AN: Trying to update as much as possible. Once again anything you recognize is JK Rowling's anything you don't is mine.

Ron and I looked at each other for one long moment then ran out of the hall together. There was no way Harry was dead. It just couldn't be!

I gasped sharply the moment Ron and I made it to the doorway. Twenty or so Death Eaters, with Voldemort in the front, were walking towards the castle. The snake was wrapped around Voldemort's neck like a scarf.

I could feel others pressing against me as they came out of the castle but my eyes were only on Voldemort. The snake-like man stepped away from the other Death Eaters to reveal Hagrid who was holding a body in his arms. Great sobs shook Hagrid's body and tears streamed down his face hitting my best friend. Harry Potter, The-Chosen-One, my best friend, was dead.

"NO!"

The scream was more terrible because I had never expected or dreamed that Professor McGonagall could make such a sound. Another woman was laughing, and I knew that Bellatrix gloried in McGonagall's despair.

"No!" Ron and I screamed at the same time. My heart slammed in my chest and a sob tore from my lips of its own accord.

"NO!" Sirius roared jumping forward. Remus wrapped his arms around Sirius' waist to hold him back.

"Harry! HARRY!" Ginny yelled from Mr Weasley's arms. He had wrapped them around her to hold her back. Sobs shook her body and she glared at Voldemort.

Everyone started yelling at once. It was hateful derogatory things but I didn't care. Remus and I were doing everything we could to keep Sirius from trying to take on Voldemort on his own. Suddenly Draco clung to Sirius as he escaped and tried to surge forward.

"SSSSILENCCCCE!" Voldemort cried, and there was a bang and a flash of bright light, and silence was forced upon them all. "It'ssss over! Sssset him down, Hagrid, at my feet, where he belongssss!"

Harry was slowly lowered onto the grass.

"You ssssee?" said Voldemort striding towards the place where Harry lay. "Harry Potter isss dead! Do you undersssstand now, deluded onessss? He wassss nothing, ever, but a boy who relied on othersss to sssacrifice themssselvesss for him!"

"He beat you!" Ron yelled, and the charm broke, and then defenders of Hogwarts were shouting and screaming again until a second, more powerful bang extinguished our voices once more.

"He wasss killed while trying to ssssneak out of the cassstle groundsss," said Voldemort, and there was relish in his voice for the lie, "killed while trying to ssssave himsssself—"

But Voldemort broke off: Neville was running forward his wand pointed at the snake and a he started to shout. Voldemort flicked his wand and Neville fell back onto the ground with a grunt of pain.

Neville's wand soared through the air and Voldemort caught it laughing.

"And who issss thissss?" he said in his soft snake's hiss. "Who hassss volunteered to demonsssstrate what happensss to thossse who continue to fight when the battle isss lossst?"

Bellatrix gave a delighted laugh. "It is Neville Longbottom, my Lord! The boy who has been giving the Carrows so much trouble! The son of the Aurors, remember?"

"Ah, yessss, I remember," said Voldemort, looking down at Neville, who was struggling back to his feet, unarmed and unprotected, standing in the no-man's-land between the survivors and the Death Eaters. "But you are a Pure-blood, aren't you, my brave boy?" Voldemort asked Neville, who stood facing him, his empty hands curled into fists.

"So what if I am?" Neville said loudly.

"You sssshow sssspirit and bravery, and you come of noble sssstock. You will make a very valuable Death Eater. We need your kind, Neville Longbottom." Voldemort said looking over Neville like a proud father.

"I'll join you when hell freezes over," Neville spat. "Dumbledore's Army!" he shouted, and there was an answering cheer from the crowd, whom Voldemort's Silencing Charms seemed unable to hold.

"Very well," Voldemort said silkily. "If that isss your choiccce, Longbottom, we revert to the original plan. On your head," he said quietly, "be it."

My heart pounded loudly in my chest as Voldemort wave his wand. Seconds later, out of one of the castle's shattered windows, something that looked like a misshapen bird flew through the half light and landed in Voldemort's hand. He shook the mildewed object by its pointed end and it dangled, empty and ragged: the Sorting Hat. What in the world?

"There will be no more Ssssorting at Hogwartssss Sssschool," Voldemort said. "There will be no more Housssesss. The emblem, sssshield, and colorssss of my noble ancccessstor, Ssssalazzar Sssslytherin, will sssufficcce for everyone. Won't they, Neville Longbottom?"

He pointed his wand at Neville, who grew rigid and still, then forced the hat onto Neville's head, so that it slipped down below his eyes. I automatically took a step to save him but a pair of arms wrapped around my waist to hold me back. A Death Eater was pointing his wand at me a dark gleam in his eye.

"Neville here isss now going to demonssstrate what happensss to anyone foolisssh enough to continue to oppossse me," said Voldemort, and with a flick of his wand, he caused the Sorting Hat to burst into flames.

I screamed in horror as the fire engulfed one of my best friends. We had to save him! I turned to Draco who was holding me back his face frozen in shock to tell him to let me go but a loud uproar made me freeze. Out of nowhere came hundreds of people swarming over the out of- sight walls and pelted toward the castle, uttering loud war cries. At the same time, Grawp came lumbering around the side of the castle and yelled, "HAGGER!" His cry was answered by roars from Voldemort's giants: They ran at Grawp like bull elephants, making the earth quake. Then came hooves and the twangs of bows, and arrows were suddenly falling amongst the Death Eaters, who broke ranks, shouting their surprise.

In one swift, fluid motion, Neville broke free of the Body-Bind Curse upon; the flaming hat fell off him and he drew from its depths something silver, with a glittering, rubied handle—

The slash of the silver blade could not be heard over the roar of the oncoming crowd or the sounds of the clashing giants or of the stampeding centaurs, and yet it seemed to draw every eye. With a single stroke Neville sliced off the great snake's head, which spun high into the air, gleaming in the light flooding from the entrance hall, and Voldemort's mouth was open in a scream of fury that nobody could hear, and the snake's body thudded to the ground at his feet—

Tom Riddle was mortal!

AN: Please Review! It helps so much more than you realize and motivates me to update sooner.