A/N: Liberty holds a high cost...Thanks to Lady Starlight for her work on this chapter...it was tough.
Chapter 54: The Floor Falls Away
**********************Near the Quidditch Pitch********************
5:00 am
Bill Weasley sat, still concealed behind the stands, periodically sneaking glances out at the Forbidden Forest. The dark tithe of Voldemort's forces still sat ready, waiting to sweep into the castle, to crush any would-be rescuers between the Death Eaters inside and the forces outside. He watched as the hordes of trolls, along with the Giants he had witnessed earlier, moved around the edge of the woods. Bill slowly reached under his dark shirt, and pulled forward a large, carved Dragon's tooth. Several inscribed Runes glowed faintly in the pre-dawn gloom. He felt the gift from Charlie, one that his brother had given him the night before his wedding, with the words, "This could save you someday, Bill...you'll know when you might need it." Bill did not quite know what would happen when he triggered the talisman, but he had a pretty good idea. And that idea was the basis of his assurance to Harry.
*******************Near the Slytherin Dorms***********************
5:35 am
"Move, goddamnit," Ernie McMillan screamed, pushing the last of his team behind him and up the stairs towards the main part of the school. He ducked a curse, and fired back, smiling grimly as he heard a howl of pain. He felt a tug against his arm, pulling him back behind cover, just as a curse from the massed Slytherin sixth and seventh years snapped through where his head had just been. Ernie and his team had found when they were on their mission to interdict the Slytherin dorms.
"I am going to kill you if you die on me, Ernie," Hannah hissed, and rolled out, firing curses randomly before sliding back next to him in the small alcove he had been sheltering in. "I already lost Susan this fucking week..." She bit back something at the thought of her friend, "REDUCTO!" A shimmering blue bolt roared down the hallway, shattering the stones behind the Slytherins. Ernie reached out and pulled her back, just as a half dozen Kedavras ripped past their hiding spot.
All six hit within feet of each other on the already much-abused stone wall, and with a terrible creaking roar, the passage behind them, their only means of escape, collapsed, cutting off the pair from the rest of the DA. "COME ON OUT, LITTLE GRYFFINDORS..." Blaise Zabini's mocking voice snarled, laughing. "I promise that it won't hurt too much... Though, Hannah...it might...." He added with a philosophical shrug to his voice. The dark laughter of two-dozen Slytherins mocked them.
"Lord, they are stupid," Hannah sighed, leaning back as another Kedavra shot past. She crouched and fired back, sending a blast of sliver darts back. A suddenly-cut-off scream was her reward. She stood, staying behind cover, "They can't even get our house right...fucking wankers..."
"I'm sorry, Hannah," Ernie muttered; she looked back and up at him, to give him a tired smile, "I screwed up..."
"'No plan survives contact with the enemy'...last we knew, there weren't any combatants down here..." She took a breath, and fought to keep tears from running down her cheeks, "We'll see each other on the other side, Ernie."
He nodded, "Yes, we will." He reached down and squeezed her hand, before kissing her cheek. She tightened her grip on her wand; they shared a nod...Both of the DA members stepped out from cover as one, firing. A Slytherin seventh year next to Zabini went down, his chest vaporized. Pansy fell, her leg cut from knee to hip, Crabbe collapsed as a Bludgeoning Curse from Ernie shattered his kneecap. Then every remaining Slytherin fired at once, a wave of green, purple, yellow, gold, silver...Ernie buckled, his wand snapping out one last curse that terminated Grayson Sneade once and for all, before he fell to the ground and bounced once.
His blood started to pool as Hannah screamed, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" the one single incident of the Killing Curse used by the light that night in Hogwarts, and a masked Death Eater, probably along as an advisor to the Death Nibblers, was slammed back against the wall to slide down it.
Five Kedavras found her in the next instant, sending her crashing to the floor, dropping directly onto Ernie's lifeless body.
Zabini looked around, and more than a trace of fear clouded his eyes before he hid it, blinking away the thoughts of what just two of Potter's hated DA had done to them, as he saw his five dead, and several more wounded. He kicked at the bodies, snarling, before he led the Slytherins away, down another corridor that would lead them out.
***************************Great Hall******************************
7:22 am
The once-great Great Hall lay in ruins, its tables broken, its high windows shattered. Far above, the enchantments on the ceiling flickered off and on, in a random, broken pattern, like a badly tuned Muggle television program. Along the walls, lines of dark-cloaked figures stood, watching, most of them with wands in hand waiting for a chance or an order to attack one of the two standing, breathing heavily in the center of the broken room, fifty meters apart.
The two combatants formed an odd balance, light and dark, yin and yang. The taller of the pair, a ice-blue eyed man with long, auburn hair, escaping from a tail it had started the night bound tightly in, tightened his grip on a long, white staff and looked across the distance, carefully holding the sullen red eyes of his opponent with his own. A faint, white glow almost washed out the blue of his eyes as he gathered power, magic seeming streaming from the air, the ground; the very stones of the castle itself. "You have lost, Tom," Dumbledore said softly, his voice projecting across the room, nonetheless.
Voldemort laughed and gestured towards Dumbledore with one long-fingered, bone-white hand. "You keep telling me that, Albus, but I am still here." Voldemort gestured towards the blood dripping down from a wound on Dumbledore's hand, along his staff to the floor.
Dumbledore moved to his left, gesturing, and the ruin of part of the Ravenclaw table flying out of his way. He moved through a shaft of light streaming down from a broken window, "Can you not feel it, Tom, I can. Every time another of your followers is removed, another small bit of cleansing to this place...It is like an inexorable tide...no man, no matter how powerful can stand alone...and in the end, Tom, where it counts, you are alone."
Voldemort roared his annoyance and a green beam rushed across at Dumbledore, missing as he vanished with a swirl of cloak, and shattering a six-foot divot in the stones of the north wall. "I am not a man...I will be a GOD!"
A soft, invisible chuckle. "Gods do not bleed, Tom." A silver jet shot out of nowhere, ripping along the side of Voldemort's leg and sending a spray of black blood into the air, it sizzled as it hit the stones of the floor. The Death Eaters along the walls reacted instantly, filling the room with a web of light. An entire group of them crashed back against the walls as shimmering red ropes pulled them into a tight ball.
"HE IS MINE," Voldemort roared, and the spell fire grew silent.
Dumbledore reappeared fifteen feet away, and a flaming whip ripped from his wand, curling around the Dark Lord. He snapped his wrist and Voldemort went spinning through the air. He bounded off a wall and flicked his wand back at Albus; dark, glass-like shards ripped at Dumbledore, who flicked his wand straight up, causing a wall of diamond to appear.
The shards shattered with a loud crumpling sound and Dumbledore dodged out from behind the wall, waving to the right and left. The ruins of the tables came to life and started to march on Voldemort, and magic crackled like fire around the room.
*************************Third Floor*****************************
A group of almost thirty witches and wizards, now, slipped through the hallways of the ancient school, cloaked in invisibility and shadow, trailing another group of perhaps fifteen or so. The second ones, many of whom were still in robes emblazoned with the serpent emblem of Slytherin House, moved rapidly, glancing around nervously into the dark, dim corners and alcoves of the huge castle.
Among the Slytherins, skulking along the corridor, more than one were limping, moving heavily or slowly. They held wands in hand, pointing them here and there; they had already come across several of their Death Eater compatriots lying lifeless in the hallways, with no sign of the attackers that had felled them. A tall Slytherin, looked over at the one in the center of the pack, "I don't understand why we bothered with Pansy, Blaise," he said, shaking his head, "It's not like she is much of a loss."
Several of the Slytherins and their five, older, Death Eater fellows laughed darkly. A blonde-haired girl, who was wearing her robe open to display a uniform shirt, only buttoned in the center two buttons. She looked over at Blaise, "Surely she isn't that good, Blaise," Suzanne Crenshaw smirked as the group came to a halt and she moved over to him through the group. She reached up and ran several fingers along the buttons on his shirt, "she can't be as good as me..."
"Appearances can be deceiving, my dear," he replied quietly and let his fingers fall in the open V of her neckline for a moment, he pulled them back, "For being a blood-traitor, Draco trained her rather well, it would have been a shame to lose that."
All of them missed the brief flicker of movement and a flash of gold as a Disillusionment Charm was reset.
None of them missed the single, slim, black-clad figure that appeared in the hallway in front of them. They all spun, their wands coming up as Hermione stared them down, a pair of blades spinning back and forth between her fingers. "Surrender is still an option," she announced, watching all of them at once.
"Are you all alone, little girl?" Crenshaw asked snidely, leaving Zabini's side and moving over, sidling towards a seemingly empty hallway to her right.
Hermione smiled slightly, a flicker of Magic lit her eyes, "I have never been alone when it counted for seven years now." Spellfire crashed around her, some coming within millimeters of her, and the Slytherins collapsed, most of them even still alive. She looked over as Harry stepped from the shadows, sheathing his wand.
And you never will be, he continued, as the rest of the DA with him appeared. The castle shook under a sudden explosion far below, and Harry took a breath, and looked to Hermione, he reached out and took her hand before pulling her to him, it's time, Hermione, Albus has been alone for far too long. She just nodded, and if he could feel a slight tremor in her under his hands, it was only what he was feeling as well. "Dobby," Harry said to the air, and the elf appeared with an almost silent POP and a grim glint in his normally cheerful eye.
"Yes, Master Harry Potter Sir," he asked and several of the DA chuckled behind him, only to be cut off at a glare from Hermione. She looked back down at Dobby as Harry pulled away from her to kneel down to the elf's level.
"Dobby, can you and the other elves take these...people and stick them in a cell somewhere, make sure that they don't escape?" A slightly feral look filled Dobby's continuance as he looked down at the unconscious Death Eaters and Nibblers, and snapped his fingers. He and the captives vanished with a POP, and Harry turned to the rest of the DA with him. He only absently felt Hermione's hand slip into his as he took a breath, "Hermione and I are going to go the Great Hall now," he paused as another explosion coming from the direction of the Great Hall shook the castle, "where Voldemort is...I aim to kill the bastard, but it will be full of Death Eaters, his best and brightest will be by his side, trying to curry favor. I can't promise...I won't promise that we won't all die..."
"Let's go, Harry," Ron said, and several of the rest just nodded, "it's what we came for after all." He laughed, "If you hurry up and kill the wanker, we can still have the elves fix breakfast." Hermione did not even scowl at him as Harry nodded at his friend, and brother.
"Ok, then," Harry replied, taking the time to quickly check through his pouch, and to cast a quick check on the Keenness Charms on the Gryffindor Sword, "Fine...everyone take the time right now to bandage any minor wounds, get a drink and maybe a chocolate bar from your stash...I'll go in openly, the rest of you except Hermione, stay out of sight until he plays his hand...Mione you have my back, Ron, Luna, you have hers, until we get Nagini, and then the game is afoot...Let's go."
**********************Near Hagrid's Hut***************************
8:15 am
A swirl of color appeared, tossing out a single man in mottled camouflage. He spun, hard eyes looking over the sights of a suppressed carbine. He turned to his left at the sound of a soft scraping noise, muzzle covering a white-masked form, "Who the ruddy hell are..."
A soft, triple chuffing sound and the Death Eater collapsed, blood pooling from a tight, triangular grouping in the middle of his chest. Roger spun again, only to stop as the newest arrival lowered his hood slowly. "Mischief managed," Remus said quickly. Roger nodded and picked up a pack and followed Remus into the shadow of the trees. He frowned slightly at the slightly feral look he found in Lupin's eyes but followed him. The pair passed quickly, sliding behind the cover of a large, several-foot-thick, oak. Roger nodded to Tonks as he found her there; her face was hard and set, as she looked out through a gap in the trees towards Hogsmeade.
A half dozen Dark Marks could be seen hanging in the morning sky, their evil magics allowing them to be seen as easily in the day as in the night. Dark smoke rose as well above the town, and she gave it a grim nod, turning away, even as her Auror instincts demanded that she run to their rescue. She looked back towards the castle and her heart sunk even further at the reminder of the warfare raging in and around the grounds.
Remus pulled Tonks to his side as he huddled with Roger, "Listen, Roger, I programmed that Portkey, because I know what you have to be feeling...I feel it too, they might as well be my own," he said painfully, "but you are here more as a medic than anything..."
"I have to help, Remus," he said quickly, lowly as he checked the magazine in his sub gun, and let it drop back down on its sling. He tightened the straps of his pack, filled with both medical supplies for trauma, and a decent supply of potions that he could use if necessary to treat injuries he could not with more mundane techniques. "I am a bloody surgeon, if only a dental one, I can treat them, at least enough to stabilize them enough to let you or Tonks create a Portkey, to get them to Poppy or St. Mungo's."
"How is London?" Tonks asked hurriedly, "Have they attacked anywhere..."
"Other than the Ministry, no, and we still have no word on that really. We did have two Aurors by the names of Williams and Blake stop by for an instant, on the way to the Ministry, seems they were scouting the location that they were supposed to be striking last night and didn't get caught in the Ministry, they were headed there, to try to do...something."
"They'd be better off here," Remus growled, glaring to the south for a moment, as if he could see them, he turned back to the other two, "Tonks and I have Invisibility Cloaks, Roger. You are a touch too big to play your daughter and son-in-law's old game of sneaking about under the cloak with someone else, so I am going to Disillusion you...you won't be invisible, especially during the day, but it will help." Roger nodded and felt an odd, cold-sensation as if an egg were cracked over his head. He glanced down at his hands and equipment, finding them only a blurred faint distortion of the background behind.
The pair of suddenly invisible wizards and one almost invisible Muggle, who had thought that his adventurous days were long gone, moved silently towards the castle.
'******************Hogwarts, Great Hall**************************
May 24, 1998
8:25 am
Dumbledore stood slowly, and looked down at his enemy, the one that had cost him more than almost any other, and the one that had cost the young man he considered, no matter how fractious their relationship had been at times, his grandson in fact if not in blood, his chance at a life. He watched as Tom Riddle looked up at him fearfully, he watched as the Dark Lord's eyes slowly panned to the dark, twisted wand that Dumbledore held in his hand.
A long, quiet silence seemed to stretch for hours, though it only took seconds, as Voldemort slowly stood once more, "You still are afraid to kill me, Albus," he sneered. "Or rather is it, that you can't?" Voldemort started to walk to the left, circling slowly. Dumbledore's staff flashed, and a flickering blue wall blocked his progress. "Where is your Chosen One, Albus?"
"I am sure he will be along presently, Tom," Dumbledore replied pleasantly, the strained rafters far above made a loud, groaning sound, and glass fell, tinkling from a shattered stained glass windows. His light blue eyes hardened, becoming diamond-like pinpoints, "However, I have always taken Divination with more than a grain of salt, I am more than willing to take the chance." Dumbledore raised his staff, the end lit, filling the room with a blinding white light.
Voldemort spun to his right, and flung his hand down. A green beam shot from his fingers and bounced from the ancient stones, splitting into four beams. They shot out, finding four innocuous, crystals. They held the beams for an instant, and fired all four at Dumbledore at once. He MOVED, spinning left, dodging one, batted a second away with his staff, ducked under another, and collapsed as the fourth hit him directly in the small of the back, sending him crashing through several tables before coming to a halt.
Voldemort laughed and held out his hand, calling his wand back to his hand. It grew as it touched his pale, long-fingered hand, growing into a dark counterpoint to Dumbledore's white staff. Voldemort flicked it, flinging Dumbledore back through the ruins of the Ravenclaw Table, "Where is he now, Albus?" Voldemort advanced through the rubble, littering the floor, stepping through a pool of sunlight from a hole in the ceiling far above, "You will not come back again, Dumbledore, I will not set this task to lesser beings again, AVADA..."
BOOM...The ruins of the huge oak doors tumbled inward, and a wave of pure force picked up Voldemort, tossing him back through the Head Table, sending Dumbledore's throne flying, to continue on though the back wall of the room into the small room that Harry had once waited in with the other would-be Tri-Wizard champions. A pair of brightly glowing orbs appeared in the smoke filling the doorway, slowly resolving into a black-haired, spectacled form. He stalked into the room, not a movement wasted, and casually flicked his fingers, flinging tables to the side and out of his way. He knelt next to Dumbledore and felt for a pulse, nodding when he felt one under his fingers.
Harry straightened, watching as the rubble at the far end of the room shifted, rattling, and exploded outward. Small chunks of stone rained down next to him, Harry did not flinch as a small stone cut his cheek. He watched, silently, as a pair of glowing red eyes burned, approaching him from the depths of the shadowed room beyond. "POTTER," he hissed, moving into the light. "Where are your friends, Potter?"
Harry smiled slowly as the crash of spellfire came from behind him, "Dealing with the rest of your scum, Tom," he replied, not raising his voice, but it still thundered throughout the hall. Harry slowly walked across the room, and knelt next to the crumpled body of Minerva McGonagall. Her breathing was erratic and he muttered a spell, placing her into stasis. He stood.
"I am so glad that you came, Harry," Voldemort chuckled as he waved his hand towards the back of the room, and two dozen Death Eaters, headed by a very pregnant Bellatrix, her rotund belly partially exposed by her open black robes, appeared. Harry felt a slight shudder, as Voldemort gave Bellatrix a dark smile, "Your death will allow me to complete the circle. To live forever..."
Harry cocked his head slightly, taking in Bellatrix's condition. The elder Avery saw Harry glance away, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" he screamed; a green light filled the giant room as a rushing sound filled the air. Harry vanished just as the green bolt passed through where he had been and reappeared behind the Death Eater, sword in hand. A step left, and a head tumbled to the floor, as Harry reappeared in exactly the same spot he had been in before. A sudden hush filled the Death Eater's ranks.
"So you needed a potion, Tom," Harry quipped quietly, "I hear that can affect elders."
"THE DARK LORD WILL..."
"Quiet, Bella," Voldemort said softly, cutting her off, "We should allow Potter his last words, it is only...proper after all. So, Harry," he went on, his tone subtly mocking as he slowly paced over to stand in the center of the room, "have you made your peace...are you ready to join your poor parents once more?" He made a small, almost unnoticeable gesture with the hand that was not holding his staff as his smoldering eyes glowed brighter.
A loud explosion came from the hall and Voldemort's eyes snapped to the door, "Go see what that is," he commanded and the Death Eaters, except Bellatrix, ran to the door, their wands out.
"A smidgen of a problem, Tom?" Harry asked softly. He moved further into the room, his eyes carefully on his enemy so as not to give away the hidden presences behind him. The Death Eaters turned back towards him watching their Master as he smiled, darkly.
"No, Harry, not at all," Voldemort whispered and smiled, his eyes flicking to the right, just behind Harry.
Harry looked directly into Voldemort's glowing eyes, and his lip twitched upward. Voldemort laughed as a soft noise echoed behind Harry. His eyes grew wide, a rasp of steel on leather, and a flash of a glowing blade intersected the neck of his last Horcrux. Harry spun back to Voldemort, the two halves of the giant snake falling slowly to the earth as blood dripped from the thousand-year-old blade in his hand. Harry never turned as a loud roar of anger and a hissing green cloud escaped the neck of the snake. He never moved as Hermione's lips incanted something even as she was fading in and the soul fragment exploded in a rush of light and phoenix song.
Tom Riddle screamed, an unholy howl coming from snake-like lips as he watched the motionless corpse of his Familiar, and the last vessel of his soul, lay destroyed in the center of the Great Hall. A single shaft of sunlight from the broken, high windows lit the corpse, like an accusing finger.
"My wife and I seem to be the only ones here with complete souls, Tom." A glowing orb of energy came to life in his off hand, "Shall we end this?"
Voldemort looked to each side, and flicked his staff. Instantly the walls wavered and shimmered as Death Eaters appeared, at least fifty. "Yes, Potter, let's." He motioned towards them and with a loud, wordless roar the Death Eaters charged.
The air shimmered around Harry as his own reinforcements arrived, Ron, Luna, Draco, Ginny, Lavender, Neville, Dean, Seamus, Padma, Parvati, and a few others, hopelessly outnumbered as another twenty Death Eaters arrived back from the hallway. Across the room, safely away from the incipient fighting, Bellatrix stood closely to the Dark Lord, watching.
"GO!" Harry screamed and moved, dancing to the side as the first spell reached towards him, a shimmering turquoise beam. He rolled under another spell, flickering into movement. His left hand flung outward, a hissing ball of fire shot out, exploding in the midst of the Death Eater ranks, vaporizing two outright and killing another four in a shower of blood.
Harry's eyes flicked backwards for a heartbeat, the sword flicking in a shimmering web before him, knocking back a pair of spells towards the Death Eaters. He saw Ron stagger slightly as a Cutting Beam grazed his side, then dropped to the ground as Hermione's Reductor flashed though the space his head had occupied an instant before. He snap-kicked his way back to his feet, spinning to his right and slashing upward with the Sword. A hand holding a wand belonging to a white-masked Eater fell to the ground, followed by the Death Eater as Harry's heel impacted his head.
Hermione rolled to his right, and twin blades flickered around her hands, an axe-armed Death Eater charged her, she stepped left, and caught his attack on crossed blades. She pushed upwards, tossing the Death Eater twice her size backwards a step. She whirled around his weapon, and twin, foot-and-a-half-long blades were stained with red. Her left hand flickered and the blade held there appeared in the forehead of a Death Eater to Harry's rear, just as he cut down another two. She called her blade back to her hand and vanished.
Behind them, under the cover of a fusillade of spells from Parvati and Lavender, Neville started to move Dumbledore and McGonagall out of the line of fire. Another Death Eater fell away, screaming, as a rune-inscribed disk whirred from out of the chaos. Parvati caught her chakram left-handed, even as she deflected another curse with her right. Neville gave her a nod of thanks, and leapt forward, pulling her to the ground just as a Kedavra exploded the wall behind her.
He looked up just as Harry appeared in front of them, in the midst of a clump of Death Eaters. He gestured with a hand and flung them up in the air, smashing through the ancient oak timbers far above, "GO, NEVILLE; GET THEM CLEAR!" Harry snapped and vanished again, reappearing across the room.
Padma screamed loudly as a shimmering yellow beam ripped into her side. Seamus exploded her attacker with a Reductor from the side, and sprinted to her, almost dropping to his knees as at least two separate spells hit him. He picked up Padma and staggered back towards a group of overturned, magically-reinforced tables as Luna stood from behind them, and calmly, almost as if she were on a range, methodically exploded five Death Eaters with precise Reductors. Seamus jumped over the table, the black-haired girl seemingly weightless in his arms.
Dean glanced over at him, "Is she..."
Any further words from his best friend were lost forever as a Kedavra neatly slipped through a hole in their makeshift barricade, and Dean's eyes went forever blank. "NO!" Ginny screamed as she witnessed the strike and jumped up, firing back wildly. Seamus swallowed heavily as he took a brief, disbelieving glance at Dean's body, before he desperately ripped open Padma's shirt, and dug in his pouch. He poured a purple potion over the wound, binding it in a sharp-smelling cloud of smoke. He looked up, and ducked just as quickly as a part of a Death Eater crashed into the wall behind him. Parvati slid in next to him; "Can you run?" he nodded, and picked up Padma, crouching behind the cover of the table. Parvati took a small piece of rubble from the ground and set it on Dean's chest. She swallowed heavily as she reached down to close his eyes before touching her wand to the stone.
Dean's body vanished in a fall of color, a Portkey taking him away. Parvati looked over at Seamus and ducked as a Reductor impacting above her head showered them with gravel. "I wish we could risk that with our wounded," Parvati muttered looking at the unconscious form of her sister. "NOW!" she snapped as she popped up, firing off curses, while across from her, Neville and Lavender started firing as well.
Seamus staggered across to where Neville was covering the door to a side passage leading to the rooms behind the Great Hall. Neville clasped him on the shoulder as he passed, "Stay there with them," Neville growled as he passed, before the sandy-haired wizard sprinted back into the fight under the cover of spellfire from his girlfriends.
Beyond them, even as Draco and Ginny dueled in tandem against Rabastan, Harry and Hermione shimmered back into existence, facing their nemesis at the back of the huge room. A darkly beautiful tapestry of light filled the room behind them, as Voldemort waved his hand over Bellatrix and she vanished. He slowly started to step to the side, circling to the side, "Shall we truly duel, Potter...Potters...I suppose," he added with a nod to Hermione, and a small, thin-lipped smirk.
Voldemort did not even flinch as Travers went down in his line of sight, as Ron neatly separated his head from his shoulders with a swipe of his short sword. He looked instead to Harry as a dark, purplish-black energy started to swirl around the head of his dark and twisted staff. "The last time a Potter faced me with his wife they both died..."
"Actually, Tom," Hermione replied sweetly, her voice carrying oddly over the chaos of the battle. A Death Eater rose in her line of sight and died just as quickly as she gestured and the arteries in his neck turned to lead. She turned back to the Dark Lord, "We've been married since September, so you--are wrong I am afraid, we've already fought you twice since then."
"Thank you, Mudblood," Voldemort hissed, "I so hate to be incorrect...CRUCIO." An inch-thick yellow beam tore from his staff, and Hermione grunted, dropping to her knees. Voldemort's eyes widened as Hermione fought her way back to her feet. Harry's eyes lit as he gestured and Voldemort went flying backwards through the far wall again, shattering the stone. Hermione fell forward on her hands, panting. Harry vanished, reappearing next to her, and pulling her to him, vanishing again just as a Kedavra came from the hole in the wall.
Harry reappeared in mid-air, just as Voldemort emerged from the hole, just in time to catch the Sword on his staff, blocking a head-splitting strike with millimeters to spare. Harry back-flipped in landing in a roll. A series of lighting-fast fireballs followed his progress, setting the shattered remains of several tables on fire.
Voldemort raised a shimmering silver shield, emblazoned with a green serpent, just in time to catch an orange spell on it with a loud gonging sound. He darted backwards, right as pillars of stone shot horizontally from the wall, smashing together. Hermione kept moving, dodging as Voldemort rained spells at her heels. He looked on, and flicked his wand, casually casting a Kedavra, dropping Misty Elliot, a sixth year Ravenclaw, that had been with Padma's team.
Hermione slid to a halt behind a table, Harry...
I know, he snapped back as his wand blurred, a flaming whip reached out to coil around Voldemort. The Dark Lord smiled, and the line of fire shimmered and turned into a serpent. Harry spun to the side as it struck at him, slashing downward with the sword. The serpent fell away in a cloud of mist. Harry spun to the side; looked across to see Ron go down, before crawling back to his feet as he held his hand to his side, blood seeping around his wound. Harry's eyes lit further, he jabbed the sword straight up, and a line of lightning tore into the Death Eaters from out of nowhere, shattering their ranks, killing or wounding at least a dozen and suddenly making the odds, slightly in favor of the DA...if one didn't count Voldemort.
"GET THEM CLEAR, RON!" Harry yelled across, Ron nodded, but no one turned to run, he watched as Ron closed with McNair, ducking under a swing of the Eater's broad axe, Ron cut up and to the right, and McNair, fell away, his blood staining the stones below. Ron ducked as Luna blocked a spell headed for his spine; she rolled over his back and fired in return, a fusillade of silver darts ripping from her wand.
Rabastan's eyes flicked to the side just as McNair fell, and a beam from Draco slipped past his shields. He died with a whimper as he slid to the floor. As he fell, Voldemort looked over, snarling darkly.
"CRUCIO," the canary beam tore into Draco, and the Slytherin fell to his knees. A red beam snapped back at Voldemort, in turn. He turned at the sting and a dark, twisted smile came to his lips.
Harry looked up from across the room, where he had been drawn into a duel with five Death Eaters. The last fell away as Hermione slipped up behind him and slit his throat. And, as Harry noticed Tom's next target, he screamed, "NO!"
For Voldemort found Ginny, crouched over Draco, "Hello, my dear," he whispered, and flicked his wand at her. Ginny's eyes went blank, as she slowly stood. Her wand tracked towards Luna. Luna howled as a piercing charm hit her bicep. She spun, her wand tracking towards Ginny and froze as she realized who was firing. "KILL THEM, GINEVRA!" Voldemort commanded, laughing as she fired another curse towards Fred. He grunted as the Bludgeoning Curse cracked a rib and staggered. Luna and Ron both hit her with stunners, and watched as they landed ineffectively over her heart.
George went down next, the sound of his shattering leg carrying eerily over the sounds of the battle as the rest of the DA continued to fight on against the Death Eaters. Harry's heart fell as he noticed more of the DA was down, wounded or dead. He caught Hermione's eye and they both attacked Voldemort desperately, fighting to get his attention from Ginny.
Harry charged, swinging at his head. Voldemort gestured in the air, and a dark, serrated sword filled his hand, blocking Harry's strike. Harry snapped a cut at Tom's legs, to be caught on the blade. Harry spun with the strike, swinging at Voldemort's head again, the Dark Lord MOVED, flittering backwards out of range of the strike.
Behind him, Hermione moved desperately, appearing and vanishing, blocking Ginny's controlled strikes, keeping her from scoring another hit on a DA member. Hermione deflected away a piercing curse, it hit a Death Eater in the back of the head, he dropped and she glanced towards the battle raging in the corner, "HARRY!" Hermione screamed as she saw Harry slip on a patch of blood, and Voldemort's blade scored, slicing along Harry's ribs. She vanished, reappearing next to Voldemort, a pulsing blue dome blocked Voldemort's strike against Harry, knocking him back a step. Voldemort looked to her, and flew backwards fifty feet as a wave of pure force from her extended palm.
Ginny's wand tracked inexorably towards Draco as he stood motionless, his wand lowered, he closed his eyes as a glow erupted on the end of her wand, and she collapsed like a puppet with her strings cut. Draco sprinted to her, pulling her wand from unresisting fingers and slipping it in the back of his pants before he picked her up and ran with her towards the back passage where Seamus was looking over the rest of the wounded.
Harry and Hermione both turned back fully to the fight with Voldemort, trusting Ron and the rest to cover their backs. Harry flicked his wand towards Voldemort as he came back into view; a globe of fire engulfed him, fading quickly to a solid dome of black granite. Hermione slid to a halt in front of Harry and looked across to the temporarily imprisoned Dark Lord, her fingers started to flicker as a flaming, five-pointed star appeared around the dome, then another, and another and...the dome shattered, along with Hermione's partially-built cage. Voldemort snarled, "AVADA KEDAVRA," missing Hermione as she vanished in a blur, running at the wall and flipping sideways as another Kedavra blew a divot out of the castle stones where her feet had touched for a millisecond.
Voldemort turned as a huge stone lion knocked him from his feet, and Harry SHIFTED, morphing into his Phoenix form and vanishing in an arrow of fire, impacting Voldemort in the chest and knocking him back. Harry transformed back, panting, and charged again, timing his strike to keep Voldemort from finding Hermione as she fought to fight off a suddenly conjured stone snake that attacked her. Her eyes brightened and the snake shattered into gravel, and she appeared on Voldemort's other side already attacking, tossing bluebell plasma spheres like Quaffles...
Ron glanced back towards a shimmering web of light, composed of innumerable spells. He ducked to the side, as a spell from Hermione ripped past, having been barely deflected off a shimmering shield in Voldemort's hand. Luna grabbed Ron and pulled him into an alcove, pressing her hand to the open wound in his side. Luna pushed him back as lighting ripped down the corridor, and a black, blurred shape shot past and crashed into the far wall, resolving into Harry as he pushed himself up, dove under a Kedavra and slid behind a table. Hermione flickered and vanished, dodging a Kedavra.
"RUN, POTTER," Voldemort taunted, laughing as he flicked his wand and stone snakes grew from the floor. He flicked his wand, throwing the remains of the table to the side. He turned towards Neville who was dragging several wounded DA members away.
Lavender looked up, "NO!" she screamed and dove, crossing in front of him, just as a green beam ripped across from the Dark Lord's wand. Neville's eyes became dull; he started to collapse to his knees, before Parvati grabbed his arm, and pulled on him, throwing Neville into the small room behind the Great Hall.
Voldemort laughed and turned his back on them. He went flying as a tornado picked him up and threw him against all four walls of the Great Hall, shattering great chucks in them. The tornado flung him down in the exact center of the hall, cracking the floor.
Hermione dropped to her knees, panting slightly as Harry raised the sword above his head. A white flash ripped from the Sword and lightening ripped from the corners of the room, crashing into Voldemort and driving him back to his knees just as he rose to his feet. Harry slid to the side, grabbing Hermione and vanishing. "MOVE, RON!" Harry roared, and knocked aside an oddly curved beam from Voldemort's wand. He motioned to each side, flinging loose stones at the Dark Lord, battering him to each side.
Voldemort stepped to the side, sneered slightly, "IMPERIO," he roared, the beam impacting Hermione just as she moved from behind a bit of cover... The room grew suddenly silent, as Voldemort slowly moved behind her, putting her between him and Harry.
"HARRY," Ron snapped.
"GO, GODDAMNIT, RON," Harry roared, not looking back, his eyes on Hermione as she kept staring straight ahead, her left lid dropping for just an instant. Luna pulled on Ron's arm, pulling him away, back into the main hall. Ron looked off towards the great stairs, and his heart dropped as another fifty, at least, Death Eaters rushed in from the great front doors, headed towards them en masse down the several-hundred-meter hallway towards the Great Hall. Ron glanced back, and found no other DA members with him, they had already fallen or had had been cut off from them, as Neville led the rest and the wounded away. Ron gripped tossed his wand to his left hand, drew his dagger and looked over to Luna, she nodded and they moved, drawing on magical reserves much deeper than they ever had before.
Ron flitted to the left, dove and flicked his wand. A purple wave ripped out, cutting a pair of Death Eaters off at the knees. He spun to his right, catching a Piercing Charm on his shields, before dropping to his knee and killing a third with his Dagger as the Death Eater charged from the side. He didn't turn as Luna blocked another spell, and flicked her wand at the walls.
Two large blocks morphed, changing into large stone Lions. They let out silent roars and dove into the crowd of Death Eaters, ripping and tearing, taking down four more before six Death Eaters combined to destroy them with Reductors. Luna reached down as the Lions attacked, jerking Ron to his feet, and pulled him towards a large pile of stones. Ron held his hand containing his wand to his side, holding together a wound for earlier. He glanced back, just in time to see a silver jet snap out from a tall, masked Death Eater, ripping open her left leg to the bone in a spray of blood. "GO, RON," she yelled, and staggered to her feet. Ron pointed his wand at her and tugged her through the air, to fall back behind the stack of fallen stones.
Luna slashed her wand across her body, deflecting a Reductor aiming for her head into the ceiling. The ceiling creaked ominously, as small stones rained down. Ron peaked over the edge of the rubble, watching as the remaining forty plus, Death Eaters slipped closer, moving from bit of cover to bit of cover, and sending a constant stream of spells towards them. Another loud explosion shook the castle from behind them, as the battle raged behind them. Ron looked to Luna, swallowing heavily as he saw blood seeping out around her hand as she held it to her leg. He ducked as a spell shattered the top stone of their cover, watching helplessly, as a chunk smashed into Luna's skull, driving her to her knees.
Ron roared, standing and moving out from cover. A thin trail of blood trailed his steps as he waded into the line of approaching Death Eaters. He stepped to the right, dodging a Kedavra, and thrust upward with his Dagger. He jerked it out, spinning left and firing off a magical shotgun blast, felling another three.
Two Death Eaters flew backwards through the air, their heads shattering against the wall as Luna slid in behind him. Her dagger flickered past his ear, burying itself to the hilt in a Death Eaters throat. The remaining Death Eaters paused, and slowly started to circle them as still more sounds of explosions came from behind them, from the Great Hall where the ones that they held closer than family fought for their lives. They looked up as still more Death Eaters started to pour into the halls...
"KILL THEM NOW, WE MUST GO TO THE DARK LORD'S AID!" A tall, thin Death Eater screamed from the middle of the pack. Several Death Eaters grinned as they aimed their wands towards them, while the rest seemed to gather themselves to charge into the Great Hall.
Ron looked at Luna; then back towards the Great Hall as another explosion blew the last remnant of the doors back into the hall behind him. Thankfully, the remainder of the DA that had charged into the Hall with Harry had already escaped, having been evacuated by Neville. Blood started to pool at his feet as his wounds reopened. "I love you, Luna..." She reached out, and grabbed his hand, their blood mingling as their hands touched, "REDUCTO!"
Twin, foot-thick blue beams ripped from their wands, impacting a cracked support beam above them. The ceiling groaned loudly, the Death Eaters looked up, and Ron spun, pulling Luna into him, dropping his wand...
The ceiling creaked once more and collapsed all at once, with a deafening roar, a hundred-meter swath of the corridor dropping almost instantly, a few stones skittered off hastily raised shields, as the hall became as night.
In the Great Hall, all three combatants paused, and looked to the hallway. A great cloud of grey dust swept into the room, filling it, blacking out the huge room. A second, smaller explosion came from somewhere near the ruins of the Head Table, and sunlight poured in. Harry grabbed Hermione's arm, pulling her up from the floor as a sudden, horrible feeling of emptiness filled both his and Hermione's thoughts.
They shook it off, as a black shape vanished out the new, open hole in the walls, dropping down out of sight. They rose to their feet and sprinted after Voldemort, their only thoughts on finishing it.
A/N: There it is...This was there from the beginning, it was necessary, unfortunately. I almost took this back, several, many times, but it stayed. Next time, the Harry and Hermione continue their duel... As a hint, the chapter titles of the next 3 chapters: A Grand Morning in Hogsmeade, The Lions of Gryffindor, and The End of the Circle...stay tuned...