The ministry was his, but this was not the only reason Voldemort laughed.
He also laughed because he had finally had use of his most valuable servant. One moment of mercy and a wait of thirteen years, and his investment in Severus Snape had paid off. For Dumbledore was dying, and now no one was left to oppose him.
Two women sat by Albus' bedside. One attentive, keen, good posture, but close and kind and sad. The other near the opposite, sprawled backward over a chair in a far corner of the room, reduced to mad gibbering and drool. Sybill Trelawney had not produced more words as Lily had hoped she might, to gain clues at the future. She had instead produced only a piercing scream, and lost all semblance of sanity.
"We are at a crossroads of fate, Lily." Albus said between weak coughs, for it was Lily who stood over him while Minerva attended to the running of Hogwarts.
"The eye of the seer sees something it does not understand; a choice, a battle perhaps, whose outcome is uncertain."
Lily swallowed hard, forced herself to ask. "How can the outcome be uncertain without you? We know not how many traps Voldemort laid, and we have little hope of fighting him as we are, even had we destroyed all his horcruxes."
Dumledore coughed again and turned to face her, and she saw the drawn skin, the pulsing in his veins to which no countercurse had been found. Worst, as he smiled she saw the rot of his teeth and throat, which made it painful for him to speak. She looked away.
"Lily, I will be fighting alongside you. All of Hogwarts is your ally," he coughed again, more powerfully this time and with much rasping. The cough continued for several seconds before Lily heard a slimy sound that made her glad she had turned away. "Lily," he rasped, finally, "tell Minerva that my plans are set. Tell her I am proud of her, and that she will be a wonderful headmistress." She nodded silently, and his eyes closed.
"Professor."
"Headmaster."
"I suppose this means it is happening. I will summon professors Flitwick and Babbling to awaken the guardians and strengthen the wards."
"Bring Sinestra, Rubeus, and Pomona as well. Sinestra can assist with strategy, and did Albus tell you what he had planned with the others?"
"No," Minerva looked thoughtful for a moment, "he gave me a riddle instead. It's obvious enough now, anyway."
Lily nodded.
Minerva grabbed some floo powder and stuck her head into the fireplace of the headmaster's office, and Lily began scribbling notes on parchment.
Hermione and Cedric waited, worried, in the mess of students who had been assembled. Even if Susan and Ginny and Cho and Anthony and Ron and Parvati and Dean were there, and dozens of others, even if so many more people had been told of the fight they'd been fighting since last term, they still felt alone. Neville and Luna weren't back, and the twins were gone as well.
If they though they were scared while waiting, though, they were wrong.
CRASH!
There's a bravery that comes with knowing what lies ahead, a feeling of having thought things through enough to win.
CRASH!
And then things start, and you don't have any control any more like you did when you ran things through your mind. You don't have any control, you don't have any idea what's going ON any more.
CRASH!
RUMBLE.
The guardians stepped forward, giant stone statues now covered in runes. The first line of defense against intruders in Hogwarts. Against, in this case, the forces of the dark lord.
Hermione could hear spells now, the death eaters were fighting the guardians. But not all were. Black shadows screamed overhead, and billows of green smoke rained down on the students. Some keeled over-Kevin Entwhistle was unconscious-and a huge shimmering shield emerged from the wand of the tiny professor Flitwick.
"RUN! DODGE!" He shouted, and they did as horrible green bolts can tumbling from the shadows above them, straight through any and all shields, and Hermione dove to the ground and saw Michael Corner in front of her and didn't see him breathing. She blanched.
BOOM!
That hadn't been the wards or the spells-one of the guardians had finally fallen, and in death it rained destruction on those around it; the potent energy of the runes sewn into them released in an explosion.
Many of the clouded forms above her turned away, and Hermione heard shrieks of "the trees!" from the invaders' direction.
Pomona's crop of Mandrakes and Treants seemed to have matured on time.
And Hermione turned on instinct to look back at the castle as she stood, and noticed Cedric at her back again, reassuring her. And she also saw the real fight.
Students were falling, some hexing each other, and no one seemed to have started making a defensive line against the crowd, the tide of green-trimmed black robes that were emerging from inside the castle.