Ok so this was really hard but I've tried to keep it as close to how the battle was described in the hospital wing. Would love to know your thoughts :) Sorry, if it ended up being too descriptive and dense :/
And sorry for the late update! I was working until late today and it completely slipped my mind that it was Wednesday!
30 June 1997
"Do you know where Dumbledore goes off to?" Remus asked as he walked beside Minerva.
Minerva frowned and shook her head. "He hasn't told me," she said, tightening her grip on her wand. "But he won't be long," she added, just as they rounded the corner. "Oh!"
Minerva stumbled back after Ginny Weasley had collided painfully into her. She heard Remus groan as well and, after a quick glance in his direction, she noticed Ron and Neville had run straight into him as well.
"Miss Weasley..." she began, though she stopped short when she noticed the look of panic and fear etched across Weasley's face.
"Professor McGonagall there are—D—Death Eaters inside the castle," Ginny Weasley gasped, clutching at her side.
Minerva felt the colour drain from her face. "Where were they headed?" she asked quickly, motioning at Remus to alert the rest of the Order with a Patronus.
"I—"
"Astronomy Tower," Neville Longbottom interrupted, pointing wildly down the corridor. "I saw them—at least six."
Minerva and Remus had already started moving before Neville had even finished his sentence; though not before Minerva had sent an urgent Patronus to Filius and Severus.
As they approached the corner, Minerva could hear some sort of commotion — people talking in hushed voices. Both Weasleys made an attempt to run out from the corner, but Minerva grabbed their arms and pulled them back. Any later and the spells one of the Death Eaters had shot in their direction would have hit the youngest Weasleys directly in the face.
With some effort, Minerva pulled the Weasleys back to safety, hoping that they would stay there but knowing that they wouldn't. Then, following Remus who had already begun to duel, Minerva stepped out from behind the corner and instantly put up a shield charm as multiple spells came shooting at her from all directions.
The spells made a reverberating sound on her shield. Minerva took this brief moment to assess the situation. There were at least 10 Death Eaters; 2 fighting Remus, 1 already fighting Neville and seven left. Minerva could take three, four at a push she supposed, but six on her own seemed excessive. Yet, she would rather Ron and Ginny not fight...
Minerva took a deep breath as another dozen spells hit her shield. Then, in the brief paused while the Death Eaters were still trying to summon up new spells to shoot at her, she quickly took down her shield and flicked her wand again.
2 thick ropes shot out of her wand tip and latched themselves around the arms of one startled Death Eater. He yelled and struggled, but the ropes only wrapped themselves more tightly around his arms before snaking down his torso and trapping his legs - imitating devil snare.
He was down before the other 6 were able to retaliate. Minerva then turned her attention to the next two as the two youngest Weasleys slipped out from behind her and began to tackle one each - one of the Death Eaters had managed to slip away up the Astronomy Tower.
Alecto and Amycus were more prepared than their friend on the floor. They bared their teeth angrily and shot a succession of five spells that Minerva quickly deflected and then returned.
Vaguely, she was aware of several more Death Eaters joining the scene - Tonks and Bill Weasley close at their heels. In the midst of the chaos, one of the new Death Eaters began firing spells at anyone who seemed closest to him. They richoted off the walls and whistled passed the faces of Death Eaters and Order members alike.
Minerva dodged one that had come close to hitting her side and, as she did, she almost collided straight into Severus who must have arrived only seconds before. He hurtled past them en route for the stairs to the Astronomy Tower where someone had created a barrier no one seemed to be able to get through. It did not seem to affect Severus however, and Minerva suspected that he had managed to take it down.
In her brief moment of distraction, she felt a purple spells sting her cheek as it narrowly missed hitting her directly. Minerva returned to look at Alecto and Amycus. She pointed her wand at the stone slabs the siblings were standing on, and the stone squares began to move and ripple like quicksand.
Amycus fell but Alecto managed to stay upright. She retaliated with an angry spell that Minerva managed to stop and send back. In that moment, a green spell hit the roof above the staircase causing the stonework to cascade down onto the steps. Alecto jumped aside, while Minerva, Remus, the two Weasleys and Tonks rushed forwards towards the staircase.
They moved apart when they noticed Severus coming down the stairs - Malfoy at his heels. Minerva was aware of him shouting something loudly behind her. Then, suddenly, another stream of Death Eaters appeared from behind the wreckage.
Minerva moved back as Remus began to fight them alongside Tonks. Meanwhile, Alecto had managed to get back up, pulling her brother up with her. Minerva sent several stunners after the two siblings, who appeared to be intent on chasing Severus and the Malfoy boy.
They ducked, arms above their heads, as they tried to avoid Minerva's spells. Vaguely, Minerva was also aware of Potter rushing past her - though she could not recall how or when he had appeared.
"Longbottom, are you all right?" Minerva asked, crouching down and helping Neville Longbottom up.
He winced but nodded gently, and allowed Minerva to help support him once he was upright.
"Minerva..."
Minerva nodded, and Remus trailed away. "Take Bill to the Hospital Wing," she instructed quickly, looking at Poppy who was easing Bill Weasley onto a stretcher. "Perhaps Longbottom, you should go too," she added.
"No, Minerva, the sky. Look at the sky," Remus said, the little colour he had left on his face draining completely.
Minerva followed his gaze, and it wasn't long before her expression matched Remus'.
"Do you think—the dormitories?" Remus stammered. He began making an attempt to leave but Minerva shook her head.
"Remus, I need you to help Poppy and transport Bill to the Hospital Wing. Longbottom can you—"
"I can walk," he nodded before Minerva had finished.
"All right," she said a little distractedly, as she thought quickly about next steps. "Erm, Miss and Mr Weasley, if you can both go too," she added, motioning at Ginny and Ron Weasley to move in front of her.
The students did as they were told without protests leaving only Minerva and Tonks in the corridor.
"I can check the Astronomy Tower," Tonks said, a little breathlessly. "Fix the roof and—oh..." she winced and pressed at the corner of her waist. Minerva turned, frowning worriedly but Tonks just waved a hand dismissively. "Stitch," she explained. "I'll go. I'll keep an eye on these three as well," she added, motioning at three immobile Death Eaters.
Then there was only Minerva left. Her heart was still beating rapidly in her chest, and she did feel tired after that exertion; she hadn't needed to duel like that in a long time. Most of it had come back instinctively, however it had been so out of the blue that Minerva hadn't felt that there had been much time to prepare and steel herself.
Yet, despite her rapidly beating heart, and the familiar pain in her chest and hip, Minerva could not allow herself to recover just now. She would pay for it when morning came, she knew that, but she also had plenty of things to do that needed to happen almost immediately.
Minerva cleared her throat, straightened her back, and summoned three patronus' for Severus, Pomona and Filius. She needed each of them to check their house dormitories to see if their students were all there.
As an afterthought, she sent another patronus to Horace asking if he could check on her Gryffindors. She had not forgotten to mention that Neville Longbottom, Ginny Weasley and Ron Weasley were out of the dormitory but accounted for - seeing as she had personally sent them to the Hospital Wing with Remus, Poppy and Bill.
That left her to search for Harry Potter, whom she was certain she had seen at some point in the evening, as well as Hermione Granger. Minerva was sure that if Weasley and Potter had been out of bed, then Granger was most probably up too. The problem now was locating them, and making sure that nothing had happened.
Indeed, after Severus had appeared and run down the corridor, all of the Death Eaters Minerva and the rest had been fighting, had fled too. Bar three that was; two had been injured during the fight and one appeared to have suffered much more extensive damage.
Though Minerva had been tempted to follow Severus and the other Death Eaters, as well as Potter whom she thought she had seen amid the crowd, Bill had been in a considerably bad shape and Longbottom had been unresponsive for a while. She had also had to quickly get the last two injured Death Eaters under control so that they did not escape later on.
Minerva could only hope that Severus had managed to keep Potter safe. The Dark Mark in the sky did nothing to reassure her of this fact however.
Minerva descended the last steps to the first floor, where she was sure the Death Eaters had been going, trying her best to squash the fear and panic rapidly rising in her chest. She could not bear to think what would happen if she found either one of her unaccounted Gryffindors injured or worse.
She had almost reached the bottom of the staircase when Hagrid appeared from the courtyard. He looked dishevelled and, upon closer inspection, teary eyed. Minerva could almost hear her heartbeat in her ears now.
She knew that look only too well. Her mother had worn it when she had told her about Robert and Florence in the fire. Isobel had worn it yet again when telling her daughter about Robert McGonagall Senior. And then Rosmerta too had worn that expression when Minerva had arrived in Hogsmeade to find her dear Finn being put on a stretcher by Mediwizards.
Minerva swallowed with difficulty. "Who?" she asked hoarsely. "A student—"
"N-no," Hagrid said, the wobble in his voice clear. "Professor, you gotta come with me."
Apprehensively, Minerva followed him across the corridor and out into the courtyard. Upon exiting the castle, the task she had set Pomona, Horace and Filius to do seemed pointless now; there was such a large crowd of students gathered around something in the centre of the courtyard, that half the dormitories would be empty.
The crowd parted obediently for Minerva and Hagrid, and, as Minerva walked through, she could not help but notice the looks of horror and dismay on the faces of her students. It did not take her much longer to realise why. Minerva almost walked into Hagrid when he suddenly stopped. She stepped around him, and it was as though everything went into slow motion.
In the middle of the courtyard lay none other than Albus Dumbledore. If not for the fact that there was no good reason as to why Albus would lie in the courtyard like this, it was the odd angle that his arms and legs were placed that made Minerva's stomach drop.
For a moment, she was frozen to the spot—too stunned it seemed to react. Then, when her mind caught up with the sight that lay before her, Minerva made an odd sound between a gasp and a moan and staggered and reached out to clutch Hagrid's arm for support with one hand while covering her mouth with the other.