Twilight

Twilight

L.S. Song

Chapter Sixteen - Fortress Crushed

Harry wasn't having a good day at all.

After a double session with Orion, he and Hermione were utterly exhausted.

The fact that Ginny was giving him the cold shoulder made days worse and worse, until he really considered Hagrid's advice.

When he saw Ron and Ginny joking around on the way down to the hall behind them, he stood there and waited.

"You go on ahead, Hermione... Ron will be there with you in a sec... I need a word with Ginny."

Hermione nodded with understanding in her gaze and left him.

"And believe it or not, the prat actually asked me out on a date!"

Ron and Ginny held on to each other in their laughter, until they saw the dark-haired Harry Potter standing in their path.

Ginny's beautiful smile on her face was immediately snapped into an uncaring, expressionless look, as she nodded at Harry and made to move past him.

"Ginny... I need a word please..."

"I'm not sure I want to hear a word from you..."

Inwardly, he thought to himself, 'since when did little Ginny Weasley who used to have a crush on me turn into a stone-cold beautiful girl that could make me do anything for her?'

Outwardly, he said, "Please Gin..."

The miserable tone in his voice had made Ginny drop her 'Ice Queen' act.

"Ron, do you mind?" she said.

Ron nodded curtly, and walked to the Great Hall alone.

"Look, Ginny... I'm sorry I made you angry after you told me not to do the whole 'it's my fault' thing... it was just the situation, it ate me up with guilt... and when you started to... I just..."

"Oh Harry... you know I never meant to hurt you... I just couldn't stand you hurting yourself... it really isn't your fault, it's Voldemort... he's an evil bastard... none of it's your fault... but you know, I just can't stand watching my boyfriend blame himself for something he fought so hard against... I think that..."

What Ginny thought, Harry never found out, for a massive BOOM was heard throughout Hogwarts.

Moody's voice was heard magically ringing through the halls. "STUDENTS RETURN TO DORMS IMMEDIATELY, SCHOOL IS UNDER ATTACK!"

Everyone in the halls started shrieking and flapping their arms around stupidly, running without orientation, like a bunch of headless chickens. Harry was sure he heard a person actually squawk.

"I'm going out..."

"NO HARRY!"

"Its obvious he's out after me... so I'll go... and save everyone from getting hurt... or worse."

"It's your responsibility as Head Boy to help Gryffindors back into the tower! NOW C'MON!"

It was utter chaos as prefects herded their students away to their common rooms, everyone screaming madly.

Some of the students, quite stupidly ran out of the front doors, and straight into Voldemort's army.

Harry watched as Professors McGonagall, Orion, Snape, Moody, Sprout, and Flitwick flew out of the doors, sending curses as they went, but was alarmed at the sight of Quidditch star Viktor Krum tailing them.

"Wait... something isn't right..." said Ginny at his shoulder. "Viktor was captured by Voldemort... he can't have escaped, its nearly impossible..."

Harry snapped around, immediately remembering how Voldemort had sneaked a Death Eater into Hogwarts once before under Polyjuice potion. He might've just done it again.

What happened next was in slow motion. Krum, who had drawn his wand, but pointed it at Snape, started yelling something to Harry's horror.

"NO! EXPELLIARMUS!" he cried. It was the first dueling spell he had ever learnt, it was his first instinct to go with it.

The jet of red light flew remarkably fast towards Krum, smacking into him before he had even finished the incantation, but his wand glowed an eerie green as it flew to Harry.

He didn't catch it.

Krum had snapped around and stared Harry straight in the eye.

Harry stared straight back and felt something. The man was hiding something.

"Death Eater."

"What are you talking about? I'm Viktor Krum, don't you remember..."

"STUPEFY!" shouted Harry.

'Krum' fell into a heap.

"RITORNO!" Harry shouted.

"WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, POTTER?" shouted McGonagall who had turned to see Harry sending a spell towards Krum, which hit him flat.

"Death Eater... Polyjuice... trust me..."

Sure enough, 'Krum' had fallen backwards and turned into a sneering Death Eater, still stunned.

"GET BACK TO YOUR DORMITORY!"

"But I can help!"

"NOW!"

Harry grabbed Ginny and fled. Had he been alone he certainly would've joined the fray, but there was no way on Earth he would let Ginny be hurt now that he had just fixed things up with her.

They had just reached the portrait hole when sounds of metal being dropped against the ground were heard.

"Beauty Rest!"

"Yes indeed, Mr. Potter..." said the portrait, and opened.

"C'mon get in, Ginny..."

She jumped nimbly into the room, and he followed after her, and closed the portrait in after him.

"What on Earth are we going to do? Just SIT here?" Harry cried as soon as he entered.

"What else can we do?"

"We're members of the Order... we should be out there fighting... speaking of fighting why is it only a few teachers fighting God knows how many wizards Voldemort has?"

"It's not, Mr. Potter," said McGonagall's stern voice. "We've prepared Hogwarts for a time like this... Hogwarts is on lockdown."

The old witch climbed in through the portrait hole and took a seat on the empty sofa, letting out a sigh.

"What's lockdown?"

"We're a fortress now... there is no safer place on Earth."

"BUT WHAT ABOUT VOLDEMORT?"

"Come and see..." McGonagall rose. Apparently she did think Hogwarts was safe now, or else she would never lead students out.

Harry and Ginny followed McGonagall to the Great Hall, where Harry found all the windows closed and blocked with a layer of steel.

"But that's just METAL! Voldemort can break through it!"

"Not just any metal... these are magically enhanced defences built in Godric Gryffindor's day... nothing will penetrate it... nothing can get in or out."

"But what about the people outside?" questioned Harry.

"They..." sighed McGonagall.

"No! You didn't!" exclaimed Ginny.

"HAGRID! NO! I'M GOING OUT!"

"It's too late, Harry... I saw them take him... him and all of the second year Gryffindors and Slytherins..."

"AND YOU LOCKED THEM OUT? Are you MAD?"

"Harry, you must understand, there was nothing we could do to... It was for the greater good... should one sacrifice everyone, or a few?"

By now, Harry had already walked out.

"Come back here Mr. Potter!"

"Or what? You'll take points from me? Give me a detention? Ban me from playing Quidditch? Revoke my Head Boy status? Confiscate my broom? Screw that, I'm finding Hagrid."

"I'm coming with you," said Ginny, leaping up after him.

"No Ginny, you're too..."

"Young? No I'm not, I'm just a few months younger than you. I don't care what the world thinks of you, Boy-who-Lived or not, you're my boyfriend, you're my friend, but you're not my boss. I'm coming with you."

McGonagall sighed.

"Stupefy!'

***

Harry and Ginny awoke on the couch of the Head Boy and Girl common room.

"My sister was snuggling with my best friend. Eww," said Ron in a childish voice.

Harry let out a laugh, despite himself.

Hermione smacked Ron, a smile curling up on her face.

Ginny smiled, and cuddled up closer to Harry, still with her eyes closed.

"Wait... we were going to rescue Hagrid... why are we..." started Ginny, who had all of a sudden snapped out of her daze, bringing Harry violently back to reality also.

"Damn! McGonagall!"

"I'm going! You three stay here!"

Without waiting for a response, Harry ran towards the portrait hole, tried to budge it open, but it stuck firmly on.

"Dammit! She even locked us in? What are we, animals?"

Ron mumbled something under his breath, and Hermione and Ginny giggled.

"HOW CAN YOU THREE BE DOING THIS WHEN HAGRID IS PROBABLY BEING TORTURED BY VOLDEMORT?"

The laughter died from Ron, Hermione, and Ginny's faces, leaving Harry feeling very guilty indeed.

"Sorry... I know there's nothing you three can do..."

"Oh yeah, and there's something you can?" challenged Ron and Ginny at the same time.

"Yeah... Voldemort wants me, not any of you," he started.

"HARRY! We just HAD a conversation about this!" cried Ginny.

"Yeah... you're right... you're right..."

"We're no good to no one just sitting here are we?"

"Correct, Miss Granger, how observant of you," sneered Ron.

"How do we unlock the portrait hole?"

"We don't."

"Are you seriously suggesting we just SIT here?"

"No, of course not. I'm suggesting we make a portkey - its what I've been reading about for the past hour you and Ginny were snuggling about on the couch..."

Harry shot Hermione a mean look, then said, "Well, what are you waiting for? Make one to Hagrid's hut!"

"All right, all right..."

Hermione stood and grabbed a quill from her desk.

"Portus!" she cried, with a look of supreme concentration on her face.

The quill glowed a greenish color, and trembled for a moment, then dropped to the floor.

"Well... I think it worked..."

"Let's go then!"

Harry grabbed the portkey, with Ginny's hand beside his, Ron and Hermione barely fitting a finger on the small quill.

Nothing happened.

"Urgh... Hermione you did it wrong!"

"That's impossible... I followed every step!"

"Give it to me, and tell me what to do."

"Honestly! Fine! Think of your destination very clearly, and say clearly, the incantation Portus!"

"Mmm... okay... PORTUS!"

This time, the quill glowed blue, and quivered violently before settling on the floor again.

"Accio quill!"

Harry grabbed the quill, and flashed his friends a cheeky smile as he expected to be pulled away to Hagrid's hut.

Nothing came.

"Damn!" Harry turned red.

"You tried to pull a fast one on us, Potter!" growled Ron, pushing Harry in the chest, causing him to flip over the sofa and land painfully on his shoulder, his glasses flying off.

"RON!" beseeched Hermione.

"Harry!" she added as an afterthought.

Ginny, however, pulled Harry up and grabbed him by his arms. "Don't try anything like that again... if you had actually got a portkey working, I would've killed you for leaving us!"

"I'm sure it worked... when Dumbledore did them, they looked exactly the same..."

"Anti-portkey charms!" cried Hermione.

"Stupid! STUPID!"

Harry grabbed a handful of floo powder, Ginny still pulling on his arms.

"MINERVA MCGONAGALL!" he hollered into the flames.

McGonagall's strict face appeared in the fire, smiling at them.

"Why did you lock us up?" yelled Harry, before Ron, Hermione, or Ginny could stop him.

"Why... because you'd run out of the school and break down our fortress defences of course... if a student left than the defences would be taken down for ten minutes... Voldemort could infiltrate the..."

"Are you HONESTLY telling me that you're leaving Hagrid and twenty students out there to die?"

"They're... they're already..."

Harry slumped down, covering his face.

"Dead...?" he let out a strangled gasp.

"I'm afraid so..."

"NO!"

In one swift motion, Harry grabbed another handful of floo powder, threw it in the spot McGonagall's head had been, and stepped straight into the fire.

"HAGRID'S HUT!"

A twirling sensation started, but Harry found himself forced out of the same fireplace that he had come in from.

"WHY?" he cried.

Harry collapsed.

It could not be... Hagrid, the last adult in his life, dead? It was impossible! Preposterous! McGonagall must be lying!

Hagrid was the first wizard he had ever met.

Hagrid had taken him away from the Dursleys.

Hagrid had shown him the wonderful Diagon Alley.

Hagrid had given him his first pet, his first true companion.

Hagrid had always been there for him in his little hut with rock-hard rock cakes and tea.

He was jerked out of his thoughts abruptly by a loud explosion.

"They're breaking the wards," Hermione whispered, her voice sounding frightened.

More explosions could be heard.

The wards still held.

***

Hogwarts, in all of its glory, was now surviving only on thousand-year-old charms from foes recklessly hammering against its walls.

In the last two days, students had stayed cooped up in their common rooms, being served on by house-elves. Harry sat brooding all day, not talking to Hermione, Ron or Ginny.

Giving up on engaging Harry in conversation, the three had taken to playing games, and trying to joke light-heartedly, to no avail.

The atmosphere was tense, with explosions being heard every few minutes.

On the third afternoon after Voldemort's first strike, things started to fall apart.

"STUDENTS OF HOGWARTS!" came McGonagall's voice magically magnified.

"PREPARE TO EVACUATE! Take ONLY what you need!"

Those three words caused a very nasty feeling in Harry's body.

How on earth the teachers were going to evacuate hundreds of students?

Harry's mind didn't have an answer.

Why did McGonagall trust so much in Hogwarts' defences? She should've evacuated students far earlier!

Explosions were now more frequent and louder.

Hogwarts' defences were failing. Time was running short.

The four friends grabbed their essentials and valuables, and prepared to run down to the Great Hall.

***

"Students! Gather around, gather around!"

"FIRST YEARS, GO WITH PROFESSOR MORTON! You will be using floo powder to evacuate!"

"Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Years! You will go with Professor Jenkins! You will be using portkeys to evacuate!"

"Sixth and Seventh Years! You may stay and fight if you wish, or you may either fly by broomstick, take a portkey, or use secret passages, guided by Mr. Filch across the school to get to Hogsmeade, where Professor Sprout is waiting for you with the Knight Bus!"

"On my call..."

A tremendous explosion was heard.

Students heard, with the impending feeling of doom, the cracking of wood. Voldemort's dark forces had broken in.

"GO! NOW!"

Harry ran to hold off Voldemort's forces.

He was the first one there, Fortuna on his shoulder.

Unfortunately, before he fired a curse off, he saw that Voldemort and his supporters had their wands pressed to the heads of the second years and Hagrid.

They were alive.

"One more move, Potter, and all of them die."

Ginny, Hermione, Ron, Luna, Neville, Justin, Ernie, Terry, and Blaise Zabini gathered behind him, and around his sides. About ten other sixth years that Harry did not know were mingled amongst the crowd. Professors Snape, Orion, McGonagall, Vector, Trelawney (much to Harry's numb surprise), Flitwick, and Moody flanked the sides of the students.

"Foolish, Potter. Foolish indeed. See you not the thousands of forces I have at my disposal?"

"You won't win," spat Harry.

His brave sounding words reflected nothing of his inner thoughts, and every last person standing with him knew it. He knew that they stood absolutely no chance against this massive force, and they were only biding their time, hoping that the other students would get away in time.

"Drop your wand, Potter, or I'll kill them off one by one."

He bent slowly down, and placed his wand down.

"Rest of you, follow the boy."

Everyone else dropped his or her wands hesitatingly.

"Kill them all," sneered Voldemort, once the wands had been dropped.

"NO!" cried someone behind Harry.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

The room was filled with green light.

"PORTUS!"

Harry had whipped out Dumbledore's wand, and aimed at where Hagrid had stood, to turn something he was wearing into a portkey.

When the green light cleared, Harry noticed that Hagrid was no longer there. He hoped that Hagrid had gotten away by his portkey, and not have been disintegrated or anything. He assumed that he must've succeeded in getting Hagrid out, as no Death Eater used any spell different from the Killing Curse.

The other students were not as lucky.

Twenty dead twelve-year-olds lay at the Death Eater's feet.

"Kill their petty little defence force. Leave Potter to me."

"GET BEHIND ME! NOW!" cried Harry.

The students jumped behind him as he grasped Dumbledore's wand tightly.

"Trixtonia!" he yelled.

An enormous shockwave erupted from Harry's wand, reflecting the many beams of red light sent at him, and knocking ten Death Eaters sprawling. Although this spell was basically like swatting at a giant with a blade of grass, it provided the slight distraction needed for everyone to regroup and grab their wands.

Hogwarts' few defenders turned, rolled, picked up their wands, those who also had spare wands held one wand in each hand and shot multiple rallies of spells towards Voldemort's forces, but it was no good. Most the spells found their targets, but the thousands of forces attacking were far too powerful for a handful of wizards to repel, let alone win against.

"CRUCIO!" yelled a voice.

Harry noticed that the beam of red light was flying towards him.

He didn't have enough time to move.

Harry tensed his muscles, preparing for the overwhelming sense of pain to take him.

It didn't come.

Harry took a second to observe his watch.

Nothing.

Then he saw Fortuna, who's eyes were now glowing with an eerie green light.

He remembered Dumbledore's words from what seemed a lifetime ago.

"Wonderfully loyal creatures, they are, once they bond with a wizard they stay with them until they die... they gain very unique magical powers as they grow with the wizard..." Dumbledore had said.

It appeared that Fortuna was now gaining some powers.

However, within a few minutes, Professors Trelawney and Vector, Terry, Ernie, and Justin had fallen down, dead or stunned Harry couldn't tell. Ginny stood with Hermione and Ron behind her, her watch deflecting almost all the spells cast at her. The Unforgivable Curses were merely dodged by the three of them. All temporary joy that his mysticat was growing up left him.

Things were looking bleak. Professors Moody, Snape, McGonagall, and Orion were actively casting killing curses in quick succession.

Harry himself was sending storms of acid to rain down on Voldemort's troops.

Ginny, Ron, and Hermione were sending parasite curses around, and once hitting a target hurling the massive shockwave spell Harry had started the battle off with. It was a good combination.

However, the professors and students were being pushed further and further back, until directly behind them were the Great Hall's doors. Dementors had a horrible effect on many of the students, causing them to collapse on to the floor, shaking.

Trolls had started bashing things about, mainly causing a mess.

Voldemort's forces were now making a perimeter around what was left of the students and Professors. In just a few more minutes, they would be surrounded.

"Terremotio!" yelled a voice from Voldemort's side suddenly.

The earth instantly began shaking furiously, sending Voldemort's forces into disarray.

"RUN!" yelled Snape.

The students and Professors sprinted around Hogwarts in different directions, pushing over Death Eaters in the process, confusing trolls, and bowling into dementors.

"TRAITOR!" roared Voldemort.

Harry stopped a second and looked at who had betrayed Voldemort - not to mention saving them - he would try to help them.

Until he saw, levitated high in the air, Peter Pettigrew.

He spat. "HARRY POTTER! WE'RE EVEN! I OWE YOU NOTHING! OUR DEBT IS SETTLED!"

Harry thought he had gone a bit mad, as Pettigrew laughed maniacally, whilst being twirled around in the air, eventually throwing up all over a dementor, until he remembered what had happened at the end of his third year, when he had let Pettigrew go free, back to his master... that was what had started the second reign of terror... it was all his fault. He thought that Pettigrew would never repay the wizards' debt.

Evidentially, the debt had been torturing Pettigrew to such an extent that he now was prepared to sacrifice his worthless life to cleanse himself of his treasons by saving Harry Potter one last time.

Pettigrew's eyes were unfocused and yet opened up wide, as he spun around in the air, being hit by Cruciatus curses from Death Eaters around him.

Harry just realized that he had done the stupidest thing ever by staying behind and waiting to see who had saved them.

The next second passed in slow motion. Thousands of jets of light flew at Harry, who was standing immobile. He thought miserably, 'anywhere but here...'

And with a loud crack, he somehow found himself the next second standing outside the Marauder's room.

"FIND HIM, AND BRING HIM TO ME!" he heard Voldemort's voice yell below.

How on Earth did he teleport in Hogwarts? It was impossible!

However, now wasn't the time to ponder the laws of magic. Harry immediately stuck his wand into the hole that opened the Marauder's room, and whispered, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!"

He heard footsteps coming up.

The hole was just big enough for him to dive through.

He just did it in time to avoid being seen.

"Prongs," Harry whispered. With relief, he saw that the hole had shrunk to just big enough to fit a wand in again.

He turned to see Ginny, Hermione, and Ron holding their wands to his head.

"What are you doing, it's me!"

"Don't listen... it might be a trick..." muttered Ron.

Hermione and Ginny nodded fervently.

"Could anyone else do this?"

Harry swept out his spare wand in one fluid motion and stuck his holly wand right in front of Hermione's nose, Dumbledore's wand at Ginny's heart. He left Ron alone.

"Don't try it!" cried Ron.

Sparks flew out of the three of their wands.

"Ow... Don't be stupid, Ron, its me, Harry." Harry dropped his wands to show that he wasn't some Death Eater in disguise.

They still weren't convinced.

Harry couldn't see why, as no one else knew how to get into the Marauder's room.

Apparently Ginny was thinking along the same lines. "No one but Harry knows how to get into this room..."

"Why, where are we anyway?"

"The Marauder's Room," answered Harry simply.

Harry heard Hermione muttering silencing charms and shield charms at the hole.

To distract himself, he looked to the Marauder's shield hanging on the wall.

A stag, a wolf, and a dog lay faded and blackened on the shield.

The rat glowed bright white for a second, and then dwindled away to a miserable black, joining its fellows in darkness.

Peter Pettigrew, the last of the Marauders, was gone.

He died redeemed, and that in itself was enough to be thankful for.

The shield glowed with a cold blue glow, and a second later; the four places where Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs had been engraved were blank.

Harry unconsciously walked up the shield, and placed his wand where the stag had been, as if it could bring his father back.

He didn't expect a green light to blind him temporarily as a lion found itself on the Marauder's shield.

"What... but... why?" he stuttered.

"I think I know... this wasn't made for the Marauders..." whispered Hermione.

"No but... why is there a lion on the shield now?"

"It can't be... its impossible..."

"Would you mind sharing with the rest of us, Hermione? Or do you want us to stand here waiting for an explanation from someone else who just happens to come along and know exactly what you're thinking... an empathy maybe?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, and said, "Harry, take the shield off the wall, and see if there's any writing on the back."

Harry, feeling a bit stupid, took the shield off the wall, and flipped it over. Indeed there was writing, although it looked ancient, and in spidery, messy engraving.

Together, be bound in friendship and in love.

Swear you solemn oaths of faith.

Forever seal your fates in one.

He read it aloud to Hermione, Ron, and Ginny.

Hermione gasped. "I don't BELIEVE it!"

Ron and Ginny looked at her as if she was slightly insane.

"Harry... you're holding the shield of the Founders."