The Battle of Hogwarts Begins
We snuck our way down the moving staircase, and I smiled the whole way down. I knew this was no time to be happy, but being back at school was an amazing feeling. I heard Molly and Arthur a few days ago, discussing whether or not they would let us repeat our seventh year or not. I hoped so, because I really wanted to go back. Maybe we could actually have a normal, uneventful year at school, not having to worry about somebody dying or having to save Harry's ass. I had my wand out and ready, and this time I wasn't alone. Everybody was ready. Even McLaggen was being serious. I made my way over to him and nudged him with my elbow.
"I have to say, McLaggen, I'm impressed. I've been back at school for a whole twenty minutes, and you haven't even hit on me once." I said with a smile, and I saw him crack a small one, too.
"Tell you what: If we both make it out of this alive, I'll hit on you again. Deal?" He said, being likeable for the first time in his life.
"Deal. And it's when we both get out of this alive. Not if." He laughed. "But just a fair warning, I do actually have a boyfriend." He looked at me funny.
"Since when?"
"Since last year."
"Who is it?"
"I'd rather not get into it now." I said, avoiding answering him. For some reason, people always seemed to react badly when I told them I was dating Draco Malfoy. McLaggen shrugged, and turned back to the mission at hand. We were nearing the Great Hall, where the rest of the students and teachers and Harry were all gathered. Blaise was in there. I had a lot of friends in there. And although all the people I loved most were either with me here, or back at Malfoy Manor, it still hurt me to think of what the people in there had gone through this past year. They didn't deserve it. As we burst through the huge doors to the Great Hall, some part of me laughed on the inside at how ridiculously majestic we looked, all dramatic and crap. I was glad Fred and George were here with me, because I could guarantee that they were having the same thought. Harry was talking to Snape.
"… You still have a bit of a security problem, Headmaster. And I'm afraid it's quite extensive." We all stood there, backing Harry up, as he stood there, telling off Snape. "How dare you stand where he stood?" And then he started yelling at him. "Tell them how it happened that night! Tell them how you looked him in the eye, a man who trusted you, and killed him! Tell them."
As he finished, Snape pulled out his wand and pointed it directly at Harry. Everyone in my group pulled out theirs as well, ready to defend him, but Professor McGonagall beat them to it. I always liked that woman. She might have been old, but she was just as tough as any of us. Just as much of a fighter. She immediately started throwing spells and hexes at Snape, who just stood there, taking them without a word. Why wasn't he fighting back? He was protecting himself, alright, but he wasn't retaliating. That was strange. She backed him up all the way to the front of the hall, and as he blocked a particularly bad spell, it bounced off and hit Amycus and Alecto Carrow, knocking them unconscious. Good riddance. Suddenly, Snape vanished into a cloud of black mist, and flew out the window.
"Coward!" McGonagall yelled at him. As all the students started to cheer, she turned and put all the lamps back on with a wave of her wand. But soon, everyone quieted down, as the air suddenly got cold, and despite the lights, the room got a little dim. It was almost like the feeling people get when a dementor is around, but it was different somehow. I found Fred and George's hands, and grabbed them, for some reason afraid. And then, we heard a chilling voice coming from nowhere in particular.
"Harry…" It said, and Harry fell to the floor.
"Potter?" McGonagall said, leaning down to make sure he was okay. The room still growing darker, everyone looked around, trying to find the source of this weirdness. And then a girl started screaming at the top of her lungs, and I jumped a little. I couldn't tell who she was, she was too far away. But then another girl started screaming, and I could see that it was one of the Patil sisters. And then we heard the voice again, a voice that I now recognized.
"I know that many of you will want to fight. Some of you may even think that to fight is wise. But this is folly. Give me Harry Potter. Do this, and none of you shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave Hogwarts untouched." Somehow, I highly doubted that was true. "Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded. You have one hour." The lights went back up, and he was finished. There was no way in hell that I was going to let anyone give up Harry. Everyone backed up, so he was left standing alone in the middle of the room. It was still silent, until a shrill little annoying voice started yelling.
"What are you waiting for? Someone grab him!" It was Pansy Parkinson, big surprise. She was standing next to Blaise, and I could see that he was scared. Ginny walked in front of Harry, blocking him from anyone who even tried to lay a finger on him, and we all followed. And of course, me being… well, me, had to say something.
"Shut your goddamn little pug-faced mouth, Parkinson. No one is going to be "grabbing" anyone. Except for me, grabbing your hair, to smash your ugly little face into the w—" someone covered my mouth with their hand before I could finish that particularly violent sentiment. Fred and George were both laughing their asses off, as was Blaise. Pretty soon, we heard filch running into the room, shouting.
"Students out of bed! Students in the corridor!"
"They are supposed to be out of bed, you blithering idiot."
"Oh. Sorry, Mum."
"As it happens, Mr. Filch, your arrival is most opportune. If you would, I would like you, please, to lead Miss Parkinson and the rest of Slytherin House from the hall."
"Exactly where is it I'll be leading them to, Mum?"
"The dungeons would do." I piped up.
"Wait!" I shouted, and everyone, filch and McGonagall included, turned to look at me.
"What is it, Miss Jackson?"
"Don't take Blaise Zabini. He's with me." I said, and Blaise looked grateful. From behind me, I heard Kayla breathe a sigh of relief.
"Very well." McGonagall said, and Blaise made his way over to us. I turned to my friends, who looked a little wary of this decision.
"Anyone who has a problem with Blaise will have to take it up with me." I said, and I suspected my eyes had a little green glow to them. Good. For once, it actually happened when I wanted it to. Fred and George shrugged, and no one else looked like they had anything else to say. "That's what I thought." I said. I turned back around, and Kayla almost knocked me over on her way to Blaise. They hugged like they hadn't seen each other in years, and I smiled. When they were finished, it was my turn. I hugged my friend tightly.
"Nice to see you again, Zabini." I said. He smiled.
"You too, Jackson. Thanks for that, by the way. I can't imagine being stuck down there with those losers while all the fun is happening up here." He said, shrugging his robe off and letting it drop to the floor. Everyone was cheering again, because Filch was leading the Slytherins out of the hall. We walked over to Fred and George.
"Don't worry, Blaise, these two already know everything." I told Blaise. He looked a little embarrassed.
"Everything?" He asked. I nodded.
"Everything." I said, and looked at Fred and George. They were nodding, as if in on some hilariously juicy secret. "I went through the whole Malfoy thing with them." Blaise looked a little relaxed when he realized that my brothers weren't going to kill him just yet.
"Speaking of, where is Malfoy?" He asked, and my face fell a little.
"With his family." I said. Blaise patted my shoulder in a friendly gesture.
"Hey, you know that if he could be here with you, he would be." He said, and I nodded.
"Yeah, I know. Hell, the way things are going, he most likely will show up."
"Yeah, but with the rest of the Death Eaters." The conversation was cut short, because Harry walked over to McGonagall, and we all wanted to hear what they said to each other, so we followed.
"I presume you have a reason for returning, Potter. What is it you need?" She asked.
"Time, Professor. As much as you can get me." He said. She nodded.
"Do what you have to do. I'll secure the castle." He started to walk away, but she added, "Potter… It's good to see you."
"It's good to see you too, professor." He turned to Neville. "Hold the fort, Neville." And he left, followed by me, Blaise, Kayla, Fred, George, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. Everyone else, like the Weasleys and my parents, stayed with McGonagall to help her. As we left the Great Hall, Fred and George stopped me.
"Tal, we're gonna stay and help them. They need us." Fred said, and something inside me broke. I didn't want them to go. But I nodded anyway, because I knew they were right. I hugged them both really hard, not wanting to let go.
"Be safe. If one of you gets yourself killed, I swear to God I will perform some dark magic spell to bring you back to like so I can kill you myself." I said, and they laughed.
"Yeah, 'cause that's totally possible." George said. We parted ways, and I followed the rest of my friends again. Harry was hurrying, and the rest of us were trying to keep up, but then Ron started talking to him.
"Harry! Hermione and I have been thinking. It doesn't matter if we find a Horcrux—"
"What do you mean?" Harry said quickly.
"—Unless we can destroy it." Hermione finished Ron's thought. And then Ron piped up again.
"So, we were thinking—"
"Well, Ron was thinking. It was Ron's idea, it's completely brilliant—"
"You destroyed Tom Riddle's diary with a basilisk fang, right? Well, me and Hermione know where we might find one." Were they crazy? Were they actually going to go down into the Chamber of Secrets? I'd been down there, and it was disgusting. But harry nodded, going along with it.
"Okay… okay, but take this. That way you can find me when you get back." He said, handing them the Marauder's map.
"Where are you going?" Hermione asked.
"Ravenclaw common room. Gotta start somewhere!" He said, hurrying away, leaving us all behind. I turned to Ron and Hermione.
"I think we're going to go see if Neville needs any help. Come find us before you meet up with Harry, alright? He needs all the help he can get. I have a feeling he has no idea what he's doing." I said. Ron nodded.
"When does he ever?" He said, and then he and Hermione hurried away, dodging all the running, frightened people. I ran back down the stairs, followed by Blaise and Kayla, gripping each other's hands. I was happy they had each other at a time like this, and it made me miss Draco even more. We saw Neville and Seamus following McGonagall outside, so we hurried over to them. We didn't hear the first part of the conversation, so what we heard was a little surprising.
"Let me get this straight, Professor. You're giving us permission to do this?" Neville said, looking excited.
"That is correct, Longbottom." She said.
"To blow it up? Boom?"
"Boom!" Wait, what? What were they blowing up? Neville looked even happier.
"Wicked! But, how on earth are we gonna do that?" He asked.
"Why don't you confer with Mr. Finnigan? As I recall, he has a particular proclivity for pyrotechnics."
"I can bring it down." Seamus said, also grinning.
"That's the spirit. Now away you go." They ran away, followed by Cho, and we followed them. I hurried to catch up with Neville to ask him exactly what we were about to do.
"Um, Neville? Can you explain…" I didn't know how to phrase the question exactly, but he knew.
"We're blowing up the bridge!" He said, and Seamus laughed. We were heading for the bridge that went over the water, which lead to Hagrid's hut and the Quidditch pitch.
"What?" I said, completely taken off guard. That was so not what I was expecting. "How are we going to do that?" I asked. Without a word, Seamus waved his wand and a whole mess of explosives appeared in his arms. His face was like a child on Christmas morning. "Seamus? Why the hell do you just happen to have all of this?" I asked, and Neville answered.
"The DA has been messing with the Carrows this year. We've been pulling pranks and stuff on them, which just seemed to make them even angrier and punish us more severely."
"It was awesome." I heard Blaise say.
"Um… duh!" I shouted at him, and he laughed. And when we reached the bridge, we got to work. Seamus handed out his explosives to everyone, telling them what to do and where to put them. We started climbing down the sides, putting them at places where wood intersected. This was so awesome. I was glad I wore good boots for this kind of thing. I looked over at where Blaise was helping Kayla set up a particularly big one, and smiled,
"Why, Blaise, it's so nice of you to offer to help every single one of us with our explosives. But no thank you, I'm fine." I said, teasing him. He gave me his middle finger. I gave it right back. I was about to make a very profane remark, but then we heard Neville shouting at us from above.
"Talia! Come up here!" He said, so the three of us finished what we were on and hurried up to the top.
"What is it Neville?" I asked.
"Hermione sent her patronus, telling you to meet them at the Room of Requirement ASAP." I nodded, and we were off. I was practically sprinting, wanting to get there as fast as possible. I was vaguely aware of what was going on around me; I just knew that I had to find my friends as fast as possible. I needed to help them. When Blaise shouted my name, I stopped.
"What is it?" I asked, a little annoyed.
"I'll meet you there, okay? Just go on ahead."
"But Blaise…" Kayla started, but he cut her off.
"Just go with Talia. I'll see you soon, I promise." He said, and kissed her, and then he left. He ran down a corridor as fast as he could, and I wondered what was so important.
"Come on, let's go." I said, grabbing Kayla's hand, and dragging her behind me. When we reached the floor that the Room of Requirement was on, we ran into Ron and Hermione, looking all wet.
"Why are you guys wet?" I asked them, and they just looked at each other and smiled.
"We'll tell you later. Where's Blaise?" Hermione asked, looking around for him.
"He ran off somewhere, and said he'd meet us there. Come on, we have to go find Harry." I said, and we took off once again. When we finally made it to the Room of Requirement, there wasn't anyone waiting for us. Not Harry, not Blaise.
"Come on, he's already inside." Ron said, and we entered the room to find a vast, cluttered room, filled with trash, and treasures, and just about anything you could think of. It looked nothing like when I had been in here last. It was the perfect place to hide something.
"There's a Horcrux in here?" I asked.
"Apparently." Hermione said, just as awe-struck as I was.
"Good luck finding it." Ron said. We searched for several minutes for Harry. And when we did find him, he had the lost Diadem of Ravenclaw in his hands. You know, being able to hear the Horcruxes came in really handy, even if it was a little creepy. Just as we reached him, we heard a voice from farther down the pathway.
"Well, well." Draco said, and I could've cried with relief, if we weren't to busy fighting to save the world and everything. There he was, with Blaise, and Goyle, their wands raised as if going to attack us. But I knew they wouldn't. It was all just a joke. I ran to them, and threw my arms around Draco, squeezing him with all my might. He squeezed back.
"I thought I'd never see you again." I said quietly to him, and he pulled back to smile at me.
"Looks like you're stuck with me." He said. And then, in an imitation of his old, Malfoy voice, he said, "So what brings you here, Jackson?" and he crossed his arms. I smiled, and did the same.
"I could ask you the same." I said. Blaise raised his hand, as if taking all the credit.
"I brought him here. It was all me." He said, and I laughed.
"Yeah, thanks for that. But why'd you guys bring him?" I said, gesturing towards a very angry, confused-looking Goyle. Draco frowned.
"He followed us."
"Hmm." I said, and we walked back to where the others were. Well, except for Goyle. He just stood there, with that stupid expression of his, as if he still didn't understand what was going on.
"Want your wand back?" Harry said, still not sure where the two of them stood. Draco shrugged.
"Keep it for now."
"Thanks for not telling Bellatrix about me." He said awkwardly, as if it was hard to thank Draco Malfoy.
"No problem. I would've done anything to get Talia out of there." He said, wrapping his arm around my waist. Just then, Goyle walked over to us, wand raised, ready to fire.
"What the hell is going on? Malfoy, quit being a prat and kill them already!" He said. Draco raised his wand at him.
"No, Goyle. Get out of here and go back to the dungeons." He said.
"No!" He said, raising his wand even more.
"Easy…" Draco said, warning him. Hermione raised her wand, and Goyle suddenly turned his on her.
"Expelliarmus!" She shouted, and he dodged it.
"Avada Kedavra!" Goyle shouted at her in return, but it missed.
"Stupefy!" I yelled at him, but that one also missed. Man, none of us were very good shots at the moment. One of the spells rebounded and hit the Diadem, throwing it to the top of a very large pile of junk. Harry watched it, while Ron ran after a retreating Goyle, yelling at him.
"That's my girlfriend, you numpties!" He said, and I looked at Hermione in surprise, seeing the small smile that had appeared on her face.
"Girlfriend?" I asked. She blushed.
"Shut up." She said, and we started to climb after the Horcrux. Harry was ahead of us, desperate to get at it. Draco, Blaise, and Kayla stayed at the bottom, wands raised, ready to defend us from anything. I could see the Horcrux where it was jammed next to an ugly red chair. I knew that Harry and Hermione were almost there, so I jumped back down so stand with the others.
"That outfit's pretty bad ass, by the way." Draco said, quickly glancing at me. I smiled, raising my wand with them.
"And you're looking sexy in your black suit, as usual." I said, and he smiled this time.
"Got it!" Harry said, and he and Hermione jumped down just in time to hear Ron's freakishly girlish scream. Fred and George would definitely hear about this later on. We looked down the way that Ron had gone, to see an orange glow cover everything. And then Ron came running into view, his face terrified.
"Goyle's set the bloody place on fire!" He said, grabbing Hermione's hand, and running past us for dear life. We followed him. I looked back to see that we were being followed by a huge, fire-snake, and started to run a little faster, pulled Draco with me. Kayla and Blaise were ahead of us, and Harry was behind us. When we realized that we'd run faster if we weren't holding hands, me and Draco let go, seeing Kayla and Blaise do the same. Harry caught up to us, almost passing me. He flicked his wand at a stack of stuff, making it fall, hoping it would block the fire. It didn't. It came through bigger, this time in the shape of a dragon. There were a lot of turns where we were heading, and we kept on getting separated. It was down to me and Harry and Draco, and the rest were somewhere else. I made a sharp turn, and tripped, and looked back to see that Draco had been cut off.
"Draco!" I screamed, afraid he had got caught in the fire.
"Come on!" Harry said, helping me to my feet, and pulling me when I didn't move right away. We turned another corner and met up with Ron, Hermione, and Kayla.
"Where's Blaise?" I asked her as we ran.
"Got separated!" She said, just as worried as I was. Next thing I knew, we were trapped in a corner, the fire advancing toward us. It looked like there was no way out. But then Harry threw up a barrier, knocking Ron back, and he fell right into a pile of broomsticks. We immediately started getting on them, but Kayla looked scarred.
"Come on, Kayla!"
"I never learned how to fly!" She shouted, so I pulled her on the back of mine. We flew up into the air, above the fire, and toward the exit. I looked back to see Draco, Blaise, and Goyle climbing to the top of a mountain of stuff. When Goyle fell into the fire, I screamed.
"You guys! We have to turn around! There's going to die!" I yelled, frantic. Harry looked back at them, then at me, and nodded.
"We can't leave them!" He shouted at Ron, who didn't look happy about it, but agreed anyway.
"If we die for them, I'm gonna kill you both!" He shouted as us, but I didn't care. They swooped down, trying to grab them, but missed the first time. But the second time around, when they dived, Harry caught Draco, and Ron caught Blaise. Relieved out of my mind, we started to make our ways out again. I couldn't stop looking over at Draco, making sure he was alright. We finally fell out of the room, and I immediately ran over to him and threw my arms around him once again. Kayla and Blaise did the same.
"Harry!" Hermione shouted, and threw him something. He grabbed it, and stabbed the Diadem, straight through the blue crystal on top, and Ron kicked it back into the room. As it was consumed by the wall of fire, the fire turned into giant flaming heads of Voldemort, coming right toward us. The doors closed just in time, and I felt a wave of heat slam into my face. I turned around, and saw that Harry was having one of those fits he got when he was seeing into Voldemort's thoughts. We gathered around him, waiting for him to come back to himself.
"It's the snake. She's the last one. It's the last Horcrux." He said finally, and we all looked at each other with worry. How the hell were we going to kill that thing? We didn't even know where they were! Ron seemed to have the same thought, and he knelt down to Harry.
"Look inside him, harry. Find out where he is. If we find him, we can find the snake. Then we can end this." He said, and Harry looked frightened. I can't imagine it's very pleasant, being inside that monster's mind. Hermione knelt down next to Ron, and we all followed, giving him encouraging looks. He closed his eyes, and went away for a few minutes. He was panting. It looked painful, and I wished I could help him somehow. Make him stop. But I knew, as well as everyone else, that he needed to do this. I was happy when he finally opened his eyes.
"I know where he is." He said, and we jumped up and followed him. It was a nightmare, everywhere. There Death Eaters battling good guys, and statues, and monsters everywhere. Trolls, giant spiders, and much more. I flung curses at as many Death Eaters as I could, and hoped that I was helping someone. When we made it to the bottom of the staircase, where the battle seemed the worst, I felt myself knocked to the ground. When I looked up to see who had pushed me, I found that it had been Draco, blocking me from a spell that had almost got me. He was dueling the Death Eater that had cast it, and I jumped up, trying to help. But Draco had this one under control, so I turned to find someone else.
"Talia!" Harry yelled, and I saw that they were waiting for me.
"Go on without me! I'm not leaving him!" I shouted, and they left. I looked around and saw Kayla and Blaise both dueling the same Death Eater, and went over to help them. But then something caught my eye. Fred was cornered, getting his ass kicked by someone. I ran over to him, just as the Death Eater was bringing down a wall on top of my brother.
"NO!" I screamed, and knocked the death Eater unconscious, and threw a shield over Fred just as the bricks came tumbling down. It pulled me down with it, trying to keep the shield up long enough to make sure Fred had made it. When it was done falling, and I saw that my shield had protected him, I let it down, dropping my arm. That was exhausting. But, I jumped up anyway, and ran over to him.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt at all?" I asked, frantically checking him to make sure. He grabbed my hands and shushed me.
"I'm fine! Thanks to you." He said smiling. I gave him a smug smile.
"Told you I'd be saving your ass." I said, and he laughed. I turned around to find Draco again, but he had disappeared.
"Where'd Draco go? Did you see where he went?" I asked, afraid someone had killed him. But there wasn't a body anywhere, he was just… not here.
"Nope. I didn't know he was here." Fred said. "Come on, he can take care of himself. Let's go do some fighting!" He said, eager. I cracked a smile, and followed him outside. We instantly got blocked by these ginormous spiders, and had no choice but to take them down.
"I just wish that I could keep one of these to torment Ron with, you know?" He yelled at me, between spells.
"You're a horrible brother!" I said, killing my spider, and moving over to help him with his. When we finished it off, we high-fived, and moved on to another duel. But then I saw something that shocked me down to my core.
"No!" I screamed, seeing Fenrir Greyback, leaning over the lifeless body of Lavender Brown, his face buried in her throat. "Stop!" I screamed at him, and he looked up, angry that someone was interrupting him. But when he saw that it was me, he smiled, blood smearing his face.
"Why, if it isn't my little songbird. I see your neck is healing up nicely..." He said, and I felt Fred grab my arm.
"Don't do it, Tal. Let someone else." But I shrugged him off, walked toward Greyback, and felt my eyes glow green. I looked down at my hands, and they were doing the same thing they did at the party at Malfoy Manor, when I had almost killed all those people. I felt the same power in my head, but this time, I knew what I was doing. And I knew who I wanted to do it to. I took in a huge, single breath, and let out a scream that was ten times worse than the one at Shell Cottage. I raised my hands and shoved them at him, making him fly up into the air and into the valley below the front bridge. I'd be surprised if he survived that fall.
I had killed Fenrir Greyback.
And it felt good.
I calmed myself down again before turning to Fred, and he was smiling when I did.
"That was so epic." I laughed.
"Well, it's pretty dangerous, so you probably won't see me do it again for a very long time." We were hugging when the cold, icy voice of Voldemort came to us just like before.
"You have fought valiantly… but in vain. I do not wish this. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a terrible waste. I therefore command my forces to retreat. In their absence, dispose of your dead with dignity. Harry Potter, I now speak directly to you. On this night, you have allowed your friends to die for you, rather than face me yourself. There is no greater dishonor. Join me in the Forbidden Forest and confront your fate. If you do not do this, I shall kill every last man, woman and child who tries to conceal you from me." After he finished, all his Death Eaters made their way out into the forest. I inched closer to Fred, in case any of them tried anything, but they were silent. Once they were all gone, people started to bring bodies into the Great Hall. Fred turned to me, a grim expression on his face.
"Come on, let's go see who we've lost."
A.N. Fun fact: I've met Tom Felton! It was awesome. It was at Comic-Con in Chicago last August. He was really nice.