Harry Potter and the Battle of the Age

Chapter Eighteen

At Our Very Refuge

Harry was still shaking and sweaty when the rest of the Aurors and Order members arrived.

"What happened?" the tall, steely Auror who had momentarily doubted Dumbledore shot. He saw the two young bodies on the ground and stopped short.

"Students, McDermott," Professor McGonagall managed to say faintly. "Two student fatalities... I couldn't stop her; it was just the one Death Eater and I couldn't do it..."

Harry had never heard McGonagall speak with the least trace of self-doubt, let alone in this stunned, defeated voice.

"It's alright, Professor..." someone said from the back of the group. Then Charlie Weasley made his way forward.

"Who is it?" he intoned gravely. "Who did they--"

Without looking up, Harry knew that he had seen the bodies. He winced.

"Wha--G-Ginny..."

Ginny was dead, bright, happy, fearless Ginny... and Neville, who had been changing so radically; he had gotten so strong....

Harry couldn't move for the tragedy of it all. He still had to tell Ron... Mrs. Weasley... all her brothers...

Charlie began to weep, his harsh sobs echoing off the dark stone walls of the library.

"Back here," another Ministry Auror called. "They've--they've also gotten the librarian..."

Harry had grown temporarily numb to everything. He was hardly aware when the tall Auror took the map gently from his hand and conjured sheets for the bodies. Somebody had Lestrange tied and taken to the Room of Requirement, their makeshift prison. And then he was headed back to Dumbledore's office, in the middle of a knot of people, not even taking his wand out. Charlie had started to tremble.

"Harry, Fergus--what has happened?" the headmaster's voice went sharp as he saw their faces.

"There's been a casualty, Albus... two students," McGonagall said shakily, her hand over her mouth.

The room went deathly still. A few goblins looked down reverently. It seemed to be a full minute before Dumbledore raised the question.

"Who?" he said simply, in a soft voice.

"Neville Longbottom..."

He closed his eyes and directed his face to the floor.

"And..."

McGonagall couldn't bring herself to do it. She gave Mrs. Weasley the quickest of fleeting glimpses and covered her mouth again.

"And--and G--Ginny Weasley."

Harry looked immediately at Ron, whose face went whiter than Harry had ever seen. Mrs. Weasley, surrounded by her husband and sons, began to shake like Charlie, who rushed to her. She gave a short, piercing cry, then another. Than she dissolved into anguish sobs and cries of 'no!' as every one of the twelve hands of the part of her family gathered there reached out to catch her. If not for them she would have collapsed on the stone floor, weeping and screaming. Mr. Weasley held her tighter than Harry had ever seen him, his tears beginning to mingle with hers. The Weasley section of the room turned inward on itself as seven sons and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley mourned for their only child who wasn't in the Order, or as good as; the only daughter....

One son was missing, though. Ron had fallen like his mother at the news, but Hermione, next to him, now held him up. He began to sob and moan just as the others, and allowed his lanky frame to be enfolded entirely into Hermione's arms, neck, and shoulders. Tears flowed openly down her own face as she held him, both shaking with the force of his grief. Ron, who usually laughed and shrugged it off and joked was unable to stand for sorrow. Harry went over to his friend and did the only thing he could think of, to grip his shoulder and try to choke out some word of comfort. But Ron wouldn't have heard him if he could have spoken. He was surrounded, Harry knew, in a small, black, overwhelming universe of hurt, and the only thing he could feel through it was the vague solidity of Hermione supporting him. Without a word, she lead him a few steps and gave him to his family. Arthur Weasley took his youngest son into the crumbling group of Weasleys, all moaning and crying fit to burst. Hermione turned away with her face in her hands. Harry wanted to go and comfort her, and Rachel, who watched this all, horrified. Dumbledore finished talking to them--what he said, Harry never found out--and pulled back a respectful distance, letting the family grieve.

The office was silent for a moment, some observing a moment of respect for Ginny and Neville, some muttering to each other about how the Death Eaters were getting in, and some just unsure of what to do. Harry was rubbing his eyes furiously when a startled call rudely broke into their sorrow.

"Dumbledore!" Kingsley Shacklebolt yelled, holding Harry's Marauder's Map. "Another one--he's headed straight for the Ravenclaw common room!"

Harry jumped and looked at the map. Down in the dungeons, two dots, labelled Walden Macnair and Casey Taggert, were striding toward a vast gathering of Ravenclaw students. Severely shaken by what had just happened, Harry felt his emotions crash all over the place--rage and terror and panic, all inspired by two little dots.

"How secure is the entrance?" Dumbledore said quickly, addressing Professor Flitwick.

"I put as many sealing and locking charms on it as I knew," he replied in his squeaky voice.

"Aren't we going?" Harry said incredulously, when Dumbledore didn't move for several seconds.

"There," he said suddenly, and pointed to another spot on the map. Narcissa Malfoy, Antonin Dolohov, and Stuart Carrows were stalking around near the kitchens. One floor above them, Jason Nott and Henry Tanner were wandering down a corridor near McGonagall's classroom.

"They're trying to draw us out," Dumbledore muttered, "And scatter us..."

"Reckon we should go--just where the students are in danger?" a barrel-chested wizard with a thick moustache conferred with Dumbledore. Harry had seen his picture in the Prophet--Matthias Somerset. Dumbledore looked toward his door.

"I believe that is a good strategy, for now... I need four teams to guard the House doors."

Within a minute four groups of five were sent out intermittently through Dumbledore's oak doors. Bill Weasley gripped his wand angrily and blazed out for Gryffindor Tower. Chris Connor gave Rachel a gruff hug as he passed. Harry kept an eye on his map as Dumbledore and Somerset tried to work out what the Death Eaters were doing.

"Diversionary tactics..." Somerset mumbled. "And probably some scouting... damn, you're right; they're trying to spread us around so they can charge...."

"Thankfully we were forewarned, so they don't have any hostages to draw us out," Dumbledore continued softly. "Eventually they'll just have to attack..."

Harry watched as the Ravenclaw group neared the common room. They were behind a corner, and Harry thought the Death Eaters had their backs turned... Fergus McDermott must have cursed Taggert, because he stopped dead in his tracks and Macnair started running toward that end of the hall. McDermott looked like he had to leap aside. Hestia Jones, Kieran Brewer, Anna Lai, and Shannon Sythfield-Tooke came behind the Auror and Macnair promptly froze, Stunned.

"They can't do this for long," Harry said, looking up at Dumbledore. "We'll pick off all the Death Eaters."

Dumbledore nodded gravely.

"You're right."

Around him, all the Aurors and Order members were either listening to their respective superiors, Dumbledore and Somerset, or a few practiced wandless combat in an empty space. Harry made his way toward the Weasleys, who had now sunk into a stunned, empty phase, all sitting or standing against the back wall of Dumbledore's office near a window. Mrs. Weasley was sitting against the wall, her blue knitted shawl falling around her shoulders, a horrible dead look on her round, kind face. Harry's feet took him to the woman who had always been the closest thing to a mother he had ever had. Before he knew it he was keeling beside her and wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

"I'm so sorry," he managed to say into her hair.

"Dear boy..." Mrs. Weasly murmured, holding him as tightly as her other sons and tearing. She held on to him for a moment and began to sob quietly again.

After Mr. Weasley came and sat with his wife, Harry let them alone. He went to the window Ron had propped himself against, his face pressed into the rain streaming down the glass.

"Are you all right?"

Ron shrugged, his expression closed. Harry didn't think there was anything he should say, so he stood beside him.

"I never got to tell her," he said suddenly, with sincere remorse. "About Neville... I liked him. He was being good to her."

Ron's voice cracked.

"And I was pretty harsh on him, wasn't I?"

"She knew, Ron," Harry said softly. "And Neville... they both did. You could--you could tell you liked him." This seemed to be some comfort.

"Did she suffer?" Ron asked, his throat tight with a suppressed sob. Harry hesitated. Ginny's last words had been 'I love you'... and now she and Neville were both through with pain and poison...

"I don't think... too much," Harry said carefully. "Her last--her last words were 'I love you'. She wasn't--afraid."

At least some of the load was lifted off Ron. He closed his eyes, as though asleep, and pressed his cheek against the cool glass. For a few moments he rested. Then he said,

"I want to fight."

Harry looked up. Ron scowled again.

"I want to get him... I want to make him pay." Ron's voice was choked. An angry tear slid down his freckled cheek.

"I'm going to..." A cry escaped his throat. "I'm going to get them, for her... and Neville... and for my mum..."

Harry let him talk. If Mrs. Weasley would ever let him out of her sight...

No, Ron should fight. It was his sister.

"Sir!" the Auror who was watching the map cried. "Look!"

Everyone hastened to the Marauder's Map. Near what Harry knew was a blank stone wall, a group of Aurors seemed to be having a duel--with Slytherin students. Four Death Eaters, along with Draco Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, and a few other students Harry didn't know.

"Get down there!" Somerset yelled, and about seven Aurors rushed for the door. Snape followed.

"Be careful, they're kids--use the least force necessary! Not you," Somerset said, grabbing Tonks' arm. "We'll run out of people."

"Remus," Dumbledore said, and nodded to the door. The giant wolf, yellow-eyed and tufty-tailed, nodded and galloped out, looking mad and untamed to scare the others.

"We need to seal off the House from the inside," Dumbledore said urgently. "They're going to join their parents--"

He was interrupted by two things. First, an ear-splitting roar sounded from the front of the castle, which Harry thought was a strange roll of thunder until there was a rather large rush of emerald fire from Dumbledore's fireplace.

"Dumbly-dore!" Madame Maxime, a half-giantess and Headmistress of Beaubatons Academy. "I 'ave a ji-ent to 'elp you..."

"Madame Maxime! Wonderful--"

But he was again cut off.

"Dumbledore!" the Auror at the map wasn't through. "Look at the front gates!"

"Zat's what I was trying to tell you--zey are here alreddy!"

Harry looked back at the map. A surge of black dots, at least twenty of them, were flowing into Hogwarts. He went cold.

"He's broken the charms..." Dumbledore murmured.

"My ji-ent disturbed zee cent-ars... zey sought zee was an enemy, and began to shoot--zen zer ji-ent attacked!"

"Their giant?" Harry looked up.

"You're saying they have their own giant?" Dumbledore said quickly.

"Yes--zee Death Eaters distracted zee cent-ars and got through! Zee ji-ents are fighting among zemselves now, while zee cent-ars shoot at Voldemort's men from a distance. They may be able to 'old zem off, for a while... but I sink I 'erd there is another of his ji-ents coming."

"Thank you..." Dumbledore said vaguely, deep in thought. "These men are headed..." he glanced at the map. The group of Gryffindors had holed themselves up near the top of the stairs, and didn't seem to have been attacked.

"... right toward us, it seems." he finished, seriously but serenely. "They will join with as many Slytherin students as they can get, and attack us from the centre of Hogwarts... and eventually the rest of them will get it..."

He looked up at Somerset.

"I think it's time to take to the halls."

Somerset nodded and began shouting orders efficiently to his Aurors. They were going to meet the Death Eaters and the thick of the battle seemed to be looming. Mrs. Weasley frantically kissed each of her sons and her husband.

"I want five remaining with Dumbledore, and watch carefully! Get back here if you're injured! Take prisoners to the holding cell with extreme caution!" Somerset barked. Harry whipped out his wand.

"Am I going out, sir?"

Dumbledore looked at the map. With a thrill of horror, Harry saw a dot labelled Tom Riddle lead another five Death Eaters into the Great Hall.

"Yes," he said simply. "Stay around people. Don't go alone unless you have to."

Harry nodded.

"Good luck," Dumbledore said, gripping his shoulder. Than Harry was caught in the thick of Aurors heading out the door. Suddenly he remembered he hadn't said goodbye to Rachel, or Ron or Hermione...

"No..." he thought, and for a moment all he could think of was getting back into the office and telling them. He turned, but Tonks took his arm.

"No time," she said gently.

Harry felt panicked; he had to say goodbye! What if he never saw them again, he had to go and tell them.... Then he made himself turn around.

"Okay..." he said in a small voice.

The group hurried toward the main entrance to head off the wave of Death Eaters making its way to Dumbledore's office. Harry felt himself bump into someone as he looked down a hallway, and turned to apologize. But there was nobody there. Or...

"Ron?" Harry said incredulously, squinting in front of him. An outline of his friend was just visible. "What are you doing here?"

"We pulled a Potter and Disillusioned ourselves," came Rachel's voice, from his left. "I told you we weren't letting you go alone."

Harry couldn't say anything more; people were starting to look at him.

A short wizard with greying sandy hair at the head of the group held up his hand. Footsteps could be heard down the adjacent hall. Everyone readied their wands and spread out. A large man whose outline looked a bit like Goyle rounded the corner, and yelled. He was immediately Stunned, but at least a dozen Death Eaters were behind him. Harry was in the middle of cursing them when he felt something graze his shoulder. He turned around but could see no one. Suddenly Tonks, behind him, fell.

"There are more of them!" Harry yelled, sending a Stunner at random down the other direction, where another hallway met this one. "They're Disillusioned or something!"

The Auror at the front of the group shouted a spell that bathed the hall in reddish light. Another fifteen masked Death Eaters appeared, along with Ron, Hermione, and Rachel. Many of them were Stunned outright. Harry hit a cloaked man trying to get Hermione from the back, then immobilized and knocked out another just behind him. The spells began to slow. When nobody was sending any more curses, Harry looked around.

All the Death Eaters were lying on the ground, along with about half of Dumbledore's men. Hermione revived Ron, who had been Stunned. When everyone was awakened, only three people had been injured, and were sent back to Dumbledore's office. Three others were given the task of levitating the Death Eaters to the holding cell, so their fellows couldn't revitalize them with 'Ennerverate' spells.

"Do you think that's all of them in here?" the sandy-haired Auror asked Shacklebolt.

"I don't know. We should wait in the Entrance Hall for those who get past the giants and centaurs."

So they went back on the route they were originally going down. Nobody seemed to know to question Ron, Hermione, or Rachel.

But they never got to the Hall. A staircase decided to shift just as half of their thirty or so men were going down it, and they ended up on the seventh floor; Harry included.

"We'll just go back down and meet with the rest--" Tonks began to say, when a spell came out of the darkness and hit her in the back of the head. Harry yelled and another attack began. Lucius Malfoy emerged and began sending nasty hexes left and right--even though he should have been locked in the Room of Requirement.

"They must have woken up and attacked those three who went back!" Hermione yelled above the din. Harry swore. Ron saw Bellatrix Lestrange, unmasked, and threw curses at her until she was unconscious, and then bloody. He didn't stop until he was forced to turn his wand on another Death Eater in his face.

The fight wasn't going well. Harry's comrades were outnumbered badly, and eventually, even though half of the Death Eaters fell (cursed by hexes that 'Ennerverate' couldn't wake them from), the call came to retreat.

"Down that corridor, and lose them!" cried Shacklbolt, while he and four other Aurors at the front of the fray bravely held off the remaining Death Eaters so they could escape. "We'll catch up!"

Shacklebolt put a spell on himself that caused a sphere of light to encircle him, and the others followed. When they stood shoulder-to-shoulder, a wall of their lights stopped the Death Eaters and absorbed their spells. Harry knew that the shields were very draining, though, and wouldn't last long. He hoped they would be able to come back for them soon, but had no choice except to run.

This time all his fellow students had survived unscathed, and he gravitated toward them.

"Everyone all right?" he called at Rachel. She nodded.

A burst of different coloured lights came from behind them, and Harry knew Shacklebolt and the others had faded. A Death Eater shouted "Potter!" and started a group running at Harry. He shoved Rachel ahead of him down a corner and they ran.

"Wait!" Hermione gasped, and pulled aside a tapestry, revealing the hidden passageway they sometimes used to get to Charms. They scrambled through it and heard the Death Eaters run by.

"Good..." Harry breathed. Then he looked around.

"Damn--we shouldn't have separated," Rachel said ruefully.

"We'll find them," Harry said vaguely. "All right, Ron?"

Ron nodded dumbly. Hermione went up next to him and lightly rubbed his arm.

"What--what's going to happen to Shacklebolt, and... and those people who were knocked out during the fight?"

Harry looked down the hallway.

"Look--I don't think they're going to wait around and Avada Kedavra every one of them... they'll be okay when we fight the Death Eaters off," he said, hoping it would be true. "Come on, we ought to rejoin the rest..."

The four of them put their wands out and decided not to go back through the tapestry, in case those Death Eaters were still hanging around. They would go around the back of the school and head back to Dumbledore's office to regroup.

"Where Mrs. Weasley is probably out of her mind worrying about Ron..." Harry thought to himself. It wasn't quite fair to her that Ron had gone, but he sure as hell wasn't going to try and stop him.

Harry led them down the shadowy hallways, rain still beating against the windows and dimming any light as effectively as a thick curtain. Sometimes he could hear giant roars. They were very close to Dumbledore's office when they heard voices down the hall.

"Shut up! He had to do that, you idiot! The Mudblood might wake up and get the rest of them."

"He was unconscious, though... that curse killed him real slow..."

"You cowards! That's how it works! The stupid common-blood deserved to die anyway..."

The first voice belonged to Draco Malfoy. He sounded upset, and angrily trying not to show it. With him, judging by their voices, were Crabbe and the Slytherin Montague, who had graduated Hogwarts two years ago. Both of them were making far less of an attempt to hide their frightened, disturbed expressions. As they rounded the corner, Harry realized too late that they should have ran. Malfoy shouted and Ron's wand flew out of his hand. Montague, reacting more quickly than he seemed sharp enough to, sent thick ropes flying toward Rachel, which bound her hands behind her back. Harry's Expelliarmus spell collided with one of Malfoy's jinxes, and he was suddenly dizzier than he had ever felt in his life. The hallway spun around him and he felt hard stone against one shoulder; he must have collapsed. When the world steadied, Hermione was being held in a painful looking nelson by Montague, and Ron had ropes like Rachel's wrapped around his wrists and waist. Malfoy was pointing his wand in Harry's face.

"So you're ready to be an Auror, Potter? You've already experienced your defeat by a Death Eater, then!"

"What're you going to do, Malfoy--curse me while I'm down just like your coward of a father did?" Harry stalled, assuming about what Malfoy had been saying.

"Shut up!" Malfoy shot, and stamped hard on Harry's stomach. The air rushed from his lungs and he reeled with pain.

"You know what's going to happen if you do anything, Malfoy; you've seen it now!" Hermione panted, seeing what Harry was trying to do. "They'll torture us to death, ordinary people you've seen your whole life... and then you'll be expected to do the same! Day after day, killing people in their sleep on Voldemort's orders!"

Hermione's voice grew a bit stronger as Montague lessened his hold, just slightly.

"Draco, this isn't a game..." Rachel said. Her own voice remained calm and steady. "I know it's one thing to hear it from your dad, but seeing it is another, right?" Malfoy licked his lips nervously. "Are you really going to kill us?" The effect of these words, stronger than they ordinarily would have been, sunk in. Rachel's voice was growing hypnotizing. "You can't do it. You know you can't."

"Shut your mouth, Connor!" Malfoy spat.

"Come on, Malfoy, you know you won't do anything so horrible. If you give us up we'll all be killed, in front of you, just like you saw. Us and probably half of the school."

Malfoy had clearly started to waver. He lowered his wand a fraction of an inch. Suddenly another voice came from the other end of the hall--Lucius Malfoy's.

"And I'll be proud!" Malfoy said harshly. "Dad--Dad! I've got Potter; I've got him! He's down here!"

The shadows on the wall flickered and lengthened as Mr. Malfoy and his companions, two masked Death Eaters Harry didn't recognize, ran toward Draco's call. Harry winced and both girls paled. Ron shouted an insult at Draco.

"Good God..." Mr. Malfoy froze, then began to laugh. "Excellent job, son... excellent! You didn't even disarm them, though..."

Four wands zoomed to the Death Eaters, who all caught them gleefully. Malfoy was praising his son in an awed voice while another Death Eater tapped the scar on his wrist with a wand tip. Harry was bound like the others and made to remain on the floor.

"Our Lord is coming..." the Death Eater hissed to Malfoy. Harry felt sick. Now was time for the fight... but what about the others? Voldemort would probably kill them then and there, wouldn't he... somebody, please come...

In no time at all, a crowd of Death Eaters had gathered. They all stood, facing Harry, who was magically forced to kneel, alone, with his friends lined up against the wall. Tears were streaming silently down Hermione's face. Harry had led them into sure death. He blinked back tears of his own.

"He'll be here any minute..."

"Will he kill Potter here?"

"It's happening--it's happening..."

The voices abruptly ceased. With a thrill of dread, Harry craned his neck and looked down the hallway. He heard Voldemort's voice just before he slipped into view.

"Draco Malfoy... newest of Death Eaters, but most worthy... he has brought me Potter!"

Voldemort's chalk-white face, flickered with shadows by the torchlight, was glowing with anticipation.

"I have finally gotten you for the last time, Potter--in the middle of your supposed safest ground! Even Dumbledore's power cannot protect you now!"

Lightening flickered by the window. Voldemort seemed drunk with the thrill of entering Hogwarts.

"It is finally time, Harry... this time it will finish. With you out of the way I can pick up the rest of my plans, get on with my agenda... I grew bolder than I have ever dared before, and you see now how I was rewarded. You see now who is stronger, between Dumbledore and I."

"Oh, it's not quite decided yet, Tom," came a serene voice from the back of the hall. Harry turned back, thrilled, and saw Dumbledore, standing behind him, alone and seemingly overwhelmed by the cavernous corridor around him. Heart-stoppingly suddenly, innumerable bright flashes of light sparked from around and behind the straight old man, including at least five Shield Charms aimed at Harry. Most of the Death Eaters fell immediately, and the rest quickly engaged in battle with the Dissillusioned Aurors. Voldemort yelled something and Harry felt a jerk like that of a Portkey, except he felt it over his entire upper body and it pulled him away. Voldemort was able to transport himself and Harry a hundred feet down the wide hallway, and Dumbledore followed. He appeared in front of Harry, facing Voldemort.

"Harry, when this is over, you need to get to the Department of Mysteries." Dumbledore said calmly. Harry didn't have a clue what he meant. "That's where you can defeat him; that's the room of light."

"There won't be a 'when this is over', Dumbledore! This will be it--this will be the battle that ends it all!"

"I don't doubt that, Tom," he replied easily. "Any minute now..."

"You can't keep shielding him forever! I have invaded where you thought I could never set foot!"

"You remember the room I told you about, Harry?" Dumbledore said, neatly sidestepping the curse Voldemort threw at him.

"You know what I can do now!"

Dumbledore shielded himself like Shacklebolt had done, still talking easily to Harry.

"The prophecy is about to be fulfilled... Harry, when I do what I'm about to do, you must get yourself and Voldemort to the locked room in the Department of Mysteries, because that's where you can defeat him. Do you understand me?"

"Ah... yes, Professor..." Harry didn't want to distract Dumbledore, even though he didn't know what he was saying. He was barely avoiding Voldemort's curses.

"I can only buy you the time to get there; I wish I could do more..." Dumbledore moved to the side and avoided a curse that looked like a bright purple lightening bolt, and it hit a Death Eater in the back. He lit up and dropped. Dumbledore looked at Harry.

"That is how you can end it."

Voldemort had lost his patience. With Dumbledore momentarily out of the way, he pointed his wand at Harry and screamed,

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

What happened next seemed to occur in slow motion. Dumbledore looked back at Voldemort, and, wasting no time, he shifted his body a few feet in front of Harry. Harry cried out to the headmaster, but the green light of the killing curse blasting from Voldemort's wand silhouetted his frail, airborne body, and Harry knew it was too late. A powerful blast like the wind outside blew over Harry, and Dumbledore dropped to the ground in front of him. The headmaster of Hogwarts, the most powerful, intelligent, and compassionate wizard Harry knew, was dead. Voldemort froze, stunned, then began to laugh madly with triumph.

Chapter Nineteen

Whispers from the Veil

"Harry--get back to the Headquarters! We can Disapparate now!"

Tonks' voice shook Harry out of his stunned stupor. Reflexively, he thought of Dumbledore's office, and didn't even need to try to Disapparate. He wanted desperately to be almost anywhere else.

"They won't be able to follow us," Tonks was saying in the background. "Dumbledore fixed it up..."

Harry's mind had frozen. He couldn't think. How could Dumbledore... if he was gone... how would they...

"There was a Killing Curse--who died? What happened?" McGonagall was suddenly in front of Harry, questioning him in an urgent voice as Aurors and Order member appeared all around them.

"Dumbledore..." was all Harry could manage. "It's Dumbledore... he's... he's dead." He looked up into McGonagall's stunned face.

"He killed him..."

A hush descended on the crowd as the news was passed feverishly from neighbour to neighbour. McGonagall slowly drew herself up and took off her hat. She looked staggered for a moment, then began to compose herself.

"We need to remain calm," she said to the room, her voice becoming a shadow of the crisp item it usually was. "This was prophesized... Dumbledore has left us with a plan."

'...if our cornerstone crumbles...'

Another line of the prophecy ran through Harry's mind.

"If he's dead--You-Know-Who is going to think his way is all clear; he knows we're nothing without Dumbledore!" someone from the back cried out.

"Dumbledore was the only man You-Know-Who ever feared!"

Some people, mostly younger Aurors, began to panic.

"He's killed Dumbledore...?"

"Oh no... oh no..."

"Stop this!" McGonagall cried, but the panicked voices were growing louder.

'...we must not lose hope...'

"Dumbledore was the only one who knew what was going on here!"

"How can we take care of things without him?"

"At order, Aurors!" Somerset called, reddening. "For God's sake..."

"Calm down; it's not over yet..."

"How on earth are we supposed to understand You-Know-Who like he did?"

"Oy..." Harry called, finding his voice. "Hey--ENOUGH!"

He sent a shower of sparks from his wand tip. Every face in the room turned to him.

"Er... Professor," Harry turned to McGonagall. "Look, Professor Dumbledore--"

To his embarrassment and fury, tears welled in his eyes. He couldn't help feeling that Dumbledore had died because of him...

"He told me what to do!" Harry snapped, rubbing his eyes furiously on his sleeve. "We can't fall apart now; that's... that's just what Voldemort would like..."

"The boy's right," Somerset said. "Merlin's beard, what do you think you were doing, Aurors? Get yourselves together; that's an order!"

The Head of Defence looked disgusted. So, now, did some of his Aurors.

"Professor, he--he wants me to go to the Department of Mysteries," Harry said, not allowing himself to think of the headmaster's death just yet. He mustn't lose his head... please, not now...

For a moment, McGonagall looked at Harry like he had gone mad. Harry's heart sank like a stone. She didn't know what he was talking about; how was he going to convince her to let him go to the 'room of light', even if he could find it...

McGonagall's face suddenly cleared.

"I know what he was thinking..." she said slowly. She considered Harry for a few moments, then turned to Somerset.

"I must contact Thedon," she said briskly. "We need to go to the Ministry."

The door to the office suddenly rocked, as if hit by a battering ram. The walls shook.

"The spell on that door will not be broken..." McGonagall said. But she did move rather hurriedly to the fireplace for Thedon.

"All right, orders!" Somerset called. "We're going to move this to the Ministry! Any Auror available is to escort Potter to the Department of Mysteries. The spell on this door will last a while, but You-Kn--Voldemort is sure to find another way in."

Just as he said this, the door suddenly blazed purple and seemed to bend inward, but did not give.

"Prepare to fight!"

"Harry--Thedon has had the door unlocked!" Professor McGonagall called over the din. "You need to get to the Department of Mysteries, to the Amoris Room..."

"The what?"

"It will be unlocked. The door that opens easily, and has nothing in it... save the light. You will know when you see it," she said hastily, interrupting Harry before he could ask.

"Let's reinforce this door!" Somerset ordered.

"Professor, what--"

"You need to go! This will serve as your Portkey!" McGonagall handed him a very large, gilded book that looked to be very heavy. When Harry took it, it was light as a feather. "Some Aurors will come with you!"

As Fred and George Weasley stood at the front of the crowd still blocking the door, another group of Aurors reached out and took hold of the book alongside Harry. He heard some of the portraits calling encouragement to the Aurors at the door, and to him.

"Voldemort will follow you; just stay in the room! That is where you can defeat him!"

Ron, Hermione, and Rachel all held on to the book. Nobody had the time to tear them away.

"Professor, I don't know what to--"

"Just get to the room!" McGonagall yelled. The doors cracked down the centre as another bright flash of light, this time blinding white, blazed through them. He could hear the first yells of Death Eaters about to attack. The goblins readied their staffs and spears.

"Three--two--one..."

As the Death Eaters spilled into the room and the battling continued, Harry felt the jerk behind his navel and was speeding off to the Ministry.

"All right," said a voice, as soon as the world stopped rushing by. It was McDermott. Harry thought he must be high-ranking, as Somerset had seemed to charge him with ordering this group. "We need to get to the Department of Mysteries; they'll be following us as soon as they figure out that we've got Potter..."

Harry looked around. He was by the Fountain of Magical Brethren, where he had ended up the last time he battled Voldemort at the Ministry. Just as it had been then, the heart of the British magical community was for some reason deserted and dark. He ducked his head and ran with the others into the lift. Someone pressed the button for the sixth floor and they rattled off.

"All right, Harry?" McDermott asked over his shoulder. Harry nodded. "We're going to escort you as far as we can, then you'll be free to go one-on-one with You--ah, Voldemort." The lift clanked to a halt as they reached the sixth floor. "Thedon says he'll meet us with backup at the--"

As soon as the doors to the lift opened, McDermott was hit with a Stunning Spell and fell over.

"They're already here!" Hermione cried as the Aurors charged ahead, wands ready.

"Get to the room, Harry!" a frizzy-haired female Auror yelled over the noise. "Go, go!"

Harry, not thinking, ran down the familiar stone hallway he used to dream about, protected by dozens of Shield Charms. Ron, Hermione, and Rachel went after him, protecting his back. He managed to dive into the large, circular main room of the Department of Mysteries as a fiery blue spell just missed him. When Ron followed, the last one in, he slammed the door shut and Hermione put on the most powerful Locking Charm she knew.

"I don't know how long that will last..." she said nervously.

"That's alright; you're doing good," Harry said off the top of his head. "What... what do we do now?"

His question was answered for him as the large, black-floored room began to spin, slowly at first, then picking up speed until the blue flames from the candles on the wall became bright streaks.

"I guess we do this again," Ron said unsteadily. "We try doors."

Harry looked around him.

"I'm supposed to go to one that opens easily, with nothing in it but light... and then... wait, I guess..."

Harry got a flash of déjà vu as he led them to one of the black doors that lined the room, chosen pretty much at random. The battle noises outside started to grow louder.

"I think they're in the Atrium..." Rachel muttered, looking above her head.

Harry opened the door he had chosen, and saw a tank in the middle of the revealed room.

"Not this one," he said, and Ron shuddered slightly at the sight of the brains swimming lazily around in the tank. Hermione marked the door with a glowing X as the room began to spin again. Harry tried another door. It creaked open slowly, and revealed a long corridor with even more doors on each side.

"Should we try them?" Rachel asked uncertainly, and Harry shook his head.

"I don't think so... mark this one with a question mark, Hermione..."

She did so. One of the doors started to rattle, like the one in Dumbledore's office had.

"Harry..." Ron said nervously. "I think..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the door burst open and a masked Death Eater flew backwards and landed on the jetty floor, unconscious. But now the door was open, and Aurors and Death Eaters both charged, yelling into the round room. Harry cursed.

"Get in!" he cried when the door on his left opened easily. Ron, Hermione, and Rachel flew in and Harry slammed the door behind him. Hermione jinxed it also, but by now the room behind it was spinning and the Death Eaters had no idea where they were.

"What now?" Hermione muttered.

Harry didn't know. It seemed like everything had started to go horribly wrong--Dumbledore was dead, Harry didn't know what he was doing, and now they couldn't even take a second to find the great 'room of light' without Death Eaters lunging at them, even if he knew what he was supposed to do when he got there. Harry raised his hands to his face and turned to look at the room they were in.

It was chillingly familiar. The room was also large but rectangular, comprised of stone benches running around the length of it and going down, until they reached a lowered centre floor. Standing there on a stone dais was a crumbling archway, with a tattered veil swaying gently on it. Harry moved toward it as though in a trance.

"Harry?" Rachel said softly.

"Just wait here a minute..." he said. Nobody knew what to do, so they just watched as he descended the stone steps, walked slowly toward the veil, and paused when he was so close he could hear the constant murmurings that always flowed, just out of hearing, from the other side. Everything else faded away; the swaying cloth and gentle whispers now filled Harry's entire universe.

"Sirius..." he breathed. The murmurs grew louder. Harry leaned closer, almost through the veil... almost...

"Hey, Harry."

It was unmistakable. One of the whispering voices had grown louder, clearer, just barely... but it was there.

"Sirius!" Harry gasped. He now stood with both feet on the dais, so close to passing through the veil that Hermione, behind him, gave a little cry.

"Don't you come through here, Harry," Sirius' voice said. He sounded like he was speaking from a distance. Harry could barely hear him, but he could understand his words... it was so quiet he wasn't even sure if the voice was in his ears or his mind, but he could hear his godfather.

"If you come in here, everyone you care about will die," Sirius said gently. "Harry, you know that."

The only thing Harry wanted in the world just then was to slip just behind that veil and be with Sirius; Sirius was there, he wanted to see him, hug him, talk to him... but Sirius' words awakened some other feeling in him. He was just able to hold himself back--he couldn't let everybody down.

"But... Sirius..."

"It's okay, Harry. I'll talk to you for a bit, but it's not time to see me again. Not just yet, okay?"

"All right..." Harry murmured, barely noticing what he was saying.

"Good," Sirius said. He sounded so--so peaceful, so quietly happy, like he was speaking with a contented smile on his face. It seemed like nothing in the world could stop him from being calm and pleased.

"I've been keeping an eye on you, Harry. You're doing well."

Harry didn't ask what he was doing well in.

"I'm proud of you."

A vague, happy bubble swelled inside his chest.

"Sirius, where... where are you?"

Sirius' voice sounded thoughtful.

"Well, it's a bit hard to explain... it's a good little place." He laughed a little. "Yes, a very nice place. Your mum and dad are here. Everyone is... oh, Moody says you're doing quite well on the road to becoming an Auror."

Harry didn't quite know what to make of this, so he ignored it. He had to talk more to Sirius.

"What happened? I mean, that night... with the fight, and Bellatrix, and the veil..."

"This veil, I've discovered, is an attempt by the Ministry to study the afterlife. Going through it painlessly separates the soul from the body, and the volunteers from the Department who have gone through are trying to send back some answers," Sirius explained patiently. "In thirty-five years, all they've managed to get is whispers."

"How am I talking to you?" Harry asked.

"This was an emergency. I got through. I'm not sure how, really... maybe it goes to show that this isn't really what they should be studying. It probably doesn't matter much, or isn't for everyone to know just yet, if these brilliant witches and wizards can't send answers back during a normal day but I can talk to you easily during a crisis. That's why the experiment is probably going to be scrapped soon--Thedon's considering pulling the plug."

A million more questions burst into Harry's mind, but Sirius cut him off.

"I would love to stay and talk, Harry, but there isn't much time. The Death Eaters behind us are getting close."

Harry looked behind him nervously.

"Don't worry, I won't keep you too long. Listen to me, Harry--the room you're looking for is to the right of the door you emblazoned with a question mark. That's where you can defeat Voldemort."

Harry's mind reeled, and he felt dazed. He let the first thing he thought of slide out of his mouth without really thinking.

"How?"

"The power is in there, Harry. Remember what Dumbledore said about it? In that room is a force 'at once more wonderful and terrible than death, one you posses in great amounts and Voldemort cannot stand.'"

"What is it?" Harry asked, his chest burning with curiosity. If he could just know, just know how to destroy him...

"Love, Harry. In that room, they attempt to study love."

Harry needed a moment to think. Love? What... how on earth was he going to defeat Voldemort with love? How could he take love and fight with it, hit Voldemort, shield himself, make him fall? How was this abstract, emotional bilge supposed to help him?

"Sirius, I don't--"

"Just get in there, Harry. You'll see. Trust me."

"...okay..."

Harry was still completely bewildered. That was the only thing he could do better than Voldemort? That was his only advantage?

"It's about time, Harry," Sirius' gentle voice said. It took Harry a moment to ingest this.

"Wait--no, Sirius, don't go!" Panic rose. The world would end if Sirius left him again; he would not survive....

"Listen, Harry. You haven't been thinking of me--no, let me finish. I'm not offended. Harry, you must understand this. Don't be afraid to feel. That's a good way to end up like Snape, or me at my worst, or... you get the idea. Occlumency helped you for a while, but you have to grieve. It's a part of life--and love. Look at Rachel; she can talk about what she loved about Abbot and Diane Connor without hurting. At the mention of my name, or Ginny's or Neville's or Dumbledore's, you retreat. You can't ever lose this power you have over Voldemort, over all evil... you have to love. And sometimes loving means mourning."

Harry thought about this for a moment.

"A--alright." He gulped.

"Remember this... because you have to go soon. They're coming closer, and you've got a job to do. Only you can save these people, Harry. It's okay, though... we have just a moment. Your mum and dad are happy about you."

Harry smiled.

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah! You're much more mature than your dad says he was at your age... and older.... Your mum wants you to know she's happy about you and Rachel. You're also a better boyfriend than your dad was at seventeen."

Harry laughed a bit. Sirius seemed to, also.

"Merlin's beard, James Potter's son and Severus Snape's daughter... I would have thought you were mad if you told me twenty years ago."

Harry nodded, still smiling.

"Keep being in love with her, all right?" Sirius sounded thrilled and impassioned at the idea. "And keep loving Ron and Hermione, and me... your kids... your grandkids.... Listen to me. If I was ever this wishy-washy in life, I would have died of embarrassment."

Harry laughed out loud.

"Okay, Harry... they're getting close. Voldemort will be here soon. You need to get to the Amoris Room."

Sirius' tone was still gentle, but firm. Harry took a breath as his confusion and anxiety began to return.

"You can beat him, Harry. You've got the power. It's time to go now... I love you."

Harry couldn't speak. He had never been able to tell his godfather how much he meant to him when he was alive. But his teenage awkwardness was long gone by now.

"I--I love you too..."

"Goodbye, Harry. I'll see you again."

"Goodbye, Sirius."

With a slight whooshing sound, Sirius was gone. Harry took a moment to ingest it all, then steeled himself and prepared to go back out. He turned and hurried up the steps to Ron, Hermione, and Rachel, who were all staring at him.

"They're coming close. The room I'm looking for is to the right of the room with the question mark. I figure we should just sprint for it..."

His friends just continued to stare. But then Ron said,

"We'll cover you, mate."

"Thanks, Ron."

Harry and Ron looked at each other like they had when they were first years, and had just faced a giant three-headed dog, the most frightening chess match he knew of, and a very nasty plant. The others shook themselves out of their reverie.

"Yeah," Rachel said, raising her wand. "You just get to that Amoris place."

"Good luck," Hermione whispered weakly. Before she unlocked the door, Harry hugged her.

"It'll be okay, don't worry."

Hermione managed a smile. Then the door swung open at her wand tip.

"I love you," Harry said hurriedly to Rachel, and kissed her cheek, just over the purple bruise Snape had given her. Then they all rushed out into the fray.

The jet-black floor was strewn with unconscious bodies of Aurors and Death Eaters. At least twenty of them were still battling, along with strange creatures Harry realized were boggarts, transforming into different nightmares. A few dementors were borne away on Patronuses as he watched. Fawkes the phoenix was circling overhead all this, singing his wonderful heartening phoenix song. Snape was shouting at Malfoy,

"You joined him for honour and power, Lucius, and now you compete with other filth for the chance to kiss the hem of his robes!"

Malfoy screamed a curse at him, but Snape ducked.

"Do you really think he's going to give you anything more if wins? You know what he's going to do! You will all be abandoned; every one of you is meaningless to him! You will get no power or honour; you will be discarded when you are of no further use and be too afraid of him to fight it!"

Malfoy made up for the truth in this by sending even more curses flying at Snape. Harry crept along the wall, trying not to choke with sudden shame as his friends rushed forward and starting hexing. He had to get the room; there was no other way he could help. He thought it might be better to remain silent until he got there (for he could see the door, just in front of him), but he could not do so when he saw Lupin and Pettigrew.

The short, balding Death Eater known as Wormtail had taken off his mask, as well as the glove he wore on his right arm. The shining silver hand that was covered there was now revealed as he grasped the giant wolf that was Lupin around the neck, throttling him in a shadowy corner where nobody could help. The silver, deadly to werewolves, was burning away Lupin's fur and flesh as he gagged and gasped for air.

"Stupify!" Harry called, but the spell bounced off of Pettigrew's magical shield. Harry could not break it down.

"Mr. Potter..." Pettigrew said in a slimy voice. "Am I hurting your--" he laughed hideously. "Your little pet?"

And he gave Lupin's neck a particularly hard squeeze.

"Let him go!" Harry called furiously. "Let him go or I'll--" Harry realized something.

"Or Voldemort will always have a servant indebted to Harry Potter!"

Pettigrew froze.

"I saved your miserable life!" Harry shouted, reddening. "You--you owe me!"

Nothing was breaking Pettigrew's shield.

Pettigrew struggled with himself for a few moments, then threw Lupin down. The raw, red skin around his neck looked excruciating, but Harry saw that he was still breathing.

"Very well, Potter, I won't kill the vicious half-human," he wheezed, scowling. "If that is how you wish to call in this--this favour I owe you by wizard blood. But you've forgotten one thing."

His sweaty, pointy-nosed face lit up with an evil grin.

"I don't owe you a life anymore."

Harry didn't know what Pettigrew thought he was telling him, but he didn't care.

"Oy, Tonks--Tonks! Get Lupin to a hospital!"

"I am now free to do whatever I like against you--MASTER! MASTER! THE BOY--THE BOY IS HERE!"

Harry came around and just dodged the thick ropes that flew out of his wand. The door to the corridor leading to the lift flew open, and Voldemort stood framed in it, pale, tall, and truly terrible. But this time Harry was ready. He sprinted to correct door, putting a Shield Charm on himself so that Wormtail couldn't stop him, and screamed as loud as he could,

"Yeah, I'm here--COME AND FIGHT ME!"

He wrenched the door open and ran into the Amoris Room--but encountered another door. It was only a short hallway. With Voldemort flying behind him, he went through this door, than another, than two more. Each door opened easily. Finally, as Harry heard Voldemort soaring feet behind him, he stumbled through the last entrance--this one leading to a room instead of a hallway. The room was shining black stone on the floor and the walls, like the rest of the Department, but glowed brilliantly. The source of the light seemed to be coming from above--Harry looked up and gasped.

Near the ceiling of the room was a shining, liquid light--as if water coloured the palest gold had risen up and somehow become lit from within. Harry looked away from it only when he heard the last door slam. Voldemort was standing opposite him, his wand out. Harry braced himself and prepared to end the battle of the age.