Chapter Two. Shut up and Dance.
Lord Voldemort paraded up to the front courtyard of Hogwarts.
"Harry Potter!" said Lord Voldemort in a loud, high-pitched voice.
Harry stepped out of the huge open front door and walked towards Voldemort, wand ready.
All the doors of Hogwarts were open, like it was a weekend and students were going to be using the grounds.
"Tom," said Harry, "Lets duel."
Lord Voldemort chuckled, "Oh, such a brave little boy you are now. How you've grown."
"Yeah Tom, come on," said Harry, turning side-on and adopting a duelling stance like Snape's.
"I'll let you cast first," said Voldmort breathily, to titters from the Death eaters.
Harry's wand slashed downwards 'sectumsempra' Harry whispered and Vodlemort's robe were slashed to ribbons, his white, unnatural looking body cut almost a dozen times. Voldemort chuckled "Oh Harry, I'm so much more than –" then he coughed blood, and the wounds started bleeding freely, red blood, like anyone would have, he looked suddenly confused, and he fell, like a crumpled origami crane, onto the cobbles, where he lay unmoving.
"Anyone willing to surrender?" asked Harry "You were all terrified of him, and I killed him like swatting a gnat."
A number of death eaters turned tail and fled. Harry took the opportunity to summon Voldemort's white wand. It looked… a lot like the headmaster's wand. Harry's now. It felt… really good in his hand. Not like his wand, but… eager, like a firebolt instead of a comet three-sixty.
"Cowards!" yelled Bellatrix LeStrange, lashing her wand at her fleeing comrades, knocking them down.
Then, suddenly, her head fell off, and her body squirted blood for a second, and fell over.
"Again, anyone willing to surrender, snap your wand and lie on the ground" said Harry, pocketing the white wand.
And that's when the acromatula's near the forest caught fire with fiendfyre. The strange screams of the burning acromantula were unnerving.
Then the Giants strode forward, to be met by the stone giant, nearly as tall, but punching with stone fists, and around Harry, a massive army of stone statues and animated suits of armour flooded out of all the opened doorways. Doorways that were a way for what was inside to come out, as much as a way for what was outside to come in. Professor McGonagall, standing in the front doorway lifted both hands high in the air "Attack them!" she said loudly.
Then people on the battlements started firing hexes into the massed death eaters.
A tall, hairy man in dark robes with no hood sniffed "There's –" he said, and lost his head too.
"Greyback has died" said Harry using the Sonourous charm "Bellatrix LeStrange has died, and Voldemort died by my hand. Snap your wand and lie down!"
Harry then cast a shield charm, disillusioned himself and ducked behind a convenient fountain as a pitched battle started between the statues and the death eaters. And a lot of very nasty curses shot in Harry's general direction.
Further away, the stone giant had finally had its fist connect with a giant, who fell over like a tree that had been cut at the ground. The bloody fist of the stone giant swung again and the giants turned away and ran, looking impossibly slow moving, but travelling very quickly.
Figures on brooms fired … ouch that looked like fiendfyre at the giants, and it burned them, but didn't seem so… fiendish. Which seemed to encourage the flyers and more giants got burnt, not killed, but they yelled and ran off, dropping their clubs, patting at their burns and running away.
The 'massed army' of death eaters seemed almost defeated, but the wizards and witches slowly fought the statues into pieces, smashed the suits of armour with levitated bits of statues, and then the stone giant turned and stomped up the path to the mass of black robed wizards, and someone was still issuing some orders, because they fired spell after spell at the giant, breaking it up into its constituent rocks, which turned back into lions and fell, quite literally in some cases, upon the death eaters. With a hundred more stone lions biting black robed figures, Harry retreated into the castle, and the doors all closed, and the sound of the spell battle continued. Harry dashed upstairs and took the side door onto the battlements to a scene of carnage he'd never expected to see. The defenders, who'd seemed to be doing so well, had taken many injuries, and the walkway behind the battlement was fill of witches and wizards, mostly Hogwarts aged, with bandages, bleeding, or lying still, Harry found an open gap in the battlement, and peeked out, found a target and fired the strongest blasting curse he could at them. They exploded, with so much red. Not a bit like training dummies at all. Harry felt his gorge rise, choked it down and fired again. It became an endless nightmare, getting hit by fragments of rock from spells that narrowly missed, ducking behind the thick stones, and leaning into the gap, looking for a target, and firing a blasting curse. Each curse knocked down several death-eaters. And unfortunately the occasional stone lion.
Around the castle, the sound of yelling, and horses-hooves.. no, Centaurs hooves sounded and the death eaters were harried by black flights of arrows.
Harry glanced over, and he saw Tonks at the adjacent space to Remus both firing curses down at the attackers. Neither seemed badly hurt, but both had multiple small cuts.
Hannah Abbot came past with a white bandage around her head, and tapped Harry with her wand, and his skin crawled.
"Just a quick spell to heal up the cuts" she explained, then bent and started checking the fallen.
Harry went back to casting spells, getting a pat on the back from someone who wasn't there, but seemed to be invisibly firing hexes from the next empty firing position.
"S – Stubby Boardman?" asked Harry "Cool of you to come. Don't take any risks."
"Stubby Boardman?" asked Sirius's voice.
"He looks a little like you" said Harry, hoping nobody heard.
Invisible Sirius stopped firing for a bit and then went back to casting spells.
"Well I suppose you're a fan" said Sirius.
"The Minah Birds are better really" said Harry sarcastically.
"Prat" said Sirius affectionately, and they fired spells at attackers till all the lions were gone and the attackers started bashing on the doors. The moment of ducking out to fire was awkward, and there were death-eaters on the ground waiting for anyone to show their faces. Fortunately, they were mostly easy to doge. Cutting curses were quick, and harder to dodge, and Harry had been clipped a few times.
"Every fifth person down to reinforce the doors" said the amplified voice of Professor McGonagall. The defenders looked around and soon the banging on the doors went from sounding woody to sounding metallic.
"Oooh Transfigured to steel. Bet that was a joint effort. With McGonagall orchestrating" said Sirius, leaning over to take pot-shots at the attackers.
"We need some boiling oil" said Harry "Castles pour boiling oil, don't they?"
"Where would we get a vat of boiling oil?" asked Sirius.
"The chip fryer?" asked Harry.
"Kreacher!" called Sirius.
Kreacher appeared, looking confused "Where is master?" he said loudly over the spell-fire.
"Pour boiling oil on the attackers." said Harry "Use the chip frying cauldron."
Kreacher vanished.
"I hope this works" said Sirius "But I don't fancy explaining why there's no hot chips."
A large cauldron appeared with several sweaty looking elves, who waved their fingers and tipped it over the battlement wall. There were screams from below.
"We's will be back in ten minutes" said one elf, and the cauldron and elves vanished with a crack.
"How much cooking oil does Hogwarts have anyway?" asked Harry.
"Nine thousand gallons, give or take" said Sirius. "Fourth year we poured it down the dungeon steps. It did flood into their common room. Apart from my cousins beating me black and blue it was a great victory."
Harry was getting light-headed with hunger when a dozen red-robed Aurors arrived outside, and started hexing the attackers, who were hiding under the front portico's and similar places.
"Just about time for a sally" said Sirius.
"Do try not to get killed" said Harry "I've given up… lots for you."
"Miss Greengrass had more than Ginny" said Sirius as he swished past invisibly. Too quickly for Harry to protest.
Harry decided to check the walkway, and found more injured people, mostly treated. Also mostly people he knew hadn't gone to DA classes, and were probably rubbish at dodging.
Harry went inside and almost immediately a small, maybe fourth year girl handed Harry a huge mug of soup. Which somehow was just the right temperature to drink.
Harry sat on a decorative chest in a hallway denuded of suits of armour, and drank the soup, and decided to go see the rest of the castle, just for moment.
That turned out to be a bad idea.
The great hall was being used as an emergency hospital, the tables as beds, and Harry saw a couple of small blond boys, one holding the other's hand. It looked like Dennis and Colin Creevey. And one of them was lying on his back not moving. Harry's eyes watered, and he left the great hall.
Harry got back up to the battlement, feeling angry. Not in a vague way, but angry that his small housemates had been forced into a battle at their school. Neither of them were terrible at magic, but… they were just… just kids. Not big tough seventeen-year-olds like Harry.
Harry took aim at the massive puddle of oil on the cobbles below and cast the biggest incendio he'd ever tried.
It lit a lot quicker than he expected, and the balloon of flames burnt his hair.
Harry ducked back and the flames burnt briefly to the battlement, then dropped down. There was the smell of hot chips, and also burning hair.
Harry looked over, and some black robed people were running out of the cover they'd hidden in, to avoid the burning oil. Which had them getting hexed from the battlements again.
The few Aurors were firing and moving, being careful while outnumbered.
Harry saw figures coming up the path and cursed. The death eaters had reinforcements.
The leader was a red-faced Professor Slughorn, and the people with him looked like… the population of Hogsmeade, all with their wands out.
The battle changed at that point, Harry realised later.
The attackers were slowly forcing their way into a castle, hiding from the defenders in porches, harried by Centaurs once or twice, occasionally hit by spellfire and a few careful trustworthy Aurors were reinforced by several hundred Hogsmeade residents, not particularly adept at fighting, but just casting lots and lots of stunners. Too many, Harry remembered to be really healthy.
Harry also realised he didn't really care.
The Battle of Hogwarts, Harry was told later, started at forty-two minutes past six in the morning, and ran till eleven past five in the evening the same day.
Harry found parts of the castle blocked off.
"Acromantula got in" said the group of tired looking students, wands out, a hastily positioned rubble wall blocking the corridor.
'Oh, we didn't get them all,' thought Harry, and he made the slow, painful trip, his shoulders and legs sore for some reason, and braved the Great Hall again. The multiple cut injuries he didn't have were starting to hurt. Harry cursed his stupidity at not learning some cut-healing charms earlier. Like… when he had nothing to do on the run. A bit less staring at the map, at the dot labelled Ginny Weasley, a bit more learning spells.
Harry entered the Great Hall and suddenly it was quiet.
"He's here" someone whispered very loudly.
Harry got a bit further in, and saw that the room had been divided up into people with other people looking after them holding their hands, talking to them, a second bit with bodies covered in sheets… so many bodies too. Enough… to cover the Ravenclaw table.
An area with people getting treatment, and Harry saw a staggering Madam Pomfrey, accompanied by Hannah Abbot, blood on her robes, and that bandage on her head… Harry now realised as a sort of uniform. And with Hannah, other girls. That he vaguely remembered from Sixth year, from the Slytherin tables. Including Daphne Greengrass, who was very bloody indeed. Her arms were bloody, her hands were bloody. Harry went in the general direction, to see who was hurt.
Which had Hannah Abbot, wet, drippy Hannah Abbot, shoving him onto a bench to sit, and
starting to cast diagnostic charms on him.
"You're bleeding a lot for someone casually walking around" she said tartly.
"I've had worse" said Harry.
"Daphne, more cutting curse damage. The bloody man who won doesn't shield worth shit apparently" said Hannah, and went to see the next person wandering into the great hall.
Daphne Greengrass came over and said "Get the clothes off, so I can see your cuts" in a very business like tone, and she had a bandage tying back her hair, which was the only part of her not bloody really.
Harry took off his jacket, wincing as the cuts hurt.
The shirt was a bloody mess, and Greengrass just vanished it.
"Normal people seek medical attention when injured" said Greengrass, casting a spell on one cut in particular, then repeating it, and then moving to a totally different part of Harry's other shoulder.
"You probably won't lose any motion" said Greengrass.
"I've lost some already"
"Permanently" she said, jabbing with her wand "There's only a little dark curse residue on you, so this is probably ordinary cutters"
"And stone chips" said Harry.
"Which is why your head looks like Eloise Midgen" said Greengrass.
"Really?" asked Harry "my dashing good looks destroyed, how will I live?" he said imitating Gilderoy Lockheart.
"Potter, why have you got not eyebrows?" retorted Greengrass
"Burnt off by a fireball" said Harry. "I ignited the oil that had been boiling, and it burnt me. I didn't really know what I was doing."
"But you know a dark curse that cuts a man into pieces" said Daphne Greengrass.
"Snape invented it, Clever bugger really" Harry replied.
"Madam Pomfrey, Harry Potters' delirious!" said Greengrass loudly and urgently.
"I'm not delirious. Snape was a bastard, but bloody clever" said Harry.
"Was?" asked Greengrass.
"This morning about one." said Harry "I got the intelligence he saved for us, and we planned accordingly. You caught the back part of that."
"I've never been so glad to be to have insomnia" said Greengrass.
"Molly Weasley hit me with a spell for that. Starts Ogcaito something" said Harry.
"That's a medical coma spell" said Daphne Greengrass. "When did she use that on you?"
"This morning … for a few hours. Helps a lot." said Harry. "Been on the go since the Gringotts breakout really."
"You really did rob Gringotts?"
"Nah. Just took one thing. We can give it back now" said Harry.
"How did you do it?" she asked quietly, casting spells to seal up his cuts.
"Not here not today." said Harry "Too easy to copy what he did."
Once Harry was sealed up, Greengrass cleaned him off a bit roughly with a cleaning charm, which stung like blazes, and a house-elf provided a clean shirt that was too big.
Harry went to put it on and Greengrass said "And get some food in you. You look starved."
"I've been pretty hungry all year, yes" admitted Harry.
"Well we've got some things but no hot chips" said Daphne. "Go eat. And get a new jacket. That ones' ruined."
Harry stood up, poked at Greengrass with his wand, firing off a good scourgify, and she was covered all over in fizzing foam for a few seconds, leaving her much less bloody
"You were all bloody" said Harry blandly, and staggered off.
Greengrass looked just tired and Harry didn't think she'd hex him in the back. She did seem a very calm, practical person. His memory tried to tell him something, but failed due to lack of sleep.
Harry cleaned his jacket, and started repair-charming it back together. There was it turned out, an area with food. Harry sat down and took a plate, and got started into the amazingly delicious potatoes, and fell asleep into them.
He woke to Ron's poking "Hey, get your head out of the potatoes" said Ron.
Then the defenders prevailed upon Stubby Boardman to sing.
Which, as Sirius wasn't Stubby, Harry expected to be rubbish. Of course, Sirius could sing, if only dirty limericks… so that's what he sung.
An hour later, Harry ate some more and felt sleepy again.
"Come on, we can bed down in the Gryffindor dorms" said Ron.
"Proper beds?" asked Harry.
"And running hot water" said Ron. "As soon as my cuts heal up, I'm going to have a bath, and stay in till I'm a prune."
Harry was leaning on Ron by the second floor. By the fourth floor Harry was being dragged up, using Ron's arm as an elevator.
Harry entered the common room and it was packed with Weasleys and Gryffindors, all looking a bit battered. And Fleur, of course, looking glamorous, but battered, holding Bill, who was looking really tired.
Harry waved and Ron pulled him up to a familiar looking dorm room, and he collapsed on the bed which was made, he was sure, in the moment before he fell asleep, of clouds. It was so soft.
Harry woke an hour later from a nightmare. Not Cedric, but Colin Creevy. He drank some water, and went back to the soft but sweaty bed; he charmed it dry and slept better, waking after about three hours, reliving the fight with Tom. Who'd only lost by being too cocky. In a fair fight, Tom would have crushed him. He still remembered the duel between Tom and Dumbledore in the ministry. In fact, he realised… the idea of calling him Tom to wind him up, make him have to act all Lord Voldemort, that had been unconscionably cribbed from Professor Dumbleores' tactics. And it had worked. He'd known... the right thing to say at the right time. Like encouraging Harry … to go off and be all heroic. One accidental conversation had changed the course of the day. If he'd gone to Tom, let him kill him… would it have worked? After ages of thinking one way and another, Harry realised he'd never know. And went to sleep. He had a good variety of nightmares until morning.
Ron was snoring, and Harry barely noticed.
Harry went down to the common room, where Hermione was sitting, in a way that gave Harry a bad case of deja-vu. It was like it was a weekend in sixth year, except Hermione looked haggard and thin.
"Some breakfast?" asked Harry.
Hermione looked up from a book "Well, you're down. Where's Ron?" she asked.
"Snoring" said Harry, and Hermione's lips twitched into a small smile "Nothing different" she said.
Harry nodded and they went down to breakfast. A surprising number of hallways had barriers manned by tired looking student and adults.
"Acromanutula" said one elderly witch "They've come out of the forest, and won't go back, probably the fire."
Harry ducked his head, and they carried on down to the great hall, which was looking a bit more normal, with no makeshift morgue anymore. There was still a table covered in resting people, with green robed healers walking about. Madam Pomfrey was missing. Harry really hoped she was getting some sleep.
Harry sat at roughly his old position on the bench seat, and Hermione sat next to him. "It's surreal" she said. "Like… the last year almost didn't happen."
Harry started serving himself from the toast and tea available, the platters of cooked breakfast missing.
"Is it really early?" Harry asked, after a sip of tea and bite of toast. Hermione checked her watch "About eight, or my watch has stopped" said Hermione. "I had a terrible time getting Lavender and Pavarti down to the Great Hall last night, they'd both got wounded. There was so much blood."
"Are they all right?" asked Harry.
"Madam Pomfrey didn't see them, but Hannah charmed up Pavati's cuts and Daphne Greengrass, you know, she charmed up Lavender's face. I could have done that. When I complained she told me to bloody well help." said Hermione.
"And?" asked Harry.
"I explained I only knew one spell for healing, just episky." said Hermione, "And Greengrass said, congratulations you're qualified, I only know episky and a detect curse. All day she'd been doing her best with just episky. Silently, but still… what business she had being a pretend healer."
"Um, Madam Pomfrey was horribly overworked" said Harry. "She looked really tired."
"Were you injured?" asked Hermione "You're far too good to get injured with a wall to duck behind!"
"I got sliced up" admitted Harry "And burnt."
"Oh. That's what happened to your eyebrows." said Hermione.
"Do you know how to fix that?" asked Harry.
"No" said Hermione. "I think you need a little hair growth potion."
Harry went over, stomach partly filled, and asked a Healer, who looked at Harry down her nose
"It's not life-threatening. Come back in a few days. We've forty patients needing care, and you're not dying, or bleeding out."
Harry went back to the table, sat down and had some more toast.
"Well?" asked Hermione.
"They'e busy. It's not life-threatening." explained Harry.
The great Hall grew slowly more crowded as time passed people picked over the breakfast offerings and there was grumbling.
Lavender and Parvati came down together and sat close but not that close Parvati looked over at Hermione and said "thank you for yesterday Hermione".
Hermione blinked and said "oh it's what anyone would have done, Harry I'm sure you helped some people yesterday."
Harry stayed at the table blushing "actually Hermione," Harry said "I didn't, I guess I was a bit busy."
Ginny Weasley arrived at the Gryffindor table and set down halfway between Parvati and Hermione she looked over at Harry raised her eyebrows and asked "so Harry got short of your nasty little problem yet?"
Harry looked up and nodded once. Ginny Weasley smiled to herself and poured herself a cup of tea looked around the table, frowned and started buttering some toast. Harry sat awkwardly, fidgeting. Padma Patil, Parvati's sister came over and set down she had a very serious look on her face "Pav" she said, "some of the Gryffindor's have died."
Parvati looked up at her sister "what you mean some of the Gryffindors have died?"
"Well Colin Creevy, and Dean and Fay" said Padma biting her lip "and it's just as bad if not worse in Ravenclaw."
Ginny Weasley's head turned to look at Parvati "what you mean Dean died?" she croaked.
"When the acromantula broke in on the third floor" Parvati said , "Dean and Fay were a roving squad that was trying to stop them, but they got overwhelmed" explained Parvati. "Seamus is in the infirmary with burns."
Ginny's head lowered and she stared at the table. Harry doesn't know quite what to say.
"Where's Sophie?" asked Hermione.
"I don't think she's coming down to breakfast" said Parvati.
Harry sat and waited, he had a bad feeling something was going to happen soon.
That something unexpectedly, was Parvati noticing Harry didn't have any eyebrows. "Oh Merlin" said Parvati "Harry hasn't got any eyebrows."
Lavender peered intently at Harry's head "yes he doesn't you can hardly tell behind the glasses frames, but really he hasn't ,what happened to you?" asked Lavender.
"A fireball" said Harry.
"Then why isn't your hair messed up?" asked Lavender "not that anyone could usually tell." she added.
"My hair kinda fixes itself overnight" said Harry "well, goes back to always looking like this." Lavender stared at Harry intently "you mean to tell us," she said "that you are partial metamorphmagus and the only thing you can do is have messy black hair?" "Pretty much, yes" said Harry as he stared at the table again his hands forming into loose fists. He realised he hadn't really missed Hogwarts.
Parvati spoke up "um, I know a charm for eyebrows" she said.
Harry lifted his head and Parvati intoned a spell and tapped Harry's forehead. He felt a strange itching sensation on his forehead and moments later Parvati said "they may be a little shaggy but should do, after all, you're only a boy."
After breakfast Harry went out and sat in the only slightly destroyed clocktower courtyard. About five minutes later Ginny Weasley sauntered over and said "Harry, I think, we need to have a long thorough discussion."
Harry stood up and followed Ginny up to the fourth floor down a disused corridor to a broom closet which after a few detection charms she opened the door of, cast a witch-light onto the ceiling and went inside "don't be shy Harry" she said "you know it'll be good for you."
Harry hesitated in the doorway "I am – , this is something I need to tell you" said Harry awkwardly "it's just well yesterday, some things happened and," Harry wondered what to say, obviously he didn't want to admit to having committed massive crimes in front of Ginny, he was being blackmailed by one witch already, so he wondered what he could say how he had explained about being engaged to a Slytherin, no less " – all this time, we had a secret ally, in Slytherin house."
"Really?" Said Ginny her eyebrows shooting up to her hairline "who was it?" She asked "it can't be Malfoy, because he wasn't here this year, did a runner just like you."
"It was, Daphne Greengrass" said Harry, "she's —", at this point Harry really wondered what he could say next "she's — Sirius arranged for it. We are actually engaged."
Ginny Weasley stared at Harry her eyes narrowed "and when, exactly, did you get engaged to her?" "Yesterday, yesterday morning just before the battle." Harry deciding that some honesty would probably easier to remember, "Sirius arranged it." "But that's years ago" said Ginny "years and years ago, and you went out with me since." "Well it's not like there are fidelity vows" said Harry "I mean, you were dating Dean yesterday. And he died yesterday. And yet here we are at a broom closet."
"So Sirius betrothed you to some rich pure blood" said Ginny.
"Well, you are a pure-blood too" said Harry "Sirius had his reasons." Harry paused to think "basically, we just had to it, was unavoidable. Oh, and through a strange interaction of Voldemort's magic and some dumb risks we took, Sirius has come back out of the veil of death that wasn't Stubby Boardman last night, that was Sirius Black."
Ginny shook her head "that is a ridiculous load of bull. And I grew up with the twins."
A silvery grim dashed over to Harry and hopped up and down, then said in Sirius's voice "Headmasters office. Now."
Ginny blinked "That" she said "Is deeply disturbing."