Twilight

Twilight

L.S. Song

Chapter Seventeen - Saving the Students

"What's the shield of the Founders?" questioned Ron, Harry, and Ginny at the same time.

"It's a mystical shield which was said to be a myth found by the Founders of Hogwarts in a stash of Merlin's things... it is said to be a bonding talisman..."

"Which is?"

"Honestly, Ron, don't you ever pay attention in class?"

"No."

Hermione rolled her eyes before continuing. "A bonding talisman forms a strong connection between a certain number of wizards, which magnifies their abilities as long as the four are in a reasonably close proximity to each other... but it only opens up to selected few. The bonds can only be broken by a betrayal within the group, if everyone dies, or if the shield is broken itself, although no one but the people that are actually bonded can do so. The betrayal will not erase the marks on the shield - only death can do that... it was said that if a person redeemed himself after breaking the bonds of loyalty, the bonds would also reconnect - I'm sure that's what might've happened with the Marauders... It's also quite dangerous - should one of the people be secretly hiding bitterness towards another member of the group, then the bonding talisman can go seriously wrong... But no one's seen a bonding talisman since the Founders themselves... or at least no one's recognized it."

"Eat the textbook?"

"Shut up, Ron."

"Oh, and no offence to your dad, Harry, but they obviously didn't know what it was for - they must've thought it was just a pretty shield which they made their own..."

"And played music," added Ginny.

"So, what do we do about it?"

"Well you already have your symbol on it... Who are the three people you trust most?"

"Stupid question, really. You three of course!"

Ginny, Hermione, and Ron beamed at him.

"Then we should add our vows into the shield and complete the bonding talisman's magic!"

Hermione smiled as if she had just answered a question right in charms.

"But... isn't it dangerous?"

"Only if one of us has bitterness directed at each other... that doesn't apply to any of you, does it?" Ginny peered around at the three of them.

"No... not at all... but now isn't the time to do this! There are Death Eaters out in the halls looking for us!"

"Which is exactly why we have to do this! As the bond is first created, it should be at its optimum strength... if the four of us concentrate hard enough, we might be able to break the security charms Voldemort might've cast over Hogwarts!"

"Brilliant!" cried Harry and Ron.

Ginny, however, looked a bit unsettled. "Hermione... I don't think this is safe. Look back on the history of the shield... of the two groups we know have bonded, one of them have gone bad - about as bad as they could go..."

"But it's them, not us, Ginny! None of us would betray each other, would we?" Harry said.

"No way."

"Not a chance."

"Neither would Pettigrew or Slytherin have."

That sent the group into silence.

"We know that Pettigrew and Slytherin were once bonded very happily with their friends, and that they carried no intent on harming one of their friends at all... but something must've happened... for all we know it could be this shield..."

"But Ginny... we might need the powers now. We have to save what's left of the people in Hogwarts!"

Ginny looked as if she might object, but silently nodded.

Ron walked to the shield. "Okay, so what do I do?"

"Tap the shield once, and concentrate on Harry."

Ron tapped the shield with his wand, and screwed up his face in concentration.

The atmosphere went extremely cold - they felt as if they were at risk.

A jet of pale blue light flew from Ron's wand into the shield.

A grizzly bear appeared where a dog had once been.

"Cool!" Ron exclaimed.

Hermione stepped up, and tapped her wand where the wolf had once been.

A yellow light came from Hermione's wand, and a fox appeared on the shield.

Harry smirked at Hermione - so far her 'inner animal' was the most boring one yet.

Ginny stepped forwards, and waved her wand over the part where the rat had been. Harry felt just a slight foreboding feeling, remembering Ginny's words before the bonding.

All doubts faded though, when a brilliant golden orange light flew from Ginny's wand to the shield, which with a glow of pure white light became complete.

A lion with a scar on its forehead, a bear with vibrant red fur, a brown fox, and a cat, which looked remarkably like Fortuna, only with red hair where the black was, were engraved neatly on to the ancient shield.

Harry hung it back on the wall.

Harry said, "So what now? We're superwizards?"

"Not quite. But I think if we concentrate hard enough, we should be able to do spells better than before. Think of all the things we can learn! But take out your Marauder's map, Harry. Let's see if we can still find anyone to rescue."

Harry took out the map, unfolded the rumpled bit of parchment, waved his wand over it and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

The four friends gathered around the map, in frantic search for any of their classmates or Professors. They scanned the grounds, seeing frightful numbers of wizards crowding the forbidden forest, Hagrid's hut, and the Quidditch field.

"There!" yelled Ginny.

Luna Lovegood, and Neville Longbottom were hiding in a storage cupboard in the girls' prefect bathroom. The closest Death Eater was a man named John Krensten. He was standing a corridor away from the bathroom. They saw they had a chance to rescue Luna and Neville.

"Okay, we'll go under the invisibility cloak, and..." started Hermione.

"I'm on it, you three stay here," said Harry.

"No wait, don't we all need to go?" asked Ron.

"No. None of you can apparate in Hogwarts."

"We might be able to apparate now that we used the shield..."

"Don't be silly, it focuses our power, it doesn't give us new powers."

"Yeah... but still we don't know if you can apparate or not... what makes you think YOU can? You might splinch yourself..."

"Trust me, I can. I've done it twice now, unconsciously."

Hermione, Ron, and Ginny looked suspicious. Ron however, said, "Okay... if you say so..."

Harry turned before he swung his invisibility cloak over himself.

"Stay here unless you find anyone else well alone. Don't take any chances..."

"Look who's talking!" retorted Ron.

"Please."

"All right..."

"I'll be back."

Harry Potter was now swiftly bending away the rules of Hogwarts' anti-apparition charms.

He found himself in the girls' prefect bathroom right in front of the closet in which Luna and Neville were hiding.

"Luna! Neville! It's me, Harry," he called, sweeping off his cloak.

They jumped out of the closet, Luna putting Harry under the full body bind, and Neville shooting a stunning curse randomly.

"Mmffhpmmh!" cried Harry his entire body stiff as cardboard.

With a gasp of recognition from Luna, and a wave of her wand, Harry was released from the curse.

"C'mon, grab on to me, I'm taking you to the saferoom," Harry snapped immediately.

"But you can't apparate in Hogwarts..." began Luna.

"Watch me. C'mon, we don't have much time."

Harry was slightly nervous himself, despite his confident words.

He could apparate himself around Hogwarts now, but could he manage with passengers?

He would have to try.

Luna and Neville hung on tight to Harry, who tried to apparate away.

He couldn't manage, closing his eyes in concentration, as he tripped over the hem of his robes, and fell face first into a toilet bowl.

"Eww..." said Neville.

Luna giggled.

Harry stood, spat out a mouthful of disgusting water, and said, "Scourgify!"

He may have cleaned himself, but he still had a most unpleasant taste in his mouth.

"Ugh... one at a time then, one at a time..."

"Luna... you go first... don't worry about me..." said Neville in a rather mushy tone.

Harry would've laughed had the situation not been so grave. He thought this should be aired on television as a soap opera or something. Life truly was a drama - at least with him it was.

"I'll be back in a second," assured Harry, and this time, with just one person hanging on to him, he apparated away to the Marauder's room. It worked, much to his relief.

Harry dropped Luna off on the leather sofa, and nodding to Ginny who was sitting there watching anxiously, he apparated back from the warm safety of the Marauder's room, back to the cold, empty prefect's bathroom for Neville.

Unfortunately, Neville wasn't the only one there.

"GET DOWN HARRY!" cried Neville, barring the girls' bathroom door. A single wizard in black robes lay at Neville's feet, stunned.

Harry dived at Neville and apparated himself out just as he heard a crack signaling that the Death Eaters had broken in through Neville's barricade.

As Harry let out a sigh of relief as he saw Marauder's room again, he slumped down on to the sofa, slung his arm around Ginny, and sighed.

"Who's next? We don't have much time, they know we're somewhere in Hogwarts now..."

"Harry... look..."

As Ron passed Harry the Marauder's map, he could not believe his eyes.

A massive amount of dots were huddled in the Great Hall.

It would've been terrifying had these dots all been Death Eaters.

But it was even worse. The dots in the middle represented students, and a few Professors. Harry could see that they were being held hostage by another few hundred dots surrounding the room. Death Eaters, and some dots labeled with question marks. Harry assumed they were Dementors or trolls.

Harry knew what these hostages were being used for. 'Bargaining' material.

"We have to get them out..."

"How?"

"We apparate, and grab four at a time... and then..."

"Has it occurred to you there is NO chance at all of doing that successfully?"

"Yes, and that's why it's called magic."

"Any other survivors?"

"No. They're either dead or they've escaped. I suggest we leave the castle too before we find that we can't."

"We can't leave those people there!" exclaimed Harry.

"We don't have a choice," said Ginny.

"Yes, we do. Dumbledore once said to us we must do what is right, not what is easy..."

"We stand no chance against thousands of troops! They're probably within seconds of finding us here now! Its not a time to listen to Dumbledore's words of wisdom!"

Harry drew himself up to his full height, his eyes flaring up, in anticipation of a fight.

"I will not leave them there to be bargained with."

Ron held up his hand. "We need Dumbledore for this. We need help, Harry..."

"He's gone. He's dead. We're on our own."

"No... the time-travel spell."

***

November 1993, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Headmaster's office - Alternate Timeline

"Professor Dumbledore," said Harry, stumbling into the Headmaster's office.

It filled his heart with warmth to feel Fawkes the phoenix sing a note, watch the flames flicker in Dumbledore's lively fireplace, and the many ornaments that the Headmaster owned - all of which were packed away now in McGonagall's office. There was a distinct smell to Dumbledore's office, one that Harry had grown to like in his constant trips to it in his seventh year.

"Harry?" questioned the Headmaster, standing up with a look of concern in his eyes. "What happened to you?"

"Professor. I'm not the Harry you're used to... a long story short, we come from a not so distant future. Things have happened in the next four years. Many bad things..."

Dumbledore, after searching Harry's eyes for a few minutes, said, "You must be here under a spell then... but how did you..."

"You told us how to," said Hermione, speaking up.

"But I wouldn't have! I wouldn't give up that bit of information until I know I'm about to..."

Dumbledore noticed the ashen looks on the six students' faces, and stopped.

"Oh my... I think I need a seat... why don't you all tell me what happened - and take your time, I believe this is going to be a remarkable tale..."

***

February 4^th 10:32AM - Primary Timeline - Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Great Hall

Severus Snape flew backwards again, and was hit by yet another volley of Cruciatus curses.

Through his dimly conscious mind, he heard sneers of "Chose the wrong side now, didn't you, Severus?" and things to that extent.

Would the pain ever stop?

Was there still anything in the world other than pain?

Severus Snape did not know, and frankly, he found that he did not care.

He wished for death.

It was the end.

Their defences had failed, and in consequence, Hogwarts was over.

Many of his students lay dead next to him, others stunned and taken into captivity, or just left sitting there to die. His fellow colleagues were rounded up with him, although none of them subjected to the horrible torture he endured yet.

The strongest fortress of the days of the Dark Lord's first reign had fallen - the world would soon follow.

And he did not care.

Pain dug into him like paper cuts on every millimeter of his skin, he felt like piranhas were eating his organs out bit by bit, eventually reaching his brain.

He screamed, but no sound came out.

It was hell.

He could not remember why he was here, who he was, or what was happening to him.

Severus Snape knew just pain - and pain was all he held on to, dangling above death. He wanted to sever the last connection binding him to life, to end this torturous existence.

And all of a sudden, it stopped.

The pain disappeared.

He remembered.

Tears slid down the dignified man's sunken cheeks.

He wished so very much for rest.

With a last look upwards, he saw a frenzied crowd of Death Eaters and trolls blundering around.

At the center of the commotion stood a foolish black-haired boy.

He did not like the boy, but all the same, he wished he could help him.

But it was time for rest.

Others would have to help him. This wasn't his battle.

His eyelids closed, and for Severus Snape, all went black.

***

"TORRENTORIA ACIDO!" yelled Ginny, sending a rain of acid at a group of Death Eaters who were guarding the prisoners.

They shrieked as the acid burnt through their robes and started digesting their skin. How Ginny did this without regret at all showed how war had hardened the beautiful, once innocent girl.

It had been a month for Ginny and her friends, discussing strategies and practicing spells in the safety of Professor Dumbledore's safe house in the Rocky Mountains, listening to the words of advice the old wizard had for them.

When they had returned to the besieged Hogwarts, Ginny saw a dark fire burning in Harry's eyes as he blew open the doors to the Great Hall, had immediately cast a Dementor banishing spell, whilst his Patronus charged off the rogues that escaped it.

She, Hermione, Luna, Neville, and Ron were in charge of releasing the prisoners.

Harry stood, eyes flaring, staring at Voldemort with utmost hatred.

Ginny rolled over on the floor, and threw a portkey to a group of fourth years.

She watched with triumph as they disappeared from the Great Hall.

"TEMPUS IMMOBULIS!" shrieked Hermione.

Wow, Ginny thought. Leave it to Hermione to think of a spell to stop time. Ginny herself had been amazed that it actually worked, although Harry had told her of something that Dumbledore did to a similar effect - just knocking out the other people in the room.

Harry, Ginny, and Hermione were the only ones still moving, as time stood still. Harry had a large cut on his left arm, which was bleeding freely.

"C'mon, I don't know how long this'll hold. Portkey everyone away! Free the teachers and older students, we need them!" snapped Hermione.

The three of them instantly did as they were told, saving about fifty of the students before Hermione's spell faded.

Harry was immediately hurled backwards by a shout of 'FLIPENDO'.

Hermione managed to just portkey another five people out of Hogwarts, before she too was hit by a jet of light. She fell, assumedly stunned.

Ron let out a strangled cry, and the words coming out of his mouth Ginny never expected to hear from her beloved brother's mouth.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Hermione's attacker fell dead.

Ron, eyes still blazing, struck at any Death Eaters possible. Soon many experienced, war-hardened wizards were avoiding him, almost as much as they avoided Harry, who had also turned furious.

Ginny, with waves of her wand, freed Professors Moody, McGonagall, and Orion, who, upon snapping awake, took several seconds to analyze the situation, and immediately joined Harry and Ron in attacking the people around. She had also then revived Hermione, who had thankfully been hit by a confundus curse.

It was a miracle that none of them fell to any curses - in fact it seemed as if the Death Eaters, and their lesser ranks of dark wizards were hurting themselves and their allies more than Harry, Ron, and the Professors were.

Luna, Neville, and Ginny were rallying the students to gather together, whilst sending off rogue curses at the Death Eaters.

"TEMPUS IMMOBULIS!" shouted Hermione again.

As time stopped for the second time, this time more people were immune - Death Eaters as well. Voldemort was squaring off with Harry and Moody.

Harry silenced the six of them that actually did stay up with parasite curses, followed by shockwave curses that flipped them into their own comrades. Harry, pumped up with the wizards' energies, broke into Voldemort's ranks with the powerful curses. Ginny could see that the Death Eaters hit directly by Harry's spells fell dead.

"EVERYONE! GRAB A PORTKEY AND LEAVE!" shouted Hermione, who had risen to the leader of this battle.

A sixth fraction of the students had been evacuated; others were fighting, or had, in the most part, been killed.

The Professors, excepting Moody, Orion, and McGonagall joined Hermione in a tight circle, hanging onto an old goblet, disappearing. Hermione had dragged along Severus Snape with them, who was lying unconscious.

Ginny grabbed onto Harry, Luna, Ron, Neville, Blaise, and a couple of fifth and fourth years, and started to portkey away, when Hermione's spell broke, and Voldemort's forces awoke. Harry, before anyone could stop him, broke away from their circle, and ran towards what was left of the students.

Ginny, yelling out in fright and despair was jerked away from Hogwarts, and with it, Harry.

The last she saw was Harry standing tall and proud, Fortuna on his shoulder, eyes glowing, reflecting many jets of light sent at his master, the pair of them facing Voldemort, wizards, and trolls, who were closing in on him and the remnants of the students that had not been portkeyed away in a tight circle, like a ring of vultures descending on a dead animal's corpse. A tear slid down Ginny's cheek, as she landed in sunny Phuket at Thailand.

She feared for him.

So very much.