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"Now, Harry Potter...we will see what you are made of."

Harry quickly shook his head as that voice echoed through his ears. It was early that morning as they all stood before the fireplace ready to head back to Hogwarts. Not to continue their lessons or anything like that, but to fight as Voldemort was getting ready to make his attack. They were so unprepared, and judging by the looks on all their faces, scared out of their minds. They were never going to be quite ready for it, no matter how much they tried to prepare themselves, but this was it and they couldn't run from it. Harry had let Kingsley know via the floo network that Voldemort and his forces were on their way there and Kingsley responded by getting every auror to Hogwarts as fast as possible.

Ron took a deep breath as he looked at his mom, dad, oldest brother and little sister. His whole family was going to be involved in this and one was going to be fighting on the other side. He couldn't stand the thought of possibly losing one of them and to be honest he would rather it'd be him than any of them. He then looked at Hermione and they gave each other nervous smiles as they continued to get ready. Ron wanted to say something to her, but now wasn't the time.

Harry then looked among the group and knew that Malfoy stood out from them all like a sore thumb. Something needed to be said before they left.

"Alright, Malfoy." He began. "Ginny trusts you, so I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. But I'm going to say this, and I want you to hear me."

Draco looked right at him.

"If you try anything, if you stab one of us in the back..."

"We're going to hurt you." Ron finished.

The pale boy smirked as he looked over at Ginny only to see that she looked just as serious as they did. He then looked back at Harry.

"I wouldn't expect anything less."

Harry wanted to then say something to rally them all, to tell them that they would all make through this but he couldn't. He knew that people were going to get hurt, the only thing he could hope was that he could face Voldemort before too many of them needlessly perished. His death was going to be the only thing that stopped this.

Then, one by one they went into the fireplace. Green flames surrounded them as they traveled back to Hogwarts which was now completely on lock down. The youngest students had been put into the Room of Requirements while some of the older students insisted on helping defend the castle. McGonagall wanted to argue with them but couldn't, they were going to need all the help they could get. Aurors had arrived and had taken different parts of the castle to help protect as she walked down the steps to the front entrance, ready to put on the finishing touch.

"This is mad." Slughorn began as he followed her. "If you-know-who is really on his way here then we should be evacuating!"

"We can't run away from this fight, Horace." She responded. "And his name is Voldemort. You might as well say it, because he's going to try to kill you either way."

She then took her wand and casted a spell called 'Piertotum Locomotor.' Suddenly, all along the corridor the statues and suits of armor jumped down from their plinths and came to life. They began stampeding in front of the school and lined up as they brandished swords and spiked balls on chains. McGonagall looked at Slughorn and smiled.

"I always wanted to use that spell."

When Harry arrived he ran through the school until he found Kingsley who explained that he paired people up and were guarding different parts of the school. Lupin and Tonks were at the Astronomy Tower, Mad-Eye was together was Amos Diggory guarding the north and south hallways with Fred and George taking the east and west.

Kingsley placed Arthur and Bill at a place where they would be the most helpful before asking Molly to stay with the younger children. She objected to it at first until her husband pleaded with her to do so. He was getting ready to assign Ginny and Malfoy a spot when they suddenly heard a stampede of footsteps behind them.

Neville was leading Luna, Seamus, Susan, Padma, Parvati, Zacharias Smith, Lee Jordan, Dean Thomas, and Colin Creevy behind him. He smiled as he looked at Harry.

"Dumbledore's Army is together again." Neville began. "We're ready to fight, Harry."

He seemed a little to eager for Harry's liking but he admired his bravery. Neville had certainly come along way since his first year. Neville and Luna had some experience as they were with him last year at the Department of Mysteries. As far as the rest of them went, Harry could only hope that they had been practicing their spells.

"He's really on his way?" Seamus questioned.

Harry took a deep breath. A part of him couldn't believe this was really happening.

"He's already here."

He could feel him, the pain he felt on his scar told him so.

"Maybe if we can hold them off they'll retreat." Dean said, hopeful.

"No." Harry responded. "It won't be that easy. He's here for me."

Since they really wanted to help Kingsley split the group into five and five and sent them off to be with the aurors.

As they all hurried to prepare, Voldemort was standing on hill with his army of followers behind him as he looked upon Hogwarts. Raising his wand, the Dark Lord let out a battle cry as he blasted the shield the protected the school with all his might. Slowly, it started to crumble as the shield boundary was completely destroyed. Those who were standing around the school could only look up and watch as what was keeping the Dark Lord out slowly fell apart. Now the Death Eaters could come forward and make their attack. They all readied themselves as best as they could.

Harry too was watching out a window as the shield fall apart and he thought about everything that had finally led to this. About how throughout his life he had people protecting him from Voldemort. His mother, his father, Sirius, Dumbledore…now they were gone and it was just him. For the first time he had no one to fall back on. He was entirely on his own against him.

Hermione then appeared by his side. The two of them looked at each other for a moment before kissing each other deeply, as if it was the last time they would ever get the chance.

"Stay close to me." Harry directed.

Hermione nodded as Harry then looked back at Ron. His best friend nodded at him, remembering what they had talked about last night. What Harry had asked him to do if he was unable to.

Back on the hill, Voldemort smirked to himself when the last remains of the shield disappeared.

"Now it begins."

A few Death Eaters moved forward but Voldemort stopped them.

"Wait. In chess, the pawns go first."

Suddenly, several trolls nearly twenty feet tall began charging towards the school with large battle axes in hand. As they got closer, thick veins ripped out from under the ground and tied themselves around one of the troll's legs making it fall were more veins appeared and wrapped around the rest of its body, but the other two made it past. They began swinging widely, taking out many of the statues who marched forward and stabbed at the trolls with their swords. One troll took out at least half a dozen of them as the Death Eaters began apparating, hitting parts of the school as they forced their way inside.

Mad-Eye growled just a masked figure came into view. He sent off a stunning spell at him which nailed the Death Eater, sending him crashing right into the wall. Amos too hexed an incoming Death Eater as his son was on his mind at the moment. He had lost him to these monsters several years ago and didn't want anyone else to suffer like he had.

Up ahead in the hallway, two Death Eaters closed in on Colin and Lee who were easily overpowered. Amos eyes widened when he saw it and quickly ran towards them.

"Get back you two!" Amos yelled, forgetting all about the strategy of fighting back to back.

"Amos wait!" Mad-Eye shouted, but the other man didn't listen. He was too caught up in trying to save the kids.

Before he even got close one of the Death Eaters, McNair spun around and fired off the killing curse at him. It struck Amos in the upper right shoulder, he stumbled once before his lifeless body hit the ground.

"No, damn it!" Mad-Eye shouted as he then sent off a powerful curse towards them. It blasted the two masked men right off their feet and he continued sending out curses in every direction like a true mad-man, at this point not really caring who it hit.

"Avada Kedavra!"

A sort gasp escaped his body before his eyes gazed over. Moody had been hit in the back by the killing curse.

He finally dropped to the side, when he fell, Barty Crouch Jr. the man who had just murdered him kicked his wand to the side as his fellow companions began searching the castle for more of the aurors.

Elsewhere, Arthur and Bill were fighting against Avery, Crabbe, and Goyle and were quickly going on the losing end. Bill was then knocked down by a curse when suddenly Harry, Hermione, and Ron came running into view, Harry pointed his wand at the Death Eaters and fired off the multiple stunning spell which nailed all three of them, knocking them out.

"Thank you, Snape." Harry muttered as he turned around and headed back to the great hall, Hermione behind him as Ron went with his dad to check on Bill.

"Harry!" Kingsley yelled when he saw him. "Lupin and Tonks need help upstairs!"

He had already sent Neville's group up but knew that wasn't enough. Harry nodded as he quickly traveled up to the Astronomy Tower. In the meantime, Bill was just coming to when a 'pop' went off behind them causing Arthur to spin around ready to fire a curse only to find himself staring at the face of his very own son in Death Eater robes.

"Percy."

"Hello, Arthur." Percy greeted.

Ron started to shake with rage as he looked at his older brother. He wanted to hex him, his arms was shaking as he pointed his wand at him but something held him back. Arthur then shook his head as he continued to look at Percy, eyes full of sadness.

"You've made a terrible mistake, son."

"Yeah." Percy almost laughed. "I make a lot of those according to you."

"This isn't about some stupid ministry job or promotion." Arthur spat. "You joined the Dark Lord! You helped murder Albus Dumbledore!"

"Yes, your hero Dumbledore. It was my plan, I'm the one who disarmed him, and I would have killed him if my lord had allowed me."

"Your lord! Your lord?! Percy do you even hear what you're saying? Do you know what you're doing!"

"I know full well!"

By this time Bill had come to and was on his feet. The whole battle at been forgotten about by this point as father and son continued yelling at each other.

"Once I started moving up in the Ministry, all I ever heard was, 'You're making the wrong choices!' or 'Why would they hire you for that position after the way you screwed up?' I couldn't possibly have earned the position on my own merit! No! The Minister must want to use me to spy on you!" Percy shouted. "As if you were so important to anyone!"

"You shut up!" Ron yelled, continued to tremble but Bill put a hand on his arm.

"Percy, lower your wand. We can help you-"

"You should join me, Ron." Percy then said, looking towards his little brother. "No one in this family cares about you either."

"That's a damn lie!" Bill yelled, now ready to hex his brother himself.

"Is it? Oh Ronnie, you should have seen moms face when she found out she was having you...the disapointment, another boy. You were always last in line, loved the least. And then when you started bringing Potter around they started treating him like their real son. They treated him better than they treated you, better than they treated me."

Both Arthur and Bill stood in shock, not believing that Percy had actually said that. Ron was now shaking even more as tears had welled up in his eyes and he lowered his wand. Percy grinned, thinking that he had gotten Ron to join him but the younger boy only threw himself forward and punched Percy right in the jaw.

Percy swore and apparated away as Arthur and Bill both grabbed Ron and tried to calm him down, tried to remembered what it was they were fighting for.