The Red Skies Above

Chapter IIX

"No. Goodbye, Ron," Luna's weak voice brought me back to my senses.

"Luna, I don't know what just happened, but you have to believe that you will live! You have to have a will to live! Nothing must be stronger than the will to live! You have to try! You must live!" I ordered, now running through the Great Hall towards Hermione, Ginny, and Harry. Ginny looked up, saw me coming, and tugged on Hermione's sleeve.

"Lay her down over there," Ginny instructed.

I did as I was told, and Ginny bent over Luna to examine the damage, Hermione guarding our backs. "Dear Lord, what happened to her?" Ginny asked me.

"I don't know! Some Death Eater hit her with a spell, and, well, you can see the result," I replied sadly.

Ginny whispered, "Episkey," and moved her wand slowly over Luna's wounds. They began to slowly heal, although the blood remained caked on. "That cut along her face is going to scar, as well as some of the worse wounds, but she should be alright."

Ginny stood and guarded my back while I bent down to see Luna. "Are you alright?"

She seemed to have gained some strength and sat up to look at me. "Yes, I think so. This is ridiculous. Even some of the Slytherins have joined their parents." And sure enough, I noticed Slytherins fighting back to back with Death Eaters.

"Guys," I turned to Harry who had gotten up and was now speaking to us. "I'm going to go see if I can defeat Voldemort before this gets even more out of hand. Meet me in the Astronomy Tower."

"NO!"

Ginny, Harry, and Luna turned to stare at Hermione and me, as did some of the students and Death Eaters closer to us.

"Look, I'll join you with Ginny. Ron, Luna, you make sure the students are safe if you can, and join us later," Hermione ordered and I nodded.

They took off towards the Astronomy Tower, and I turned to the mass of students that were in the entrance hall and the Great Hall. "Come on, mates! Fall back to the Great Hall!"

The students obeyed, as I knew they would, and the moment everyone was in, we sealed the doors on the Death Eaters and Slytherins trying to get in.

"Luna, stay here," I told her, leaving her at the Gryffindor table that was now broken in half, and turn around, walking to the front of the mob of students. As I reached the front, everyone quieted, gratefully excepting orders from their Head Boy.

"Do you know what's going on here?" I asked the students. They stared at me like I was an idiot. "Do you know why you stand in this room? It's because of one horrid man and his minions. That's really all that You-Know-Who is! He's just a man gone in the wrong path." At this moment, something large hit the doors, making them shudder, and a few children screamed.

"Look around you. What do you see? Is it a Ravenclaw over there helping another Ravenclaw while a Hufflepuff is dying in front of them?" I gestured to the nearest Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. "Is it two Gryffindors fighting their way through a crowd, their spell missing and hitting an innocent Slytherin while they stand there and watch?" At this, I looked at a few Slytherins clumped together in a group who hadn't joined in with the Death Eaters. They shuffled uncomfortably and looked at the ground.

"Tell me, who's standing beside you? Is it a Slytherin that made fun of you one day in your first year, so you hexed them? Is it your sister that went into another house, with whom you've grown more distant?" The students amazingly were still looking at me.

"Now, outside those doors," I pointed to the great wooden doors behind me, "are fifty or so Death Eaters and their kids. Maybe they're only here because of the Imperius curse? However unlikely, it is possible. It doesn't matter why they're here, though. All that matters is that they want you dead." A few students looked even more uncomfortable at this, and many of them whispered to their friends, "Dead?"

"'Dead?' you say? Yes, dead. But I don't want to die, you see. I'm only seventeen! I've still got a life to live! Think about it. Do you want to be there for your family? Do you want to be there to see your little sister wed?" I thought of Ginny and how she had been earlier that morning when she had walked into the kitchen at the Burrow.

"Now look. Those Death Eaters are going to burst through that door any minute, and guess what they're going to find! They're not going to see school children cowering in fear. Oh, no. They're going to find a group of people ready to fight for what they want, for what is right, for a good world. It's your call, really, mates. Do you want to fight? Do you want to make the world better? How far will you go to achieve a great world?" The students looked up at me, and I knew what to do.

* * *

"One more, sir, and the gates will open."

"Very good," Lucius Malfoy replied as he watched some Death Eaters levitate a statue of Morgan le Fay and as they made it crash into the doors to the Great Hall.

The statue swung and splintered the door. "Ready, men? Fight for the Dark Lord!" Lucius cried as the dust settled. "We'll teach those children to play with fire!"

But as the dust cleared, Lucius beheld a sight he hadn't expected at all. The students of Hogwarts stood in neatly formed line, wands pointed at the Death Eaters, and at the front of them all was a blonde haired girl next to one of the Weasleys. The Weasley had his right arm raised, his left hand pointing his wand at Lucius. The Death Eaters stepped forward, and the hand fell, causing every student in the Hall to yell in unison, "STUPEFY!"

* * *

I ran forward, the entirety of the mob following me into the entrance hall. Most of the Death Eaters had gone down in the first attack of the mob, and the ones still standing were quickly being taken care of.

A jet of green light shot past me, and I turned to find Bellatrix Lestrange aiming her wand at me. But before I could utter a jinx, a blue hand materialized out of nowhere, made a certain hand gesture at Bellatrix and swatted her into the wall, the cry following her. "AND THAT'S FOR MUM AND DAD!" Neville chased after her, his hand following.

Death Eater after Death Eater fell to our spells, now that we had the element of surprise, until Luna, most of the members of the D.A. and I had Lucius and about a dozen others cornered. "Alright, Malfoy, talk. Where's Voldemort?" I asked, forcing myself not to stutter.

Lucius glared at me from behind his mask, his cold gray eyes gleaming. "Taking care of business."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked as a thestral flew behind me, picking up some of the dead on its back and flying out to the grounds.

"This." Lucius blew a small silver whistle, and the room suddenly got a great deal colder. Through the spot where the front doors used to be, came hundreds of cloaked figures. The leader of them, adorned with a silver and crimson crown, drew a rattling breath, and my head was filled with the scene of Harry's death. Fighting the memory, I tried my best to keep the room of the present in view.

I turned to face the Dementors, and the leader glided a few feet forward so that I was about ten feet from it. Mustering up the thought of Harry being safe and living to be married, I cried, "EXPECTRO PATRONUM!"

Shouts of the spell echoed about the hall as every member of the D.A. produced a silvery creature that proceeded forward to meet mine. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a stag, an otter, and a wolf step forward and stand next to my dragon, followed by their casters, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny.

The Dementors stayed where they were in front of us, clearly weighing their chances. The Patronusses stood bright and protectively in front of us, each one seeking only to protect their caster and drive off the Dementors. As I surveyed the shimmering army, I noticed something was wrong with my Patronus.

Yes, it was a dragon, and a mighty one at that, but it wasn't the same silvery color as the rest of the creatures. Instead, it was a charcoal black. Even the fire it spat from its fierce mouth was the same shadowy color.

The Dementors spotted the problem with my Patronus, and the leader swept forward. It reached out a scaly hand and attempted to touch the dragon. To my surprise, the dragon allowed for this to happen. The Dementor was almost petting it when the dragon charged, knocking the Dementor to the ground. The other Patronusses just watched the scene unfold, as did their casters.

The leader of the Dementors flew off of the ground, grasped the silver crown in its hand, and tossed it into the air above the dragon and me. A red bubble soon surrounded me, and I distinctly heard Ginny scream, and watched through the bubble as she sent her wolf charging. It made contact and the lead Dementor fell. The wolf was followed by the rest of the silvery figures.

And then I was flying through the air, the bubble still enveloping my dragon and me, and the hall disappeared to reveal a graveyard many years old. It was filled with so many tombstones that they almost overlapped. In the distance, a tall black building stood, almost invisible in the twilight. Rain was pouring down upon me, and I began to get a chill, whether it was from the graveyard or the rain. As soon as I touched ground, the bubble around disappeared, although the black dragon remained.

Looking around, I noticed that I was quite alone, and there was no sign of Hogwarts. Pulling out my wand, I muttered, "Me remitte." Nothing happened, and I stayed where I was, instead of going back to Hogwarts as I had ordered. I attempted a few more spells on myself, but to no avail.

Keeping my wand out, I began to walk very carefully between the rows of gravestones, examining them to see if they would mention where I was. What I saw was of no help. I merely found about five tombstones in the exact same design next to each other. Bending over, I examined the names.

Marlene McKinnon

24 July 1938-17 Nov. 1986

The other identical tombstones all had upon them the name McKinnon. The name reminded me of something. Suddenly it came to me. This was Barney's family, only long before the time when I had met him. I quickly read the names on the other McKinnon tombstones. If I could have changed the past to make me love Luna, I could have accidentally have gotten Barney killed.

When I didn't find his name, I breathed a sigh of relief. Barney was safe.

I passed by another row of identical tombstones, all made out to the Bones. One of the Bones had died at the age of nine. I checked the dates of death out of curiosity, and found that they had all died within a week of each other. I found that odd and went to go check the next row of tombstones. They too had died within a week.

I knelt in front of the gravestone inscribed for Dorcas Meadowes, but it wasn't her headstone that caught my attention. Out of the corner of my eye I had spotted something.

It was the headstones of Lily and James Potter. Scrambling to my feet, I dropped to my knees in front of the stone and brushed away the dirt from the years that it had been there. Lily and James?

If only Harry knew.

I inspected the stone for a bit longer, and then looked up to see a huge stone pillar flanked by two granite serpents only about twenty feet from me. I got to my feet and made my way towards them. As I passed gravestone after gravestone, I caught sight of another familiar name: Sirius Black. The stone looked just like Lily's and James' one, but there was something missing. Although it said the date of birth, the date of death was missing.

I moved from side to side to see if it was hidden from my point of view, but it wasn't there, no matter how I moved. It had to be there. Sirius had fallen through the veil, and Lupin had said he was gone. Harry had inherited number twelve Grimmuald place and everything, but if there was no date of death then that would mean he was still somehow alive....

I continued to move closer to the pillar. Reaching it, I quickly found the inscription at about eye level. I had to read it several times to ensure that what I had read was right.

Harry James Potter

Who's laughing now?

31 July 1989-?

Someone had made Harry a gravestone? Cautiously, I edged to the stone snake to the left of the pillar. Inscribed on its head quite clearly was:

Hermione Jane Granger

19 September 1988-?

Harry and Hermione? But that would mean....

I turned my attention to the snake on my right. Sure enough, it read:

Ronald Matthew Weasley

1 March 1989-?

Someone had set up headstones for Harry, Hermione, and me. They wanted us dead, and that would mean that this graveyard belonged to one person, and one person only.

"Why hello, Ronald," the cold voice spoke behind me, causing me to spin around quite quickly. There stood Voldemort, dressed in a blood red cloak with silver armor beneath it. His hands were covered by black gloves, and atop his head was a silver crown with golden serpents winding around, their eyes crimson rubies. His wand was out, and pointed directly at my heart.