The Final Battle

A Rescue Mission

Harry paled visibly when he heard Dobby tell that his two best friends had been lured out of the castle, thinking that he had been taken captive. He should have known that Ron and Hermione would not be safe if they stayed in the castle, no matter what Dumbledore had planned to keep them safe. And now Voldemort had used their friendship and loyalty towards him against them, he used it to get hold of Harry.

To say that Harry was angry would have been the understatement of the century. He was fuming with a kind of anger he had never felt before. This time, Voldemort had gone too far and this time he would pay bitterly.

Without really thinking about what he was doing, Harry made his way towards the doors of the Great Hall, ready to go out and give the Dark Lord a piece of his mind. Had he taken some time to think about what he was doing there, he might have stopped and waited for the adults to come to a decision. He might have realized that alone there would be no way for him to stand against Voldemort and the forces he had assembled around Hogwarts. But unfortunately, reason at that moment was a thing Harry didn't waste his time in.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

"Hermione, let's take the shortcut through the kitchens. You remember the side entrance that is there? If we leave through this door, we'll be closer to the forest, it'll safe us some time."

Hermione only nodded at Ron, their running pace being way to fast for her to waste breath with speaking. After some moments, the two teens arrived in front of the painting of a fruit bowl which marked the entrance to the kitchens. Ron tickled the pear and the portrait swung aside to allow them entrance.

Only some house elfs were left in the kitchens, but Ron and Hermione chose to ignore them and instead ran through the room at the fastest pace they could still manage. Only when they reached the back door, they stopped.

"Ron, don't you think that the entrance is closed? I mean, with all those wards around the castle?"

Ron shook his head.

"No. I don't think that they locked that door. It can only be opened from the inside, Harry and I once locked us out on a nightly kitchen raid and we had to get back in through the front door. Trust me, that door's open."

As if to prove his words, Ron pulled the doorknob and the wooden obstacle swung open. The two gave a final nod to each other, then they ran out and pulled the door close behind them.

They were indeed quite close to the Forbidden Forest right now, at least closer than they would have been had they left the castle through the front doors.

"Where are they?"

Hermione quickly scanned the area, realizing that so far the raging battle had not reached this side of the castle. At least that was a relief. But she could not find Harry and the two Death Eaters that had dragged him away.

"I don't see them, Ron."

Ron sighed.

"Me neither, Hermione. But they dragged him off towards the forest, let's see if we can find any trace of them there. If we stay close to the castle walls and then go around behind the greenhouses, we should be relatively out of sight."

Hermione nodded and both started running off, carefully eying their surroundings for any signs of attackers or their captured friend.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Dumbledore sighed.

"We have to get both of them back into the castle, as soon as possible. I don't want to imagine what would happen if they fall into the hands of the Death Eaters."

Snape smirked.

"Well, trust Granger and Weasley to come up with such a stupid idea. They always get themselves into trouble like that."

Remus glared at his colleague.

"Severus, you're not helping!"

Snape only shrugged his shoulders and turned his attention to Dumbledore, who by now had pulled out the map once more and tried to find the location of the two under aged wizards. It was a difficult task, for the Aurors and the Death Eaters and werewolves that they were fighting melted into a blur of labelled dots on the castle grounds. Dumbledore decided that Hermione and Ron surely had not been stupid enough to make their way through the fighting parties, and so he scanned the area closer to the castle walls in search for them. Besides, if they had left through the main entrance, the Aurors positioned there who organized the transport of the wounded would not have let them out. Sirius' voice interrupted him.

"Remus, do you remember the passage through the kitchens? The entrance is as close to the forest as possible, maybe they have taken that way."

Dumbledore immediately looked at the walls near the kitchens, and true to Sirius' words, two dots labelled "Hermione Granger" and "Ronald Weasley" were moving across the grounds behind the greenhouses. Dumbledore sighed.

"We'll send out two groups to bring them back. Sirius, Remus, you take the way through the kitchens, you're the ones who know that way best. Minerva, Severus, leave through the main doors. They're closer from here and with those two moving around, we cannot be sure whether Sirius and Remus still find them where they are now. We'll light the windows of the first floor green as a sign that they've been brought back for the other party."

Snape, McGonagall and Remus nodded, though Snape didn't look too pleased that he was sent out to search for the two missing Gryffindors. He and McGonagall made their way towards the doors, but when Remus wanted to follow them he realized that Sirius was rooted to the spot and still stared at the map with wide eyes. Remus frowned his brow in confusion.
"Sirius? Let's go."

"That stupid idiot."

Remus shook his head.

"What do you mean?"

Sirius didn't say anything but pointed at a small dot that was currently moving through the kitchens. The dot was labelled "Harry Potter". Remus froze, then looked around and realized that truly Harry must have left the Great Hall after hearing that his friends had been trapped without anybody realizing. Inwardly, Remus started cursing himself that he had not paid better attention to him, he should have known that Harry wouldn't stay behind in a situation like this. Dumbledore too locked flabbergasted about this.

"We need to bring Harry back immediately." he whispered.

Suddenly, Sirius overcame his paralysis and started sprinting towards the doors, on his way to the kitchens. Remus had a hard time to catch up with his friend who was driven forth by the frantic fear for Harry's wellbeing as well as by the urge to give his godson a piece of his mind about this.

When he finally ran beside his old time friend, Sirius gave Remus a side glance.

"Are you sure about this? Leaving the castle with all those werewolves around?"

Sirius asked Remus this without slowing down his pace. Remus just shook his head.

"Those werewolves aren't my biggest concern right now. If something happens to Harry, we'll have a big problem. We have to find him."

They kept on running until they reached the picture of the fruit bowl. Just as Sirius opened the passage, Remus had an idea.

"Sirius, change into Padfoot and go ahead. You have to stop Harry, and when I've caught up we'll go looking for Ron and Hermione."

Sirius just stared at him.

"Are you daft? I can't let you go out there alone!"

Remus closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down.
"Sirius, I'm perfectly able to defend myself out there. Harry however is not. He's the one who needs somebody to help him, not me. Just go ahead, I'll catch up with you at the greenhouses. Padfoot is a lot faster than I am, just go!"

Sirius nodded, then changed into the huge dog and literally shot through the kitchens. Remus ran behind him and mentally made a note to apologize to the house elfs when all this was over. The little creatures were utterly confused by the sudden appearance of a large, black dog that sped through their kitchens without caring whether he ran into one of them or bounced into a stack of china on his way.

Remus shook his head and ran behind Sirius as fast as he could, but the dog soon was out of sight.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

As fast as he could, Harry left the Great Hall behind. He knew that he could not leave the castle through the main doors, the Aurors there would only send him back into the Great Hall immediately. But Ron and Hermione had also left the castle, and if they were heading for the Forbidden Forest then surely they would have left through the kitchens. So that was the way Harry was taking.

Oblivious to the fact that just at this moment his disappearance was discovered by the people in the Great Hall, Harry ran through the kitchen, opened the hidden door that led outside and stepped out. He took one quick look around, scanning the area for his friends before he set off towards the greenhouses. He knew Ron and Hermione well, and both would surely have tried to stay hidden from the eyes of the Death Eaters. So it was quite probable that they had taken the way along the castle walls, then behind the greenhouses and across the short open distance towards the outer edge of the Forest.

Though Harry was focussed on finding his friends before any Death Eater could, he did also try to stay hidden himself, not exposing his presence to any Death Eater that might stroll around here. However, staying hidden when you're not experienced in such situations at all is quite a difficult task, and so Harry was taken by surprise when suddenly his legs gave away and something big and heavy pressed him to the ground before he even had the chance to aim his wand at the attacker.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

"Can you see something?"

Hermione and Ron were currently crouching behind one of the greenhouses, hidden between the glasshouse and the castle wall a few feet away, and Ron was looking around the edge to see whether their way towards the forest was clear. From the other side of the castle, faint sounds of screaming and cursing drifted towards the two teens, but here the lawn between the greenhouses and the forest was quiet. Too quiet for Ron's liking.

"There's nobody here, at least nobody that I can see. Though I don't understand why neither the Death Eaters nor the Ministry have taken guard here, but right now it's not the time to ask for their reasons, don't you think? Let's run!"

With this, he straightened from his crouch and set off towards the forest as fast as he could, Hermione on his heels. The edge of the forest and with it the safety of the trees was only two- maybe three hundred metres away, they should be able to reach it fast enough to go unnoticed.

Ron threw a look over his shoulder to see whether his girlfriend was able to keep up his pace.

'My girlfriend? Where did that thought come from?' Ron asked himself. But then again, he had kissed Hermione and if she had not wanted it, she would have told him. 'But does that mean that she's my girlfriend?' The realization that he was running a dead race against time, that he was trying to save his best friend from being captured and while doing so was inwardly discussing his love-life nearly made Ron laugh. He decided to let that matter rest for while he was out here and think about it as soon as they had brought Harry back into the castle.

Next to him, he could hear Hermione's strained breathing. The forest was close now, only a few seconds more and they would be safe there.

"Locomotor Mortis!"

It happened so fast, there was no chance for either Ron or Hermione to react. Out of nowhere as it seemed, someone had thrown the leg-locker curse at them and suddenly both found themselves on the floor, unable to move their legs and get away. Ron frantically looked around, trying to find out where the curse had come from, who had attacked them and how many opponents they were facing. His eyes met Hermione's and he saw his own panic mirrored in them.

Ron struggled against his bonds, despite better knowledge he tried to make his legs obey him, tried to get to his feet. But his efforts were to no avail. Then Ron thought about it. His wand! Of course! He could not use his legs anymore, but that didn't mean that he could not use his wand to curse everybody who tried to get close to them.

Ron grabbed his wand from his pockets and with a relieved sigh saw that Hermione must have gone through the same line of thought, because she too grabbed her wand and looked around for their attackers.

"Expelliarmus!"

Though Ron gripped tightly onto his wand, he could not prevent the piece of wood to shoot away from his grab after this incarnation. Neither did Hermione.

A laugh from under the trees finally revealed their attackers. Two men clad in black robes, their hoods drawn up and white masks hiding their faces, stepped out of their cover. The taller of the two was holding Ron's and Hermione's wand in his hand. He stepped towards the teens, staying just out of reach in case one of them tried to attack him with bare hands and looked at them.

"Well, well. There you are. You though you were so clever, didn't you? Running out of the castle without telling anybody, how stupid of you."

Ron ignored the sarcasm that was dripping from the man's word and kept on struggling against his bonds.

"What did you do to Harry?"

A harsh laugh was all he received as an answer at first. He looked at the second Death Eater that had remained in the background and kept Hermione at wand point. Both men started to laugh, as if Ron had made an especially funny remark. Finally, the taller man turned back towards Ron.

"Harry Potter? We didn't do anything to him. As a matter of fact, he didn't even leave the castle. At least not yet. I think that might change when he finds out where you have gone to."

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Snape and McGonagall reached the entrance doors way faster than Remus and Sirius left the castle through the kitchens. Two Aurors were positioned at the doors, and at the bottom of the doorsteps a large group of medi-wizards organized the first-aid for the slightly wounded and brought the more seriously injured men into the castle to Madam Pomfrey and the Ministry medi-wizards that had arrived by now. One look at the scene in front of them showed Snape and McGonagall that the situation was serious. Between them and the Forbidden Forest, Ministry Aurors in their navy blue robes were huddled together in groups of five or more, frantically trying to drive the Dementors back into the forest, to stun an kill the werewolves that kept attacking them and in addition to that tried to eliminate the Death Eaters that kept on throwing curses at them. The Ministry wizards were clearly outnumbered and Snape immediately realized that it would only be a matter of time until the battle was lost.

Already, many of them were being levitated towards the medi-wizards. Some of them had been hit by smaller curses that only made them temporarily unable to fight, at least until those curses were removed. But some of the injured suffered either from the consequences of stronger, darker curses or from wounds that had been inflicted by the wolves.

As Snape and McGonagall stepped out of the castle, one man was being levitated towards the medi-wizards who had a large bleeding gash across his torso and a lot of small bleeding wounds on his shoulders and arms. The medi-wizard immediately began magically sewing the wounds while he turned his attention to the man's partner who had brought him.

"Bite wounds or claws?"

The Auror shook his head.

"What?"

The medi-wizard sighed loudly.

"Are these only claw marks or has he been bitten by one of the wolves?"

The doctor was nearly shouting now, clearly impatient. The Auror just shook his head in confusion.

"I don't...I don't know. That beast threw him on the ground, I don't know if it has bitten him or not!"

Sighing again, the doctor conjured a colour coded ribbon around the injured man's wrist, then motioned the Auror to bring him into the castle.

"Bring him inside, he needs to see another doctor for further treatment."

With this said, he turned away from the two men and towards the next wounded that was brought to him.

Snape looked at one of the Aurors that was standing guard on the entrance.

"Are further reinforcements on their way?"

The man nodded.

"Yes, but it might take another fifteen minutes until they arrive. There were problems in assembling the reserve unit."

"You definitely need them."

The man nodded again.

"Yes. If we could only drive those Dementors back for good, then it would be a lot easier. But as it is now, the Death Eaters have a big advantage."

"How many have been bitten by the werewolves by now?"

"As far as I know nobody. There were some cases in which the doctors weren't quite sure whether they had been bitten, but their injuries were very sever anyway and it's not really probable that they survive."

Now McGonagall took her turn in the conversation.

"Two students that have remained have left the castle. As far as it's possible, could you keep looking out for them? It's highly improbable that they show up right here on the battle field, but one can never be sure."

The Auror nodded.

"We'll have an eye on it. But right now we don't have the capacities to send out search parties for them, so we'll only be able to find them if they somehow come close here."

McGonagall nodded.

"We have made our own search parties. But if they show up, try and bring them back into the castle as soon as possible."

The three nodded at each other again, and Snape and McGonagall hurried off towards the Forest, trying to stay close to the castle walls and not to get engaged in the battle. Snape was especially carefully, knowing fully well that if he was discovered by the Death Eaters, his life would be over soon.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

The impact of the collision threw Harry to the ground and drew the air out of his lungs. Harry tried to reach for his wand, why he had not drawn it the moment he left the castle remained a mystery to him. But he could not reach it, because the heavy weight on his chest didn't go away and hindered him in reaching out for the only weapon he had. Drawing breath became difficult and Harry started to see stars behind the lids of his eyes. Just as he thought that he was about to lose consciousness, the weight disappeared and he could breathe again.

Hands grabbed his shoulders and brought him into a sitting position with his back to the castle walls. Harry was so occupied with regaining his breath that at first he didn't think about the danger he was still in. But before he could even think about defending himself, a lowered but angry voice started hissing at him.

"What in Merlin's name did you think you were doing here? That's the most stupid thing you've ever done!"

Harry looked up and found himself face to face with an obviously furious Sirius. He opened his mouth to respond, but Sirius interrupted him.

"I really don't want to hear it, Harry. Running off while we were planning to get Ron and Hermione back, really, don't you ever think? You could be captured or even worse, killed running around here on your own."

Harry shook his head.

"They trapped Ron and Hermione. I had to do something!"

"They trapped them so that you would come out of the castle. That's just what they wanted, don't you understand? We have to bring you back in, it's too dangerous for you out here. You ought to be close to Dumbledore and you know that."

Harry wanted to protest, he wanted to tell Sirius that he couldn't possibly sit inside and wait for his friends to be brought back, but he decided that it wasn't worth wasting his breath. Sirius wouldn't let go until he had brought him back, but to do that they would have to get around the castle. And on their way there would be enough time to look out for Ron and Hermione.

Approaching footsteps made Sirius spin around. He quickly drew his wand, crouched down in front of Harry and looked who was coming towards them. Harry couldn't see anything, but after a short tense moment, Sirius visibly relaxed and let his wand sink down.

"Harry, thanks Merlin that Sirius found you!"

Though Harry still didn't see him, he recognized Remus' voice. Moments later, his professor came into sight.

"You alright, Harry?"

Harry nodded slowly.

"Yeah, if Sirius hadn't decided to knock the air out of me I would be even better, but I'm alright."

Remus only nodded and looked at Sirius. The other man was pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger, a gesture Remus immediately recognized. Sirius was thinking up a way to bring them back into the castle. After a short while, Sirius removed the hand from his face and looked at Harry and Remus.

"Okay. We have to get back in, but before that we have to look out for Ron and Hermione. If they're still on the grounds and not in the Forest yet, well collect them up and bring back the three together. If they're already in the Forest, I'll go looking for them as Padfoot and you will bring Harry back. We'll walk behind the greenhouses, and from there we'll take the way behind the castle, approaching the main entrance from the side of the lake. Maybe this way we can avoid being seen by the Death Eaters and the wolves."

Remus followed his line of thought and nodded. It was the best option they had.

"Alright, let's go!"

Sirius led the way he intended to go, and keeping Harry in their middle Remus covered their backs.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

"And what will you do with us now?"

Ron thought that he had never heard Hermione so afraid before. Her voice quivered, and he realize that she was about to burst into tears. Thinking about it, their situation was quite hopeless, Ron had to admit that. As soon as they had fulfilled their purpose of luring Harry out of the castle, there would be no further need for them.

The Death Eater that still held them at wand point and up to now had remained silent, laughed. When he finally spoke, his cold and hoarse voice sent shivers down Ron's spine.

"Scared, little mudblood?"

"Don't call her that!"

Ron was furious. Nobody called Hermione that name, be it Malfoy or that stupid Death Eater over there. But this time, he should have remained silent. The man's voice sharpened even more.

"How sweet, you care for that mudblood. And what do you want to do to make me stop calling her whatever I want?"

He stepped closer to Hermione, crouched down next to her and looked into Ron's eyes. Though Ron could only see a sparkle of wet behind the man's mask, he glared dangerously.

"What can you do to stop me?"

With this, he lowered his hand onto Hermione's head and stroke across her bushy hair. Hermione shivered and tried to move away, but the man grabbed a fist full of her hair and yanked at it violently.

Hermione cried out and her head bent back under the tension. The Death Eater didn't look at her but kept on staring at Ron.

"You'd better shut up, or she'll regret it. Do I make myself clear?"

Another yank on Hermione's hair emphasized what he meant and hearing Hermione's cry of pain Ron immediately nodded.

"Good. Keep that in mind."

With this, the Death Eater got up again, went over towards Ron and kicked him violently in the ribs.

Ron drew in a sharp take of breath and tried to curl into a ball to protect himself from the man. The kick had been well aimed and a sharp pain spread through Ron's left side of the body. He bit his lip, nearly hard enough to draw blood and tried to will the pain away.

Both Death Eaters laughed.

"I hope this makes clear what awaits her when you try again to play hero."

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

"Sirius, what do we do now?"

Remus, Harry and Sirius were crouching behind the greenhouses and had just discovered Ron and Hermione. However, they had also discovered that the Death Eaters had gotten hold of them, and this made the situation slightly more difficult.

Sirius shrugged his shoulders slightly.

"If we could be sure that it were only those two, then it would not be that much of a problem. But I don't trust the fact that they're so close to the Forest. There could be more of them only waiting to come out as soon as Harry shows up."

Remus nodded, deep in thought. Harry only half-listened to what the adults were saying. His eyes were glued onto Ron and Hermione, who were still lying on the floor, held at wand point by the smaller Death Eater, the one who had just recently kicked Ron. Harry's chin was quivering as he tried to hold back the fury he felt. Those two would regret ever coming here when this was over, Harry silently vowed to himself.

His attention was brought back to Remus and Sirius when the two of them started arguing about the best way to free Ron and Hermione. Remus pledged to wait for Snape and McGonagall in case that there were more Death Eaters hiding in the Forest, but Sirius didn't wand to lose more time, saying that as long as they didn't know how long those two would be staying in one place they had no time to lose.

Suddenly his narrowed eyes widened and a grin spread across his face.

"I have a plan." Sirius announced.