AN: I am so sorry for the delay in posting. Sometimes life gets in the way.
Chapter 30 Siege at Hogwarts
Hermione stood staring at the mass of people before her, who despite being split into groups still managed to form one big group and she smiled. They had been going over the plan for hours, Hermione taking point at co-ordinating the three mission objectives. For the first time since she came up with the idea she began to have confidence that this might actually work – but at what cost?
Fleur glanced across the staging ground to Hermione and could see a smile fading from her face being replaced by a very serious look. Fleur turned to Bill and told him to take over the last minute coaching of a young group of DA and then headed over to Hermione. The brunette could sense Fleur's approach and looked up at her, offering a smile.
"Mon amour, are you feeling well?" Fleur asked tentatively.
Hermione nodded as she resumed looking out over the crowd of people who had come to fight because she had asked them.
"I was just wondering what the price of this battle will be." Hermione stated and then resumed trying to remember every face and name that she could see.
Fleur did not know how to respond to that so she reached out and squeezed Hermione hand, "Zey all know the risks, and still zey do what must be done 'Ermione." She told the younger witch.
Hermione looked up at Fleur, "For the greater good?" she asked bitterly.
Before Fleur could respond a patronus approached them, it was a horse. Both witches turned their attention to it as it spoke in Ginny's voice, "We are in position," it confirmed. Fleur looked to Hermione wanting to respond to her previous comment, but it became clear from the look on Hermione's face that there had been some sort of shift within her, and where seconds ago an uncertain, vulnerable and troubled Hermione stood a now determined and resolute witch stood.
"I love you Fleur Delacour," Hermione said cutting off any words that might have fallen from Fleur's lips.
Hermione gave her one last look then turned and walked towards Professor McGonagall, "Professor, we have had the signal." Hermione said in a strong voice that conveyed an infinite amount of confidence.
"Very well," Professor McGonagall acknowledged, "Miss Granger we will give you until the sun is over the horizon, let's get this done."
Hermione turned in the direction of the first light and nodded, she then turned to look at Fleur but stopped herself thinking she might not go through with what she had to do if she did. Instead she headed off in the direction she needed to go in.
"Miss Granger," Professor McGonagall called after her, Hermione turned back and Professor McGonagall smiled, "Good Luck" she wished.
Hermione nodded, "Good luck to us all." Hermione replied and she allowed her eyes to flit to Fleur for a second, before walking to the edge of the forbidden forest.
The sun blazed across the sky as it breached the horizon chasing away the final remnants of darkness and illuminating the way forward for the side of light.
The largest of the three groups stood on the boundary and looked forlornly at their battle worn school, while awaiting further instructions from Fleur on when to attack. None of them could see the defensive wards that had been put up by the Death Eaters to keep them off their school grounds, but they knew they were there. McGonagall had invited the Order to this battle and there were a few seasoned warriors littered amongst the young faces of Dumbledore's Army but one thing was common among the crowd, the look of sheer outrage and determination on each of their faces as they looked out over the grounds.
They were under no illusions that Voldemort and his followers knew they were there but this didn't deter them in the slightest. It was strange that this time they appeared to be on the wrong end of the battle. The twins had spent a lot of time with the willing members of the DA, teaching them some effective non lethal offensive spells, but now it was time to put these into operation. At Fleur's signal wands were raised and the assault began.
A group of Death Eaters looked out to the boundary line at the commencing attack. In contrast to the Death Eaters attack, this time the DA were focusing their spells on one area of the protective wards, not the entire ward. It seemed to dawn on the whole group a second too late that the DA had intended to simply punch a hole in the wards, rather than bring them down as a whole. The Death Eaters surged forwards, towards the hole and the real battling began.
The DA pushed through the hole in the wards, reached the main courtyard and fanned out. A defensive line formed and began firing spells in the direction of the Death Eaters despite not yet seeing them, in the mean time groups snuck off this way and that in an attempt to outflank the Death Eaters. Each group moved under the careful instruction of Fleur, who analytically scanned the horizon for the approaching enemy while listening to the teams of warriors she had sent to flank them, take their positions. Fleur fought the urge to turn her attention in the direction she knew Hermione would have moved off in, she knew that she could not get distracted by her worry for Hermione; too many people were depending on her.
Fleur's eyes narrowed as she focused her on a sound approaching them, she signalled to the defensive line, who redoubled their efforts. The spells shot passed Fleur and the ground just feet ahead of her exploded as shouts of surprise and injury, Fleur couldn't help but smirk, satisfied that her teams were deterring the Death Eaters attacks but still keeping them occupied.
Shouts to Fleur's left distracted her and she turned to see what was happening, she gasped as her hand flew to her mouth to try to catch the sound before it escaped. Staring in disbelief at the figure fighting her friends, it took her a few seconds to get her head back in the game. She gave herself a mental shake and told herself that it was not Harry that was battling Neville, the Weasley twins, Cho and Katie but HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED.
Fleur instinctively ran towards the group, then halted aimed her wand in the direction of the Dark Lord but found herself faltering for a second, before firing a stunning spell in the Dark Lord's direction.
The look on Harry's face was one of outrage. The Dark Lord was clearly outraged at the very thought that these students would try to take back the castle. He lashed out a vicious slashing spell and one of the twins went down, Katie rushed to comfort him and the other twin took a defensive stance before them. The small team of DA shuffled their ranks to protect their fallen comrade, HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED smiled evilly and seeing an opportunity stepped forwards to attack.
Fleur raised her wand defensively against the promised spell that would shoot from the wand in the Dark Lords hand any second, but it never came. Instead, a group of DA, including Oliver Wood, Tonks and Professor McGonagall, came out from behind broken down walls in the corner that HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED had kindly backed them into. Each member of the team hit the Dark Lord with a stunning spell or an incarcerous, Harry's body sank to the ground with ropes and chains wrapped around him. Where the incarcerous spells had worked, the stunners had not , but regardless they had him where they wanted him.
Hermione studied the grounds from her hiding spot on the edge of the forest, once the Death Eaters were distracted by Fleur's advancing forces she slipped past Hagrid's cottage and up to the main entrance to the castle which had been conveniently left unguarded. Hermione shook her head in disbelief at the fact that her plan had worked, and that her enemy underestimated the DA so much.
While the DA led by Fleur had been punching one large hole in the wards in full view of the Death Eaters, she had been some distance away, punching her own little hole in the wards, allowing her to enter the grounds under relative secrecy.
Ginny and Luna had used the same tactics under the Whomping Willow so that they could enter the ruins of the transfiguration corridor and make their way up to the Astronomy tower undetected.
Similarly this was how McGonagall had snuck to the courtyard with her team to out flank HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED, through a third hole that the Death Eaters had not seen them punch through because they thought that the whole of the DA were going to pour in through a single hole.
Hermione slipped into the castle and in the entrance hall came face to face with the very thing she was looking for. Nagini hissed low and threateningly as she cocked her head back ready to strike, Hermione jerked herself back and her whole body connected with the door that she had closed behind her. Hermione raised her wand defensively and Nagini would have smiled if she could as she snapped forward and sank her fangs into Hermione's wand arm, causing the young witch to open her hand and drop her wand.
Hermione, pushed through the pain without letting out so much as a whimper as she reached to the waistband of her jeans and removed her dagger from its dragon hide pouch. With Nagini's fangs still deeply embedded into the fleshy part of Hermione's right forearm, she whipped her left arm up, Nagini's pupils widened in alarm as Hermione brought her left arm down and cleanly sliced Nagini's head from her body.
A loud hiss filled the entrance hall as Hermione felt a build up of air pressure causing her to struggle for air. Nagini's body turned to black particles of dark magic and Hermione watched as the same happened to the head. Thinking quickly Hermione used the dagger to remove the fangs from her arm before they too turned into the dark particles. As quickly as it started the hiss was gone and suddenly the room was empty and not a sound could be heard. _
Professor McGonagall approached Harry's body but before she got to him he screamed, clearly in excruciating pain mixed with absolute fury. His body began to shake but Professor McGonagall knelt down and apparated him away.
Fleur knew that Hermione had destroyed Nagini and felt pride swell within her as she glanced up towards the castle. She did not know what she had expected to see, but all she saw was the front doors closed. She turned back to the group that was with her and began instructing them to clear the injured away from the battle and regrouping those who were not injured back into the fight to help round up the last of the Death Eaters.
Ginny and Luna had been sitting quietly in the passage under the Whomping Willow patiently waiting for Hermione's patronus to tell them that they could go. Ginny fidgeted nervously with her hands until Luna finally took them in her own and held them still for a moment.
"Ginny we will break through these wards and we will find him and we will bring him home, so please stop fretting." Ginny said softly, trying to reassure her friend.
Ginny smiled back at Luna and nodded her head, seconds later an blue ethereal otter appeared before them and Hermione's voice told the, "GO!"
Luna did not wait she cast a powerful 'bombarda' and the two witches ran up the grassy embankment and into the remnants of the transfiguration corridor. As quietly and quickly as they could , the two witches made their way through the corridor. The past the blown in door of Professor McGonagall's classroom and peeked inside – it had been completely destroyed and the wreckage lay as a sad reminder that their school was in fact broken.
They made it to the end of the corridor and silently began to climb the spiral staircase, Luna halted them as they neared the top and gestured to Ginny to remain silent. Listening hard they could hear snoring and assumed that it was a guard, frankly they were both surprised not to have met more resistance than one or two guards outside the door.
As per their previous plan Luna cast 'Lumos Maxima' and sent the brilliant ball of light up the stairs towards the sound of the guard, both she and Ginny ran after it. The hope was that the light would distract the guard or guards long enough for Ginny and Luna to disarm and stun them. It worked like a charm, by the time the reached the top of the stairs the two guards were shielding their eyes and turning away, Ginny cast 'petrificus totalus' on the one on her side and Luna cast 'incarcerous' and then silenced the guard on her side.
Luna opened the door and Ginny grabbed the stunned Death Eater then dragged him into the room. While Ginny grabbed the second Death Eater Luna had a look around the room, her eyes fell on a body laying on the floor in the corner, a chain attached to his ankle and she knew that they had found Harry. Ginny shut the door then let her gaze follow Luna's her eyes rested on Voldemort's body and faltered for a second, then she went over to Harry and knelt down. He had been beaten and was barely conscious, when he felt her touch on his shoulder he tried to crawl away, but Ginny bent over him and whispered something in his ear. Harry began to sob and Ginny comforted him, Luna went over to the door and opened it to listen for anyone coming, there was no one but she stayed there anyway to give Ginny and Harry some privacy.
Ginny freed Harry from the chain with a well aimed 'reducto', figuring that they could worry about the cuff around his ankle later as they had to get to the apparition point quickly. Ginny helped Harry to his feet and it became evident very quickly that he was too weak to hold himself up and so Ginny supported him.
Luna ran to the balcony over by the telescopes and cast a spell that Harry could not hear, but he was aware that they were waiting for something, he turned to Ginny, "Gin you have to get out of here." He begged suddenly panicking that she had endangered herself by trying to rescue them.
"They are coming Ginny," Luna said in her sing song voice.
Ginny gently steered Harry towards the balcony, "We are all getting out of here Harry, it's Hermione's plan so you know it's brilliant." She told him, trying to mask the uncertainty in her voice.
Harry forced his chapped lips into a smile at her sheer determination and let her lead him to the balcony where two brooms were waiting. Ginny got on one and Luna and Ginny helped Harry mount the broom in front of Ginny. Luna then mounted the second broom and instantly took off to scout the skies while Ginny and Harry's ascent was somewhat slower. They flew for the hole in the wards that the DA had made and once beyond the boundaries of Hogwarts they landed gently and instantly apparated away.
Hermione blinked, then blinked again then bent down to retrieve her wand, stowing it in her sleeve as she returned the dagger to the dragon hide sheath. Hermione turned and opened the door in time to see Ginny with a passenger on her broom and Luna escape the wards. Relief flooded through her as she realised that all missions had been accomplished. She looked across the courtyard and saw Fleur with Kreacher standing beside her, she smiled and stepped forward off the first step, then looked up at her path to them to find it blocked by Bellatrix Lestrange.
Hermione froze and turned to re-enter the castle only to find Lucius Malfoy blocking her path, she turned to dart to the left and saw Draco standing in her way. Panic gripped her and she forced herself to flee to the right and she collided with Narcissa. Hermione let out a yelp as the blonde seized her wrist tightly and dragged her back into the castle. Bellatrix cackled with glee as she ran up the front steps to the castle, Lucius and Draco joining them.
A panic stricken Fleur tore up the steps to the castle and flung open the front doors, silence greeted her as the 'crack' of apparition reverberated off the stone walls.