Harry Potter and the Guild of the Night

Chapter 33

The first sign that Voldemort and his forces had arrived came when a loud explosion sounded from down near the gates to Hogsmeade.

"Testing the wards," Dumbledore said quietly and everyone tightened their grips on their weapons or wands.

Three more explosions followed and then Dumbledore winced.

"The first of the wards is down," he announced and there was some nervous shifting among the Hogwarts defenders.

A flare of red and white sparks and yet another loud explosion sounded.

"Two more wards have collapsed," the Headmaster said and a groan echoed through the group.

"Steady!" Harry said loudly and squared his shoulders. The defenders stilled at his calm tone of voice.

There was another loud explosion and Dumbledore grunted.

"That's it," he announced. "Enough of the wards have been breached that they will be able to enter. Everyone get ready."

There was a general shifting in the defenders as they got ready. The first sign of Voldemort's forces came from the Forbidden Forest. Loud roars indicated the presence of giants. Those roars rather rapidly changed tenor and Harry and his friends could only suspect that the centaurs and possibly Grawp were responsible. They were distracted from these speculations by the sight of a large dragon in the sky. It was pure white with ice blue eyes. It had a line of razor sharp ridges along its back, had bat-like wings and its tail was tipped with an arrow-shaped spike.

"It looks like a Hebridean Black except for the colour," Hermione said.

The white dragon screamed a challenge and swooped down low over the edges of the Hogwarts grounds. As it slowly flew towards the castle, the defenders could see the lines of Death Eaters underneath. The Death Eaters slowed and came to a stop and the white dragon flew up into the air and then dove towards the defenders.

There were muttered obscenities from many of the defenders and Harry stepped forward slightly.

"Hold fast!" he yelled and raised his spell hand towards the dragon. He then lowered it and his eyes narrowed as something occurred to him. He looked quickly around him and then back up at the dragon.

"Dammit!" he swore. "Snape! Move!"

He dashed over to where the Potions Master was standing next to the Headmaster and dragged him away.

"Everyone! Get down!" Harry yelled as he dragged Snape towards the wall of the castle. He was pleased to see that his Battle Guard had followed him. The defenders, now finally seeing what the dragon had planned, threw themselves to the ground. The white dragon swooped down low over them, its claws reaching towards the Potions Master but Harry's plan had worked. They were too close to the walls for the dragon to get to them.

The dragon flew up again and then swept around and landed. As it did this, the Death Eaters ran forward and began to attack. Harry grimaced and pushed Snape over to where Dumbledore was standing.

"Protect the Headmaster!" he yelled. "And try and stay away from Draco."

Snape stared at him for a moment and then ran to stand beside the Headmaster. Harry turned to his Battle Guard.

"Alright," he said in a hard tone. "Draco wants to play animagi. Let's oblige."

With that Harry shifted into his Dire Wolf from, closely followed by Ron into his dog form, Hermione into her Golden Eagle and Neville into his Clydesdale. They were quickly joined by the great black dog that was Padfoot and the five animagi turned towards where the dragon was standing.

"Be careful," Ginny yelled at them and she and Luna ran over to join Snape, Remus, Master Nhean and the Headmaster.

The large Clydesdale snorted and launched himself into a charge. The great Dire Wolf, Blaze, circled around to the left as Padfoot and Ron's Red Setter circled around to the right. Hermione took off and the great Golden Eagle worked hard to gain some height.

The white dragon that was Draco Malfoy snorted as he eyed the charging horse. He shifted slightly and raised his head, drawing in breath. Just as he lowered his head and began to breathe out the great Clydesdale abruptly swerved and swung around to the left. The fiery breath puffed out uselessly behind the horse and Neville swung around and began to gallop back towards the defenders' lines.

Draco roared in anger and frustration and began to follow the horse. This was just the sort of mistake the three canines had been waiting for. The Dire Wolf and the two dogs leapt forwards and began to harry the white dragon. The two dogs began to bite at Draco's legs and underbelly while Blaze headed straight for the dragon's back legs. The first bites from the two dogs, though insignificant in terms of causing injury, caused Draco to roar and halt his chase of Neville. The huge head swung up then around to see what was happening. He roared at the two dogs and drew in his breath again. Before he could breath fire, a high scream came from up in the air. The Golden Eagle that was Hermione came down in a tremendous dive, aiming directly for Draco's head. The white dragon realised its peril at the last minute and tried to move out of the way but was unable to avoid the impact. The Golden Eagle fell for a moment after the impact but soon managed to gain some air under her win! gs and flapped back up, blood dripping from her claws while the white dragon screamed and flailed his head, blood flowing from the remains of one eye. The two dogs took advantage of the dragon's distress and darted in to worry at the dragon's underbelly.

Blaze, who had been lurked behind the dragon, now took his chance. He darted in and latched onto the dragon's left hamstring with his immensely strong jaws and teeth. He gave three sharp jerks of his head and tore away a large chunk from the dragon's hamstring. Draco screeched in agony and turned around with an awkward lumber. He flapped his wings and launched himself desperately in the air. He lurched off and flew rapidly away from the castle, over the Forbidden Forest. Harry shook himself and loped back towards the defenders' lines, joined on either side by the Red Setter and Padfoot. The Golden Eagle dropped down to fly over them and the Clydesdale galloped over to join their triumphant return.

****************************************

"Damn Pansy to the deepest depths of hell!" Blaise said through gritted teeth. He and his fellow Slytherin DA members were pinned down in the Sixth Year boys' dormitory. They had been about to leave to join the Hogwarts defenders after meeting in the room to plan their strategy when Pansy and her cronies had ambushed them. While Pansy only had Nott, Crabbe, Goyle, and Tracey Davis with her, the fact that there was only one entrance, and therefore exit, to the room meant they were effectively pinned down. Blaise knew not to expect any help from the others in his House. Those that weren't willing to fight for Hogwarts and weren't part of Pansy's group were staying determinedly neutral. This was very Slytherin of them, if somewhat annoying at this point in time. He and Millicent had managed to turn one of the beds on its side to give them some cover.

Blaise looked down at his watch. Eleven-thirty. They had half an hour to get out of here. Snape had shown them how to get past the sealing wards on the dorm but first they had to get out to the common room. Blaise carefully stuck his head around the side of the bed and was forced to drag it back in hurry as a hex flew past his nose. Pansy and her cohorts didn't seem inclined to want to hurt them, just keep them in the room. He looked over at the fourteen Slytherins who had chosen to follow him. He wasn't sure why they had chosen him; he certainly hadn't looked for the job. He sighed and looked over at Millicent.

"Any ideas?" he asked.

"I've got ideas," she growled, "but none that will actually get us out of here."

"Harry's going to be annoyed with us," Blaise said contemplatively as he lowered himself to the floor, his back against the bottom of the bed.

"Nah," Millicent said with a shrug. "He'll understand. He'll be annoyed at Pansy and her friends which is something I can deal with. I don't think I'd want Harry angry at me."

"Is that why you joined him?" Blaise asked.

"Of course," Millicent said incredulously. "Don't you get it, Blaise? He beat Voldemort when he was just a baby. Then he did it again when he was eleven and again when he was twelve, fourteen and fifteen. He and his friends put nearly a dozen Death Eaters into Azkaban last year. You've seen him in DA lessons; even blind he's still the best by far. And I've seen him fight. I had to speak with Master Nhean once and I walked into one of their lessons. You've never seen anything like it, Blaise. His blindness hasn't stopped him, if anything it's made him stronger."

Blaise nodded in understanding but Millicent wasn't done yet.

"Now you know as well as I do the price for joining the Death Eaters," Millicent said flatly. "And I'm not just talking about the social cost and the potential cost if the Dark Lord loses. I'm talking about the cost to your own self-respect. Do you really want to kiss the hem of the Dark Lord's robes? Do you really want to grovel in front of him? I damn well know that Harry would never demand that of us. He hates being famous. Have you seen him cringe when people praise him?" She gave a throaty chuckle. "Guy needs to learn how to relax. Look at the way he's treated us during the DA lessons. He treats us just like he treats everyone else. I like that and I would much rather live under a world ruled by an idiotic Gryffindor than one ruled by the Dark Lord."

Blaise nodded; his own reasons for making the choice to follow Harry had been similar. A fair amount of sheer contempt for Draco had also contributed and looking around he could see that his fellow Slytherins obviously shared the same sentiments.

A distant explosion startled them all and the castle gave a small shudder around them. Blaise swore and looked down at his watch again. It had started. He grimaced and looked back at Millicent.

"We've got to get out of here," he said with frustration.

Millicent nodded and crawled past him to peer around the edge of the bed. Again a hex came flying at them, forcing her to take cover again.

Three more explosions sounded and the castle shuddered again. Blaise thumped the back of his head against the bed and thought desperately. Another explosion rattled the castle around them.

"I've got an idea," Blaise said. "Look, we don't really want to kill them. I mean they may be stupid but they are Slytherins. We just need to get past them." Another explosion caused the castle to rumble around them. "We need a distraction so that we can get out from behind this damn bed and start casting some spells. Millicent, do you think you could manage your Patronus?"

The burly girl looked startled and then nodded slowly.

"Good," Blaise said. "Cast it and get it to charge at Pansy and her group. It'll probably knock them off balance long enough for us to get out from behind here and get moving."

Millicent nodded and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment then yelled, "Expecto Patronum!"

A large bull burst out from the end of her wand.

"Charge them," she shouted at it and the bull obligingly lowered its horns and charged out of the dormitory door.

Shouts and exclamations came from the hallway and Blaise stood.

"Now!" he yelled and the DA Slytherins leapt out from behind the bed, their wands out, and ran for the doorway. As Blaise ran through the door he began throwing hexes; his group following suit when they too got into the corridor.

The large silvery bull faded from view and now the two groups of Slytherins were facing each other in the hall. The stared at each other for a moment and then the charms and hexes flew. Each group remained standing, no one ducked away from this confrontation though ducking the hexes became common. Blaise watched for a moment as the curses flew around him. Crabbe and Goyle were the first to fall; to slow and stupid to get out of the way. Then Blaise heard a couple of thumps from behind him and knew that more hexes had hit. He took a deep breath and carefully raised his wand.

"Stupefy," he yelled and was surprised that it was not just his voice yelling. Millicent had come up beside him and had guessed what he was about. The combined curse flew from their wands and hit the three remaining Slytherins in the other group, blasting them backwards and knocking them out.

Blaise eyed them with satisfaction before turning to the others. "Come on," he said and led them down into the common room.

The room was empty and Blaise suspected that all of the other Slytherins were holed up in their various dorms calmly waiting for the victor to be decided. Blaise sneered briefly at them and touched the door in the set sequence he had been shown by Professor Snape. The door swung silently open and Blaise gestured for his fellow Slytherins to go through. He followed them and shut the door firmly behind himself.

"Come on," he said as he made his way to the front of the group. "I think we've been delayed enough."

***************************************

The Slytherins pushed their way through the front doors to find the battle in full swing. The Death Eaters were slowly advancing and the defenders were holding their own. Blaise, Millicent and the others slid into place with the other DA members.

Ernie McMillan, Cho Chang and Seamus Finnegan looked around as they arrived.

"Better late then never, I suppose. Nice of you to join us," Seamus said lightly, ignoring the large bruise that was developing on one side of his face. "Get lost, did you?"

"No," Blaise answered, matching Seamus' tone exactly as he threw a curse at an approaching Death Eater. "We had a little trouble in the dorm. Nothing serious; just some party poopers wanting to poop our party."

A grin flashed across Seamus' face. "You've been hanging around Sirius too long," he said.

"Perish the thought," replied Blaise haughtily. He looked over and saw the collection of animagi returning to the defender's lines.

"What was that all about," he said as he ducked a curse.

"Draco paid us a visit," Seamus replied, returning the curse. "He and Harry decided to play 'let's all be animagi'."

Blaise raised an eyebrow. "What was Draco?"

Seamus rolled his eyes. "A great bloody big white dragon," he said. "Never one for half-measures, was Draco."

Blaise looked around but couldn't see either the dragon or the blond ex-Slytherin anywhere.

"So what happened to him?"

"Hermione took his eye out and Harry ripped out a hamstring," Seamus said matter-of-factly. "For some reason, Draco lost his enthusiasm after that. Took off for parts unknown to lick his wounds."

"Now that's a filthy habit," Blaise said with a small grin. Draco had been defeated and in such a public and open manner. After spending so many nights boasting how he would destroy Harry Potter when it came down to a fight.

"LOOK OUT!" Ernie yelled and pushed Cho into the two boys, causing the three of them to fall to the ground. Blaise looked up in time to see Ernie outlined in green light as the Killing Curse caught him full in the chest. He then fell gracefully and lifelessly to the ground; the first of the student casualties.

Seamus and Blaise looked at each other, anger echoing in both their eyes, and they stood and started flinging hexes and curses with a vengeance.

*********************************************

Harry and his fellow animagi returned to their own lines and changed back into their human forms. Harry cursed silently as he was once again faced with blackness and quickly re-established his Oversight. He took a quick look around; the battle was fully engaged and here and there lay still bodies. While most of those still bodies showed the normal energy colours, a few had colours that were slowly fading to the type of black that indicated they were dead. Harry dropped his head for a moment, slightly ashamed to be happy that most of those bodies lay among the Death Eaters.

He quickly raised his head again and found that his Battle Guard had gathered around him once more and that Sirius had joined Snape, Nhean and Remus at Dumbledore's side. He looked up at his friends.

"Come on. I think it's time we started forcing the issue a bit here," he said firmly.

"What do you mean?" Ron asked.

"Look all of this is just a side event. You know that. The real thing starts when Voldemort arrives and I don't see him out there. He won't get involved unless he has to and I want to force that to happen," Harry replied.

"Why?" Hermione said, slightly aghast.

Harry grimaced. "Look, there have already been some deaths. I can see that, from the energy colours. I want to get this done with the minimum of deaths and that means forcing Voldemort to come out and play with me."

The others nodded grimly as they realised the truth in Harry's words and the six students stood.

"Let's get the strongest shielding spell we can around us," Harry said, "and get down into the trenches. We're not going to be able to do anything lurking back here. Our advantage lies in our combat abilities; let's put them to work."

The others nodded and in unison they all shouted, "Potens contego!"

A shimmering gold aura flared around them for a moment and then settled, almost seeming to coat them like a second skin and glittering slightly. This shielding spell would protect them from most of the curses and hexes likely to be thrown at them. It wouldn't protect against the Unforgivables but dodging them would be their own responsibility.

Harry looked around. "Ready?" he asked and received five firm nods in reply. "Alright, let's go."

The six students took in deep breaths and burst out of their lines at a run, swords raised and wands ready. There were exclamations of surprise from their own lines and several of the Death Eaters staggered momentarily, clearly surprised at the sudden attack.

"Harry!" yelled Sirius and he lunged forwards. Remus caught him and dragged him back to where Dumbledore was standing, watching Harry with worry and pride.

"He's knows what he's doing, Padfoot!" Remus yelled, desperately trying to convince himself as well as his oldest friend. "We have to protect Albus!"

Sirius stared after his godson, a terrible pleading look on his face, before he turned back to Remus. The werewolf flinched at the look in his friend's eyes; it was an anguished look and Remus was sure his own eyes reflected it as well. The two men stared at each other for a minute then Sirius drew in a deep, ragged breath and returned to his place next to the Headmaster. Remus sagged a little and turned to look at Harry for a second before also returning to his place.

Harry and his friends tore into Voldemort's forces and six different hexes took out six Death Eaters before the others recovered from their shock enough to retaliate. The six friends were battered by the curses that flew their way but the shield spell made sure that none of them were affected.

When the curses stopped, Harry yelled, "Swords and spells. Sweep right, then left."

He then turned to his right and, with his Battle Guard, began to make a sweep through the enemy lines. Though very few of their spells hit the mark in the manner they would have liked and most of the Death Eaters were wise enough to stay well out of the way of their swords, nevertheless the tactic was having the effect they had wished. The Death Eaters were faltering slightly; taking their attention away from the defenders of Hogwarts and turning to face the threat of Harry and his friends. The defenders, many of whom had been standing gape-mouthed at Harry's reckless attack, began to gain the upper hand. Death Eater after Death Eater began to fall to their spells.

Harry was starting to manoeuvre his Battle Guard to the outer edges of the Death Eaters. He could feel the shielding spell starting to weaken far quicker than he had thought it would. He could only speculate that the consistent attacks from Voldemort's forces were taking their toll. He then felt the little quiver that indicated the spell was about to fail.

"Retreat!" he shouted. "Back to our lines!"

The Battle Guard turned and they began to back as quickly as they could towards the castle. A gold light flared momentarily and the slight glitter around them disappeared. A couple of the closer Death Eaters seemed to realise what this meant and flung a flurry of curses in their direction. A quick shout of 'Protego' deflected most of those curses but a well-aimed 'Stupefy' cannoned into Hermione, knocking her to the ground and leaving her unconscious.

Seeing the sudden gap in the defences surrounding Harry, those same Death Eaters ran towards them, throwing more curses. Harry and the others managed to deflect some but they were soon caught by more than they could handle and one by one Harry's Battle Guard were overcome and either knocked unconscious or tied up. Four Death Eaters levelled their wands at Harry and a fifth sent black sparks flying into the air.

With a loud crack, Voldemort appeared in the middle of his Death Eaters, bringing the battle to a sudden halt.

Dumbledore looked around, distracted from the small fracas he had been involved in by that sound and was horrified to find Harry standing helpless. Nhean, Sirius and Remus saw this at the same time and they groaned and swore. Only Snape seemed unaffected though his eyes did not rest on Harry; they seemed to be looking at the grass near Harry's feet.

What Snape had seen was a small flash of orange and black. Harry too had noticed this, though he saw the energy colours of his friend rather that the orange and black. He was therefore not too surprised when the Death Eater closest to him suddenly gasped and started to foam at the mouth. The man fell, convulsing, his face turning black. The other Death Eaters standing there stared at him, unsure how the young student they had captured had managed to affect this. Then the second Death Eater began to react as the first one had and he too fell at Harry's feet, dead. The remaining three Death Eaters stepped backwards and one of them snarled.

"What are you doing?" came Lucius Malfoy's aristocratic voice.

Harry sheathed his sword and pointed at his chest. "Who me?" he said innocently. "Why, nothing, of course."

Lucius snarled again and then jumped back with an oath as the Death Eater next to him collapsed in convulsions. Lucius stepped forwards and back-handed Harry across the face. Harry's head snapped around and when he turned back to face the elder Malfoy, his bottom lip was split and bleeding.

"Like that was going to convince me to tell you anything," Harry sneered as he wiped the blood away with the back of one hand.

Lucius snarled and raised his hand again. Then he suddenly stiffened and his eyes widened. Foam appeared at the corners of his mouth and he slowly toppled backwards to the ground, convulsed twice, three times, then died.

Harry stared soberly down at the body of Lucius Malfoy. A small part of him felt immense satisfaction; the man who had caused so much pain to himself, to his girlfriend, to his best friend and his family, to a small house-elf was dead. Good riddance, was the only thought that rippled through Harry's mind before he turned to face the remaining two Death Eaters. He raised an eyebrow at them and gave them a cheeky grin. They shifted nervously and then the closer of the two gave a yelp and fell, dying.

The last Death Eater raised his wand but before he could do anything a thin skeletal hand was placed on his shoulder. Harry turned to stare at Voldemort. The Dark Lord however ignored him for the moment and looked down into the grass, clearly aware of what had just killed four of his Death Eaters.

"Go away, little Runespoor," Voldemort hissed in Parseltongue. "You cannot kill me but if you try, be assured I will kill your master."

There was silence from the grass for a moment and then a small hissed agreement. Harry saw Orinda slithering away and watched for a moment to ensure his friend was alright. Then he turned back to face the Dark Lord.