Chapter XXXV - Getting Out of the Castle

"Is … is he really … is he gone?" Ginny asked quietly as she moved into Harry's arms, holding him tightly for both her comfort, as well as his.

Harry nodded. "Yeah … I'm pretty sure he's gone."

Snape was standing a little a ways back just staring at the place where Voldemort had stood moments before. He seemed to be in some sort of shock. "You really did it, Potter."

"Yeah, I did." Harry held Ginny close, leaning down to give her a soft kiss before he looked up, glancing around at the Order members and members of the D.A. that were still engaged in heavy combat with nearby Death Eaters just outside of the circle. The white wall had vanished as soon as Voldemort had disappeared and Harry could now see clearly what was going on outside of it. "But we've got bigger problems at the moment. We've got to get out here and to capture as many Death Eaters as we can. Snape, are you with us or against us?"

Snape looked taken aback by the question. "Whose side do you think I'm on? Come on; let's get the hell out of here, and round everyone up."

Ginny nodded and took her wand from the ground and the three of them headed back into the battle. She looked around anxiously and her heart stopped in her chest when she saw Dean and Lavender on the ground; she wasn't sure if they were alive or not … but she didn't have time to check. She found herself in a battle with Lucius Malfoy who had ran from Voldemort's demise along with Bellatrix and been stopped in battle on his way out. He hit her in the arm with some type of spell that burned, but she didn't hesitate she just continued to fight, firing her Bat Bogey Hex at him. This had the effect that she was looking for as he went crazy and began running in another direction entirely and she turned to let her wrath out on the next person who dared to cross her path.

Harry fought back to back with Lupin, using wandless magic more than regular magic. He discovered that if he concentrated on the energy that was still flowing through his body, the radiating white heat that had not fully vanished when he had destroyed Voldemort; by concentrating on this and how to use it to his advantage he could use a huge force of magic and shoot it out at the Death Eaters in front of him. It was almost like a wall of energy that just pushed them away. His magic was so strong that it would knock them right off their feet and send them flying away in another direction, most of them being sprawled into the wall and getting knocked unconscious.

Lupin grinned at Harry. "Good one. Got any of that power left?"

"Sure do." Harry said as he sent another great wave racing towards some more Death Eaters who were running towards them.

As Harry shoved them back with his power, Lupin, Tonks, and some other Order members began to put disapparating spells on them as they huddled them together in a human pile of bodies. Harry then headed towards the three Death Eaters currently surrounding Hermione. She was holding her own pretty well, but these three had managed to back her into a corner and Harry could see her struggling with them. He saw Ron stun the Death Eater he had been fighting and perform the same spells the Order was doing to make sure that they wouldn't leave before he marched over towards Hermione, a look of hatred on his face. Harry figured that he could handle it himself so he just started taking out any Death Eater that got into his way.

His heart stopped when he heard Ginny shriek. He swung his head around and saw that Draco Malfoy had found his way into the room and he had Ginny pressed back against the wall, his body pressed to hers tightly and his hands were wandering, touching her in places that he had no business touching. She was struggling against him, angrily and Harry was ready to kill him. He ran towards her, watching her face brighten when she saw him. Then to his surprise, she grinned and transformed into her cat form, leaving Malfoy quite taken aback by the fact that she was an animagus. Harry on the other hand, saw no reason to let Malfoy's harm go unnoticed and as Ginny changed back into herself, Harry's fist met with Malfoy's face with a very satisfying crack.

They ended up in a quick fight, which didn't count much for Malfoy's side. He had been using Crabbe and Goyle as body guards for so long that he obviously didn't know how to properly protect himself in a fight. Once Harry felt that his face had been bloodied up enough, he let go and performed the proper charms on him before throwing him into the pile with his friends. Within ten more minutes, all the Death Eaters who had been in the room were tied up in the middle, surrounded by Order Members and D.A. members.

"Good job, everyone." Lupin called out. "Jones, you bring these guys to the ministry and put them in lock down. We'll try to get a handle on the others." He turned to look around now. "Is anyone injured?"

Harry saw Ginny struggling to help Lavender to her feet and he quickly went over to grab her, Seamus at his side. "Lavender?"

Ginny smiled at him. "She's okay. She's got some bad spell damage, but she knows who she is and where she is and she's breathing normally. Dean … is … well the worse for wear, I'm afraid. But I think he'll survive. But Denis is dead."

Lupin nodded and sent another Order member to get the two D.A. members sent to St. Mungo's immediately. He sent Denis Creevey to Hogwarts. Then they headed back out in the chaos. Harry was worried about getting out more than anything because he didn't know what he was going to find left of everyone who had not been in the dungeon with them. Outside of the dungeon there were still an army of Dementors and trolls and giants and werewolves and still more Death Eaters to cope with.

As they came out of the room, running quickly as they headed into the second room in the castle, they found another fight going on. Death Eaters and werewolves were packed into the room, attacking the members of the Order and the D.A. They seemed relieved to find reinforcements as Harry and everyone else quickly jumped back into battle. Harry found himself battling next to Michael Corner who was quite good.

"Damn Harry, good thing you all showed up! I don't know how much longer we could have held them off. The minister's dead."

Harry nodded, taking care of the person he was fighting before helping Michael get rid of his. "Yeah, we're good. He's dead?"

Michael nodded and pointed over to the wall where Scrimgeour was still hanging, chained there and bloodied up. "Some woman was torturing him when we got in, and as soon as we entered she sent a giant in our path and then she killed him and disappeared. We never had a chance."

"Don't worry about it. You did your best." He punched someone in the face as they came barrelling towards him. "What happened to the giant?"

Michael quickly stunned another Death Eater before turning back to Harry. "We sent a few spells at him and he hurried out of the room. I don't know where he went but he didn't seem too keen to be the only one of his kind alone in the room with a bunch of magic people. He left pretty quickly, and then this lot came in." He ducked a jet of blue light that came flying towards him. "We've been here ever since."

Harry nodded. "Thanks for the info, come on, let's round up these suckers."

Michael grinned. "Now that's what I want to hear."

Harry laughed and he quickly yanked Ginny, who was nearby, out of the way as a jet of green light came pelting towards her. "Be more careful, love, I'd die if I lost you."

She smiled up at him. "I will, and same goes, Mr. Potter."

Harry grinned and soon found himself facing Greyback once more. This time, he looked more than hungry, he looked downright pissed off. Somebody had obviously fixed or healed his broken legs while Harry had been absent, but he still looked a little unsteady.

"Well, hello again."

He growled and dived at Harry, who moved out of the way just in time for him to hit the wall. "Mate, you should watch where you're going! You could get hurt diving at people like that." Harry pointed his wand down at him, levitating him up to a proper height and keeping him there so that he couldn't hurt him. "Now, I'd really like to kill you, especially after what you did to Bill, but I'm not going to. I'll just leave you with this little bit of information… he's gone and I did it." Then he put a disapparating charm on him and floated him over into the small pile of other captured Death Eaters.

He continued to fight, trying to ignore the Order members and other D.A. members that he could see on the ground. He didn't know who was dead and who was simply injured, but he didn't have time to check. He shook off the Death Eater he was fighting, adding him to the pile and then he saw Bellatrix Lestrange point her wand at Ginny and say crucio. He was on her in a minute and he pointed his wand, yelling the same curse as it came from his mouth. But unlike that day the ministry when she had simply fallen to the ground, the curse worked. She began to scream as the pain radiated through her body. He heard her screams and for some unknown reason he enjoyed it. He felt Ginny touch his arm, and the guilt of what he was doing rushed through him and he stopped.

"I should kill her."

Ginny nodded. "I know, she deserves it, but don't. I'm okay, look love, she didn't hurt me."

Bellatrix seemed to think Ginny's words were funny because she stood up laughing; an evil laugh that sent chills down Harry's spine. "I heard you screaming little girl. Don't tell your lover what to do … after all, I believe I've hurt his feelings before when I killed my dear cousin."

Harry felt the anger surge through him in one huge wave his power shot from his fingertips blasting her off her feet and into the wall. "Don't you dare talk about Sirius!"

Ginny grabbed Harry's arm, pulling him towards her, but she knew … the anger and hate coming from him was strong. "Harry," she brought his hand to her lips and kissed it softly and she felt the anger drain away a bit, so she kissed his hand again. He seemed to soften and the hate and anger seemed to be under more control now. From the corner of her eye, she saw Bellatrix stand up again and point her wand, but before she could do anything about it, Bellatrix was thrown back against the wall with a powerful spell and when she turned around, Neville was standing there.

"Neville!" Ginny exclaimed as she felt Harry's arms slip around her.

"Leave him, Gin, this is his battle."

Ginny looked up at Harry who nodded at her and they watched as Neville shot the Cruciatus Curse at Bellatrix without even a moment's hesitation. Then before they could watch him do anything else, they found themselves engaged in another fight with eight Death Eaters.

She screamed as she writhed on the floor in pain, but Neville didn't care. He had been imagining this moment since he had discovered that it had been her who had tortured his parents into insanity. That it was her who had taken away his childhood by taking his parents away from him. Seventeen years of hate was welled up inside of him as he pointed his wand at her and he watched her scream. He heard Ginny talking to Harry in the background, but he didn't pay attention, his mind was too focused on the woman in front of him. He remembered Harry's words about not going after her, but he didn't care. She was here in front of him, writhing on the floor in pain and he enjoyed every second of it. Then he felt someone grab his free hand and he turned to see Luna standing there with a knowing and understanding look in her eyes.

"Is this what you want, Neville? To hurt her like she hurt them?" Luna asked in a soft voice.

Neville nodded. "She deserves it. She took them away from me."

Luna nodded. "I know, baby, I know. Kill her then, just destroy her if that's what you want. As long as you can live with it later. She is a human being after all." This seemed to have the effect that she was hoping for because he lowered his wand and watched as the last remnants of the curse ripped through her.

"Could you love a murderer, Luna?"

Luna pointed her wand at Bellatrix, stunning her and placing a disapparating charm on her. "If he was you. Come on; let's let the ministry take care of her."

Neville nodded and leaned down to kiss her softly, before he turned around and joined the battle against the six remaining Death Eaters fighting with Harry and Ginny. As he sent two of them down, he turned to Harry. "You were right … I shouldn't have gone after her."

Harry grinned, sending another Death Eater over into the ministry pile as he now thought of it. "Did it make you feel better to watch her suffer under your hand?"

Neville nodded. "I enjoyed it. That's terrible but … she hurt my parents."

Harry nodded. "I enjoyed it too, Neville. She hurt Ginny, and she killed Sirius."

Neville grinned as he stunned another Death Eater. "Good, then I'm glad we both got a shot at her."

Harry grinned. "Me too."

Then he tossed another Death Eater into the pile and he didn't get to talk much more as he found himself in a tight hand to hand combat with a werewolf. In this wizard, he found himself very well matched, and soon he was rolling along the ground with him as he punched him. The guy scratched him across the arm, ripping his skin open and Harry stunned him, wandlessly, he wasn't risking a chance at being bitten by the guy. He shoved him into the pile and stood up, breathing heavily before he was flung to the ground and jumped from behind.

Theodore Nott stood over him along with another Death Eater that Harry had never seen before, both were punching him mercilessly and Harry was having trouble getting away. Then he bit his lip to keep from screaming when Nott pulled a knife from his pocket and ripped through the cut already on Harry's arm. Harry struggled to push him away, but found the pain in his arm was too intense and he didn't have enough energy to stop him as the knife scraped his side and his friend pointed his wand at his heart. Then they both slumped down on top of him. Harry pushed them off and grinned up at Ron and Seamus.

"Thanks for that."

Ron grinned. "What are we for? Show?"

Harry grinned and stood up, holding his arm as blood dripped from it. "Thanks anyway. Can one of you guys heal this?"

Seamus shook his head. "I would, but I've never been too good with healing charms mate, I wouldn't trust myself to get it right."

Ron nodded. "Me neither. Here," He ripped a piece of material from his cloak and tied it tightly around the cut. "That'll have to do until we can get it healed. Come on, there's only a few more left before we head back out into more chaos."

Harry winced as the cloth dug into him deeply. "Thanks, mate." He grabbed his wand and together the three of them added the two unconscious bodies into the no apparating and unconscious Death Eater pile before going over to help the two Order members with the last two Death Eaters in the room.

"You know I'm surprised that they're sticking around this long," Ron said as he watched a member from the Order put another Death Eater into the pile. "Usually as soon as they lose a few they run away."

Harry nodded. "Me too, actually." He watched as Lupin instructed another Order member to bring the new group of Death Eaters down to the ministry and he grinned when twenty-five members from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement appeared to help.

"What's going on here?" One man asked as he watched Lupin yelling out instructions.

Someone went over to him and explained and soon Lupin was asking around for people who were too injured to fight again. Harry watched as two members of the D.A. were declared dead and he felt his heart sink. He felt Ginny's hand grab his and squeeze tightly in reassurance as if to tell him that it wasn't his fault as two members from the ministry carried Susan Bones and Anthony Goldstein's dead bodies away. Terry Boot, Justin Finch-Fletchley and Hannah Abbott had to be taken to St. Mungo's for treatment. Hannah was in really bad condition, and they didn't know if she was going to make it or not. Three Order members were pronounced dead as well: Dedalus Diggle, Hestia Jones, and Mundungus Fletcher. The Auror that Harry had fought against in his training was down as well, Mallory Davidson, her beautiful blonde hair was streaked with blood as she lay on the ground. Her body was actually broken in half and the sight was sickening to see a human being so torn apart. Once everyone was again taken care of, and moved away from the area, Lupin turned to the crowd.

"For those of you that have been fighting bravely in this room from the beginning, I would just like to say good job. Now let's go take down the rest of this army."

Everyone cheered and followed Lupin out of the room and back outside of the castle. There was only a few Death Eaters left from what Harry could tell, most of them must have run for it when they heard the commotion coming from inside. Then he felt the cold come over him and his nightmare came to mind, the one of Ginny being raped and he closed his eyes to the thoughts, surprised that the coldness had even penetrated through him. Concentrating on the thought and him and Ginny getting married and soon the air was filled with tons of silvery misty animals that charged towards the Dementors, knocking them away and sending them scattering.

"Is there anyway to gather them up?" Harry asked Lupin as he watched his stag charge down some more of them.

Lupin nodded. "Yeah, the ministry knows what to do. See their handling it over there."

Harry nodded as he watched the ministry officials gather up the Dementors with what he assumed was some sort of controlling spell. He wasn't sure exactly what they did, but soon they were gone and they found themselves faced with nothing left but the giants and the trolls. The trolls turned out to be very easy to get rid of. Some ministry officials talked to them and they seemed to agree to whatever they had talked about because they soon left and headed back up to the mountains. The giants realized that they were alone and simply left; leaving the group with a few Death Eaters, who instantly disapparated on the spot when they realized that they were quite alone, and the castle was quiet once again.

Harry pulled Ginny close to him, holding her tightly in his arms as the people around them began to discuss what had just happened. He kissed the top of her head. "Are you alright? You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"

Ginny shook her head no, as her arms stayed tightly wrapped around Harry's waist. "No, I'm not hurt. I was hit with a spell in my arm, but I don't think it's serious."

Harry pulled back, taking her arm out from around him to get a closer look at it. "It looks like a burn, but I think Madam Pomfrey should be able to fix it, so you won't have to go to St. Mungo's."

Ginny nodded and then she noticed the dried blood on his arm. "What happened here?"

"A knife wound on top of a scratch. It hurts like hell. Ron tied this until I could get it healed." Harry explained.

Ginny was already untying it and wiping the blood from his arm. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at his arm, muttering a healing charm. He felt the warmth in his arm like when a phoenix tear hit it and soon his arm was good as new. "There, that should feel better." She pulled out the tiny baby phoenix from her pocket. "Here, I rescued Fawkes for you."

"Thanks." He took the phoenix and placed him in his cloak pocket near his heart and then he leaned down to kiss her softly, taking her hand in his as he pulled her close. A loud 'Ahem' broke them apart and they turned to see Arthur Weasley there.

"Sorry to … well, Harry, the ministry wants to talk to you."

Harry nodded and keeping Ginny's hands tucked safely in his, walked over to where the ministry officials were standing. "Hello."

One of them turned around just as Harry felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned to see Lupin standing next to him. "What do you need to talk to Harry about?" Lupin asked.

The man turned. "About tonight." He turned to Harry. "I understand that you defeated Voldemort tonight, or so I hear. Is he really gone?"

Harry nodded. "I'm pretty sure he's gone. He disappeared in about a million pieces – it was like fireworks. You won't even find a speck of dust left of him down there. He's gone for good this time."

The man smiled. "You really were the Chosen One. Looks like the world owes you a favour, Mr. Potter. Well, I believe that we've got everything taken care of here. Why don't you all make sure that any injuries are taken care of, and get these students back to the school? We'll have a ceremony discussing tonight's events in a few days. Good day."

He turned and left and soon the ministry officials were gone. Ginny's arms slipped around Harry's waist and she looked up at him.

"You're a hero."

Harry nodded. "I don't think that I want to be a hero."

Ginny laughed and reached up to kiss him softly. "But you are, and the whole world is going to know it. You saved the world, Harry, and whether you want to be a hero or not, the world is going to think of you that way. And all the fan girls in the world are going to hate me for ever."

Harry grinned, keeping his arms locked around her. "As long as I have you, I suppose that I can live with it."

Ginny smiled. "You'll always have me."

Harry hugged her tightly as Lupin tapped Harry on the shoulder. "Come on, Harry, I've got some port keys here, everyone get ready to go back to Hogwarts."

Harry nodded at Lupin and he and Ginny reached over to grab onto the port key. Soon he felt that familiar tug at his naval and they were flying away back to the castle.