The Red Skies Above

Chapter VII

Seamus just looked at us and laughed. "You guys, I'll have to admit that was a good prank, but Hogwarts isn't under attack."

"Not under attack, eh mate?" I grabbed him by the forearm and thrust him at the window. He grabbed the windowsill to prevent himself from flying out the window. "Then why're there all those Death Eaters?"

Neville and Dean ran over to see what was out the window just as a siren pitched just at the very top of human hearing capabilities tore through the night. Neville was the first out the door with all of us at his heels.

When we reached the common room, Professor McGonagall was standing in the center of the room, hundreds of newly conjured floating candles flying about her and lighting up each person's face. McGonagall seemed to be in great distress as she tried desperately to get everyone to quiet down.

Looking about, I spotted Ginny and Hermione standing off to my right. Hermione glanced at me and then glued her eyes back to McGonagall, but Ginny stared at the floor, an odd expression I had never seen before on her face. Before I had time to think much about it, though, McGonagall got everyone quiet enough for her to speak.

"May I have your attention?" McGonagall began calmly. "There is nothing to be alarmed about. This is merely a security flaw. While we sort it out, the first through fourth years are to head to the owlery and to obey Professors Snape and Sprout. They will take you somewhere safer. Stay close to each other and I would advise taking your wands out. Everyone else, come with me."

The different years began moving to where they were told to go, and Hermione and Ginny fell next to Harry and me. In the confusion, it was extremely hard to follow McGonagall as she led us down three flights of stairs and into a completely empty hallway, where we met the other students in our year. I noted most of the Slytherins weren't there. McGonagall pushed through the ranks of students and to the completely bare wall.

"In the name of Albus Dumbledore, open! This is Minerva ordering you to open!" She touched her finger to the wall, and it slid back to reveal another room. "Get in, all of you!"

The students rushed in, but Harry, Hermione, Ginny and I all stayed near the entrance. As people passed me, I watched their frightened faces, as they figured out that there must be something more going on.

"Students!" The room quieted as McGonagall closed the door. "What I told the others was a lie. The castle of Hogwarts is under attack by You-Know-Who's Death Eaters. The teachers are fighting them currently, and we wish to tell you all to stay here and to listen to your prefects." I noticed she was looking at Hermione and me and suddenly remembered that we were Gryffindor's current prefects, and the Head Boy and Girl. "I shall be joining in as well. If I do not return, stay here until someone gets you."

McGonagall turned to leave, and many students faced Hermione and me, looking for some sort of orders. Suddenly, Harry grabbed McGonagall's sleeve and stopped her from leaving. "Professor, I know you say that the teachers have it under control, but I know that that is also a lie," he began. "I've faced the Death Eaters and Voldemort before, and I will guarantee you that the teachers of this school, however competent they are at wizardry, cannot defeat Voldemort's servants. Or at least you can't do it alone."

McGonagall looked at him suspiciously. "I don't like the look in your eyes, Mr. Potter."

"Basically all I'm saying," Harry continued, "Is that I'm not going to cower in a room while our teachers get killed and the school is destroyed. I'm going to fight, and I'm sorry to be rude, but there is absolutely nothing you can do about it, Professor. " He pulled out his wand and headed out of the door, Hermione, Ginny and I, as well as most of the class following him. The ones left in the room eventually found one of their friends in the crowd and joined us as we paraded down the halls to the Great Hall, and the Death Eaters.

As we came down the marble staircase and saw the wreckage of the Great Hall, our courage began to wane. The Death Eaters were clearly beating the teachers, and it was hard to tell which teacher was which. The walls of the hall had cracked and the doors that used to shut the night out were now only splinters on the ground and in people's clothes.

Taking a deep breath, Harry and I charged forward, unsure if anyone was following us and proceeded to hex an oncoming Death Eater who fell to the ground, a tentacle coming from his head.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hermione, Ginny and the rest of the group run into the fray, shouting spells as they went. They seemed to stay instinctively in clumps with their friends. The Death Eaters seemed surprised at the mass of students raging bravely onward, but the shock was only temporary, and they began shooting at them as well. Harry, Hermione, Ginny and I stormed through the ranks of Death Eaters, narrowly avoiding their spells.

A window broke above us, and in came a storm of thestrals, grabbing random Death Eaters and carrying them off. This proved as a momentary distraction that allowed several Death Eaters to be struck down. Unfortunately, the same was true for some students.

Looking around, I noticed a figure moving toward us, and I was about to hex it when I recognized it as Cho Chang. She was hurrying over to our clump, trying to dodge spells. Once I recognized her, I noticed Harry had too and he moved toward her. In that instant, a jet of red light shot straight at her, knocking her back against the already crumbling wall.

"Cho!" Harry screamed and tore after her limp form. Hermione, Ginny and I all ran after him, dodging as many spells as we threw.

Everything after that seemed to happen in slow motion. I saw the bolt of green light that was presumably aimed for Harry. I saw that it was slightly misaimed, and I saw it slam into Cho's torso, and steal the life from her.

Immediately, Harry swung around in rage and singled out the caster of the curse. He shot a spell at him, causing the Death Eater to fall.

"Did you kill that girl?" Harry demanded.

The Death Eater didn't respond, but instead stared at their right hand that had been bloodied when they had been knocked to the ground covered in shards of glass.

"I said, 'Did you kill that girl?'"

The Death Eater still didn't respond.

"CRUCIO!" Harry yelled, the intensity of his scream making his voice crack. The Death Eater got the blow full on and began to scream horribly. People all throughout the Great Hall turned to see what was going on.

The feeling of dejavu I had gotten once Cho was killed was gone. "Stop it!" I yelled. running almost directly in the way of Harry's wand. "Stop it, Harry! Even a Death Eater doesn't deserve this!"

Harry turned to me in disgust. "Are you truly standing in front of my wand, shielding this monster from my spell? He just killed Cho!" His eyes were hard and cold and the green color seemed to be made of ice.

"No, Harry. I'm shielding a human from another human's rage," I replied.

Harry lifted his wand from the Death Eater and aimed at me. "Flipendo!"

I was blasted off of my feet and into the wall next to Cho. As a stream of blood trickled down my face, I tried desperately to get my surroundings to stop spinning. The scream started as Harry concentrated on the Death Eater again.

Hermione and Ginny had rushed to my side and they were trying to get me to sit down as I slowly got to my feet and walked towards Harry. "Quit it, Harry! Cho's gone, and torturing this Death Eater isn't going to bring her back!"

Harry lifted his wand, and turned to me, his eyes no longer cold. "Ron, I'm sor-"

He didn't get any farther, for he too fell to the ground in pain. As he fell, a figure that had been standing behind him could be seen, clothed in black robes. Draco Malfoy was standing, his wand pointed at Harry as he screamed. "Thought you could hurt a Death Eater, did you? Ha! Oh, Potter, you don't know how long I've waited to do this."

Hermione and Ginny sprang to their feet behind me, but I was closer to Malfoy and got at him first. "You'll wish you had never been born, Malfoy," I said, charging at him. "Tartaru, prehende illum!" A jet of black light shot from my wand and engulfed Malfoy. Immediately, muffled screams far worse than the Death Eater's or Harry's filled the hall.

Getting up, Harry turned to me. "Ron! You told me to stop torturing a Death Eater, and now you're doing heaven knows what to Draco Malfoy! What is the logic in this? Put down your wand. He doesn't deserve that," and Harry ran in front of my wand. "I shall do as you did and shield a human from another human's rage."

Not wanting to hurt Harry, I indignantly lowered my wand, and the black disappeared, revealing Malfoy. As soon as the black was fully gone, Malfoy promptly fainted.

Hermione turned away in horror at Malfoy's bloodied face and robes, and Harry put a hand on my shoulder. Breathing deeply, I felt a drop of sweat run down my face. I then noticed it was a tear. I was breathing heavily, and I struggled to stop the flow of tears from my eyes.

I then realized that the war was still going on around me. Death Eaters were still fighting students and teachers, and neither side was winning.

"Ron, what was that that you did to Malfoy?" Harry asked as we ran through the jets of spells and tried to stun or hex oncoming Death Eaters.

"Nothing," I replied, showing that I really didn't want to talk about it.

A jet of light shot across the room and hit Hermione hard, causing her to fall to the ground. A sickening crack marked the point when she reached the floor.

Ginny doubled back to get her, while Harry and I scrambled to her side. "Are you alright?" Harry asked, and I remembered the feeling of a competition that had gone on between Harry and me over Hermione in our school years.

Hermione sat up, her eyes filled with premature tears. "I think my wrist's broken." I noticed she was holding her right wrist in her other hand as Ginny tried to examine it.

"Yeah, it's broken," Ginny confirmed.

Hermione stared at her wrist, which was quite purple and puffy. "I just don't get why all of these Death Eaters would follow Voldemort and attack children. If you ask me, it seems a little loony."

A look of dawning came over my face. "Luna."

"No, Ron, Loony," Hermione corrected me.

"No, Hermione! Luna!" I said excitedly.

"Ron," Harry began. "Are you sure you aren't loony?" Ginny snickered at this, while Hermione looked concerned.

"No, Harry. I mean Luna. Luna Lovegood. She's really good at magic, even though she is rather odd and I bet she could fix Hermione's wrist! I'll be right back," I said and got to my feet, running through the different clumps of students in my search.

I ran for about fifty feet until I spotted Luna's dirty blonde hair and her body being silhouetted by the spells she was casting. I dodged spells until I was next to her and helped her fight off the Slytherin and Death Eater who were attacking her at once. When they both fell, gruesome mutations added to their features, I turned to Luna.

"Luna, Hermione's hurt and I need your help to cure her. Follow me."

She began to follow me through the ranks of people attacking and back to Hermione who was still on the ground trying to fix her wrist and Harry who was standing guard above her.

"Oh, is that all?" Luna asked, bending over to examine Hermione's wrist. "I've seen worse." She muttered a quick spell, and Hermione's wrist returned to its normal size and color. "Now, if you don't need me anymore-"

"No, Luna. We really do need you to help us," I corrected.

Harry yelled, and I noticed another uninvited guest had appeared. Lucius Malfoy, his hood off was holding Harry in a neck brace, his wand pointed up to Harry's neck." Take one move, and Potter's dead. Surrender your wands to me now."

Ginny looked at him with a look of surprise on her face. "And why would we do that? I'd never give you my wand. I'd rather-" Hermione cut her off.

"Just give it to him."

"There we go, Mudblood" Lucius sneered. "You're not as stupid as I thought." He grabbed each one of our wands in turn and shoved them in his cloak with his left hand. "Now, I shall be taking Potter and you four to the Dark Lord. I'm sure he'll know how to deal with you."

Hermione leaned over to my ear and whispered, "I need a spell in Latin now." I stared at her for a split second and then figured she knew what she was doing and fed her the words.

She straightened up, fixed her eyes upon Harry, being careful not to blink and cried, "Virgulae nostrae, Harrius noster!"

The wands leapt out of Lucius's hand and floated to their rightful master, and Harry went through Lucius's hand and wand, floating over to us, becoming solid again. Lucius stared at us for a moment, and then blasted Harry backwards and into the Great Hall. Harry soared through the air until he met the teachers' table with a crack.

Hermione, Luna, Ginny, and I all ran after Harry, shooting curses at Lucius from over our shoulders as we went As we neared the doors into the Great Hall, I saw a flash of yellow light, and Luna fell. Hermione and Ginny hadn't noticed, so I doubled back to help her.

The Death Eater that had hexed her started firing jinxes at me. "Protego," I ordered, blocking the spells. I blocked a particularly nasty sounding spell, but the force was so strong that the spell cut me on my right shoulder. As blood poured from the newly made wound, I yelled, "Stupefy!" and managed to stun the Death Eater.

I quickly hurried to Luna's side and flipped her onto her back to see her face. Her hair was singed, as were her torn robes. A long and deep cut ran along her face. "Luna, are you alright?" I asked her urgently.

"I'll be all right, just go ahead and don't think anything of me," she said weakly with a pained smile. "I'm just burned. Really, it's nothing worse than what Fudge's army of-"

I wasn't listening anymore. I had just noticed her right hand that was gripping her left side. Although it was clear she didn't want me to notice, there was blood seeping through the cracks in her fingers. "You're more than burned," I cut her off. "You're hurt, and badly. We need to get you healed. Can you walk?"

She barely managed to shake her head, so I looked around for her wand. It had flown a few feet away when she had been hit with the curse. Putting it in my pocket, I lifted Luna from the floor. "We have to go find someone to heal you," I informed her, quite unnecessarily.

I could feel the warmth of Luna's blood soaking into my shirt as we headed towards the Great Hall. I kept on glancing down to make sure that Luna was still conscious. As we entered through the doors to the Great Hall, I heard Luna mutter, "It's pointless, Ron. I'll just die here. Goodbye now. You were a great friend, and I will miss you."

"No, it's not pointless, Luna. I'm going to save you. You will survive, and you won't have to say goodbye to anyone!" I said through gritted teeth.

And then, a strange feeling washed over me. I was no longer carrying my friend to safety, but now instead I was carrying my love.

I had changed the past.

By saving Luna, I had changed the past so that I, the Ron of the future no longer loved Hermione.