"I cannot remember a moment in my life when I have not felt the love of my family. We were a family that would have killed for each other - and we still are." -Richard Branson
The doors behind me were flung open with a bang and Neville and I were nearly trampled as people began to flood out all at once with Professor McGonagall at the front. Hermione, Ron and Ginny weren't too far behind her. Voices and screams could be heard throughout the gathering crowd. Neville grabbed my hand and pulled me off to the side.
"Silence!" Voldemort waved his wand, forcing everyone's voices to die away as quickly as they had come. "It is over. Put him down, Hagrid, at my feet, where he belongs. You see? Harry Potter is dead. He was nothing, ever, but a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him!"
I glanced at Neville, who rolled his eyes and shook his head, looking furious. How could Voldemort think we'd ever believe him? We knew and understood Harry so much more than he ever could.
"He beat you!" Ron yelled, fighting against the charm keeping us all silent.
"He was killed," Voldemort yelled, "while trying to sneak out of the castle grounds. He was killed while trying to save himself!"
Suddenly, Neville dropped my hand and ran at Voldemort. I reached out to try and grab him, but I didn't move fast enough. Neville had reached the front of the crowd before Voldemort disarmed him, knocking his wand a few feet away. I started to move forward, but someone grabbed my arm. I turned and saw Dean standing behind me.
"Don't," he whispered. "It'll only make things worse."
"But Dean, Neville-,"
"Just wait and see what he's up to," Dean said calmly.
I looked at him for a second longer before turning around again.
"Who is this?" Voldemort laughed. "Who has volunteered to demonstrate what happens to those who continue to fight when the battle is lost?"
There was a loud, cackling laugh that I recognized at once as belonging to Bellatrix Lestrange. "It's Neville Longbottom! The son of the Aurors! He's the one who's been giving the Carrows so much trouble!"
"Ah, yes, I remember," Voldemort said softly. "But you are a pureblood, aren't you?"
"So what if I am?"
"You would make a very valuable Death Eater," Voldemort said. "We need your kind, Neville Longbottom."
"I'll join you when hell freezes over," Neville said. "Dumbledore's Army!"
I couldn't help but smile. I felt incredibly proud of Neville and also incredibly proud to call him my boyfriend. The boy standing up to the scariest, most evil wizard in the world was mine and no one else's.
"Very well." Voldemort grinned an evil grin that I didn't like one bit. "If that is your choice, Longbottom, we revert to the original plan. On your head be it." He flicked his wand.
For a moment, nothing happened, and then there was a whooshing sound. I looked up to see an old, worn, familiar object flying over the heads of the crowd. It was the Sorting Hat.
"There will be no more Sorting at Hogwarts," Voldemort said, shaking out the hat and turning it in his hands. He looked up and continued speaking. There will be no more Houses. The emblem, shield, and colors of my noble ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, will suffice for everyone. Won't they, Neville Longbottom?"
He pointed his wand at Neville and performed a silent body binding curse. Neville's arms and legs snapped together and I found myself trying to run forward again, but Dean stopped me. "There's nothing you can do," he whispered.
"There has to be something," I whispered back desperately. Dean just shook his head.
"Neville here is now going to demonstrate what happens to anyone foolish enough to continue to oppose me," said Voldemort. He placed the Sorting Hat on Neville's head, pulling it down over his eyes. Then Voldemort waved his wand yet again, causing the hat to burst into flames.
I ran for it at that point. Not away from Voldemort and Neville, but towards them. And this time, Dean didn't try to stop me because everyone gathered out in front of the castle had sprung into action at the exact same time.
It was taking me longer to get to Neville than I wanted because I had to dodge around people running in every direction. There were centaurs and spiders wandering around as well and a few times I narrowly avoided being crushed by the enormous foot of a giant. Finally, Neville came into view and I paused for a moment before continuing to run. I didn't know how I was going to help Neville, but I was going to no matter what.
Right before I reached him, something strange, yet amazing happened. Neville somehow broke free of the body bind curse and pulled the hat off of his head. As he did, he pulled out something long, silver and shiny: a sword. And not only a sword; it was the sword of Gryffindor. The same one we had tried to steal all those months ago.
I froze where I was, forgetting about all of the chaos and only watching Neville as he swung the sword through the air and cut the head of Voldemort's snake clean off. I blinked my eyes a few times as Neville stood there, breathing heavily and looking down at the beheaded snake. It was as if everything had just stopped for a split second until Voldemort aimed his wand at Neville. I started to run again, my heart pounding in my chest. I was still too far away to cast a shield charm that would successfully separate Neville from Voldemort. I didn't think there was a way for me to get to him in time, but just when I was thinking the worst, someone else cast a shield charm and Neville fell backwards to the ground from the force of it.
As I ran, I heard Hagrid yelling about Harry being gone, but I barely took the time to think about how odd it was or what it meant. All I wanted to do right now was get to Neville and make sure he was okay.
"Neville," I said, kneeling down next to him. He was sitting up and staring down at the sword in his hands as if wondering how it had gotten there. He turned in his hands a few times.
"I don't know how I did it," he whispered. "How I fought off the body bind curse, I mean. And I don't know why the sword came out of the hat. I just don't understand."
"Neither do I," I whispered, "but you are okay, aren't you?"
Neville finally looked at me and smiled. "Never better."
"You killed the snake," I stated.
He nodded. "Yeah, Harry told me to. He said he needed it done in case he couldn't do it. Where did he go anyway?" He searched the ground in front of us.
I shrugged. "I don't know. He's missing."
"You think he could still be alive?"
"I don't know," I said quietly. "He looked pretty dead to me."
"Watch out!" Neville pushed me to the side and rolled on top of me to protect me from a group of centaurs galloping past. "I don't need you looking pretty dead too," he muttered, giving me a half smile. He stood and pulled me to my feet. "Come on, let's go."
The two of us started to head back inside the castle, fighting off anyone or anything that tried to get in our way. We finally reached the great hall and I couldn't help but notice that most of the battle seemed to have moved inside. In a few minutes, Neville and I were separated again and I found myself rushing to Ginny's aide as she dueled against Bellatrix Lestrange on her own. A moment later, Hermione had joined us as well. Even with the three of us sending every spell we knew her way, Bellatrix was just as powerful as all of us put together.
"How much longer can we keep this up?" I asked Ginny.
"As long as we have to," she answered.
"I know," I said, "but that's not what I asked. What I'm wondering is how long that'll actually be. She's almost too good for us."
No sooner had the words left my mouth than a killing curse sailed over our shoulders, narrowly missing our heads. It was so close that I felt my hair flutter. "Almost got a few dead ends there," I said, glancing at Ginny and trying to stay calm. The truth was that my heart was pounding. That had been too close.
Ginny smirked but before she could reply, her mother came barreling in front of us out of nowhere, aiming her wand at Bellatrix. "Not my daughter, you bitch," she said, her voice low but somehow still loud and clear. Ginny tried to step forward to help, but she was gently knocked back by Mrs. Weasley. "Don't try to help, she's mine."
I tugged Ginny backwards and she, Hermione and I stood and watched. It seemed like the entire room had frozen to watch the two duels going on. Besides Mrs. Weasley and Bellatrix, Voldemort was still dueling a couple of people at once, including Professor McGonagall. Just when the duel between Mrs. Weasley and Bellatrix started to get really intense, Mrs. Weasley shot a well-aimed curse right under Bellatrix's arm and it hit her right in the chest.
Things seemed to be moving in slow motion as Bellatrix's eyes widened a second before she fell lifelessly to the ground.
"Your mother," I whispered to Ginny, "just killed Bellatrix Lestrange."
"My mother," Ginny repeated, looking shocked as she watched Mrs. Weasley smirked, lowered her wand, and made her way back over to us.
I was still registering what happened and hardly noticed Voldemort letting out a cry of rage and blasting his dueling opponents aside before turning and heading straight for Mrs. Weasley.
"Protego!" A shield charm sprang up between the two of them. At the sound of the voice, everyone looked around to see where it had come from.
"Did that sound like-?" Ginny began.
"Harry?" I finished.
As Ginny nodded, I blinked and Harry was suddenly there in the middle of the room. He must have been using his cloak, but that didn't explain how he was alive.
Sounds of shocked gasps and similar reactions rippled through the crowd before silence fell once more.
"Nobody try and help me," Harry said, staring intently at Voldemort. "This is how it has to be."
Voldemort smirked and I could tell that he even though he was shocked and infuriated that Harry was alive, he still thought he was better and that he would win in the end.
I always knew that silence could be deafening, but right now the silence in the room was eerily loud. We all desperately wanted to figure out what was going on.
As it turns out, the wand Voldemort was using technically belong to Harry, who had disarmed Draco, who had disarmed Dumbledore, who had last owned the wand. It was all very confusing. Voldemort seemed to be confused as well, or maybe he just didn't believe it, because Harry had to explain how and why he had come to be the true owner of the Elder Wand. When he was finished, another eerie silence filled the room, just as the sun started to peek through the windows of the great hall. There was that feeling of nervous anticipation in the room that something big was about to happen soon, but nobody knew exactly when. It could be in seconds, or minutes. In this case, it was seconds.
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Expelliarmus!"
The words we said simultaneously and jets of light shot out of the wands of the people circling each other in the center of the room. They connected in the middle and the Elder wand flew from Voldemort's hand, straight towards Harry.
It felt like everything was moving in slow motion and I sucked in a breath as the wand continued to sail through the air. Harry reached up and closed his fingers around the wooden object just as Voldemort fell backwards, hit the floor, and didn't move. It was over and I breathed the first sigh of relief that I had in ages.