CHAPTER 98: Children of Fate (Part 2)

London

10:50 p.m.

"Sir?" The rookie squeaked out from behind Rufus, finally gaining the courage to speak after stupidly allowing Potter to take his broom from him. He looked so miserable, and if it wasn't for his uselessness in this national emergency, Rufus might have been more sympathetic to his plight. Instead, the most he could muster was turning on his heel and pretending the boy wasn't there as he stormed into one of the infirmary tents they had set up on the street.

The place reeked of death. The bodies of the fallen had been moved to one of the other tents, and the healers had used dozens of charms to try and wash out the stench, but the smell of blood, rot, and faeces still overwhelmed Rufus as he strode inside. Most of the Aurors still there were on the verge of death. Passed out and with slim chances of recovery. Most of the bastards outside weren't attacking them much, but that didn't mean there weren't two or three Death Eaters out there savouring on killing Aurors instead of running from them. It had put all his charges on edge, especially after the rumours of the man without a face, but it only served to piss Rufus off further.

Walking through the hall of closed curtains, managing to overhear the occasional groan of pain or whimper from within, Rufus made it to the end of the tent where some of the Aurors with minor injuries were resting. Broken bones, a few burns, nothing that couldn't be fixed overnight but still made it dangerous for them to be out there. He himself had been there only a few minutes ago. And if he could stand on his two feet and still contribute to their fight, so could they.

"Dawlish! Runcorn! Wilkins!" He snapped, the three-man bursting out of their beds and standing up at his words.

"Sir," Dawlish nodded apprehensively.

"Hogwarts is under attack, the rookies there will need reinforcements. Round up a group of Aurors and oversee the situation."

"Round up?"

"West Yorkshire's nearly taken care of, Kingsley can spare a few Aurors. If it's still not enough apparate to Glasgow or Liverpool and grab some from there." Dawlish gulped, fidgeting with his burned arm. "Tonight, for Merlin's sake!" Rufus growled, breaking Dawlish out of his trance as he immediately ran off.

Rufus turned to the other two, feeling like a wild animal seeking anything in sight to maul. The room felt like a blazing inferno, and all he could focus on was the way his heart was pounding into his chest. He knew what he had to say but didn't want to. He knew why he didn't want to, and knew it was stupid. Still, it took a mighty effort before he could utter the words. "Wilkins, take Runcorn and check in on the others at the Ministry. If they're all there and well, take them with you and check for any intruders within the Ministry, starting at the Department of Mysteries."

Wilkins' face paled. "T-The Department of Mysteries, sir? We- We-"

"Just do what I said, I'll clear it with Parkinson later."

"Sir…"

"Now, Runcorn!"

The two men nearly burnt through what little patience he had left before he managed to get them to run off to the Ministry. He sighed, moving his arm within the sling and pulling his wand back from his holster as he mentally prepared himself to go back out there and put an end to these attacks. If Potter was right and the true target had been the Department of Mysteries, they needed to finish this as quickly as possible. The only other thing worse than facing a potential breach of the Statute of Secrecy on a global level like this was the possibility of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named gaining access to whatever the Unspeakables were guarding inside that infernal place of theirs.

Rufus had all but forgotten that the rookie was still there, apprehensively waiting, when he turned around and nearly trampled over the boy. "W-What should I do, sir?" He yelped. The boy looked downright pitiful. Barely a year out of Hogwarts, shot, and lanky, he doubted he had even been in a real duel, much less a war to the level they were faced with now. He would do no good outside. Would probably accomplish nothing other than being a mediocre human shield. Still, he was an Auror. He knew the dangers of the job and had accepted them. But still, as Rufus spoke he felt like he was sending the lamb to the slaughter.

"Find Dumbledore," he told him. "We're going to need him here."

Hogsmeade

10:50 p.m.

The moment Harry felt his body reform in the air, his broom in between his legs as he flew above the village of Hogsmeade, his body immediately began spasming once more. He bit down the cry that wanted to escape his mouth and clung to his broom for dear life as it began swaying wildly in the air. Thankfully, the episode ended just before he managed to crash himself to the ground. Immediately jumping to the ground, not trusting himself on a broom in case of another attack, Harry began rushing towards Honeydukes. He'd used the secret passageway before in his third year when the teachers had taken away his Hogsmeade permission to reduce any other dementor incidents, and though he knew it would take longer it was the safest way.

He cursed himself for not packing the Marauder's map with him when he had returned to the flat earlier in the night and promised himself to never leave home without it again. Still, he knew the castle better than most people. And if he'd learned something over this past few months, a lot of the crooks the Death Eaters used for attacks like this were the type of people that never actually made it to Hogwarts. He only hoped turf advantage was enough to compensate for his lack of magic. For the billionth time in the past thirty minutes, he felt his hand itch towards his wand but managed to stop himself before he actually pulled out the wand from his holster.

Harry had almost made it to Honeydukes before he saw a crowd of people near the edge of the village. His curiosity took over and Harry pushed through the crowd until he finally saw it too. Way in the distance, past the large lake, was Hogwarts, lit up by a dozen of multicoloured lights that appeared and disappeared within a second. The faint sounds of battle could be heard even from there as spells crashed against the ground or the castle itself. There was some screaming, but it was too far away for anything to be intelligible.

The Honeydukes passage was no longer an option.

Before any honourable villager recognised him as Harry Potter, the Wizarding Serial Killer, and tried to restrain him from the Aurors, Harry climbed up on his broom and shot off into the sky. He pushed the broom as much as he could, flying high and fast and praying to anything that might be listening to give him a small respite from Dolohov's little reminders of love as he soared above the river. The spells in the distance were slowing down and appearing more scarcely than before, and before Harry had even passed through the wards and entered the Hogwarts grounds the darkness had filled the outside with the castle. But the sounds of the battle within were now louder than before.

As Harry neared the entrance to the castle bright light suddenly caught his attention and Harry's eyes widened before he turned in the air. The curse grazed his trench coat, singing his right arm. That curse was only the first in a flurry of multicoloured bolts meant to knock him off his broom. Harry swayed and dodged through all of them, managing to avoid getting hit in a nearly seamless manner as he got closer and closer to the castle. There were two of them. Harry couldn't see them yet, but based on the attack patterns he could sense more or less where they were. Once again his hand went to his hip, looking for his wand. But before he could pull it out he was struck with another burst of Dolohov's Cruciatus after-effects.

He lost control of his broom and this time he couldn't stop the spasm before he crashed on the ground. Just like it had in London, the broom snapped into pieces as Harry was sent rolling through the ground. Thankfully, the grass proved to be much less rough than the city pavement, however, the air was sucked right out of his body as one of his own arms collided with his crotch and his vision suddenly blurred.

"Where is he?" One of the voices shouted from within the darkness.

"Keep looking. We'll find him."

The threat proved to be the incentive he needed. Pushing through the pain, Harry crawled on the ground and managed to pull out the invisibility cloak from his trench coat before he fully covered himself with it. Every move was excruciating, and Harry was forced to fight the staggering nausea he was feeling as he stood up and tried not to trip himself on the cloak. He'd used it only a few times before, never in battle, and now that he was faced with the prospect of it he didn't know where he would start. The voices were getting closer and Harry immediately reached behind him before pulling out one of his knives.

"He's gone," one of the voices - the one closest to him - said in a loud whisper. He was tall and broad-shouldered and somehow familiar to Harry. He didn't look like one of the thugs he'd faced before, nor did he look old enough to be like one of the midlife crisis Death Eaters he'd faced earlier in London.

"He can't be gone!" The other one snapped. "He's got to be here somewhere."

"Who do you think this bloke is? An Auror?"

"A stupid Auror," Harry could almost feel the other voice rolling his eyes. "Who comes alone like that?"

Harry felt the need to defend himself. It wasn't a stupid move for him… well, not usually. Not when he had enough magic to duel. And certainly not when he had his old wand. He ignored the fact neither of those cases was the current scenario but was happy enough that he managed to keep his mouth shut.

The light from the moon suddenly shined at an angle where Harry managed to see the school robes the boy was wearing. And Harry suddenly realised why the boy looked so familiar. He wasn't one of the Ravenclaws from his year, but he was sure he'd seen him in the halls some day in the past four years. Had he been wrong in assuming the Death Eaters were just going to use more thugs like before? Montague had tried to induct him into the Death Eaters, what if there were more like him who had made it their mission to turn students to their side?

The grip on his knife suddenly got a little bit looser. He was hesitating, and hesitating in a time like this was the worst thing he could possibly do. Still, Montague and even Davis felt somehow different from the situation before him. Montague had been the cunt who carved him open at merely eleven years old and Davis… Davis had chosen to help him and was the only way of getting out of Azkaban by doing what he needed to do. He'd spent the last couple of months putting such an effort to stop himself from killing, could he bring himself to kill them now? What if he let them live and attacked them later in the night?

You're better off killing them all.

Maybe Dolohov was right. Maybe he would never be able to change. Or maybe, he'd done too much to manage to scrub the filth he'd accumulated in his hands. Either way, there was no right answer here. Whatever he did, he'd regret it the next day. The only thing he could control was actually making it to tomorrow.

The boy walked closer to him, taking his last step without even knowing it as Harry sprung from beneath the invisibility cloak and slashed his neck from behind. The knife cut deep, Harry nearly decapitated the boy with how aggressively he had cut. Blood began showering the grass below. Diving to the ground and placing the cloak over him, Harry heard the other boy cry out as he moved towards the dying Ravenclaw. He tried to fix him up with magic, to seal the wound and keep him from dying. But it was too late. He tried asking his friend where his attacker was, yelling at him to at least point. But it was too late for him too.

The two corpses lay on the ground, one on top of the other. Harry stared at them dispassionately, the internal struggle from before having completely evaporated from his body. Maybe it would come back later. Maybe it wouldn't. Harry barely gave it another second of thought before the sounds of the battle inside the castle caught his attention. He turned on the spot, or at least he tried to but the Hogwarts wards kept him grounded on the spot. "For fuck's sake," he breathed out before covering himself with the invisibility cloak and jogging up to the doors.

The Bell Tower courtyard was in ruin. The walls had been blasted apart, and nearly half a dozen bells the size of three Hagrids were cracked and lodged into the ground. More than a battlefield, the place looked like it had been destroyed for the hell of it. There weren't any bodies on the ground or blood on the walls. The path of destruction led to the right passage that connected to the Central Hall. It was the obvious path to the centre of the castle, giving them access to anywhere they might want to attack. With it being nearly eleven, the curfew was well into effect, so the students were meant to be in their common rooms. Only they wouldn't be there, not unless Umbridge changed the safety protocols the teachers followed in case of an attack.

And the Death Eaters must have known that too.

Harry ripped off the cloak from his back and rushed to his right through the North Hall, going to the complete opposite direction the Death Eaters had taken. The halls were intact, the only sign the Death Eaters had infiltrated the castle being the sounds of curses that were faintly heard through the walls. The extra mobility proved essential for Harry to catch up with the action. He crossed the Transfiguration Courtyard and entered the Defence Against the Dark Arts tower where he used the upside-down slide that flew him up to the Suspension Bridge. Out in the open, looking past the Stone Bridge Harry saw the eight Death Eaters that were slowly advancing onto the Viaduct Courtyard. The trees were on fire, the bridge half-destroyed, and only left standing by the magic of the castle.

The doors to the Entrance Hall suddenly opened and a group of teachers rushed out just as the Death Eaters began targeting the courtyard, tearing down the walls the teachers began using for cover. If he'd still have his broom, he might have been able to fly across the river to the Viaduct Bridge, but as it stood, Harry was forced to continue rushing through the castle.

Rushing down to the Quad Courtyard, Harry found the statue of Andros the Invincible and quickly summoned his wand from his holster. Training it on the glass flame in his hand, Harry let out a bit of his magic and cast a small bluebell flame that lit up the torch inside. The world swayed around him, the black, blue, and gray colours around him blending together. The solid world he lived in disappeared from beneath his feet, leaving him trapped inside an abstract painting of liquid colours flying around him. Changing. Tones of orange and red began coming to life. The world began gaining shape again, and just as he felt himself solid once again the sounds of the battle were now right ahead of him.

Barely giving a glance at the large glass statue in front of him, Harry sprinted past it and exited the Viaduct Entrance. Even while behind the large group of Death Eaters, well out of their viewpoint, Harry didn't trust himself to continue without the invisibility cloak. He crossed the uneven, battered bridge and once again, he pulled out his knife as he got closer to his targets.

"Come on!" One of them shouted in between casting curses. Most of the colonnade facing the Viaduct Bridge had already been torn apart. The teachers were beginning to retreat back into the Entrance Hall as various of the Death Eaters pushed forward and rose through the stairs. Noticing a few stragglers, Harry took his chance and quickly slashed the throat of the one closest to him before retreating back to his cloak and diving to the ground.

"Bates!" A voice shouted before bolting to his fallen friend.

"What got him?" Another boy exclaimed.

"Nothing!"

"Whatchu mean nothing?" The boy snapped. "He didn't just fell over."

"I'm telling you, I didn't see no curse."

Harry stopped breathing, forcing himself to remain still even as one of the boys looked directly at him. "Keep your eyes open," the boy said warily as he pulled the other one up. The two began moving ahead to join the others, but both of them kept looking back every once in a while. It was only once they were more than a few steps away that Harry gathered his courage and began following them again.

"Where are they?" He heard one of the boys - this one being a Hufflepuff - ask the other.

"Nemesis said they'd be at the Great Hall."

"Great Hall," the Ravenclaw scoffed. "Every damned hall in here is Great."

"Just shut your trap and follow the rest you moron."

The Ravenclaw muttered something but climbed up the steps with the Hufflepuff in tow. The other six were already ahead, taking cover on either side of the doors to the Entrance Hall as they traded curses with people inside.

"Just go in!" A Gryffindor shouted.

"There's no cover, you twit," another Ravenclaw snapped. "The bloody teachers have all set themselves up somewhere. They'll pick us off."

"Leave it to me," another voice suddenly spoke. He sprung from the shadows, wearing round glasses with long, unruly hair and dull, empty green eyes. Harry felt his grip on the bloody knife tighten, a growl nearly unwittingly leaving his mouth as he stared at his own reflection giving orders to the others. "Doyle, Griffin. You two head up the faculty tower and find Nemesis."

Harry's head snapped at the name. It was one he vaguely remembered, a small part of one of the many tedious conversations he'd had with Junior. But he didn't think it was possible for him to forget the name. Now it all made sense. Not just the attack on Hogwarts but why somehow had been pretending to be him while carrying it out. While leading the charge. This was just the next part in Montague's twisted game to fuck him over. He should have known. For months, he and Dolohov had worked together to torture him. This was just their latest attempt, with Dolohov meant to keep him nice and distracted back at London while Montague destroyed the last goodwill his name still had.

"Why do we get babysitter duty?" One of the boys complained.

"Because I said so," Harry's doppelgänger snapped. "Take the stairs to the right and ignore the large, round staircases that lead all the way up. Instead, go straight and blast open the locked door. Then go all the way up to the infirmary."

The two Ravenclaws complained, but followed the orders from the pretender. And it took Harry all his will to not spring into action and follow them right then and there. It would be so easy to take the two of them down, all alone, far away from any backup while travelling in an unknown environment. And Montague would be expecting him, he could go up there and pretend for long enough before he had his chance to kill him. But if he did that Montague would win. He couldn't get to him, not before he killed whoever was pretending to be him. His doppelgänger began handing orders to the others, and Harry did everything he could to focus on them as he continued fighting the urge to follow the two Ravenclaws up to the infirmary.

They went into action quicker than he expected. One Death Eater on each side of the doors began launching cover fire vigorously. "Get down!" Harry heard one of the teachers exclaim, and the Death Eaters took it as a cue to storm into the castle. Before Harry could miss his mark he quickly ran ahead, tackling the group of seventh-year right as they had crossed the threshold into the Entrance Hall. The four of them cried out complaints as they fell to the ground, and Harry barely managed to stay on his feet even as he felt himself tripping over the invisibility cloak.

"What's the matter!"

"Get up!"

"Move! Now!"

"Behind you!" Harry heard one of the Death Eaters that were sending the cover fire exclaim. "There's someone there! Under a cloak!"

Without thinking, Harry threw himself on the ground and began crawling away.

"He's there!" One of the boys cried out.

Harry rolled, evading a couple of curses that were sent his way, and covered himself fully. But before he could do anything a shower of spells began raining on them from above. The teachers had taken the distraction as their opportunity and unleashed the full brunt of their assault. The boys that were outside hid behind the doors as the other four scrambled on the floor to escape the curses. Only the teachers weren't lashing out with curses like the Death Eaters had. Instead, they were using tripping jinxes and disarming charms. They were trying to stun and subdue, and the Death Eaters realised this quickly after a few of them were hit.

A wand was sent flying. One of the boys fell to the ground unconscious. The teachers would have won the battle quickly if they had been less kind. The Death Eaters took advantage of it, reviving their partners and summoning the wands from the air. More than that, they were encouraged by this. They stopped trying to find cover and charged ahead, now knowing that the teachers didn't pose an actual threat to them. The teachers began retreating, the boys laughing as they rushed forward, and Harry felt as if his blood ran cold.

Ignoring the three that had gone ahead, Harry targeted the sole straggler inside the Entrance Hall. Tearing his wand out of his holster, he summoned the shoe of the boy and sent him falling on his face. There was a crack as his nose hit the stairs. The boy clutched it in pain, turning on his back as he looked out for danger but by then Harry had already pounced on top of him. Throwing the cloak to the ground behind him, Harry pulled out his knife and stabbed the boy in the chest. Blood spurt out as Harry dragged it down his torso, tearing him open from the chest to the navel as the boy cried and struggled.

Hearing the shuffling behind him, Harry rolled on the spot, grabbing the invisibility cloak and covering himself with it. But by then the last two Death Eaters knew more or less where he was. With the cloak stuck to his face and chest, Harry struggled as he moved up the stairs and tried to avoid the curses that were being hurled at him. Thankfully, the Death Eaters quickly began to panic, sending curses haphazardly all around the room, desperate to hit anything. Quickly opening a spot on the cloak and revealing his position, Harry threw the bloody knife at the Death Eaters. It stabbed the one on the right straight in his eye, causing him to send one final curse into the air before his body shook and collapsed onto the ground.

The ceiling began caving in on them, and the last Death Eater dove outside as the entry to the Entrance Hall was blocked by rocks and rubble. Breathing heavily, Harry took off his cloak, trying to clean off the blood from his face and clothes. But it was already sticky and dry by the time he tried to. Even worse, the inside of Longbottom's invisibility cloak was now covered in blood as well. It was sticky and smelly and gross, and he wasn't willing to waste his magic on cleaning it. That was if he still had any left by now.

Another Cruciatus spasm hit him right as he was about to put it on. This one was shorter, and besides the ones he had got while rushing through the castle, he had been lucky he hadn't got one in the middle of a fight. Getting killed because of something like that, giving Dolohov a stupid assist even from miles away was the last way he wanted to die today. His hands shook, even after the episode had ended, and he sighed as he put on the cloak.

Trying not to cringe by the wet sounds it made and the feeling of it on his face. He fidgeted with the cloak as he climbed up the rest of the steps, trying to put it in a position where he couldn't feel all the blood. It was then that Harry ran over the three corpses at the base of the stairs, crossing through the rest of the Entrance Hall and arriving at the battle ahead. Fighting in the Reception Hall, right in front of the Great Hall were Snape and McGonagall duelling the three Death Eaters left. McGonagall was dealing with the two on the right, masterfully batting away their curses while using various means of transfiguration to counter-attack without losing the focus she was using to shield and parry the other curses. Snape, on the other hand, was only dealing with one Death Eater - the pretender - only he was having a much harder time than McGonagall. Barely managing to shield on time, the pretender was clearly winning a duel that Snape should be dominating.

Snape was letting the Death Eater win, Harry realised. He'd known Snape for years and had seen his performance in Lockhart's stupid duelling club. He knew just how good the man was to the point where Harry still wouldn't feel comfortable chancing a fight with him. And yet, he was backing down now from what Harry could only assume was yet another one of Montague's thugs. Except, he was somehow managing to shield the door from the curses all three Death Eaters were sending at it in an attempt to blast it open. Snape suddenly stopped, staring somewhere just to the right of Harry before the pretender finally got him.

Snape was launched into the Slytherin hourglass, his body landing atop the stack of emeralds with cuts all over and a large gash on the right side of his torso. Harry barely spared him more than a glance before he heard a sudden bang. The doors to the Great Hall were blasted open, with one torn off its hinges as it fell onto the Hufflepuff table with a great thud. Inside, a group of three or four teachers were trying to lead all the students away, using the small exit at the back of the Hall to herd them to safety. The loud crash made all of them scream, paralysing the efforts as all the students gaped in terror as the fake Harry Potter began walking into the Great Hall.

"No!" McGonagall shouted, turning back to look at her students for a quick moment. But that was all the Death Eaters needed to press their advantage. McGonagall tried to recover, but that lapse she had in the battle proved to be her end as she was hit with a tripping jinx by one Death Eater before the other one hurled a curse that threw her across the Great Hall and had her writhing on the floor in pain the moment she hit the ground.

"The students!" The pretender shouted. "Don't let them get away!"

The kids began crying out. Sinistra took charge as she and the other professors Umbridge had instated formed a barrier between them and the students that the Death Eaters began to quickly try to tear down. It was then that Harry finally snapped into action, recovering from the quick succession of events he pushed the cloak off him and revealed himself. Students gasped, even the teachers seemed shocked by his sudden appearance. The reactions were enough of a warning for the pretender as he turned around and glared at him.

"Potter," he snarled. "You aren't supposed to be here."

"You don't say?" Harry asked sardonically as he pulled out the other knife he had packed with his left hand, leaving his right hand free for his wand. He was immediately forced to drop to the ground and move as the pretender began trying to curse him in a crude, desperate manner. He had no training, no skill. Any other time, this was the type of moron he could have easily taken out, only this time he tried to use his wand, only sparks came out. Harry cursed himself, once again being forced to dodge the continued attacks as he angrily put his wand away.

No magic. Not anymore. Maybe if he tried again, only this time stronger, pushing every bit of magic he had it would work. He'd done it a few times in the past, he knew it worked. Maybe he had one more spell in him, but depending on that in a fight was the most idiotic thing he could do.

"Help me, you idiots!" The pretender shouted, and though it seemed the other two Death Eaters wanted to help, the teachers weren't giving him the chance to turn their backs on them.

"Asking for help already," Harry sniped. "How pathetic can you be?"

It was getting hard to breathe. He'd been moving all night, barely having any respite for hours. And now here he was, forced to dodge all over the place like a dancing monkey in front of the entire school. He gripped his knife, overcoming the urge to just launch it at him. If he'd learned something from his fight with Dolohov earlier in the day it was to not throw away your final weapon when you were still in a fight. Still, he was getting closer and closer, forcing the pretender to walk back.

Unfortunately, all the dodging proved to be too much as he was too late and didn't manage to evade one of the blasting curses that had been sent his way. It hit his leg and he dropped to the ground. The pain and adrenaline fuelled him as he rolled out of the way of the rest of the attacks. The successful hit was all the fake Harry needed as he began advancing more on him. Getting cockier. "Forgot how to use your wand, Potter?" Harry heard his own voice mock him. "Nemesis was right, wasn't he? You've got no magic left, have you?"

Harry ignored the comment, struggling to continue moving. Pain was something he'd dealt with a lot. He'd managed to learn how to push it down and keep going on. But the curse had hit his leg just right, as much as he wanted to push through it was impossible to keep going like he had been.

"You're some sort of squib, aren't you?" The pretender laughed, inching forward. But he made his first mistake as he crossed the distance Harry needed. Pushing himself from the ground with his good leg, Harry leaped on him, clutching tightly on him as he used his weight to tip him over to his back. The two of them fell together, but the pretender caught most of the brunt of the damage. Quickly throwing his knife to his left hand, Harry brought it down onto his doppelgänger. But the pretender was fast, moving his head out of the way right in time to avoid the knife. Harry tried to pull it out of the ground, but he was launched into the air before he could. The air was blown out of him as he landed on the ground. He tried to stand up, but the pretender pounced on top of him before he could.

"You killed my friend," the pretender cursed him, glaring at him with such hatred in his eyes.

"More than one, I'm sure," Harry coughed out right before the pretender struck him in the face.

"You're the one that's going to die tonight. Nemesis wanted you all for himself, but well." The pretender hit him again in the face before pulling out his wand and aiming it at his head. "Accidents happen, don't they?" Harry quickly grabbed the boy's arm and pushed the wand down to the ground, only a few inches beside his head. The two of them struggled, but with both being genetically identical, they were equally strong. Neither of them would be able to overpower the other, and as long as Harry kept the tip of the pretender's wand away from him there was nothing either of them could do. "Calling me pathetic," his own voice scoffed at him. "You're worthless. Unworthy. To think we actually feared you. Tell me, Potter, what are you without your magic?"

Harry groaned, feeling as the tiredness began to overtake him. He was losing his grip on the wand, losing his strength. It was just a little, but everything the pretender needed. The tip of the wand was slowly lifted from the ground and the pretender twisted it slightly so that it was aimed at him. "You're nothing," the pretender whispered. Before Harry even knew what he was doing, he tugged at the pretender's arm and stabbed himself in the shoulder with the wand. The pretender yelled out a curse and his body exploded in pain, but right then the pretender lost his balance and dropped so that he was only a few inches away from him. His own body overtook his mind and he reached out and latched his mouth onto the pretender's neck.

The pretender squirmed above him, a weird sound coming from his mouth as he struggled to get free of Harry's grasp. But Harry kept his mouth firm, tugging at the boy's throat slowly before ripping it out completely. Blood showered down on him, but Harry didn't care as he took another bite and ripped more of the muscles inside the boy's neck. It was then that he felt the pretender go limp on top of him. Dead. And that was when Harry finally let go, using what strength he had left to throw his own body to the side.

It gazed back at him, the terror still there behind his unseeing eyes. It was surreal seeing his own corpse in such a way. Unnatural. Like seeing a forbidden glimpse into the future. The fact that it had been him who had killed him made the whole thing much unnerving.

His body riddled with pain, Harry still turned around and forced himself off the ground. His left knee shook as he remained standing, and after looking back and seeing that most of the students had already left the Great Hall, a part of him felt relieved they weren't there. Sinistra and the rest of the teachers seemed to be handling themselves well against the other two Death Eaters. His cloak was filthy, but far from ruined. The knife was still there, stuck on the spot where Harry had stabbed it. And most of all, he was still breathing. Still able to walk. That was all he needed to finish Montague once and for all.

Department of Mysteries

10:55 p.m.

"What is this place?" Neville said, somehow sounding braver than he felt as the others began crossing through the door and into the darkness. They were in a vast, empty chamber, one that had no walls and instead seemed to extend as far as the eye could see. There were eight doors, unmarked, indistinguishable from one another, and providing the only source of light in the room with the dim blue light coming from the small torches that had been carved into the panels of the doors. Everyone looked warily around them as they stepped inside. Even the Death Eaters seemed unnerved by the very place.

All of them except for Zeus.

"I'm surprised you don't know," he commented offhandedly. "The Department of Mysteries has been the stuff of nightmares for kids your age since its inception." Suddenly, the door from which they came snapped itself shut with a loud thud. Before anyone could do anything, the doors flew into action, spinning all around them so fast that everyone was caught inside an invisible whirlwind. Everyone began panicking. The Weasleys turned pale. Some Death Eaters began screaming or throwing themselves to the ground. Neville himself felt his heart stop for a moment but kept himself standing. And then, as quickly as it had started it stopped, and the room once again settled into this eerie silence that seemed to suffocate everyone inside.

"My, what trustworthy people we have enlisted for tonight," Zeus mocked coldly before striding to one of the men who had dived for the ground. "Up, Lestrange." He picked the man up, towering over him as he glared from behind his mask before turning to the rest of the room. "Quit this childish nonsense and pull yourselves together."

"The Department of Mysteries?" George squeaked out. "Messing with the Unspeakables? Have you lot gone mad? I won't go in there."

"Mister Weasley, last I checked you weren't invited here. And as one of our many unexpected guests, I'd start to keep my mouth shut and think just how much value your life has here." Zeus let the statement sink into George before he turned away and began analysing the doors. He went through them one by one, using his wand to cast various spells on each before going to the next. Neville was starting to get restless, and everyone dropped the subtlety and began turning to him over and over again. He ignored them, his hands twitching as he tried to come up with something to do.

"He's right, you know," he managed to say. "Messing with the Unspeakables… Voldemort must be really desperate for that."

There was a bright red light and Hermione cried out in pain, falling to the ground once more and writhing for a moment before the curse was lifted. "Do not say his name," Artemis hissed.

Neville felt his face turn red. He dug his nails into the palm of his hand and blinked away the tears before continuing. "What are you people even hoping to get here? Risking exposure like this… what could be so important?"

Zeus stopped his ministrations on the door and turned to him. There was something about the way he looked at him, even with a mask to hide his face, Neville couldn't help but squirm on the spot feeling repulsed. "You really don't know?" Zeus eventually said. "Dumbledore never told you, did he?"

Neville was hit with a weird feeling. As if someone had just popped a water balloon over his head and drenched him with water. "Told me what?"

"The Dark Lord often wondered why you never came here… even after all the visions he sent you," Zeus walked closer, and all the Weasleys immediately backed off, but Neville was too entranced and stayed in the same spot. "All this time… have you never wondered why it was you who managed to defeat the Dark Lord when you were only a child?" Neville tensed as Zeus grabbed the back of his face before lifting his fringe and tracing his fingers along his scar. "Have you never wanted answers about what really happened that night?"

"What's that got to do with this?" Neville cringed away and Zeus released him.

"You'll see soon enough," he said.

Zeus walked back to the door he had been studying and opened it. There was a cloud of darkness behind the door, and yet Neville knew that whatever Zeus was looking for was behind it. Once again, he was forced to go first, with the rest of his friends following closely behind. His grandmother had always told him stories about the Unspeakables and the Department of Mysteries. She described them as cold, soulless people, worse than the Death Eaters in many regards. Some believed they kidnapped people in the night and experimented on them. Others believed they were the true power behind the Ministry, secretly controlling their lives without knowing it. In reality, no one knew what they did. Not even the Minister himself was allowed much knowledge about what the Department actually did or had any power on it. The only thing that everyone knew for certain was that avoiding the Unspeakables or the Department of Mysteries as a whole was the first step to a happy and healthy life.

So of course Neville was forced inside.

He didn't really know what he expected here, but as the darkness cleared itself and revealed the room to him, it was somehow underwhelming. It was a small room covered in sand. There were stone tiers surrounding a small hill where a large, oddly-shaped arch stood atop a small hill. Neville began getting closer, even as the Weasleys hissed at him to stay back. There were voices coming from it, and as Neville squinted and tried to look deeper into the arch, he almost thought he saw this silvery, liquid veil floating in the middle of the arch.

"What is that?" Neville asked.

"The Veil," Zeus said. "Or at least, that's what the Unspeakables refer to it as. According to what little knowledge we have of it, it's the archway that separates the world of the living from the world of the death." The blood drained from Neville's face, and everyone else wasn't doing much better. Even Hermione, who didn't grow up in the wizarding world and had never believed all the tales about the Department of Mysteries looked nearly ready to spew. "A fancy tale to cover up one of the many lies the Unspeakables have come up with."

"What?" Fred asked, suddenly looking more alert.

"A lie," Zeus repeated dryly. "A deceit engineered to make sure no one found the truth about what the Unspeakables are seeing. Everything you see around you and in those other rooms is nothing but a show for all the curious reporters and nosy Ministers who tried to uncover the secrets of the Department of Mysteries. All the while, the truth of what the Unspeakables are studying is hidden behind the archway that is set to kill anyone who dares cross it. A rather ingenious way to protect their secrets, if I do say so myself."

"But someone must have crossed it," Ginny said, her voice almost not trembling. "There must have been at least one moron across our history to at least try it."

"Yes, well, that's why there's usually an Unspeakable guarding the archway from the other side. Ready to kill any fool who would dare cross it." Zeus said lightly, ignoring everyone's sudden apprehension. "But not to worry, all the Unspeakables are busy at the moment." He clapped his hands and walked towards the archway, passing Neville before turning around. "Now, Mister Longbottom, you know the drill. After you."

"Me?" Neville said. "You want me to cross through the death portal?"

"Not a death portal," Zeus said tightly. "The entry to the Department of Mysteries." Neville looked from the archway back to Zeus, his feet firmly planted on the sand below him. Zeus sighed, stepping up to Neville and grabbing him by the throat before pulling him so that he was just a few inches away from his mask. "I've been a good host. I've humoured your resistance for long enough, but it stops now. There is no happy ending here for you or your friends. No sudden plans from your tiny little head will be enough to get you out of here before we get what we came for. So you have a choice here… in fact, you're the only person in this room who has a choice. You can either do what I say when I say it, and your friends won't be tortured or killed in front of you. Or you can keep resisting, keep trying to come up with stupid plans, and Cedric Diggory will stop being the only death on your conscience."

Neville tried to pull back, but this time, Zeus kept a firm grip on him and wouldn't let him go. He could see his friends from the corner of his eye, all of them looking like they were on the verge of tears but somehow managing to keep their calm. His eyes fully settled on Hermione, how broken she looked. It was taking all of her strength to just stand there. And every time another spasm overtook her Neville couldn't help but feel the pain with her. "I do what you say… and you'll let us go?"

"Of course, I will," Zeus said silkily, and Neville snorted.

"And I'm supposed to believe that? You'll kill us all the moment you get your hands on whatever you want from me."

"Perhaps. But there's a rather sizable difference between a quick death, and months of torture we can inflict."

"Only you don't have months, do you?" Neville bit back.

"We can make it feel like years," Artemis said, her voice more unsettling as there was no joy behind it. No giggles. It was cold as ice, and it sent a shiver down Neville's spine.

Neville turned to his friends once again, trying to see anything in their faces. But Neville had always been shit at reading people, and beyond the obvious fear and dread behind their eyes, he couldn't see anything else. His heart rose to the back of his throat, and he was hit with a wave of emotion that made him abruptly look away from them.

"They go," he whispered. "I give you whatever you want, and you let them all go. Alive. Unharmed."

Zeus scoffed. "The Dark Lord has no interest in playing hide and seek with you, Mister Longbottom. Just because we get what we want from here doesn't mean we're so inclined to let you go and try again next year."

"Not me. Them. Just them. Stun them and leave them in the Ministry if you want. But they live. You can do whatever you want with me."

"Neville, no!" Ron shouted.

"You can't do this!" Ginny joined him.

The room suddenly exploded in a cacophony. The twins joined Ron and Ginny as they began telling him to not be an idiot. Some of the Death Eaters were also miffed at the idea, with the loudest being Artemis as she began snarling at Zeus to stop listening to Neville. Even Hermione looked like she was trying to say something, but her words were too quiet to get through with all the noise. It was only after Zeus silenced them all that he turned back to Neville and studied him.

"What's more important to your master?" Neville spat. "Whatever you want from me there? Or five kids who he didn't even know existed?"

Zeus didn't say anything, not immediately. But once he finally spoke, his voice echoed throughout the entire room. "Very well."

That's it for this chapter, thank you all for reading!

Welcome to the GRAND FIFTH-YEAR FINALE! Sit back and enjoy, we're going to be here a while ;)

By the time I'm posting this, I'm ELEVEN chapters ahead, and have just finished writing the first chapter of the penultimate arc of fifth-year titled Requiem for a Dream! If you are interested in learning how to get early access to them, join my discord server using the following link: discord . gg / jyPfbGqhJT

As always, thank you for reading, favouriting, and commenting! I appreciate all of you! :)