3SM142
Disclaimer – don't own it, just enjoying running with the Potter gang for a bit.
Chapter 142
Pius lurked around the outside of the entrance of the Department of Mysteries. He didn't enter the circular room full of doors. Standing in there trying to guess the right door was a sure way to get caught by a suspicious Auror or a passing ministry worker. Lurking outside of the circular room was easier. The passageway was not heavily traveled, but if asked why he was standing around the excuse of 'waiting for someone' would not be considered odd.
The old Death Eater 'spy' in the DOM, Augusta Rookwood, had been revealed by Karkaroff during his trial along with Barty Crouch Jr and a few others. However there had been a 'junior' spy that Rookwood had been training and getting accepted into the ministry as a legit member of the DOM. Orinda Axeman had immediately buried all evidence that she might have been working with Rookwood after his arrest. Luckily few knew that she was Rookwood's 3rd cousin.
She sighed as she exited the circular entrance room and spied Pius lying in wait for her. When she had been contacted by Pius with the request for information about the keys to the Hogwarts school gates that had been made during the founder's era she had been a bit uncertain of whether to respond or not.
Still, she couldn't totally ignore a message from Lord Voldemort. She might not have been marked during the last rise of the Dark Lord, but as soon as she had completed her internship at the DOM it had been expected that she would be marked at that time.
Now, although she might still agree with most of the pureblood rhetoric, she could also see that 'the dark' simply wasn't what it used to be. The Dark used to have a goal of some sort … protecting the wizarding world from being destroyed by the muggles. Even before the end of the first rise of the Dark Lord, he'd seemed to have drifted into a killing spree.
Now 'He Who Must Not Be Named' seemed to still want to kill an awful lot of people. She realized that if he purged the world of everyone who didn't mindlessly follow him there would be very few left, she. If he won, the Death Eaters would just have to hope that Voldemort took a few centuries to kill off all the muggles and muggle-borns before he started in on them.
Orinda gripped the parchment with the information on it and frowned. She'd been torn for two days over this, after she had found the information that Voldemort wanted. She flinched at the idea of helping the blood-thirsty Dark Lord get access to a school full of children. On the other hand the thought of assisting Dumbledore in any way made her want to take a shower. She really hated the Headmaster and his blood-traitor followers and mixed-blood buddies.
She forced herself to relax and give Pius a cool smile that went nowhere near her eyes. "This was all I was able to gain access to. I believe it should be enough to get through the gates, but it has been about a thousand years since the keys were made and set with these wards … it's possible that things have shifted."
Orinda may have been a Ravenclaw, but she knew how to be cunning as well. She decided to make both sides 'happy'. She did not want to anger Lord Voldemort … especially if he won, so the information she gave was the beginning of the unlocking spells to the front gates of Hogwarts. It would take them far enough in to frighten the Hogwarts inhabitants and ensure that the Death Eaters would believe she had 'helped' them.
On the other hand, if daffy old Dumbledore won, the spells would not take the Death Eaters far enough through the gate's warding to get her thrown in Azkaban, hopefully. If found out she would plead blackmail and prove that she had all the spells to get through the gates, completely … but had not given them over to the Death Eaters.
Orinda gave over the scroll into Pius' eager hands and disappeared back into the Department of Mysteries while Pius clutched the scroll to his chest and scurried quickly to the Black's stronghold that the Dark Lord had by now completely taken over.
Voldemort looked over the scroll with the information on the wards that were controlled by keys. This type of warding was new to him. It was obviously an older form, from when wizards would only bother to guard the gates heavily with magic and had some other form of wards on walls. Sometimes they just used guard – beasts like manitcores or sphinxes.
Voldemort could see that the information was incomplete. Either Orinda truly could not find all the information, or perhaps the Department of Mysteries did not have it … or she was not really an ally of the Dark Lord after all.
Still the scroll did point out weaknesses in the gates. A team of very powerful wizards and witches could possibly take down the gates to Hogwarts. The problem would be that he would have to send most of his inner circle – the most powerful of his Death Eaters to do this. However, Dumbledore and likely the Heads of the Houses would have to respond to the threat and leave the castle unprotected by the Headmaster.
Yes, even if the gates remained … it would be a win.
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Three days before the students were to leave for the spring break the Dragon Reserve acted. Yuan and Severus had gone over the dragons and their riders, picking out the ones that were the best fighting teams.
Of course a huge percentage of the dragons and riders as well as the dragonkeepers that were not bonded to a single dragon had all volunteered to guard Hogwarts and fight to protect the school. Yuan had to use a great deal of diplomatic skill to sift through the applicants and decide on who would be lying in wait near the school and who would join the battle when the alarm was sounded as well as the ones he would 'encourage' to stay at the Reserve and 'guard' it.
The Headmaster and Hugo Savage had found ten spots around the outskirts of Hogwarts grounds that a dragon and wizard or witch could hide for a few days undetected. Yuan finally narrowed down the group to the handful of fighters that knew how to use their wand and swords to fight. Not an easy ability to use your wand with your dominant hand and wield a sword in the other, but it could be the difference between winning and losing if the fighting was in close quarters.
The others who would fight would have to fly to Hogwarts as quickly as possible after the alarm sounded. A test run by one of the swift young welsh greens and her rider had proved that with one of the airstreams high in the atmosphere they could get to Hogwarts in just under an hour.
Yuan sighed in dissatisfaction. An hour was a long time during battle. It could all be over within an hour. If only they could move the dragons closer to await the signal, but such use of magic would be noticed, if not by the muggles then certainly the ministry or Death Eaters. The magic around Hogwarts would mask the ones hidden there, but trying to hide elsewhere would never work. They had no time to attempt to find other sufficiently magical places to mask the dragons.
At last Yuan got the pairs of dragons and riders organized and sent to Hogwarts. He then turned to go back to his offices only to be confronted halfway there by Beth who was being urged on by Gigi and her three twitchy suitors.
"Gigi wants to go, too." Beth explained rather baldly, while Gigi hovered with a resolute look in her eyes.
Yuan scratched the back of his head while he was joined by a curious Yao, a slightly alarmed Severus and a puzzled Tom.
Yuan eyed the determined Horntail and hummed in consideration. He did not doubt that Gigi and her boys would be invaluable in a battle, but he did not like it that there would be no rider to keep her from attacking too soon or perhaps mistake a friend for a foe.
Gigi guessed at Yuan's concerns and Beth again piped up. "She says she doesn't need any human to tell her who is a friend or a foe. Plus, she is probably going to be going after dementors and giants mostly, so you don't need to worry." Beth relayed Gigi's huffy statements in nearly the same tones as Gigi sent them to the small child.
"We've already filled all the hiding spots we found." Yuan began, wondering what Gigi's plan was.
"Hazelette says that they can all hide in her cave at Hogwarts. It is a bit cramped but no one would look there." Beth beamed happily at Yuan while Gigi tried to glare Yuan into submission from over Beth's shoulder.
Yuan considered this. Hazelette was now a fixture at Hogwarts. She simply couldn't take flying back and forth between the Reserve and the school several times a year and she preferred the doting care she received from Hagrid.
Yuan finally nodded. "Gigi, you may do this. But only if you promise to keep your fury in enough check to be a help and not a hindrance. We don't need you running amok, even among Death Eaters." Yuan hoped he sounded sincere in his statements. Remembering Hazelette dispatching McNair made him wonder if a few amok dragons might not be a good thing.
Beth tipped her head far back to look at the balefully glaring Hungarian Horntail. Severus watched with a mix of amazement and nervousness. Every time he saw his tiny daughter with the dragon who had chosen her, he had to reconcile himself to the pairing all over again. It just seemed so impossible that the dragon was no danger to his daughter.
"Gigi says okay, but it won't be easy. She doesn't like Death Eaters and is quite jealous that Hazelette was allowed to chew on one and she hasn't had the chance." Beth beamed at Yuan brightly since she likely didn't understand exactly what Gigi meant by 'chew on'.
Yuan and Yao agreed to the plan and with a cheerful farewell to Beth, Gigi and her entourage of three worried males started bunking with Hazelette. They quickly dropped into the half-doze half- awake mode of a predator waiting for its prey to wander by. The dragons could maintain that for about a week and then hunger would drive them to go hunting. They had gorged on goats before leaving the reserve, so they would not feel hunger at all for several days and this would be over with within a day or two anyway.
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The day before the students were to leave for spring break dawned cloudy, with a forbidding sky and chilly breeze. Albus and Hugo were nervously counting down the hours, pacing in the Headmaster's office. Lucius had abandoned Remus to antagonize Umbridge alone while Lucius paced around the entrance hall and wandered in and out of the great hall. He sensed that today was the day and Severus soon joined him, trailed by Tom.
The Dark Lord was coming and he would want to make a grand entrance and likely would end things here, in the great hall where he could make the most memorable scene for the history books.
Voldemort's allies slowly made their way toward the school, trying to not alert the centaurs or unicorns. Fenrir Greyback led his now quite small pack down the tunnel from Hogsmeade to where they would enter the school on the fourth floor. Blaise and his pack of supporters had finally cleared the rockfall and Neville had dutifully reported that to the Headmaster by way of whispering to Pansy, who then passed it on to Harry and Draco.
Now Fenrir was poised at the bottom of the stairs, eagerly awaiting the signal to attack. He was literally drooling in anticipation of the massacre to come. Oh, that Dark Lord had said he wanted most of the children spared to use as hostages. Fenrir smirked. Who knew what could happen in the haze of the coming battle, though?
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Bellatrix and her sister Narcissa approached the front gates of Hogwarts, accompanied by the elder (and now only) Nott who had an uncomfortably insane glint in his eyes. Yaxley and Rookwood slouched behind them. Rookwood, at least, knew that the chances of them bringing down the gates was rather insultingly small. They were there as a distraction and Rookwood had spent too many years in Azkaban to want to just be just a distraction even for the formidable Headmaster. After Rookwood explained the situation, Yaxley was equally unenthusiastic.
There were several younger Death Eaters behind the main five. They would be unlikely to add anything to the spells to bring down the gates, but they could cast spells to both protect the five main attackers and, hopefully draw any fire away from them from the defenders.
Bella and Nott, with a sneering Cissa, immediately started attacking the gate. Narcissa fully intended to assist Bella in the attack in the gates, however the moment the gates were either breached or when the attack was stopped, she intended to go after her own target … Malfoy Manor and the living breathing insults to her, Lucius' new squib wife and his bastard daughter – Petunia and Victoria.
The moment the group attacked the gate the wards alerted Albus, who took a deep breath. It was almost a relief to have the beginning of the end appear. One way or another, this battle would be done with. Albus gestured to Hugo and they activated the charmed bracelets that all the members of the Order in the castle and those allied with the Order had on them.
Albus frowned as he realized that the front gates were the point of attack. No one was supposed to know how the warding on the gates worked, so they shouldn't be tearing at the wards so very effectively. He shook his head; they would have to find out how Voldemort had come into the information after the battle, assuming they survived to do so.
Minerva appeared up the stairs just as Albus was fleeing down them to run to the front gates. Minerva started making the overhead announcements that classes were canceled and students were to immediately go to their dorms. Hugo sprinted to hallway full of classrooms containing sixth and seventh years and quickly grabbed the lot that they had approached beforehand to join them in the battle.
The first assignment the students had was to get the others to their dorms; especially the students they thought might join the Death Eaters in the battle. To their dismay, many of those were absent from classes that day. They had been aware of when the attack would be, obviously. Albus' recruits quickly turned to their next assignments … half of them ran to back up Dumbledore at the gates and the others went to check the dorms and do a headcount, and find missing students if needed.
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Fenrir and his group, which was a mix of the remnants of his old pack and some new rogues from Europe and America that were looking to create havoc wherever they could, were joined by the lesser talented Death Eaters like the Carrows and well as those that were too demented from Azkaban to be very effective. Worst of all Pettigrew had been thrown into the mix. Fenrir wasn't sure if he was supposed to be the Dark Lord's eyes and ears or if Voldemort hoped that the little rat was killed. Truthfully, Fenrir didn't care. He would do as he wished, anyway.
Fenrir knew that Dumbledore's group likely knew that a group was planning to enter by way of the tunnel and they would be facing an immediate ambush on arrival but he wasn't concerned. He could defeat any weak – chinned teacher or wet-behind-the-ears student.
It was still two days before a full moon so all the werewolves were rather uptight. Fenrir, of course, spent most of the time partially transformed as he rather reveled in the terror he inspired.
Neville had thought he would be told ahead of time about the attack, but was in the library doing a charms essay when the alarm sounded. He raced toward the fourth floor wondering if he should join the fight against Voldemort's underlings or reveal his allegiance to the light. He would just have to see what he was faced with.
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Dudley waited impatiently down in the kitchens with the elves. The Creevey brothers and a few other Gryffindors along with Dora and a handful of young Aurors waited with him. The tunnel that Fenrir was sneaking in through was big, but trying to hold a pitched battle would be madness. They intended to hit the middle of the group, cutting their force in half. The front group would be ambushed when they exited the tunnel. The rest would be cut off and driven back by Dudley's group.
Dudley smiled smugly. His group. He was quite proud that he had thought of using the house elves kitchen entrance from the tunnel and the house elves themselves as a means of attack. He'd recruited the other Gryffindors and grabbed Dora and her group as they came down from the Headmaster's floo.
A small elf popped in and squeaked, "The attackers have reached the door. It is time."
Dudley nodded and the elves tripped the lever that opened the large door that the carts had brought supplies through in medieval times. The line of invaders froze and turned to look at the brightly lit entrance like spotlighted deer. To Dudley's disgust he recognized several students who had only graduated the prior year.
Dudley and the Creeveys charged forward, flanked by screeching elves who cast spells to throw the invaders around the tunnels and were waving alarmingly large butcher knives and meat cleavers. Dora and the three Aurors with her hustled behind them, hoping the battle wasn't over before they got off a hex.
The Carrows and a few other Death Eater escapees from Azkaban were just in front of the attack from Dudley and they quickly hustled after the werewolves who hadn't even glanced behind them.
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The Centaurs and Unicorns moved through the trees of the forbidden forest, not really together so much as simply going the same direction. They had known the battle would be soon. The Centaurs had been watching the 'heavens' and the shower of falling stars the night before had foretold the deaths of many that were to occur very shorty.
The unicorns simply sensed the encroaching darkness and of course the presence of dragons lurking nearby was not lost on any of them.
Ruth and Heather Black, along with Oliver charged across the grounds to the forest. They had flooed through to Hogwarts when the alarm sounded and hurried to alert the unicorns and help direct them during the upcoming battle. The three quickly were mounted on three older lead mares that controlled the forest herds.
The Centaurs and Unicorns formed a loose line near the edge of the forest, facing toward the forest and the oncoming attackers. The thirty or so giants and the remaining dementors from Azkaban could be seen approaching them. Acromantulas ranging in size from small dogs to large cars soon joined the charge.
The centaurs shot off their arrows with good effect against the smaller spiders, but the few that struck the giants were barely noticed by them as they paced by, intent on getting to the castle. The unicorns quickly struck and downed some of the dementors who were foolish enough to try to slip by amongst the trees; the remainder quickly flew to above the trees where the infuriated unicorns could not reach them.
The centaurs continued to fire on the spiders and the herd broke into three parts, two of the herds flanking the centaurs and the third following the fleeing dementors.
The bigger spiders were impervious to the arrows, even the ones the centaurs set on fire. It took several unicorns to bring the bigger ones down and there were a few casualties among the unicorns from them. Nevertheless, they only stopped about half of the really large spiders from getting through. Aragog and his mate had been annoyingly prolific.
Lupin had let Dex and any werewolves from the colony who wished to join the fight through the floo before he had run to the fourth floor to head off Fenrir's group. Half the troop followed Lupin and half followed Dex to the grounds and ran to stop the advancing line of Acromantulas.
Gilderoy Lockhart had been swept up in the rush to defend Hogwarts, dismayed to find himself unable to bow out gracefully. Gilderoy had become rather enamored with a shy and rather retiring werewolf named Rosalind. She was quietly pretty with mousey coloring and delicately built. He would never have noticed her if he had not seen her smile. He had to admit that she had him at the first happy grin she had aimed at him.
When she had run to defend the castle full of students Gilderoy had no choice but to follow. If Rosalind was racing to a cruel death he had no choice but to share it. Screaming and whining the whole way, of course, but share it he would.
All too quickly Gilderoy found himself just behind Rosalind as she leaped in front of an enormous spider who, to his terrified eyes, appeared to be roughly the size of an elephant. Rosalind valiantly cast some saber-spells at the monster, and even managed to cut off one of its eight legs. The spider let out an angry screech and struck the werewolf, making her cartwheel to one side with a yelp of pain.
The pained cry shook Gilderoy out of his frozen terror and into action. In a burst of uncharacteristic bravado, he jumped in front of Rosalind and cast the spell Tom Riddle had shown some of the students during a DADA class that the two of them were humiliating Dolores in.
"ARANIA EXUMAI!" Gilderoy squawked in rather high-pitched tones, panic lending force to his spell and actually tumbled the spider backward and down a hill-side.
"Oooh, good one, Gilderoy." Rosalind beamed at him in surprised amazement, making him forget for a moment that he and his new silk robes and freshly groomed hair were in grave danger, at least until he noticed another eight-legged behemoth headed their way.
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Voldemort apparated to outside Hogsmeade, with the shrieking shack in sight and strolled toward the rickety old wreck, his troops trailing in small groups behind him. As each group went through the shack another would apparate to the outskirts of Hogsmeade. With luck, no alarms would be tripped by small groups.
He took his time going through the shack and they could only go through the tunnel one by one anyway. He wanted to give the dark creatures time to create chaos and the distractions of Fenrir and the attack on the gates to draw away Dumbledore and some of the more skilled fighters.
Once they exited the whomping willow and had destroyed the attacking tree with some blasting curses, Voldemort summoned the trolls that they had set compulsions on. There really had been very few spells that were effective on trolls. Mostly very high-powered blasting or cutting curses were traditionally what had been used on trolls.
Confundus spells were difficult because, well, trolls didn't have much in the way of brains to confound in the first place. Quirrell, though had reworked the spell to work on the trolls a bit like the Imperious curse. Voldemort smirked happily. Ah, Quirrell. An utter dunce in some things, but by Jove, he'd known his trolls inside out.
Now the trolls were being used as herd beasts for the Inferi that Voldemort had transported there. The Aurors had eradicated the Inferi in the cavern that had housed the locket horcrux. Voldemort had been disturbed by that when he'd discovered the locket and the Inferi he'd set to guard it gone, but that had been just a few days ago and he simply hadn't the time to do more than crucio a few underlings over the outrage.
He would have to make another horcrux to replace that, but first he would destroy Harry Potter and the traitors that were aiding him. He had wanted to kill Lucius and Severus slowly in view of the wizarding world, where he could terrify people with the spectacle. That was unlikely to happen, now. They would likely die in the battle. Neither wizard was the sort to surrender and they were too skilled in dueling to be captured.
Voldemort was still unsure of what to do about Tom, his heir. He'd finally decided to down the wizard without killing him, if it could be done. Tom would be standing at the 'chosen one's' side, no doubt. He would find a way to turn him, later. If not, well, he was well-known enough to make a good 'example' with a public execution, if needed.
Meanwhile, he had been relieved to find that the adjoining cavern still had Inferi patiently waiting for their master to return. A smaller group, only three hundred or so, but enough to help overwhelm the defenders of Hogwarts in the coming battle.
The Inferi had all been brought to the edge of the forest near the shack by holding long ropes that had been turned into portkeys and then herded by the trolls toward the castle grounds with orders to kill anyone without a dark mark that they found. The Death Eaters knew to show their mark if they were unskilled enough to get cornered by an Inferi.
The dragons had come out of hiding and were disappointed to find only giant spiders in the general area that were already being mowed down by unicorns and centaurs. Then they spied the wave of Inferi and the trolls herding them along with a line of giants slowly lumbering in the direction of Hogwarts and their interest in the battle took an upswing. They hurried to gleefully employ their fire against the shambling wrecks headed toward Hogwarts.
Voldemort cursed a bit as he edged across the grounds toward Hogwarts. He'd been sure that it would take time for dragons to reach the school. There had been no sign of any nearby except for the elderly Welsh Green. Still, the defenders were being kept busy; including Dumbledore, whose spellfire at the gates could clearly be seen even at a distance.
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Umbridge heard the announcements by McGonagall right along with the students. It was the sixth year class and she eyed the one or two students in that class that were working with her and then escaped out the back of the classroom before Remus could say anything.
Remus frowned and headed from the second floor classroom, heading toward the 4th floor and the entrance to the tunnel. He knew from what Neville had said that Fenrir was intending to come through that entrance, followed by who knew what. Voldemort had managed to keep the information of where he intended to make his grand entrance from his minions at Hogwarts, but Remus doubted it would be through the tunnel … simply not grand enough.
Remus, Lucius and Sirius reached the hall stretching down to the alcove with the mirrored door fairly quickly. Neville was there, along with Blaise, Goyle and Crabbe who were opening the door for the werewolves and the Carrows. A rat scurried behind them and managed to duck behind some tapestries before he was spotted.
Immediate chaos ensued, with Fenrir charging at the three with half his pack following him. The three kept the werewolves at bay, but they were pushed back along the hallway and away from the stairway, leaving it open for the Carrows and the rest of the pack to race down into the castle.
Lucius and Sirius gritted their teeth and managed to break through some of the werewolves' shields and kill a pair of them, while Remus physically shoved Fenrir back hard enough for him to crash through the railing and fall down … unfortunately landing on a staircase instead of suffering a fatal 4 story fall.
Lucius and Sirius charged down the stair after the werewolves and Death Eaters that were running into the hallways in search of victims. Neville had taken the opportunity to dart behind a tapestry when Blaise and his two shadows snuck down the stairs behind the older combatants. From there he watched while Umbridge cut off Remus as he started to follow them all.
Umbridge watched with satisfaction as Remus flinched away from her. She'd been planning this since the humiliating classes had started, with a subhuman half-animal werewolf as her principle tormentor. She had ducked into her quarters in the back of her classroom for a quick change before finding her target.
Dolores now had silver rings on all her fingers, wide silver bracelets and a thick silver choker around her neck. Her robes were shot through with thick silver thread. It was heavy, but she could see Remus pale and twitch as she got closer. She shot off a few hexes that Remus tried to block, but he could barely think with Moonie howling in terror and pain in the background.
Dolores smiled rather sweetly at Remus and simpered out a few insults. "Not so smug and smart sounding, now are we? You're howling like the animal you are." She cast a bombarda, throwing Remus into a corner. But she advanced too closely and Mooney now felt trapped. Even covered in silver, Dolores was now his target. Remus swung his arm at her, amber eyes frantic with a panicked werewolf looking out at him.
Remus had never had any bodily changed outside of the full moon, so it was with a sense of horror that he saw that his hands were now clawed and looked a bit more like paws than hands. He'd always kept Mooney well-caged outside of the full moon. Now Mooney had him completely out of control. He watched Dolores' face change from malignant satisfaction to terror as the claws raked her and the blow threw her into the wall, stunning her.
Neville watched from behind the tapestry, a bit worried for his old Professor. Lupin had always been kind to him but he was also quite afraid of the clearly out of control werewolf. Something scrambled down by his feet and with a disgusted grunt he kicked the rat out into the middle of the hallway.
Remus had just started to gain control of Mooney, now that Dolores and her silver encrusted outfit were further away from him. But as he caught sight rat, Pettigrew, both Lupin and Mooney were united in a rage aimed at this traitor to the pack.
Peter had been watching Remus' torture with a certain amount of glee. Bloody 'holier than thou' marauder that Remus was. Then he found himself kicked into the hallway and facing a partially transformed Remus. Remus started scrambling toward him and Peter popped back into a human form, waving his wand at his former friend nervously. A flinch from Mooney when he put his left hand out to try to stop the marauders charge reminded him that he had a hand made of silver, now.
Instead of casting a curse, Peter simply grabbed Remus by the throat with his silver hand. It was difficult for him to hang onto the writhing, screaming werewolf, but Peter knew his life was in the balance.
Neville watched with a sinking heart as Remus turned red, then purple as his air was cut off and the silver started poisoning Remus' blood. He'd hoped to ride out the storm out of sight, but he couldn't leave his old Professor to this fate. When Remus started an alarming gurgling noise, Neville rushed out, grabbing a sword from a nearby suit of armor and swung it at Peter's head like he was trying for a home run.
He immediately felt a bit queasy at the spray of blood and brains that covered his robes. Maybe he should have used a curse, but the two wizards were too close and in the middle of a wrestling match. However Remus was now covered in blood and brains as well and would have looked fearsome if he wasn't also crumpled on the floor and breathing in shallow gasps.
Neville kicked Peter's body out of the way and levitated Remus and headed toward the infirmary, pausing long enough to break Dolores' wand under his heel as he passed her, still moaning, on the floor.
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The dragons in the meantime burned out the Inferi as fast as possible, but they had to burn them one at a time, so it was still slower than they liked. The trolls stopped herding the Inferi and started attacking the defenders instead and were soon joined by the slower-moving giants.
Gigi and her suitors left the Inferi and the trolls for the others and made straight for the giants. The dragons coming from the Reserve would arrive soon, she thought. They quickly took down one of the giants in the lead, hitting him hard and literally shredding him with their claws and not bothering to even use flames.
This gave the other giants pause and some shuffled around uncertainly. They hadn't signed up for this. The rest lumbered on, and eventually the others followed even more slowly. Gigi and the boys switched to strafing runs of fire but it took several blasts to really kill each of them, so it was slower than she liked.
There were still six of the giants left when they were nearly to one of the courtyards just outside of the castle. One of Gigi's males flew too close to a giant, trying to cut him off and the giant's club caught him and he crashed to the ground. The dragon didn't panic, though. He had a wing injury, but he still had claws, teeth and flame. He reared up in front of the courtyard with wings spread and let loose with his best stream of fire. The giant howled, but lunged forward and grabbed the dragon by the neck, cutting off his air … and fire. The dragon frantically raked at the giant and bit whatever he could reach, but the giant was desperate as well and the dragon finally went limp in death.
Gigi and the other two males raced to the other dragon, but they were too late. Gigi was even robbed of revenge as the giant was also dead from the flames and the deep punctures. Gigi immediately went on the offensive, attacking the remaining five giants with reckless rage. The giants had robbed her of one of her boys and they would pay dearly. None of the giants would leave alive.
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Harry and Draco had been in History of Magic, listening to a lecture on Grindelwald's interactions with the German army and how much he had truly influenced events. Hermione and Professor Pucey were in the middle of a rather heated debate regarding the London blitz when the announcement interrupted them.
Harry's stomach twisted into knots for a time, but at least it would soon be over with and done. He and Draco waited until the schoolroom had emptied and then made their way towards the front entranceway and the Great Hall. They passed a hallway the was crowded with a mass of Devil's Snare that was tightly wound around several werewolves.
Nearby an exhausted Professor Sprout was being looked after by some upper-year Hufflepuffs. Throwing some seeds down and using her magic to make them grow instantly and capture the attacking werewolves had drained her badly.
They did stop to cast a few hexes at the Carrows and the rather demented Azkaban escapees. They were cornered near a staircase that Cho Chang and Mafalda Prewett had spelled to refuse to move so the Death Eaters couldn't use it to leave the area.
The Weasley twins and Argus Filch, along with several Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were keeping them confused and confined with Fred and George's inventions that they were thinking of marketing. Argus Filch embraced the canary creams and their similar items – the 'mousse mooses' and 'penguin patties' with enthusiasm when he realized that he didn't need magic to make them work, he just needed to throw them and whoever he hit turned into one of the animals for about five minutes. He had heard the twins were looking for a backer to open a store after graduation and he was now resolved to survive the battle and go into business with them.
It was a little unnerving to watch the usually dour squib enthusiastically hurling the pranks at the Death Eaters under cover from the twin's shield spells. They had found that Argus had an amazingly accurate aim.
Harry and Draco inched past the combatants and then got past some other skirmishes between students that were recruited by the Headmaster and Hugo and the students that supported the Death Eaters. They reached the front entrance where Severus and Tom were waiting just as Lucius and Sirius also ran to join them.
Harry looked at his father and brother. "We shouldn't wait for him here, all the students are in here."
Severus nodded once and strode toward the large entrance doors and flung them open with a wave of his wand. They could see Voldemort coming across the lawn as they left the school.
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A/N – I had intended to get the whole battle done in this chapter, but it's already pretty long. Plus I keep going back and rewriting it, so I'm posting it before I redo it again.