Disclaimer: Everything belongs to JKR.

AN: A big THANK YOU to my faithful beta Federer Rex

"Life keeps throwing me stones. And I keep finding the diamonds."

– Ana Claudia Antunes

May 1st, 1998

The enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall was dark and scattered with stars. Below that, dishevelled students, roused from their sleep by their heads of houses, lined the four long tables. Some of them had had the presence of mind to throw a travelling cloak over their nightdress, the majority, however, came in their dressing gowns. Here and there the pearly-white figure of a school ghost shone between the students. Nobody paid them much attention, all eyes, whether dead or alive, were fixed on Professor McGonagall, who was speaking to them from the raised platform at the top of the Great Hall, the other teachers, except for Headmaster Snape, gathered behind her. There was also a group of people from outside of the school, among them Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Daphne let out a breath of relief at the sight of the tall man standing behind the deputy headmistress. She had been worried for her uncle's partner ever since she got the news that he had to go on the run. His once so fancy purple robes looked faded and torn, and he had lost weight. Yet he still had that air of imperturbable calm about him, although his face was set in a taut line: a grim, steady rock in the hurricane that was closing around them. A nest of worms seemed to squirm in her stomach ever since Professor McGonnagal had started speaking. Was HE really coming? What did that mean for herself, for her family? What was she supposed to do? Gods, Astoria! She had to protect her, to make sure she wouldn't do something rash—

"—evacuation will be overseen by Mr Filch and Madam Pomfrey. Prefects, when I give the word, you will organise your house and will take your charges, in an orderly fashion, to the evacuation point," Professor McGonagall said into her whirling thoughts.

At the Hufflepuff table, Ernie Macmillan stood up and shouted, "And what if we want to stay and fight?"

There was a smattering of applause. Not from any Slytherin, although here and there a head nodded to Macmillan's words. Among them, the head of her little sister. Daphne's heart missed a beat. Tori, no! everything inside her screamed. Of course, this was neither the time nor the place to give in to her panic. She curled her fingers into fists and pressed her fingernails into the soft flesh until it hurt, a welcomed distraction from the suffocating nightmare around her.

"If you are of age, you may stay," said Professor McGonagall.

That excluded Tori. Daphne became weak with relief. Yet, she had to decide about her own actions—

Someone asked what would happen to their possessions and proved a welcomed distraction from the decision she had to make. Daphne snorted. Their possessions were the last thing to worry about when the Dark Lord was about to conquer Hogwarts and probably kill them all. She almost clapped when Professor McGonagall dismissed the question.

A girl from her house asked where Professor Snape was. Daphne didn't join the cheers that followed Professor McGonagall's explanation that he had taken a bunk. Her mouth curved into a derisive smile. Of course he had deserted them and taken the first opportunity to join his master.

Subtle movement at the Gryffindor table caught her attention, and she turned her head. Many Gryffindors looked at someone moving in the shadow alongside the wall, and they stuck their heads together and whispered.

Daphne held her breath. Was that—?

"We have already placed protections around the castle," Professor McGonagall was saying, "but it is unlikely to hold for very long unless we reinforce it. I must ask you, therefore, to move quickly and calmly, and do as your prefects—"

A different voice echoed through the hall and drowned out her last words. The voice was high, cold and clear: there was no telling from where it came; it seemed to issue from the walls themselves.

"I know you are preparing to fight."

Students screamed, some clutching each other, and looking around in terror for the source of the voice. Daphne did neither, forcing herself to stay calm, although a shiver ran down her spine, and cold sweat formed in her armpits. It was Him.

"Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood."

There was silence in the Great Hall now, the silence that presses against the eardrums, that seems too huge to be contained by walls.

Another icy shiver ran down Daphne's spine. The voice was devastatingly compelling. Who was she to even contemplate to stand up against Him? She would surely die, and who would then be there to protect her sister in a world ruled by Him?

"Give me Harry Potter," said His voice, "and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded.

"You have until midnight."

The silence swallowed them all again. Every head turned, every eye was fixed on the spot in the shadow behind the Gryffindor table that had attracted Daphne's attention only moments ago.

The dark spot stopped moving.

Pansy Parkinson rose, pointed a shaky arm towards the frozen spot in the dark, and screamed, "But he's there! Potter's there! Someone grab him!"

As one, the students at the Gryffindor table rose, then the Hufflepuffs, and the Ravenclaws, almost at the same moment. A wall of human bodies, backs turned at the Chosen One, glared at the Slytherins. Wands emerged from everywhere, pulled from beneath cloaks and out of sleeves, and pointed at the members of the House of the Snakes.

"Great, Pansy, can't you keep your gob shut once?" Tracey Davis muttered in her place next to Daphne. She had a point; Pansy's action made it impossible for any Slytherin student of age to stay and join the defenders of the castle—which she still didn't know if she wanted to.

"Thank you, Miss Parkinson," said Professor McGonagall in a clipped voice. "You will leave the Hall first with Mr Filch. If the rest of your house could follow."

Her words confirmed Daphne's apprehension. With a silent curse on her lips, she got up from the bench and followed her housemates trooping out of the Great Hall, her eyes searching for the brunette head of her younger sister. Instead out of the Entrance Hall and into the grounds, the caretaker led them up the Moving Staircase. Daphne at last found her sister climbing up the stairs at the end of her year and kept her eyes locked on her. When they reached the third floor, Astoria's head vanished, and what seemed like a glitch in Daphne's eyes moved into the once forbidden third-floor corridor.

Daphne sighed. She ought not to have taught her sister the Disillusionment Charm, no matter that it might help her survive in case of a Death Eater attack on their family. She cast a quick glance around. No one paid attention to her, most of her housemates had their eyes trained on the ground, mindful not to let any of their emotions show. Tracey and Sophy, her only friends at school, were the only exception. Both looked at her, their eyes wide with fear. They also had noticed Astoria's disappearance, then.

Sophy cast a Privacy Charm around them. "Are you going to follow her?"

Daphne nodded. "I have to, she's my little sister and I feel responsible for her. I couldn't live with myself if something happened to her, and I was not there to protect her."

Sophy touched her arm. "I understand. Be careful, don't take unnecessary risks."

She grimaced. "No promises there. We're talking about Astoria."

That got her mirthless chuckles from her friends. They had almost reached the third-floor corridor, and Daphne tapped her head with the tip of her wand and the silent incantation of the Disillusionment Charm. Cold ran down from the top of her head to her feet, as if someone poured a sticky substance over her. In the shadows cast by the chandeliers, she slipped into the third-floor corridor and pressed herself against the wall to wait until the students leaving the castle had all passed and she could join the defendants of the castle again. But first she had to find her sister.

The latter proved easier than she had thought. The low draft wafting through the corridors of Hogwarts carried the smell of Astoria's favourite perfume towards her. She couldn't be too far away.

Daphne waited until the last students had passed—some stray Gryffindors not yet of age—turned into the direction where the smell of her sister came from, and cast Homenium Revelio under her breath. The outlines of a silhouette emerged from the dark, and she added a silent Finite Incantatem.

Astoria glared into the direction the spell came from. "Don't think you can stop me, dear sister!"

"At least I can try." Daphne cast another Finite Incantatem at herself and stepped out of the shadow of the wall. "Are you sure about this, Tori? We're going up against Him and his followers. Neither of them will hesitate to kill you."

"I am sure, Daphne. Aren't you? I can't remember the many times you told me how much you hated the values our parents taught us and that you couldn't wait to be of age and out of Hogwarts to leave home. Was that just words?"

"They weren't. And if this was just about me, I wouldn't hesitate to stay and fight." Would she? Merlin, she was seventeen and never been kissed. She wanted to fall in love, have a family, forge her path in life—"I don't want to die," she whispered.

Astoria ran forward and pulled her in a strangling hug. "Neither want I," she said in a choked voice, "But I don't want to live in a world that is ruled by Him, either. The time has come to fight for what I want." She leaned back, her arms still around Daphne. "Will you join me in that fight, sister?"

A watery laugh escaped Daphne's mouth. "You know I will always have you back, little sis."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Astoria asked with that cheeky grin of hers. She held her hand out to Daphne.

Daphne looked down at it, her heart beating in her throat. For a last time, doubt raised its ugly head. Astoria made it look so simple. But if they joined the defenders of Hogwarts, they'd sever all the ties to their parents—and probably would also die.

But she had promised Astoria to stand by her.

Daphne reached out, her icy fingers grasping Astoria's warm hand, and holding it in a firm grasp.

Hand in hand, the sisters ran back to the Great Hall.

t.b.c.

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