"We come to it at last . . . " -Gandalf
A/N: I know this chapter isn't as long as other ones have been, but it was really hard to write, so please excuse me this time. The next chapter will be nice and long, as it'll be the last one of this story.
WARNING! This chapter contains semi-graphic violence (not enough to earn an R-rating). Reader discretion is advised.
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Chapter 6: The Battle
The morning light shone in through the windows in the common room, waking Ron, Luna, Hermione, and Harry. Harry blinked his eyes open, and Hermione shifted her position in his arms to face away from the sun.
"No..." she groaned. "It's too soon..."
"We all knew this day would come," Harry whispered back to her. Ron and Luna were now fully awake, looking into each others eyes. Harry sighed looking at his watch. It was 10.
"Ten hours of sleep," Ron yawned. "New record." This prompted a small smile from all of them. Just as they were standing up, Dean and Seamus entered.
"Be happy ye guys missed breakfast," said Seamus chuckling.
"Why?" asked Luna.
"When Dumbledore made the announcement cancelling the Hogsmeade trip, a riot broke out," Dean answered. "A few of us in Gryffindor even had to join in so it would look genuine."
"How bad was it?" Hermione asked.
"Bad. Dumbledore had to resort to a silencing charm to quiet them all down so he could be heard,"
"What did he tell them?" asked Harry.
"That Madam Rosemerta's latest batch of butterbeer was arriving one day late, and that the trip was going to be tomorrow instead."
"And everyone bought that?" asked Hermione wide-eyed.
"Mostly, I mean I'd say 90 percent of all the people who go there go just for the butterbeer," Seamus said grinning. Harry chuckled. The other five people looked at Harry nervously.
"How can you be so relaxed today Harry?" asked Luna. This prompted a laugh from him.
"Luna, I would be much more worried if there was an absence of action this year. As it is, I was getting worried when Christmas came around and nothing had happened. Better to be calm then nervous anyway." Hermione seemed to relax upon hearing these words and hugged Harry.
"If you're not nervous, than I have no reason to be either," she said hugging him.
"Let's go get changed," Harry said. We'll meet back down here in ten minutes. Harry turned to Seamus and Dean. "I'd appreciate it if you stayed too. We could all use extra company right now I think." They nodded. Harry and Ron went up to their dorm, Hermione and Luna went up to Hermione's.
They all arrived back in the common room ten minutes later, Ron carrying a six-pack of butterbeer. He tossed one to each of them and took the remaining one for himself.
"Wow, thanks Ron," said Dean.
"Thought it would ease the tension a little," he shrugged. A few minutes passed where they all just sat in silence sipping their butterbeers. Then Seamus spoke.
"So Harry, I know ye probably don't want to talk about it, but how exactly do ye plan on killing you-know-who?"
"Well I'm hoping that if everything goes according to plan, we'll be able to kill most of the death eaters and then perhaps stun Voldemort, so that way there isn't any duel, I can just walk up to him and blow him to bits." The others were surprised at how non-chalantly Harry said this. After about a minute Ron raised his bottle.
"To Harry, and the coming of the days of peace," he said. Everyone except Harry raised their bottles.
"To Harry," they said. Harry smiled.
"Thanks, guys. You don't know what it means to me to finally be supported for once," he said. Seamus laughed.
"Like we have a choice in the matter?" This prompted a smile from everyone.
"Well what should we do? We have about two hours before we have to go downstairs," Luna asked. Everyone thought for a while. The Hermione spoke up.
"How 'bout we go take a walk around the lake, we haven't done that in a while, and it might be awhile until we get to again.
"That sounds great," Harry replied. Ron and Luna nodded. Seamus looked at Dean, however.
"Eh, I think Seamus and I will stay here and play some chess, we don't want to get in the way of you lovebirds," Dean said smiling. Hermione threw a cushion at him, which he dodged.
"Fine, suit yourself. C'mon guys let's go," said Luna. The four of them left the common room to let Dean and Seamus play their game.
The four of them walked down to the lake. Suddenly, Hermione stopped.
"Wait, maybe we shouldn't be outside, what with everything going on and all."
"Hermione, Hogsmeade is on the other side of the castle, we have nothing to worry about, and besides, we're still inside the grounds," Harry pointed out.
"He's right you know," said Luna. Hermione sighed and shook her head. Harry wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
"I know you're worried. Just try not to think about it too much so we can enjoy the time we have right now together," he said smiling at her. Hermione just smiled back. They continued to walk around the lake until they got to an all too familiar tree.
"Let's sit here awhile," said Ron sitting down under the tree. Luna sat down on his lap. Harry however did not sit down, because he knew this was where his parents, Sirius, and Lupin all used to relax during their time at Hogwarts. Hermione noticed Harry's hesitation.
"Harry?" she inquired.
"My parents used to sit here, I saw it in Snape's pensive once." Hermione turned around and hugged him.
"It's ok," she said. "It's not like it's their graves."
"I know," said Harry finally sitting down on the other side of the tree that Ron had. Hermione laid down in between Harry's legs, using his chest as a pillow.
"I don't know how you can take it all Harry. How can you live with so much burden?" she asked looking at him. He smiled.
"I have you to thank for a lot of my strength," he replied. He looked down into her eyes, and leaned so he could kiss her. Their lips met, and they sat there for several minutes like that, until Hermione drew away, something clearly on her mind.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked.
"Harry promise me one thing?"
"Anything."
"Whatever happens today, promise me that you will not sacrifice your own life to save mine." Harry looked at her in surprise.
"Hermione-" he began, but she brought her index finger to his lips
"Just promise. My life is not worth sacrificing the entire world, you know," she said. Harry looked like he was struggling to contain tears.
"Fine, I promise. But you know how untrue what you just said is right?" Harry asked wiping his eyes. Now it was Hermione's turn to try to hold back tears, but she failed. Silver tears rolled from her eyes into her face as she buried her face in Harry's chest.
"Don't be silly," she said, her voice wavering. "I am not worth handing the world over to Voldemort."
"To me, you are," Harry replied. This caused her to cry harder.
"I love you so much Harry, please.....don't say that."
"Do you want me to lie? I couldn't lie to you if I wanted to." he said. She stopped crying and looked up at him before driving her lips onto his. Hermione pulled away after several minutes and resumed using Harry's chest as a pillow. Harry wrapped his arms around her. They sat like that for what seemed to be days, but it wasn't, and Ron interrupted them some time later by clearing his throat.
"We need to start heading back now, sorry to break you guys up like that."
"It's ok," Harry said. "Have we really been like that for two hours?"
"Just about," said Luna. Both Harry and Hermione blushed. Harry checked his watch, and it had indeed been almost two hours since they arrived at the tree.
"Let's go," Hermione said. "We can't be late." With that the four of them walked back to the castle.
By the time the four of them reached the great hall, the mood had transformed back into seriousness. They walked in and found that nearly everyone else was almost there. The house tables had been pushed to the side, and everyone was gathered in front of the staff table. The last few remaining people showed up, and Dumbledore closed the doors with a flick of his wand. The few people who were talking became silent.
"Momentarily, Professor McGonagal will be creating a magical replica of each of you," Dumbledore began. "When that is finished, half of us will head to the Shrieking Shack by way of the Whomping Willow, the other half will travel the tunnel to Honeydukes. Honeydukes does not know that we will all be coming through their basement, so we will have to wait until right before the battle to make our way to the surface. Those of you traveling through the Shrieking Shack, you will carefully make your way to the East side of the street. Hide behind buildings. When everyone is in position, the magical Harry will walk down the main drag. Then we wait for Voldemort to appear with his death eaters. Upon their arrival, the anti-apparition field will be activated, and those of you inside Honeydukes will attack, make sure to fire your first shots through the store windows, we can easily replace and repay them when this is all over, and inside the store will be safer for cover. When the battle commences, those of you on the East Side will attack while their attention is diverted. Hopefully this will end quickly," Dumbledore finished.
"I will now create a replica of each of you, and send them to Hogsmeade," said McGonagal. She waived her wand over her head and immediately and replica of everyone except for Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Luna appeared and walked out of the great hall.
"We will now split up," said McGonagal. She drew her wand out, and fired a beam of light down the middle of the great hall. "Those on the right will go to Honeydukes, those on the left will go to the Shrieking Shack."
Harry now noticed that the beam of light had fallen directly in between him and the girl whose hand he was holding. Ron and Luna were also standing to the right of Hermione, so they were together, but Harry and Hermione had been separated. Not only that, but because Hermione, Ron, and Luna were on the right of the line, they would be in the first wave of attacks.
"Hermione..." Harry said. There was absolutely nothing concealing the fright in both of their eyes. He tried to pull her across the line but he couldn't. It was as if a wall had appeared there, blocking her from joining him.
"Those of you on the right, follow me and Professor Snape," McGonagal said, and exited the room. The students began to follow, but Hermione would not move, her hand still in Harry's. "Ms. Granger! Please follow," called McGonagal as they were leaving.
"Goodbye Harry," she said with tears again.
"It's never goodbye, it's 'see you later'," said Harry with a faint smile. He let go of her hand and she turned to follow McGonagal and Snape. As Hermione got to the doors she turned around one last time before she disappeared from sight.
"We will now go to the Shrieking Shack," Dumbledore said, addressing the rest of the students. Harry saw that at least Dean, Seamus, and Ginny were still with him. Dumbledore walked out of the great hall and onto the grounds.
There was silence as Dumbledore pressed the special knot in the tree with a stick, and they all clamored in, Flitwick leading the way. Harry was the last, but Dumbledore stopped him as he was about to enter.
"Harry I need to create a replica of you, it will stay here until we are in position." Harry nodded, and Dumbledore waived his wand in front of Harry. Immediately a copy of Harry was standing there. "He is only made of thin air. Don't bother worrying, he's not alive, and therefore can't feel pain or die," Dumbledore said reassuringly. Harry went into the entrance, Dumbledore followed him and closed the passageway.
Inside the Shrieking Shack, Dumbledore opened one of the back doors, and they all exited. With Flitwick in the lead, and Dumbledore in the rear, they made their way to the East end of the main street. Flitwick halted when he was a block away, and they began to spread out, covering the entire East end.
Finally they were all in position, and Harry, who was standing next to Dumbledore, noticed Dumbledore look at his 12-handed watch.
"They should be ready by now," he said. Dumbledore waived his wand back at Hogwarts, and Harry felt that his image would be coming soon. Dumbledore removed a second wand from his robes, and brought both over his head, one in each hand.
"Why two wands?" Harry whispered.
"One wand does not have sufficient strength to create a field of this size," he whispered back. "Stay quiet. No one can know we are here." Harry nodded. He saw magical images of other students at the school walk by chatting away, and Ginny, Seamus, and Dean one building over. Sitting on the ground, he wondered if he would ever be able to speak to them again after all of this was over.
Five painstakingly long minutes later, Dumbledore tapped Harry with his foot to get his attention. As he stood up, he saw an image of himself, Hermione, Ron, and Luna walking down the main drag. Apparently McGonagal had created an image of them as well. Everyone seemed to tense up as the fakes were walking by.
It was then that Harry noticed a wizard (or witch, he couldn't tell) robed completely in black reading a newspaper. The wizard (or witch) looked up and saw the fake Harry. The person, whomever it was, disapperated immediately. Harry drew in breath quickly, as he did he swore he could've felt Dumbledore do the same. It couldn't be long now. And it wasn't.
A pain ripped through Harry's forehead as the main drag became filled with black cloaks. The moment they appeared, Dumbledore brought the wands above his head down to his sides with his arms extended. There was a brilliant flash of light, which momentarily disoriented the death eaters. Through the pain in his scar, Harry heard a cold-high voice that he had heard before shout.
"It's a trap! Circle up!" but before the death eaters could react to their master's command, three dozen jets of green light blew out the windows of Honeydukes sweet shop and bulleted at the death eaters. About two dozen were killed, the others circled around Voldemort to shield him.
Voldemort leveled Honeydukes in an instant, and for a brief moment, Harry thought that everyone inside must have been crushed, but then as the dust cleared, he saw a single figure with his wand in the air. It was Snape. He had managed to created an umbrella-like shield above them, and amazingly, no one seemed to have died as a result.
"NOW!!" roared Dumbledore's voice next to Harry, magically amplified tenfold. The students in Honeydukes spread out among the building as the students on the East side rushed into battle. Harry ran onto the main street and saw that Voldemort had brought more death eaters than they had expected. They were expecting only a few dozen, but he must've had at least a hundred with him.
Quickly, Harry sent the killing curse at four death eaters, killing them all. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hermione, Ron and Luna, all who had their hands full with six death eaters. Harry sent a stunner that way and hit a death eater in the back. The three of them looked and saw Harry there, and filled with new hope, quickly dispatched the other five.
It was then that Harry saw him. Voldemort was firing killing curses at the students, who were managing to avoid them. Harry saw his opportunity.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!!!" he bellowed. Unfortunately Voldemort saw and turned quickly enough to throw a death eater in the spell's path. Immediately Harry was surrounded by a dozen death eaters. He couldn't deal with so many. He yelled "Avada Kedavra" as many times as he could, killing about five, but they managed to stun him before he could escape. Harry's thoughts went blank as he fell.
The next thing that Harry saw was Hermione pulling him to his feet. The battle was still going on, and Harry could hear the screams of the death eaters as their souls were being yanked from their bodies.
"Come on Harry, we can't stand still like this," she said. Harry rose to his feet next to Hermione. "Don't ever scare me like that again."
"Sorry," Harry said. As he said it, he saw a flash of green light about ten feet to the right of Hermione. Out of instinct, he tackled her to the ground just before the curse would've hit her. It flew over their heads and hit another death eater. Harry killed the death eater that had cast the spell, and pulled Hermione up.
"Don't you ever scare me like that either," he said, and the two of them went back to fighting.
It was then that it happened. From the South end of the street, like a wave a fire (almost literally), came six people at full sprint. From the North end, about twenty-five. As both sides approached they blasted through the wall of death eaters that went to meet them, and Harry saw it was none other than the entire Weasley family coming from the South, and all of Hogwart's teachers and the members of the Order from the North. They blasted through most of the death eaters, and five minutes later, it looked as though it was almost over. Voldemort had other plans though.
Harry turned to his left, and found himself face-to-face with Voldemort. Only ten feet separated them. Voldemort raised his wand. Harry raised his own wand ready to duel, but saw Ron standing next to Luna behind Voldemort dueling with a death eater. Harry's quick look behind Voldemort did not go unnoticed, and he smiled sickly at Harry.
It happened too fast for Harry to comprehend. Voldemort had turned and shouted Avada Kedavra with his wand pointed at Ron. Luna, who had been standing next to him, saw this, and pushed him out of the way just in time. They both fell to the ground. Hermione killed the death eater that they had been dueling with, and Harry saw Ron roll out from under Luna, get up, and grab her hand pulling her to her feet.
The only problem was that he couldn't pull Luna to her feet. Luna's limp body was not responding to Ron's touch.
Harry saw comprehension dawn on Ron's face, and heard Voldemort's high, cruel laughter. Harry saw Ron's face contort with rage as he knelt down to confirm his worst fear.
"Avada Kedavra!" Harry yelled at Voldemort. It would have been enough, Voldemort did not have enough time to react, but a death eater who had been watching this scene dove in front of the green light at the last minute to save the Dark Lord.
As the hood of the death eater fell off, Harry could see that it was Bellatrix Lestrange, the murderer of his godfather. Voldemort saw this, and sent a curse at Harry, who barely managed to evade death.
Though Harry was about 30 feet away, he could see tears roll down Ron's face as he placed his hand over Luna's heart. Voldemort laughed even harder.
It was in that instant, that Ron, blinded by his rage, stood up and rushed at Voldemort yelling the killing curse over and over again. Voldemort was momentarily startled, then he conjured the same shield that Harry had seen last year in the Ministry of Magic. When the killing spells shattered the shield, Voldemort conjured another to replace it. This continued until Ron was only about 5 feet from Voldemort, and Harry could tell that grief was beginning to overcome anger. Voldemort sensed this and vertically moved his wand from over his head to the ground. A dome of light appeared surrounding him and Ron. Harry, knowing this could not be good, sent a killing curse at Voldemort, but the spell rebounded into the air when it hit the shield.
At that point, Harry knew his friend was as good as dead. Looking at Hermione, he knew she knew it too. Ron had finally broken down, his grief overcoming him. Voldemort laughed as he noticed that the last of his death eaters had been slain. He turned to Dumbledore and Harry, Ron sobbing into the ground behind him.
"The old man and the savior," he said from inside the dome with a look of disgust. "You may have won this battle Dumbledore, but the war is far from over. Your apparation shield cannot hold me. And as for you, Potter, here is something you may remember me by. Conjurus!"
A long, silver sword appeared in his hand, and he turned to face Ron. Voldemort smiled his cruel smile as he looked at Ron.
"Finally I shall have the pleasure of killing a Weasley." Ron looked up.
"You'll burn in hell with me before the end, you slimy piece of worm-ridden filth," Ron said through clenched teeth.
Everyone knew what was coming next, and no one was able to stop it. Forty spells were all cast at Voldemort at once, including several Finite Incantatem, but the shield remained intact. Voldemort laughed harder than ever, then drew back his arm and plunged the sword into Ron's stomach. It penetrated through Ron's back, blood dripping from the tip. Voldemort removed the sword and Ron let out a gasp. Voldemort disappeared the moment after his deed was done. Ron looked startled for a minute, then slumped to the ground.
"RON!!!!!!!!!!!" yelled Harry and Hermione at the same time, rushing over to him. The shield Voldemort had created was now gone. Harry sat down next to Ron, Hermione next to him, and held his head in his arms.
"Oh no," said Harry, looking at the blood starting to come from wound. "You'll be alright Ron, we'll get you to Madam Pomfrey, you'll be fine"
"Harry....." Ron said, having trouble drawing breath. "I'm sorry. I failed you."
"You did no such thing, Ron. You fought with honor," said Hermione with tears in her eyes.
"I swear to you Ron, I'll get him for you. I swear I'll get his wand and I'll burn it to ashes in your name," said Harry through gritted teeth, tears rolling down his face.
"Burn it in Luna's name too........" said Ron, the light fading fast from his eyes.
"I'm sorry Ron......I'm so sorry," said Harry.
"Don't be," said Ron. "I'll be with Luna soon enough. I can hear her calling me now......."
And with that, Ron closed his eyes and he was gone.
Hermione broke down crying hysterically at that point and fell onto Harry, who was also crying profoundly. It was only then that Harry started hearing the other sounds that were going on around them. He could hear Mr. Weasley, Charlie, and Bill trying to hold back a hysterical Mrs. Weasley, Ginny was sobbing into a hug being given by Fred and George, and everyone else was watching with tears in their eyes. Harry looked back at Ron, his head still in his arms.
"Be at peace Ron." And Harry kissed his forehead lightly.
After that, everything became a cloudy mess. Harry vaguely remembered Mr. Weasley picking him up, and carrying him somewhere.
The next thing Harry knew was that he was in the hospital wing, Dumbledore sitting next to him, Hermione lying in the bed next to him. Harry tried to sit up, but Dumbledore forced him back into bed.
"Don't even think of stopping me after he killed Ron," with an absolute blind anger in his voice.
"Harry, I understand your fury, but if you attempt to leave here right now, I will have no choice but to stun you." Harry contemplated this for a minute, but his senses came to him, and he knew Dumbledore would do it if he had to. The headmaster seemed to notice Harry calm slightly, and spoke.
"Ms. Granger is awake, so if you would be so kind, please join me in my office."
Harry sat up in bed, not wanting to move. He couldn't. He wouldn't. No, it was too soon. He couldn't talk about this now.
"No."
"Harry I understand you are upset, but this is something you want to see, trust me. You too, Ms. Granger."
Harry looked to his left and saw Hermione sitting in her bed with tears streaming down her face again.
"Fine," Harry said. He got up and walked over to Hermione. She looked at him.
"We have to go to Dumbledore's office," he spat. "I don't know how he can do this."
"It's ok," she said wiping her eyes. "I'm so weary though...stupid crying."
"Come on, I don't suppose it can get much worse."
"Never say that Harry, never." And with that she stood up and the three of them walked to Dumbledore's office.
When they arrived at the landing outside Dumbledore's office, he stopped and turned to face them.
"I want each of you to listen carefully, there is nothing that will prepare you for what you are about to see, you just need to understand that this situation is not nearly as bad as you are making it out to be." Harry almost lunged at Dumbledore after he heard this statement.
"HOW CAN YOU SAY IT'S NOT AS BAD AS WE MAKE IT OUT TO BE?! RON AND LUNA ARE DEAD AREN'T THEY?!" yelled Harry at the top of his voice.
"Yes, Harry they are dead. I understand your fury, but just believe me. Come in and see for yourself. He opened the door and led them in.
At first, Harry thought for sure his eyes were deceiving him. But he rubbed his eyes and re-focused. He was definitely not seeing things. Beside him, Hermione's jaw had dropped, and there were tears running down her eyes, but this time, they were tears of happiness.
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BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA don't you love cliffies??
R&R People! (Oh and just for clarification, don't get your hopes up. Ron and Luna are dead.)
And yes, I know I took more quotes, but hey, they're good ones so what do you want me to do?