Twilight

Twilight

L.S. Song

Chapter Ten - The Battle

On the day when Voldemort was due to attack, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny had practiced and reviewed all of the charms that could be used for dueling, from Wingardium Leviosa to Skeledestructo Totalus.

"Potter, Granger, Weasley, Weasley, come down to the Great Hall now. You will find the corridors absolutely empty of students. The attack should come soon, bring anything you find necessary for the battle," said a crisp sounding Professor McGonagall from the fire.

The four friends stopped, and swept out of the room, Harry in the lead, followed by Ginny and Ron, Hermione bringing up the rear.

"Ah, there they come now," said Dumbledore as they walked into the Great Hall. "Now, I trust everyone knows where they are going?"

Everyone in the Hall nodded. Harry noticed that there were at least ninety wizards and witches there, already brandishing their wands. After the Aurors had left, Dumbledore had stood up, and addressed the Order.

"Now, Order members come here. As you know, our job is the most important. We are guarding the front doors. Now, we will need to..."

A loud explosion could be heard, followed by many loud cries of pain.

"Merlin's beard! They're here already? Severus, I thought you said... No never mind, come on, we must get to our position!" Dumbledore sprinted out of the Great Hall, with all the members of the Order and the staff in his wake.

"Oh sweet mother of God..." whispered Hermione.

The scene was horrible. The Aurors that had been guarding the forest were chased out, or overwhelmed and killed. The ones left alive joined the others surrounding the castle. It was not, as Snape had said, a hundred strong force. There were at least six hundred of them, and twenty something giants. It looked as if Voldemort had emptied out all of his forces in Britain. Harry turned left, and saw a skeletal figure stride up at the head of the approaching army. Voldemort, his face horribly pale, and his eyes narrow red slits, led the wizards and the giants on, hurling killing curses all over the place. Harry shuddered. In an effort to look away from Voldemort, Harry saw that there were no dementors, but still he saw that they were hopelessly outnumbered.

When the Order stepped out, Harry felt through the slight link between the auras of the member the pure power of these wizards. Harry knew that the Order of the Phoenix was full of wizards from the cream of the crop.

Voldemort paused, and looked up at the Order. "SO! THE OLD FOOL SHOWS HIS FACE AGAIN!" he bellowed. "AND YOU, SNAPE! YOU DARE BETRAY YOUR LORD? FEEDING MY FALSE INFORMATION... FILTH! YOU SHALL SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES! CRUCIO!"

Before anyone could react, Snape had doubled over in agony, shrieking until Voldemort finally lifted the curse.

"Just a taster my dear Professor. When Hogwarts is ours you will see what it means to betray Lord Voldemort!"

Aurors around had shuddered in fear.

Snape stood up, grim faced, still as a statue. For once, Harry appreciated Snape. He stood there eyeing the most evil wizard ever, without any fear at all - or at least none was showing. Harry felt nothing through the Order's aura.

"You were right about one thing during your first attempt to take power... not to attack Hogwarts. This will be your undoing..." said Dumbledore wisely.

"EMPTY WORDS, MUGGLE LOVER! AVADA KEDAVRA!" yelled Voldemort.

Dumbledore and members of the Order had barely dodged the fatal beam of green light. With a roar, and a symbolic firework of sparks from both sides, the battle erupted. The sight of it was truly horrible, giants yelling and stampeding over wizards, all sorts of hexes being thrown, and above it all was Voldemort and Dumbledore furiously dueling, a whole area surrounding them was empty, for no one wanted to get too close.

Hermione was dueling the Death Eater Dolohov, who had knocked her into the hospital wing at the end of the fifth year during that fateful night at the Department of Mysteries. She fought with a passion that could only be sparked by a person wanting to get revenge.

Ron and Ginny were amongst members of the Order, such as Remus, Tonks, and Kingsley Shacklebolt, firing volleys of curses into the ranks of the giants.

Harry found himself battling Draco and Lucius Malfoy already away from the main battle, near the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest, barely managing to stay away from all of their hexes, until Bellatrix Lestrange showed her face again, and challenged him.

Harry's old rage reignited. This was the woman that had killed his godfather. This was the woman that turned Neville's parents insane. Harry bared his teeth, and brandishing his wand turned to fight all three of them at once.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" roared three voices.

Harry rolled aside, and roared, "SKELEDESTRUCTO TOTALUS!" The curse flew by the three Death Eaters, but struck a giant right in the arse. With a loud holler, the giant was reduced to a blob.

"Getting nasty are we, itty bitty baby Potter? Growing up are you?" taunted Bellatrix.

Lucius and Draco laughed appreciatively. Harry observed with a sick sensation of pleasure in his stomach that Draco now had two magical eyes, rolling around in their sockets. That conjunctivitis curse must've worked pretty well.

"PARASITRAN MAGICA! STUPEFY! TORRENTORIA SERPENSORTIA!" yelled Harry in response.

All of a sudden he felt a strong surge of power flow through his veins, and he knew that his absorption charm had hit its target. He was also pleased to see that all three Death Eaters were shrieking at the rainstorm of snakes.

"ATTACK THE DEATH EATERS, DEFEAT THEM AT ANY COSTS!" Harry hissed. The snakes had slithered off, trying to bite at the Death Eaters.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" roared three voices, but only two beams of light had come out. Harry noticed that nothing came out of Lucius Malfoy's wand.

Harry dived out of the way, and yelled, "OBLIVIATE TOTALUS!"

No normal wizard should have been able to do that spell. However, Harry was far from normal. He watched as the beam of silver light hit Lucius Malfoy straight in the stomach, and watched as Malfoy crumpled into a heap.

"NO!" yelled Bellatrix and Draco.

"NOW YOU KNOW WHAT OTHER PEOPLE GO THROUGH WHEN YOU DO THINGS LIKE THAT YOU WORTHLESS DEATH EATERS!" shouted Harry. "YOUR FATHER DESERVED..."

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT POTTER! CRUCIO!" bellowed Draco.

Harry in turn crumpled, and screamed. It was about fifteen minutes later did Draco raise the curse.

"Not so proud and strong now, are we Potter?" smirked Draco, with an evil grin on his disgusting little face, his magical eyes going haywire. "MAN that felt good."

"No, the little baby misses his mudblood mother... what do you think Draco, should we let him go visit her?" added Bellatrix, who was also nearly bouncing in delight. "Shall you do the honors?"

"Why I'd be glad to, but not before another round of pain, don't you think?"

"I most definitely do," sneered a new voice. Harry saw the hated face of Peter Pettigrew. He had not changed one bit. Still a disgusting little rat, Harry thought to himself.

Well now they're all here, thought Harry to himself grimly. The man who killed my parents, the woman who killed my godfather, and the ugly git that's going to kill me...

"CRUCIO!" bellowed Bellatrix this time, filling Harry with another round of pain.

Harry yelled out, and when the curse was released, he had to bite his tongue to keep from uttering a piteous moan. He would let his enemies have no such pleasure.

"Wormtail, would you like to join in the festivities?" asked Bellatrix in a pleasant sounding tone, as if she was asking him if he wanted the last cookie on a plate.

"My pleasure," smiled Wormtail. "CRUCIO!"

Harry shook violently with pain, his throat burning, no longer letting any screams escape.

"I think our little baby is all tired out... let him go take a nice long nap..." said Bellatrix in her annoying baby voice.

Draco smirked, and brandished his wand. "May I?" he asked with a horrible smile.

"Yes, yes..." said Bellatrix.

"Let me have one more word with Potter before he dies."

Wormtail walked over to Harry's wretched form, and said wickedly, "When you see your mudblood mother and your father again, tell them Peter sends his greetings, and tell them that I made the right choice... as you can plainly see now."

"You may proceed, Draco, let's end this now."

Harry knew what was coming, but he could not raise himself to defend himself; the long series of Cruciatus curses had taken away almost all his strength.

Draco took his wand, and aimed it right for Harry's heart. It took an eternity for him to utter the words.

"Ava..."

"NO!!!" yelled a voice.

"...da..."

Harry heard the sound of someone running. He could feel a strong aura around the person.

"Ke..."

Harry saw Wormtail and Bellatrix move sideways in slow motion.

"...da..."

Harry could see the figure's shadow in the noon sun now.

"...vra!"

The figure dived straight into the beam of green light a split second before it hit Harry, and fell over, dead. Wormtail walked over, and kicked the body over.

It was Remus Lupin.

"NO!!! YOU @#$%ING MURDERING LITTLE WORTHLESS PIECE OF GARBAGE!" Harry bellowed like a wounded elephant.

The sight of his father's last friend's corpse with silver eyes looking lifelessly up at him made Harry tap into an energy source he had never known existed. Rage burned through every little part of him.

Harry jumped up, aimed his wand at the three Death Eaters standing in a tight group, and bellowed at the top of his voice, "SKELEINCENDIO!"

Bellatrix Lestrange shrieked. Whilst no one could see what was happening to her, Harry knew. Her very bones were on fire, burning her up from the inside. She continued to shriek in agony, as she slowly burnt away.

Malfoy and Wormtail turned to face Harry.

"Leave now you two worthless pieces of scum, unless you want to die right here, right now. Leave now or I swear you won't live to see the sunset, and when I say leave now, I mean leave your precious little Lord behind, tuck your tails between your legs, and run away. Don't ever show your faces again," whispered Harry in a deadly fury.

Draco and Peter, with a look into the burning green fire in their enemy's eyes, quickly ran as fast as their legs would take them into the Forest. The two Death Eaters were never very brave people.

Harry surveyed Lucius Malfoy who was still lying there, out cold, and Bellatrix Lestrange who had now fallen to the floor, engulfed in flames.

"Help..." she gasped pitifully, as the fire roared through her. Harry knew she had about one more minute to live. Serves her right, he thought, with no squeamish feeling that he had always thought he'd get after killing his first person.

It was war, and in war, only the strongest survive. There was no room for being squeamish, no room at all.

Harry turned around and ignored her cries, turning to Remus Lupin's lying corpse, walked over and closed his eyes. Picking the body up, Harry walked up slowly to the castle.

It was a nasty scene. Apparently the Order and the Aurors had been outnumbered to such an extent, they had been so desperate, they called down all the students from third year and above, and many a dark wizard found themselves with boils over their faces, their legs dancing uncontrollably, and their teeth grown to such an extent that they reached their boots. As Death Eaters clutched at the minor problems the schoolyard curses the third, fourth, and some fifth years caused, the sixth and seventh years ran along and stunned them. Harry thought it wasn't a bad strategy at all. However, he then saw many Aurors were lying on the floor, dead. Harry sprinted up to the front doors, unnoticed, and gently raid down Remus Lupin's body in the safety of the halls of Hogwarts. Grabbing his wand out, Harry ran back into the fray.

Harry saw with a growing feeling of dread that Dumbledore was slowly, but surely losing against Voldemort. He now had a big gash across his forehead, the blood flowing out darkening his brilliant red robes. Dumbledore stumbled. Voldemort laughed, and hurled a killing curse at him. Dumbledore barely managed to roll out of the way, clutching at the gash on his forehead.

Harry knew that he needed to help Dumbledore, or else it would be the last of the old wizard.

"MAXIMUS REDUCTO!" he yelled, flinging a hex at Voldemort. The curse caught him straight in the back, causing him to stumble for a second. Harry gasped. He had expected a lot more, well, effect to his spell. Harry had used it once in Dumbledore's office, shattering a stone statue to pieces. Voldemort had turned around, and acted as if it was just a little kid pushing him in the back.

"Ahh... Potter... decide to join us at last? I'm afraid I don't have much time for you today, so I'll make it short..." said Voldemort with a horrible smile, turning to Harry.

Without warning, Voldemort shrieked, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

"Stellartica Lumare!"

Once again, the two wands linked, but this time, both wands regurgitated the last spells cast. Harry saw that Voldemort had indeed been dueling Dumbledore a long time. At least twenty hexes had all ready come out of Voldemort's wand, all being dark magic, and one sent a flying knife which must've caused the gash on Dumbledore's face.

Harry's wand regurgitated his entire duel with Malfoy, Malfoy, Lestrange, and Wormtail.

Harry held the connection the best he could, but he saw out of the corner of his eye Dumbledore shaking his head furiously.

Harry severed the connection, and the two fell.

"Harry, you are not ready yet! Don't---"

Voldemort threw yet another killing curse at Harry, which was only missed because Dumbledore had teleported Harry to his side.

"GO! LEAVE RIDDLE TO ME!"

Harry had no choice, he ran to join Ron, Ginny, and Hermione, who were now teaming up against a pair of Death Eaters. With one last look at the battling pair of wizards, Dumbledore having healed himself in the time Harry had bought for him, Harry only hoped that his distraction gave Dumbledore enough time to recover.

The massive war had finally seemed to die down after an hour. All the giants had run away, probably never to return to Voldemort again, and most of the dark wizards lay incapacitated.

Voldemort's battle with Dumbledore had finally reached such a point in which Dumbledore had collapsed, fainting on the spot.

Harry ran to take Dumbledore's place, but instead he found twelve Aurors already standing face to face with the Dark Lord. They looked scared, grim, and were trembling slightly, but they still stood there all the same.

Voldemort snarled, but he knew that there was no way out. Shouting out some spell, there was a violent flash of light, and everyone was blinded for a few minutes. The next thing Harry saw when he opened his eyes was that all the Death Eaters left standing and Voldemort had disappeared.

The incapacitated wizards were left untouched.

Murmurs went around the crowd, and eventually cheers started, for they had won the battle.

"Oh my... someone get the Headmaster to the hospital wing... HURRY!" shouted McGonagall, who had taken charge now that Dumbledore lay in a heap at the floor.

The next few hours went past like a blur. Harry and Hermione had walked around looking for any injured Aurors or Order members, finding about seven stunned, which they revived. All the other collapsed ones were dead. Ron and Ginny had joined the Order members and what was left of the Aurors in securing the prisoners in the dungeons.

Finally, late at night, the quartet was dismissed, and they returned to the Head student common room. After taking their well-earned showers, they had exchanged their separate stories.

"...and there I was, with THREE Death Eaters around me, outnumbered, when Mione came in and blew them away!" exclaimed Ron after a lengthy tale of how he had gotten separated from the Order with a powerful Flipendo curse.

Hermione beamed, "But really, Ron was handling the situation wonderfully, keeping his cool and all... well after that we just followed the Order around and helped where we could... What happened to you Ginny? Where did you disappear off to?"

Ginny sighed. "Nothing interesting like yours... I just got separated because I tripped over a death eater who was stunned on the floor... all I did was beat a giant and two Death Eaters, then I rejoined you guys."

Harry felt a surge of guilt come up, realizing that he hadn't been there to protect his friends, but he also had a glowing sense of happiness that none of them had gotten hurt.

"It was strange though... it was like each of my curses went twice as fast as usual, and when I hit a giant with a flipendo curse, it actually flew backwards... a lot of AURORS didn't even manage to make a giant budge, from stunning curses or anything... in fact, the only person I saw that was also able to stun a giant was Ginny... it was like something pumped a whole lot of magical energy into me..." pondered Ron.

"Funny, that happened to me too..." said Hermione and Ginny at the same time.

"What about you, Harry?"

"I don't think so... I didn't really need any extra power... unless... I remember after I... no never mind," he finished. He didn't want to talk about Remus right now.

"Hmm... hey Harry, you weren't with us the whole time, where did you get off to?"

Harry froze. He knew that they would eventually get to him. He sighed.

"Well I didn't even get in formation with the Order... I saw Malfoy, and chased him to the edge of the Dark Forest..."

Half an hour later, there were unshed tears in Harry's bright green eyes.

"And he jumped, right into the Killing Curse. To save me..."

Hermione and Ginny were now watching Harry silently, tears pouring down their cheeks.

Ron sat with a look that held respect, sorrow, and anger. "Damn Malfoy," he said. "I'm going to be the one that's going to bring him down one day... I swear..."

"What's worse is its all my fault... if only I hadn't stopped to yell at Malfoy and Lestrange... I wouldn't have been hit with the Cruciatus curse the first time, which wouldn't have led to more, then I wouldn't need to have been saved... I'M SO STUPID! ARGH I don't deserve to sit here talking to three of the greatest friends a guy could ask for... I should be the one being placed into a coffin... I shouldn't be here... It's all my fault..." Harry had stopped, and buried his head between his arms.

Hermione and Ron started to say something along the lines of "Don't worry, Harry, it isn't your fault... it's Voldemort's fault..." but Ginny abruptly stood, knocking over two cushions on the sofa to the floor.

"Harry, listen to me. Remus died for you. Don't sit here and waste minutes of your life doing this. There was a reason he did what he did, and that is to give you more time. You should mourn Remus and move on like he would want you to. In case you haven't noticed today, the war has now formally broken out. Voldemort's supporters have already taken much of Europe. Remember Remus, but do not blame yourself for him. You said that you needed time to get over things and see that it wasn't your fault before, concerning Sirius, but now, time is a luxury you can't afford..."

"WHY ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT IT AS IF SOMEONE WE DON'T KNOW OFF IN MADAGASCAR OR SOMETHING DIED? THIS IS REMUS!" yelled Harry, who stood up to match Ginny's move. This naturally wouldn't a good move by Harry, as Ginny's temper was known as the worst of all of the Weasleys' but he had never experienced it firsthand.

Ginny faltered for a second, but then gathered her wits. "Harry, if you don't understand why he died, I guess I can't help you. Have you realized that he might've done it for the sake of mankind, and not just for you? Even if it was just for you, you should revel in the fruits of his labor, or else his death means nothing. We would die for you any day Harry. Me, Ron, Hermione, because you know what? We're family. And family sticks together always, no matter what happens. Understand Remus' choice, he did it because you were his family; you were all that he had left. At least now he is with his friends and family again. For the last time, Harry, none of this is your fault, and this is absolutely the last time I tell you it. Come talk to me again when you pull your head out of your arse and realize that you aren't the only person the world is fighting the war for, and that Remus Lupin was a good man, and he would've done it for anybody."

Ginny walked right out of the room and up the staircase.

Harry stood, dumbstruck. Apparently it was Ginny that always jerked him out of moods like this. In fact, her comments on family had really moved him. Harry looked to Ron and Hermione, who nodded gently, and he ran up to the Head Girl dorms. Before he entered, he heard Ginny crying softly. He knocked twice. Ginny, who was sitting on her bed, hugging her knees and burying her head in her hands, said without lifting her head, "Come in Hermione... oh you don't know how bad that made me feel... I can't believe I said that to poor Harry...it's just that he needed to know... I just hope he doesn't overreact or anything, you know how much I love him since I gotten to know him properly... oh god, Hermione, what if he doesn't want to speak to me anymore?" Ginny sniffed, and looked up at last. She gasped when she saw who it was.

"I would never not want to speak to you, Ginny. I just came up here to thank you for telling me what I needed to know, and for snapping me out of it. Now, I also want to thank you for caring, you don't know what it means to me..."

Ginny was torn between anger at Harry for listening to her talk about him silently, and wanting to embrace him. She chose the latter. They held each other close.

One hour later, when they had walked down to the common room again. Harry found Ron holding a crying Hermione in his arms. Harry had just then remembered how Remus Lupin was also a good friend and teacher to Ron and Hermione.

Harry and Ginny walked over to them, and sat down in the sofa.

"Accio butterbeers," muttered Harry, and four bottles of butterbeer flew from his trunk into his hands, and he handed them out to each of his friends.

"Tonight, we drink to Remus Lupin," said Harry.

"Tonight, we drink to life," said Hermione.

"Tonight, we drink to hope," said Ron.

"Forever, we drink to family," ended Ginny.

The four friends clinked their bottles, and chugged down the bottles of butterbeer.

Later that night, Harry snuck out to the Marauder's room once more.

When he had approached to the Marauder's shield, he bent down in front of it and broke down. "I'm sorry Remus, I'm sorry Sirius, and I'm sorry Dad... I ended up costing all of your lives... I promise you, that a day of reckoning will come... I promise I will honor and I will not make your sacrifices be in vain and the time you've bought for me will be well spent... I promise I will make you all proud..."

Harry wiped a tear from his eyes, which immediately turned hard and emotionless, as he surveyed the segment of the shield where the rat was.

"Wormtail. I let you live again today, as your final chance. It probably wasn't wise, but should you not use your final chance well, the next time we meet will be the last. I swear upon my father's grave that it will be so," said Harry passionately.

Harry waved his wand over the rat of the shield, and left the Marauder's room.

Six hundred miles away, in a small flat in Paris, a short man with a large bald patch on his head, small watery eyes, and a pointed nose shook violently in his sleep.