Chapter Four: The Battle of Hogwarts

The barrier rippled, like an oil slick after rain. There was a groan from outside, that shuddered through Ron's bones, it wasn't going to hold … Lupin sent up a volley of red sparks with his wand, James jumped up on the staff table to address the panicked crowd.

"Stay calm," James said, sparing a glance backwards at the pandemonium outside. "We've all gone through this before, I need everyone who's already been assigned a defense station to go there now. Those of you with young children, go back to your apartments."

There were dissenting murmurs rippling through the crowd. But evidently, James was right, everyone had done this before. Harry was the only other person that looked as confused as Ron felt. James hopped off the table and gestured for them to come up. The four marauders were gathered with Moody and several other members of the Order.

"Pettigrew east entrance, Hagrid north fields and lake," Moody read off a list of assignments. Sirius and James were at the back waiting for their turn.

"There's got to be over a hundred of them out there." Sirius shook his head in disbelief. "Why come all this way if they know they can't get through?"

"Potter and Black, go up to the headmaster's tower to check the spell." Moody said gruffly.

"I'd prefer you two stay close to us." James explained to Ron and Harry as they made their way back to the headmaster's tower. Outside, Ron could see torches lining the outside of the barrier, they'd stopped casting spells at the barrier, but he could still see it shimmer in the darkness like it'd been wounded.

"Sherbet lemon," James said to the gargoyle outside the headmaster's office. They must've kept the same password as Dumbledore, Ron thought sadly. He'd only been up there after they rescued Ginny from the diary, but everything looked exactly like he'd remembered it, with the exception of a gleaming column in the middle of the room with a single white lily floating on top of it. The flower looked diseased, its petals dropping to the table. Around the flower was a thick yellow goo.

"It's poisoned." James's voice shook. He looked wildly around the various sleeping headmaster portraits in the room and shot off another volley of blindly white sparks in the middle of the room. The portraits all woke up.

"Really!" one shouted from above the headmaster's desk.

"Did anyone see what happened?" Sirius shouted around the room as the angry portraits turned their attention to the flower.

"No one's been up," said a portrait of a plump wizard with the name Phineas N. Black written at the bottom. "We thought you were being cheeky about an hour or so ago when the door opened and no one came up to see us. You really should pay better attention—"

"I honestly can't deal with him right now." Sirius waved his wand and a set of curtains closed over Phineas's portrait. He was breathing rapidly, scanning his wand around the room. "If this goes down, we're all dead."

"I'll pull some samples." James raced over to the column. He was careful not to touch the poison with his bare hands as he magicked it into a vial. Ron felt helpless as he watched the two of them work. Harry stood off to the side, twisting a small pendant around his neck nervously.

From down below the door opened again, Lupin raced up the stairs, a cut streaked across his cheek as he breathed the name, "Bella." Before he collapsed into an armchair. Lupin ran his fingers through his thinning hair.

"She's down at the south entrance with about thirty aurors." Lupin continued to take in gulps of air. He pointed at the barrier, "they—they knew, they're just waiting for it to go down, James—"

Sirius suddenly pointed his wand interchangeably at Ron and Harry. James perked up from his work on the barrier, he pointed his wand back at Sirius and stepped in front of Harry.

"They couldn't have done this, Sirius."

"The Death Eaters knew this would happen," Sirius breathed, "They're the first new people we've had in a while. Where have you two been all evening?"

"We were working on the mirror downstairs." Harry replied coldly. "Do you seriously think I'd help them after everything they've done?" His eyes stared blankly ahead, and Sirius began to lower his wand. Ron remembered Harry leaving early that day…

"Is that true?" Sirius turned his attention to Ron. James breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yeah," Ron felt like the wind had been knocked from him. "We've been working on the mirror." Sirius lowered his wand, James stepped back to work on his samples. Ron was sure it was nothing, he'd be worrying everyone and getting Harry in trouble for no reason.

"A rat could sneak past the portraits." Ron felt the words slip from his mouth. All three marauders exchanged a look with each other. That was the benefit of long-time friendships, at a certain point they almost knew the other person better than themselves.

"I don't believe Pete would betray anyone here." James said, assertive. The castle shook again, as the Death Eaters resumed their attack on the castle. Another petal fell from the flower. "Besides, I've never seen a poison work like this before … it eats the cells, if this were a person they'd have died within minutes of it entering their blood … I don't know that I can reverse it—" James took another breath in. the room shook as another round of spells went off outside.

"I don't think this ends well for us." James's voice almost sounded dead. "I need you boys to go back to Gryffindor tower and gather as much as you can carry on your backs, Sirius will meet you at the tower in ten minutes."

"You're not coming?" Harry said angrily. James put out a hand on his shoulder to reassure him.

"I promise I'll be back, I've an idea to hold them off." James let go of his son and looked over to Ron. Harry'd already started walking to the door. "I'll just be over at the astronomy tower." Sirius's eyes lingered on the two of them as Ron followed Harry out the door and down the stairs.

Outside the booming of spells had grown louder, Ron saw dust shaking from the ceiling, the barrier seemed like it could go down at any minute. Ron began to walk faster, thankfully it wasn't far …

"Where did you go earlier today?" Ron asked, trying to get Harry to pick up to the same brisk pace.

"Just down to the library." Harry shrugged, non-pulsed by the question.

"Oh … for what?"

"Hm?"

"Well, I mean you can't use it so …" Ron said and Harry stopped dead in his tracks.

"I—" He stammered.

BOOM

They were both thrown off their feet and into the stone wall on the other side of the hallway. Ron felt a trickle of blood run down his face, it took the room a second to refocus. Outside he could hear voices as several people on brooms flew through gapping ripples in the barrier. Ron snapped to his feet and helped Harry up. It'd broken too soon—the headmaster's office was just down the hall—

Ron felt his stomach lurch as a small group of adults made their way down the hall. They were dressed head to toe in black, almost each of them wore a half-mask that made the bottom part of their face look like a skull. The only one not wearing his mask stood at the front of the group. He was a sandy haired man about the same age as the marauders, Ron knew him immediately. Ron remembered the ministry carting Crouch away at the end of last year, his eyes glazed over and dull when the dementors sucked his soul out. But here he was, alert and grinning a pristine white smile as he pointed his wand at Ron's face.

"Hello boys," he said pleasantly.

Ron grabbed Harry's arm and bolted the opposite way down the hall. Ron shot spells blindly over his shoulder, praying one would hit. He was shocked that they didn't shoot back, but he could hear them chasing close behind. A sharp pain shot through his leg, and he felt it start to swell, he'd been hit by a stinging jinx.

"Are you stupid?!" Crouch yelled at one of the Death Eaters and Ron heard another person scream out in pain.

Ron's pace fell sharply, he backed himself into a corner, trying to shield Harry from the wizards slowly closing in on them from all sides now. He panicked, his leg throbbing in pain beneath him, he couldn't possibly curse them all … Ron felt a spell crack into the back of his neck, there was a flash of red light and he was laying on the floor, rapidly losing consciousness. Far above his head he heard two voices speak.

"Crouch."

"Hello Harry."