Once again it took me ages to re-publish this chapter – I apologize!
By now I have finished my MA (cant believe that I started writing this when I was still in high-school hahah) and hope to have more time after work. Still, this work entails moving to Burma, so we shall see whether I can even access this site...
Thank you for reading until thus far. Any feedback is still greatly appreciated!
May the leaves on your path never turn brown!
Chapter 20: Is he Dead?
All the sixth and seventh year students and their teachers slowly went outside to not only face their destiny, but possible that of the entire wizarding world.
Although Voldemort was nowhere to be seen, his followers were. And what many followers he had. About two-hundred Death Eaters and around forty Dementors were lined up before them.
Most students grouped together, taking comfort in each others presence.
For a moment both parties watched each other carefully, waiting for some kind of sign to begin the fight.
Dumbledore took the advantage and cast the first spell. He decided to aim for the dementors, knowing that although most of the Death Eaters were very skilled in the Dark arts, the dementors would affect the students more.
As soon as the spell was released the battle began. People ran, ducked, casted spells, got hurt and even died. In other words: it was complete chaos!
Severus figured that he had to decide now whether he would stay a little to the side, or reveal to his fellow Death Eaters that he actually was a spy for Dumbledore. The latter seemed the best idea to him, as he realized that the students and teachers were already outnumbered as it was and could probably use all the help they could get. Besides, the conclusion of this fight would reveal whether it was true that good always triumphs evil.
He took off his hood and mask, turned around and cast the cruciatius curse on the nearest Death Eater. The man looked at him in shock, before he lost all common sense and started to scream and writhe on the ground. Other Death Eaters alarmed by the sudden screaming of someone amongst their midst, soon spotted Severus. An outraged look covered their faces. "YOU!" one of them yelled.
"I always thought you…", but before he could even finish his sentence he was experiencing the pain of the cruciatius curse as well. Severus was able to cast the curse another two times, before he really had to start to run and duck to avoid being hit as well.
Remus, who spotted that the person whom he held dear was in trouble, started to sprint towards him. Anger towards the Death eaters, who dared to attack the one he loved, boiled inside him.
For the first time in his life, he actually welcomed the rage he was experiencing inside. He let its power consume him and slowly all rationality left his mind as the wolf too realised its designated mate was in danger. Every day Remus struggled to suppress the wolf inside him. And every day, except with the full moon of course, he was the one who won the everlasting battle. But this time, this time was different: he let the wolf win.
As he continued running towards Severus he felt his body starting to transform. As his body parts elongated, broke, twisted and turned he stumbled and was momentarily overwhelmed by the pain shooting through his body. But no he couldn't stop... one second too late and that was it. Severus dead, gone... With difficulty he jumped up and continued running this time on all fours. He put the pain to a far away corner in his mind as his yellow eyes narrowed and he let out an excruciating howl ready to pounce on his targets.
When he had almost reached them he suddenly felt his body go limp… He had been hit by a body bind spell. Next to him Severus also fell, only he had not been so lucky as he clearly was unconscious or even worse… dead.
Severus lay motionless on the ground, not even his chest rose and fell. The only thing moving was the blood dripping from of the back of his head.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Voldemort had kept himself a little to the side, using the shadows of the trees to stay unnoticed. But that was until he spotted The Fellowship. They will not escape me this time! He thought, smiling evilly.
Legolas who was close by suddenly felt an even bigger surge of evil than the one of the Dementors. He spun around and looked directly towards Voldemort.
By Elbereth, what has Sauron done to this boy?
He started to turn around to warn Gandalf, so that he could keep the potion ready. But unfortunately Voldemort already sensed that he had been seen and quickly drew his wand: "Compleo propinquus!" He yelled.
Legolas suddenly felt like there was some sort of string around his body and was abruptly pulled backwards. He tried to struggle, but it had no use. Before he realized it, he stood face to face with the Dark Lord himself. He was clad in a black robe that seemed magically whoosh around him as if he was in at the edge of a tornado. His face was deathly pale and where a nose should be he had two slits reminding Legolas of the snout of a snake.
"So Elf," he said in a rasping voice, revealing his yellow teeth as he spoke. "Come to defeat me for the second time?"
"Yes, that is the plan." Legolas spoke bravely, getting nauseated by the very presence of the embodiment of evil that stood mere inches away. He struggled to stay upright and balled his hands in fist annoyed by his own weakness as he felt his knees wobble. His eyed desperately searched the battlefield for any signs of his friends, but it seemed that no one had noticed his predicament.
"Hmm sarcasm and confidence. I don't like confidence, especially not coming from a disgusting creature like yourself. Let's see if I can find a way for you to treat me more nicely." He pointed his wand at the Elf's forehead, whose eyes widened in fear. Just behind the abominable head of Voldemort he could see Aragorn sprinting towards him, his sword drawn. Too far away... too late.
"I always wanted to try this spell on an Elf." He said smiling wickedly before uttering some unfamiliar words to Legolas.
Legolas got thrown backwards into the forest, but the fall didn't seem to stop. It was like he was weightless and just kept on flying and flying. He even went through trees and solid rock before finally, after a few minutes, the spell started to wear off and he fell to the ground, unconscious.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Aragorn stopped dead in his tracks and looked shocked at the spot where Legolas just had been. What by Elbereth had this monster done to his lover? A switch seemed to turn inside his head, as his vision started to blur with anger and pure rage at the man, who dared to touch his friend. Without even thinking he renewed his charged at Voldemort, his sword drawn and ready to fight. But suddenly someone grabbed him by the shoulders and urged him to stop.
"Do you think it's wise to charge at Voldemort with no more then the sword you are holding in your hands and the rage you're feeling in your heart?"
He looked back to stare into Draco Malfoy's eyes, which were surprisingly full of understanding.
"It's way more effective to charge at the Dementors with that thing." He added, before turning around and disappearing in the midst of the fight.
Aragorn realized that Draco was right, when suddenly another group of people came charging out of the forest. One look at Dumbledore told him, that this were actually good guys. Minerva had probably warned the Ministry, which had send reinforcement as fast as they could.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Voldemort cried in outrage, his nostrils flaring: "Lucius! Did I not specifically order you to make sure that no communication with the outside world was possible?" He grabbed the man by his robe and pulled him close.
"You did my Lord, and my son assured me that he had disabled every way of communication." Lucius mentioned to croak as his windpipe was partly being closed off due to the tight grip of the claw on his collar.
Voldemort looked at him searchingly before throwing him onto the ground, hard. "Well, I guess he isn't as loyal to me as you thought he was!"
Lucius looked around desperately in search of his son. How Draco would be sorry, when this was all over and done with.
"I will deal with you two afterwards." Voldemort growled, before gliding off.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Aragorn sprinted towards Gandalf, who had just knocked an Death Eater out-cold who had tried to sneak up on him. The Istari looked up at him as he approached with rapid speed.
"Gandalf, we have to act quickly. Sauron's forces are greater than ours, even though we are with larger numbers now than when we started, they still are too strong for an inexperienced army as ours." Aragorn's words seemed to tumble out of mouth. This battle needed to end. He needed to start looking for Legolas as soon as possible. He needed... his whirlwind of thoughts were interrupted by Gandalf: "I know Aragorn, try to warn Albus, Severus and Legolas will you. I think it would be best when you cause a diversion, so I can come close and administer the potion."
When Aragorn didn't move and only stared at the ground with a sad expression on his face
Gandalf got worried about his friend. His brow knitted together and he laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Aragorn?" He asked softly.
"Legolas… he… he got hit by a spell cast by Sauron himself and was blasted into the Forbidden Forest. I don't know whether he is still alive or not. I am hoping that he is with all my might. But even my heart doesn't sense him any longer. It tells me that he has not survived the blast as my heart feels shattered and empty." Aragorn's right hand unconsciously covered grabbed hold of the piece of tunic covering his heart. The movement was clearly registered by Gandalf, who took in his wary complexion.
"I'm sorry. He was a dear friend to us all and he surely will be missed, but unfortunately we have no time to mourn his death since many more lives are at stake if we do not complete our mission as soon as possible."
Aragorn let out a deep sigh. "I will try to warn Albus, but Severus has fallen as well. So instead I shall warn as many of The Fellowship as possible."
The first person he spotted was Gimli, who tried to finish of the Dementors as fast as he could. Apparently the creatures didn't have as much effect on him as they did on the human mind.
Unfortunately as Gimli only had his axe, it was very hard for him to kill them as they of course were as good as dead to begin with. Still he had found out that when he chopped off their heads, they were momentarily disabled and could only attack again when they were healed by a powerful wizard, fortunately the ones who would even consider putting the foul creatures together, were all occupied at the moment not getting ripped apart themselves, so the beheaded bodies just lay writhing on the floor all around the dwarf.
"Gimli!" Aragorn yelled. "I need your help!"
The Dwarf finished off his latest victim and sprinted towards the King.
"Does my job involve fighting?" he asked eagerly.
"As a matter a fact, it does. That is actually all that is to it. We have to distract Sauron, so Gandalf can administer the potion." Aragorn explained, while walking towards the Hobbits.
"Good." Gimli said satisfied with the answer the Man gave him.
Merry, Pippin, Sam and Frodo were assisted by lots of sixth and seventh year students. The students cast simple spells on their opponents, who got then knocked unconscious by the Hobbits afterwards.
"Pretty good teamwork, huh?" Merry yelled, when he saw them approaching.
"Merry, get the others. We need your help."
After a few minutes all four of them were totally informed and ready for their battle with the greatest dark wizard of the century.
Aragorn, Gimli and the Hobbits were each going to charge at them from a different angle, except from behind, because from there Gandalf would slowly approach.
Dumbledore in the meantime would take care of all the Death Eaters and Dementors, who tried to attack the incomplete Fellowship of the Ring.