The battle raged fiercely. Hogwarts was slowly being torn, blasted, smashed, and spelled into pieces. The defenders were beginning to despair - even if Harry Potter managed to find and kill Voldemort, they would still have to contend with his followers, and they were quickly losing ground. It was into the middle of this chaos that a young woman walked, a sword in her hands, her head held high.
At her side stalked a centaur, taller and stronger than almost anyone had ever seen. The centaurs of the Forbidden Forest, however, had not forgotten the strange human foal and her centaur friend. They bowed in deference to their regal kin.
A sort of hush fell on the battle as more and more creatures began to appear, coming from the forest. First it was a legion of centaurs, tall and strong like Oreius. Then there was a host of new creatures - half man, half goat. A howl went up and a number of wolves - real wolves, not weres - came rushing through the trees. Following them were a number of large cats, all growling. The sound of wings in the sky caused heads to turn up, and everyone saw a great many winged creatures - gryphons, eagles, hawks, and owls - descending on the grounds. Some very small people appeared next, but no one was able to get a really good look at them. A few giants trundled out of the woods, huge clubs that looked to be made from entire trees resting on their shoulders. Last of all, a herd of horses, tall, regal, and proud, trotted out of the forest and pranced through the ranks to stand in the front of the new host, near the centaurs.
The two sides stared at the newcomers, and all fighting had ceased.
The girl quickly scanned the centaurs that were native to the area, and then her eyes lit up.
"Arphad! I am glad to see that you are well. Here, my father has sent some reinforcements. I trust that my men can be useful?"
With a shriek of rage, Bellatrix LeStrange cast a random crucio into the crowd of new creatures. Instantly one of the little people bent a sturdy-looking bow and sent an arrow through her heart, and the poor faun that had been hit with the torture curse relaxed. That seemed to be the catalyst, as the fight began anew. This time, however, it was becoming clearer and clearer who was going to win. In fact, the witches and wizards mostly limited themselves to shielding their new allies, rather than actually fighting.
Eerie screams rang out above the fighting as the aerial reinforcements dove at the enemy, slashing them with sharp talons or flinging them high in the air to be killed by sharp beaks. When the Death Eaters tried to fly around in their weird black smoke forms, the newcomers would knock them from the air.
On the ground, the giants had engaged with the (much smaller) version of their own people that Voldemort had brought. A couple also took out after the trolls, smashing them to the ground and breaking their skulls with the great clubs.
No one stopped fighting to see Harry Potter kill Voldemort. They only knew that he was dead because suddenly every Death Eater fell to the ground, writhing in agony. Still, even with those fighters out of commission, there were rather a lot of enemies to be taken care of.
The fight lasted till the dawn, and then it was all over. The surviving leaders of light gathered around the young woman that had brought such aid to them. No one seemed to have any idea who she was - she had greeted that centaur, but he wasn't saying anything - and they were quite ready to find out.
The girl was setting her men in order with the aid of the tall centaur that had stayed at her side all through the battle. They were leaving, everyone realized, as though they had come only for the battle and now considered their role over.
"Not to seem rude - but who are you?" Ron asked - ever the diplomat.
"Oh. I am Cowesse."
The centaur beside her gave her a look.
"Right. Sorry. I always forget to give my human name, not my herd name. I am Princess Hanna, daughter of High King Peter, who has more titles than anyone should ever have to deal with. I have rather a lot myself, but I prefer to just be called Cowesse. Or Hanna, if you absolutely must."
Her speech left everyone except Hermione Granger rather confused.
"High King Peter? The legends are true then - there is an alternate universe containing the land of Narnia?"
The girl's eyes lit up. "I see you know my father's name. I shall have to tease him endlessly about that. I really must hurry, though. He is waiting anxiously for me - he couldn't come past the lamppost himself, but allowed me to come and bring help. We've been watching you all for quite some time. There is a hermit up in Archenland who - you know what, never-mind. That's not relevant. But when I heard how the battle was going, I had to do something. The centaurs were so kind when I came here before, and I couldn't just let everyone die. So I went to Father, and he eventually agreed - he wasn't reluctant because he didn't want to help, but because he's always worried about me - and we came. I'm just glad that we were able to help."
Minerva wondered when, if ever, this girl took time to breathe.
"We are most thankful for your kind assistance." The Gryffindor Head of House said formally.
"I wish we could have come sooner. We might have saved a few lives - but what is done is done." She said firmly, as if to reprove herself. Then she turned to the centaur. "Everyone ready?" She asked.
"Yes." He returned.
"We'd better go, then." She decided. "Before Father sends a search party after us." She pulled a necklace off her neck, and held it out to Ron Weasley. "Here. I can't do much, but I can do this. I know that your brother was hurt. If there's even the smallest part of him that still lives, this can heal him. Break it, and pour the drop of liquid inside into his mouth. One drop of Fireflower juice can heal anything, as long as life remains. I'm sorry, I only have one."
With that, there was a virtual whirlwind of strange creatures leaving, and then all the newcomers were gone from Hogwarts.
Ron ran as fast as he could back to the Great Hall and, trembling, carefully broke the small crystal of the necklace. He was lucky that he managed to catch the drop of liquid inside on his finger before it fell to the floor and was lost. He wasn't quite sure how to get the drop into his brother's mouth, and eventually just stuck his finger in - weird as that seemed...
His family was watching silently, trying to figure out what he was doing, as none of them had been present for the conversation with the Princess.
He sat there staring at Fred for several minutes before deciding that it hadn't worked. With a yell, he stomped on the remains of the crystal from the necklace and stormed toward the doors of the Great Hall.
"Oi. What are you all staring at me for? Don't tell me I'm holey too."
Ron stopped, and George let out his own yell before practically attacking his twin with a bear hug.
I had to do it. I didn't originally intend for this to be any more than a one-shot, but then I started working on the second part...And I couldn't just let Fred die, not if Fireflower would save him. But I thought that saving everyone was kind of overkill, so I didn't. Does that make me a bad person?