Disclaimer: Not mine. I wish it were so we would have had HHr, but alas it's JK Rowling's.
A/N: My reply to the challenge issued by PJ, you can find it here: http://talk.portkey.org/index.php?showtopic=26635 . This story will start right after fifth year, and it will involve sex, some blood, and such, so this is why it is rated NC17. I hope you'll enjoy it, I think this is the most complex challenge I've ever dared to reply to, so I sincerely hope I'll be able to pull it off well.
To all LoTR lovers, here you will find something inspired by "The Return of the King" movie. Enjoy! ;)
Thanks to my beta Gingercat!
Harry Potter and His True Sixth Year
Chapter Twenty-eight: The Battle of Hogwarts, Part I
The end of the term, and of the school year, was nearing, and since Ron, Ginny and Malfoy had been expelled, there had been no suspicion of Voldemort trying to continue his plans to get into Hogwarts.
It was also true that Snape had been kept away from the last few meetings of the Death Eaters though, or at least Voldemort hadn't let him in when discussing matters with his inner circle.
The Headmaster suspected that Voldemort now knew where Snape's true allegiance lay, thanks to Ron and Ginny telling him. Harry had protested that if it was true, Snape would had been already killed by now, but Dumbledore shook his head.
"I believe Tom is trying to let us think we still have a spy in his ranks and we thus know what he is planning. He has kept Severus alive and not revealed that he knows he is a spy because he wants us to live in a sense of false security and lay down our defences. That would make it easier for him to hit us hard, and thus is something we need to avoid at all costs" the Headmaster had reasoned.
Harry could see the logic behind that, and Hermione too of course.
This is why the raven haired boy had taken to watching the Marauder's Map frequently. The last thing they needed was to have Death Eaters at the school door without them even knowing. If he could spot them entering the grounds, they would have some minutes time to organize a defence.
Dumbledore had agreed too, and kept the teachers on alert, should anything happen. They had already laid down the basic lines of the defence plan. The younger students, up to fourth year, would be locked inside the common rooms. The oldest ones would have to choose if they wanted to fight or not.
DADA lessons were much more practical, so that those who chose to fight would do so with a better knowledge and more of a chance to survive.
Professor Travers duelled all of the students from fifth year up in his classes, being a tough opponent and not holding back. Many ended in the Hospital Wing after his lessons those days, but not even Pomfrey protested. Everyone knew they would be against ruthless enemies out there, when the time for the battle came, so what was the point of duelling, if you weren't ready to face anything thrown at you?
Harry and Hermione duelled each other for hours every night, involving Neville and Luna in their training, which lasted hours, till all four of them were too exhausted to keep a wand in their hands. The four friends also started a routine of running laps around the castle early in the morning, something Harry had been doing since the start of the year on and off, Hermione only now and then joining him.
Neville and Luna never trained physically, and all four of them regretted not doing so more extensively, too caught up in their researches to properly train themselves for a long physical battle. They could only hope it wouldn't last too long, and it wasn't exactly the best tactic, but there was little to do about it now, they were just trying to make the best of the time they had.
Even Charms and Transfiguration aimed their lessons on more battle-useful spells. The tension was building in the school, but it was not fear. It was more determination to fight for freedom, and Harry was proud of his schoolmates. He might be the one to have to face Voldemort in the end, but all of them needed to fight together till it came to that moment. His irrational desire to protect everyone would have told him that this way many more lives were on the line, but his rational side knew they would be anyway, if the war was lost, and rushing to seek a one-on-one confrontation with Voldemort was not the smartest way to win it.
So, it was not really a surprise to anyone when Harry, checking his Map as usual after his afternoon lessons, noticed a pair of dots appear in the Forest, followed by another two, and then another pair.
The group was growing larger.
"It's finally upon us. The biggest battle of our times will take place today on Hogwarts grounds" he thought, while rushing to the Headmaster's office to alert him of the upcoming attack, after instructing Hermione to reunite the fighting students in the Room of Requirements. A single look told her why.
"Sir, they are coming!" he shouted as soon as he was inside, showing Dumbledore the map. The man glanced at it, and frowned. He wondered how they had managed to breach the wards, but there was no time for that.
"Very well, Harry. Organize the oldest students like we agreed, I will set the teachers to immediately escort the younger ones to the common rooms and then be ready to fight. I will also send a note to the ministry to send Aurors and call the Order" he said, standing up and throwing some powder in the fireplace, sticking his head in.
Harry didn't hear who he was talking to, as he was running down the steps two at a time.
"Hermione!" he called, as he barged in, finding most of the students already there, whispering to each other. She nodded, answering his unvoiced question.
He took a long look at those in front of him, who were now looking at the raven haired boy like he was some sort of great leader. He felt Hermione's hand slide into his own and squeeze, and he sighed. Then he took a step forward, and addressed all of those who were there, a couple other students having come in just after him.
"Calm down! Calm down!" he shouted, setting the whole room silent. "Fellow Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws. Even Slytherins" he addressed all of them, pacing in front of the large group. "I see from your eyes that you're scared. You're right to be. I should be scared too, and maybe in my heart I am. There maybe a day in which the Light will fade, in which the looming Darkness will make us betray friends, brothers, lovers, but it is NOT today. There will be the hour of Dementors, sucking out the souls at will, of wands abandoned on the battlefield as their owners lay slaughtered there, the Dark Arts taking control, but it is NOT today. Today, we fight! For all that you love and cherish, on this beautiful earth, I call you to fight, students of Hogwarts!"
Cheers erupted from the crowd, and Hermione had tears in her eyes at the beautiful and highly motivating speech he gave, a speech that came straight from his heart.
All of them ran through the halls, a burning desire to stop the invaders flaming through them, and in few minutes time they were in front of the castle, facing the approaching wave of Death Eaters. Harry and Hermione were in the middle of the first row, wands drawn, Neville and Luna being on their sides.
Finally the two armies faced each other, and a curse erupted from a Death Eater.
And so it began.
The light of various spells lit the darkening sky as sunset approached. Harry knew the numbers were against them, there were at least thrice Death Eaters than students, but reinforcements would come soon. They just needed to resist till the Aurors and the Order could arrive.
At mad speed he started taking down Death Eaters, incapacitating them in various manners, stunning, binding, freezing them.
He soon lost track of Hermione in that madness, but he had no time to think about that, more enemies surrounding him. They were really too many, but Harry's speed at casting spells had improved in the last few weeks, and most of the Death Eaters must be new recruits or not experienced ones anyway.
They proved no great challenge for him, as he progressed in taking them down.
Hermione, in the meantime, was doing just as well. Her stunner met one Death Eater attacking her, then she spun around and froze another one who was approaching her from behind. She cast a glance at Harry and saw him dispose of two more opponents, seemingly without great effort. She smiled and focused again on the fight.
When she felt a sudden jolt of pain in her back, and the tingling sensation of the cut healing, she silently thanked Harry for his stubbornness at having her get a Lycan Blood Shield too. As she turned, she pointed her wand at her attacker.
"Reducto!" she cried, effectively killing him as the body exploded. "Ugh!" she thought, banishing some pieces of it that had landed on her robes.
Neville and Luna had managed to stick together, and while slower than Harry and Hermione in spell casting, they too were taking down many enemies. It seemed all useless though. As much as they incapacitated their opponents, many more would come out of the forest.
Finally, Neville spotted Snape and McGonagall coming with the other teachers, and few minutes later from the gates Aurors started arriving, together with Samantha, Lupin, Sirius, and many other Order members. Of course, Mad Eye Moody was with them.
The fight picked up intensity now that other fighters had come to help the students, and many of them could indeed use that help, as they were surrounded by two or more Death Eaters, being forced to defend themselves and pretty much unable to fight back.
Kingsley didn't think twice before slashing a Death Eater who was attacking a fifth year Ravenclaw boy with the spell Snape had used on Harry, Lacero Seorsum. It was mild dark magic, but at times necessary to be used by the good guys too[Author ID1: at Sat Apr 19 00:19:00 2008 ].
Tonks helped a couple sixth years out of a sticky situation, and Dumbledore's appearance frightened many of the Death Eaters.
"Novices" Sirius cackled, and Harry turned for a moment to grin at his godfather, nodding at him before they shot in different directions, to tackle more Death Eaters.
Harry noticed they were getting harder to beat, and realized Voldemort must have sent forward those more expendable, trying to reduce their defences before launching the stronger attack.
The real fight was just starting now.
As time passed, the flow of Death Eaters reduced, and finally ended, but this was not of great help to those on the side of the Light, which were still strongly outnumbered, and all involved in harsh duels with one or more opponents.
Harry spotted Hermione fighting against two, and wanted to go help her, but he was kept busy himself by another pair of Voldemort's minions.
When he finally managed to get a spell past the defences of one of them, stunning him, it became easier, as he had only one enemy left. That was fair duelling, and he found his added speed in spell-casting allowed him to outsmart the guy, who Harry had to admit was pretty good, in no time, luring him into an attack, quickly shielding himself and counterattacking before the man could defend himself.
He turned to go help Hermione, but a voice he knew all too well stopped him.
"Not so fast, Potter"
Harry turned to be met with no one else than Ron, icy blue eyes glaring at him.
"Ron, you're still in time to right your mistake" Harry said, not really wanting to hurt his former best mate. Ron gave an hollow laugh.
"I've already done that, if you hadn't noticed" the redhead spat.
"You don't mean that" Harry said.
Ron's reply was in the spell he cast, surprising Harry. "Moreo!"
The black light hit Harry's wand arm, and he felt it go limp at his side. Ron smirked. "You won't be able to defend yourself now, Potter. Your wand arm is dead" he said, and then cast again.
"Lacero Seorsum!"
Harry's eyes widened, but a moment before the curse hit him, he felt his wand arm return to life. Evidently, it took some time for his shield to regenerate it.
"Protego!" he shouted, defending himself form the curse. It was clear Ron had no intention to switch sides again, so Harry decided he had let the redhead have his fun long enough. Ron's eyes widened at Harry's spell, but before he could realize how Harry had managed to keep his wand arm alive, the black haired boy cast his spell.
"Ignis Flagellum!" he shouted, and a fire whip emerged from his wand, wrapping itself around Ron's body and completely burning him to death, leaving only a smoking pile of burned flesh and robes behind.
Harry knew the spell was a little extreme, but he had had enough with traitors, thank you. Running away from the awful stench, he tried to look for Hermione, and finally found her. She was fighting with a single Death Eater, so Harry knew she would be fine. Looking around he noticed a seventh year Hufflepuff struggling to defend herself from two enemies, and ran to help her. Had he stopped to look at his girlfriend a moment longer, he would have noticed who was duelling Hermione.
--
"I'll make you pay, bitch" the Death Eater snarled, throwing her mask away.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "You can't beat me in a duel, Ginny, you know that" the brunette retorted.
"You would be amazed at the things I've learned since we left the school, Mudblood" Ginny sneered.
Hermione had had enough, and attacked her with a stunner.
"You're not very imaginative, Granger" Ginny taunted, blocking the spell and sending back a curse of her own. Hermione frowned, she didn't recognize the spell, and that moment of hesitation had her being hit by it.
Instantly, her clothes turned into snakes, cobras to be precise, hissing as they surrounded her.
After a moment of shock, the brunette conjured new clothes to cover her and banished the snakes, but while she was busy doing so, Ginny cast the killing curse. Hermione's reflexes kicked in and she dropped herself on the ground, the green light barely missing her.
Ginny's smirk of triumph turned into a mask of rage, but Hermione was definitely pissed now, and attacked the redhead with a volley of rapidly fired curses, that put Ginny on the defensive. Her shield barely contained them all, but when she was about to renew it and retaliate, Hermione swung her leg, pushing Ginny's away, and making the redhead fall on the ground.
"That's not fair!" the younger girl cried, and Hermione rolled her eyes. "War rarely is, Ginny" she said, before cutting the girl's head with a well placed "Lacero Seorsum" spell.
--
Sirius had just disposed of another Death Eater when he noticed someone he could never forget. It was her fault he spent six months trapped in that midway world between life and death.
"Bellatrix!" he roared. The vicious Death Eater turned, and a flicker of shock passed on her face, before being replaced by a smirk.
"You want a rematch, cousin? Too bad there isn't any Veil to make you fall through here" she taunted him. Sirius knew he should not fall for her tricks again, so he remained focused on the fight, sending a stunner her way. Bellatrix easily blocked it, and cast the Cruciatus curse on him, but Sirius shielded himself.
Their duel continued for several minutes, neither getting the upper hand, and Sirius knew his cousin was getting frustrated. He had to bite his tongue to stop himself from taunting her, and making the same mistake he did the last time.
Bellatrix, instead, didn't learn from the duel they had almost a year before, that you should never lose focus on the duel to taunt your opponent, and spoke.
"You should give up, Black, you'll never best me" she said, with a smirk, that remained etched on her face as a silent Petrificus Totalus hit her, making her fall backwards. Sirius completed the job binding her, and only then he spoke.
"Didn't they tell you to never underestimate your opponent?" he said, kicking her in the ribs before searching for someone else to duel.
--
The Lycans had joined the fight, and true to their word most of them fought on the Light side, but few had joined Voldemort, as expected. Their added strength and heightened senses made duelling easier for them as they would have a better understanding of what was happening behind them too, thus surprising them from behind was harder, and if the fight came to a one on one physical brawl, their strength could easily let them kill their opponent with their bare hands.
However, even they had trouble, understandably, when wrestling the Giants, who had joined the Dark side. Hagrid and Grawp had managed to convince some to join the Light, but the greater number didn't listen to them.
Dementors started to come from the depth of the Forest too, making things even more difficult for those defending the castle, a sense of cold and despair filling their hearts.
Those who had joined the DA knew what to do, and immediately focused on a happy memory.
Hermione couldn't help blushing as she focused on the first time she and Harry had made love before crying, "Expecto Patronus!", a corporeal silvery doe coming out of her wand, the light from the Patronus almost blinding her as it set to hunt down the Dementors, who shrieked as they were attacked.
Many more Patronus joined hers, and Harry's stag was leading an array of shining animals of varying consistency, with dogs, cats and birds to mention a few[Author ID1: at Sat Apr 19 00:19:00 2008 ].
Only when the tenth Dementor was instantly vanished by the contact with it, Harry's stag became too weak to keep hunting and vanished, by far the one resisting the longest.
The fine mist however didn't vanish, as the retreating Dementors went back into the Forest, and everyone on the side of the Light knew they were regrouping before a new attack.
For the time being, however, the repulsive creatures had been dealt with.
It was then that Harry heard a cold, evil voice he knew much better than he cared for.
"Harry Potter, we meet again"
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