she whimpered.

Daphne gaped at the pouch. She grabbed it and looked inside. There it was, Ravenclaw's diadem. "I will," she looked over her shoulder, suddenly realizing that Theo hadn't made it out with the rest of the group either. "Where's Theo,"

"Dead," Ron grunted. "His body was at the bottom. There was nothing I could do,"

That numb understanding that had always accompanied the memories of her mother's death swept through her. There was nothing she could do about it now. There was no point in dwelling on it, not when it would haunt her nightmares for the rest of her life.

"Come on," said Ron, noticing the water level's continual rise had already made it to Daphne's knees again. "We need to get out of here,"

He hoisted Astoria's frail form over his shoulder once again and clambered up the steep slope. Daphne, who'd lost her shoes in the ordeal, hissed in pain as the fragments of glass and wood cut into her feet. Finally, with some help from Ron, she made it up to the remains of the staircase.

That was all that was visible because everything else had been destroyed. The entire tower that had once housed the staircase was gone. Nothing more than a smoldering pile of rubble. To their right, the remains of the Great Hall were barely recognizable.

"What…" the words were lost on Daphne's shuddering tongue. A dragon the likes of which she'd never seen outside of written description soared overhead. It brought its head back before spewing a torrential downpour of multicoloured fire on what she assumed must have once been the Library Annex.

Only one landmark remained. The Astronomy Tower, standing tall above the flames. Its base, made up of the Defence Against the Dark Arts Tower had eroded quite a bit. Its exposed hallways and light fixtures dangled precariously over the unending flames.

Ron didn't seem to have anything to say either. Judging by his reaction, the situation had worsened since he'd last surfaced.

With Astoria on his shoulder, he ran up the steps, Daphne following shortly behind. Her hair was heavy, her legs were weak. She wanted to sit and cry and wish for it all to be over, but that was not how these things went.

The first body they found was that of a young Hufflepuff student. Half his body was completely unrecognizable, charred to the bone. The rate at which the massacre unveiled itself only increased. The first she confidently recognized was Crabbe. Goyle was trying to haul him out of the fire, but there was no use.

Ron, Astoria, and Daphne continued to run past.

Then there was Lavender Brown. Her eyes glossed over in a perfect reflection of the night sky.

As they made their way out of the remnants of the courtyard and down to the viaduct, a shell-shocked Professor Trelawney walked with one arm torn clean off.

Rubble rained down from above like a dazzling meteor shower. The dragon's roars echoed through the valley, causing Daphne's headache to pound alongside her heartbeat. She could barely see Ron as he jumped over a gap in the viaduct.

"Jump!" he shouted, but it might as well have been another explosion for all the good it did. Still, Daphne threw herself into the air, and made it to the other end, just as the place where she'd just been standing crumbled into the lake hundreds of feet below.

Through the ruins of the Central Hall, Astoria began to shake violently. Spluttering and coughing, she seemed to be having difficulty breathing.

"Ron! Ron! Astoria, she's… she's coughing!" Daphne shouted, but Ron either didn't hear her or was too focused on his current objective to notice.

A large clump of twisted iron bars marked the location of the greenhouses. "Come on!" he cried.

"RON!" she called, and finally he stopped. "She's coughing! She can't breathe!"

Ron immediately let her down and laid her on her back.

Astoria was spitting and hiccupping as though she'd been poisoned. Her eyes stared unseeingly up at the sky.

Daphne kneeled on the rubble they'd stopped on and caressed her sister's face. "Astoria? Astoria can you hear me?"

"There's water in her lungs," said Ron, his hands were a hectic dance as he tried to figure out what to do.

"What's happening to her?" Daphne sobbed.

Water poured out of Astoria's mouth, the pained squealing sounds stopped, and she went still.

"NO!" Daphne screamed; her voice broke. "NO, ASTORIA! WAKE UP! GET UP, PLEASE GET UP!"

"Daphne," Ron said quietly.

"SHUT UP!" she bellowed, tears streaming down her face. She didn't think she had the ability to cry anymore, but today it seemed she did nothing but surprise herself. "DON'T SAY MY NAME. DON'T."

Ron sat back on his haunches and covered his face with his hands.

"My sister," she whimpered. Taking a deep shuddering breath, she brought Astoria's head onto her lap. "My friend."

A dragon roared in the distance, and it felt like the world was coming undone.

A blood-curdling scream shattered the silence, but Daphne didn't look away from Astoria's innocent face.

She didn't look away when Ron got to his feet and faced the sound.

She didn't look away when she heard Umbridge begging with something to let her go.

She didn't look away when Umbridge, in desperation, called out to Ron. "Tell Greyback that I know nothing! Tell him I'll pay his ransom when I can!"

She didn't look away, instead choosing to tuck a lock of brown hair behind Astoria's ear.

She didn't look away as Ron said, "I'm sorry, Professor. But I must not tell lies,"

She didn't look away at the sound of bones crunching, and a dog tearing meat off a corpse.

She didn't look away when the roar of a zouwu shook the earth they stood on.

She didn't look away when a man with a kind face dropped a leather case to the ground and beckoned them inside.

She looked away when Ron's hand fell on her shoulder and told her to climb in the case.

She stood up and tried with all the energy left in her body to lift Astoria off the ground. She was too weak. Too tied, and too cold to do so.

Ron did it for her. He took her in his arms and cradled her the way she would have wanted. "Thank you, Newt," Ron panted as he stepped into the case.

The man with the kind face, Newt, didn't smile in return. The sorrow held in his eyes ran deeper than any words could heal. It was as though he felt personally responsible for every lost soul that lay strewn about the ruined castle.

As Ron's head went to disappear within the case, a tremendous rumble fell onto their wounded ears.

In the distance, the final landmark of Hogwarts began to fall.

It seemed to happen in slow motion. The Astronomy Tower, its height once touching the sky, falling to the ground on its weakened foundations.

Finally, the enormous structure thundered into the ruins of Hogwarts. Like the last tree of a decimated forest.

There was nothing left to see after that. The dragons continued to burn what was already well beyond repair. With one last look up at the stars, Daphne followed Ron into the magically expanded case.

There was something about carrying a human body that made Ron feel strangely disconnected from reality. This person who had once been solid, lively. This person who had once wrinkled her nose at the smell of food on the tables across from him was now nothing more than a loose weight in his arms.

Ron found himself in a small cabin of sorts. Potion ingredients and jars filled with mysterious creatures lined the walls. In front of him was a door to a quiet place. He could make out hundreds of faces, and even more, bodies lying on the ground.

With Astoria Greengrass cradled to his chest, he walked out into Newt's Case. It was clear that the place had once been home to many creatures, but for the purposes of this supposed rescue operation, they'd all been cleared out.

His wife, Tina, who Ron had met only a handful of times, had her arms around a boy who looked quite a bit like her. That must have been Alyssa's brother.

Everywhere he looked, there was pain. Blood-smeared faces and burns no cream could repair.

Hagrid was sat in a corner clutching his shoulder. His beetle-black eyes shone with relief at Ron's arrival.

What was terribly apparent was just how few had made it out. Ron couldn't make out a single blue robe, but it was possible that ashes and dust were shrouding the less-obvious shade.

"Can you put her down, Ron?" Daphne asked, her voice weak. He hadn't even noticed her up until now. He'd assumed she was behind him. "Somewhere nice,"

Ron nodded, swallowing past the lump in his throat as he scanned the area for the Twins, Neville, or Seamus.

He couldn't see them.

Over the shoulder of an exhausted Cedric Diggory, there was an enchanted grassy plain with blooming flowers and a pale blue sky. "Over there?" Ron asked, nodding to the place in question.

Daphne nodded and made her way toward it.

As Ron followed her, he continued to keep an eye out for his brothers and dormmates. He was relieved to see McGonagall rushing about, helping various students. It was clear from her frazzled appearance, however, that she was no matron.

Madam Pomfrey was but another victim of Umbridge's purge.

At least the bitch was dead, thanks to her own plan, no less.

He and Daphne entered the grassy alcove. It was indeed quite beautiful.

"Right there," Daphne instructed softly, pointing to a bed of yellow flowers.

Ron carefully lowered the body, making sure her legs didn't fold under her. He laid out her arms to her sides and sat back on his knees.

He looked to Daphne only to find her staring into Astoria's vacant eyes.

Hesitantly, Ron reached towards them, and with his two fingers, slid her eyelids shut. He hated not feeling the natural resistance such an action would usually provide.

"There," he said, finding that for the first time in hours, he felt at peace. "Now she could be sleeping,"

Daphne nodded, tears coming to her eyes again. "Can you leave?"

Ron got up a little too quickly. "Of course…" he tucked his hands into the pockets of his robes. "I'm sorry,"

Daphne just shook her head and scooted closer to her sister.

As Ron walked away, Daphne began to sing. She sang of the rain and of the wind, of fire and water. She sang a melody of lies. About how she would be okay, with time, and that in the end, fate was not up to her.

It left Ron with an emboldened sense of peace, as he rejoined his fellow survivors.

"Ron!" Fred's, or maybe George's voice carried above the crowd, and Ron felt like screaming out to them.

There they were, huddled with a few other Gryffindors. Katie Bell and Angelina Johnson alongside them. Neville was there too, but not Seamus.

Ron jogged towards them; he didn't have the energy to run outright. The adrenaline was leaving his body now, and the pain in his muscles felt like his arms and legs had been sliced open.

"Where's Seamus," he wheezed, wanting to get the bad news out of the way first.

"Alive, but only just," Neville replied, surprising Ron. "He's over there,"

Ron looked to where Neville was pointing and saw a heavily burned Seamus lying in a pool of snow to cover the scars.

"Are you alright?" Fred asked, hastily looking Ron over and checking for any visible damage.

Ron nodded wearily. "Yeah, I'm fine," he coughed. There was only so much smoke you could inhale, after all. "Just tired,"

"We thought you'd died," George mumbled. "We thought we'd lost you too,"

Ron shook his head and sat down carefully; the others joined him. "No. Not quite,"

"Who attacked the castle,"

Ron's head swiveled around to face the person who'd asked the question. It was Daphne, her wet hair hanging heavily around her face.

"From what I got out of it," Ron groaned as he turned to face Daphne a little better. She had a hard, determined look on her face that Ron knew to be a front. Just one wrong step and it would all come crashing down. "The Ministry ordered Dumbledore's death, and the dragons had a Ministry emblem on their collars,"

"How could you see that far?" Daphne asked, a touch of incredulity hanging in her tone.

Ron stared right back at her. "It wasn't as far away as you think,"

There was a long silence, where the Gryffindors watched Ron and Daphne's staring contest.

Daphne broke first. She turned and walked away, back towards the field of flowers, and the body of her sister.

Draco Black stared at the wall opposite him with a sort of grimace that could only form by someone who had read a book twice too many times.

He was bored, he was sick of doing absolutely nothing. He was sick of being kept inside when others were free. He hated that his father was out there, living without any restriction, and here he sat, away from them but not away from the unending hell of being kept away from himself.

Because Draco Black was no one. He had lost any identity he once had, and now he was rotting in a cage.

Not for the first time in his stay in The New World's headquarters, he reached into his rucksack and held the two-way mirror in his hands.

"Astoria," he said, his breath fogging up the front of the glass. "Astoria, come on. I'm bored!"

No answer. Typical.

"I know we haven't talked in ages," he said, his voice echoing out of the shattered remnants of Astoria's mirror, deep at the bottom of The Black Lake. Though of course, he didn't know that. "Astoria, hello?"

Kreacher the house elf was, somewhat uncharacteristically, doing his job. Sure, the rag was dirty, and he was polishing a part of the floor that no one ever saw, but it was enough to keep him sane.

His knobbly arms shook, and his knees ached thanks to being pressed into the solid stone floor.

He heard a knock at the door and grumbled to himself. If his pathetic master was home, he could invite his fellow cretins in himself.

The knock came again.

Kreacher didn't understand why the visitor hadn't entered on their own. The house was under the fidelius, after all. Anyone who had access to it was certainly inclined to enter without invitation.

The knock came again.

"Argh!" Kreacher spat, getting to his feet and hobbling towards the ancient door.

He stretched to reach the handle, his back cracking with the effort, before realizing he could just snap his fingers.

The door swung open, and Kreacher looked to see which foul blood-traitor had entered his once noble home.

When Regulus Black looked down at the old elf, Kreacher's heart nearly stopped.

"Hello Kreacher," Regulus said with a fondness few had spared him.

"M-Master?"

"Yes," Regulus crouched down and held Kreacher by the shoulders. "Do you remember that locket I gave to you, all those years ago?"

Kreacher didn't understand. How could this be true? Tears came to his eyes as he reached up to touch Regulus's face. He nodded, his ears flapping lazily. How could he forget Master Regulus's locket?

"Did you destroy it?"

Kreacher took a great, shuddering breath. His body shook with shame. "No!" he wailed.

Regulus held Kreacher kindly, his thumbs rubbing light circles in the old elf's shoulders. "That's alright. You tried, didn't you?"

"Kreacher did whatever he could! He-he tried his best!"

"Then that's the best I could've asked for," Regulus insisted, still smiling. "I need your help, though,"

"Do you wish me to fetch you the locket?" Kreacher croaked.

Regulus let out a short breath. "No... no, not yet. First, I need you to tell me something,"

"Anything, Master. Anything!" Kreacher groveled, falling to his knees.

"Where's Sirius?"

A/N: I'll see you next time in Regretfully Uncaring: Chapter 47: Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley.

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