Together, Blaise, Sev and Draco had found the final horcrux. It was hidden in a cave midway up one of the lesser known mountains in the Alps. With Draco's French heritage it had been reasonably easy to communicate with the locals and discover the story of 20 young people going on a ski trip twenty years ago and never returning. On learning of this all three of them had known that this was Voldemort's doing, due to the sheer number of people involved and the rumours that had sent them to search in France originally. They had decided the final horcrux was hidden in the mountains surrounding the small town. Now all they had to do was work out where.

On discovering the cave they had found a small broach gleaming in the middle of a stone table. One step closer and stalagmites had started growing very quickly and they had had to back out of the cave before they were speared through.

Draco was now charged with venturing out into the cold and sending a message to the Trio through Ginny. His method of communication was a rock transfigured into a hawk. Sending messages via patronus or owl may not have reached Scotland but the hawk was both deadly and fast, nothing would be able to stop it.

All the Slytherin trio had to do now was wait for a time and date saying when to destroy the broach. Until then, they could relax in the comfort of the local ski lodge.

Ginny received the hawk in the middle of her Transfiguration lesson. Having been prepared for the message, and being used to life at Hogwarts in general, a hawk suddenly flying in through the window did not surprise her. Or please the professor for that matter.

"It's important," Ginny explained apologetically.

The professor sighed but allowed Ginny to take the message from the hawks. Ginny quickly broke the blank seal and opened the parchment. It was vital that she get this message to the headmistress as soon as she possibly could. Which would pretty much be now.

Ginny smiled winningly up at her teacher.

"Excuse me professor," she said, as polite as she possibly could be. "May I please go see the headmistress? It's really important."

Her teacher rolled her eyes. "I highly doubt it is important enough to excuse you missing my lesson."

Ginny stopped smiling, and in a very cold voice answered, "Actually, I think you'll find it is. This is a life or death situation and if you don't let me go then I will do anyway. So, may I please go to see Professor McGonagall?"

The teacher pursed her lips. "Go."

Ginny smirked, grabbed her bag and left the classroom, pausing at the door.

"Thank you for seeing sense Professor.

"Professor?" Ginny enquired gently.

Professor McGonagall looked up from the letter.

"So soon. The end's almost here, whatever that will be. I must tell Harry and then we have to prepare. Dumbledore had a plan for if this should ever happen, a battle at Hogwarts I mean. We'll alter that slightly and put it into place. You'll help of course."

"I'll do anything I can. I want this war over soon and I want it done with as few innocent lives taken as possible."

McGonagall smiled grimly. "We're in accord then. Let's ready the troops."

Dumbledore's plans were relatively simple and easy to put into place.

On the eve of the battle or, if it began before they anticipated it, as soon as the battle began everyone below sixth year would escorted out of the castle by Professor Trelawney and Filch through the tunnel that led to Honeyduke's. From there they would move to the Hog's Head in groups where Aberforth would be waiting to portkey and floo them to various places including the Ministry of Magic, the Leaky Cauldron and Xenophilius Lovegood's home. From there the students would notify the officials and have sanctuary. Trelawney and Aberforth would then gather the wizards and witches in Hogsmeade to join the battle. The teachers, DA, Order and everyone above sixth year who wanted to would stay in the castle to fight. The Aurors would hopefully come to their aid quickly but if not they had provisions in Hogwarts to last for a very long time as long as the defensive wards held. The majority of the students would be acting as snipers from inside the castle, taking down what Death Eaters they could from above. Everyone else would go out onto the grounds and fight the Death Eaters there.

If the Death Eaters got into Hogwarts there were extra wards plus the remaining students, house elves, peeves and the suits of armour to protect Hogwarts. The ghosts had wanted to help but as they were noncoporal they really couldn't aid the fight in any way other than by distracting the death eaters, which they had agreed to do.

All in all, Ginny thought it was a good plan. It covered almost all the bases and as long as nothing completely unexpected happened those inside the castle and the younger students would be safe. Ginny, of course, would be fighting outside with the rest of the DA. She could only help that everyone she cared about would survive the battle.