The Battle of Hogwarts
Sunday, March 23rd, 1997
The battle raged on. Wizards and witches alike fell to the power of various curses lighting up the bright spring day. Mourning was not something anyone had time for during the final fight of the Second Wizarding War, and there were countless casualties besides the broken body of Fred Weasley in Percy and Ron’s arms, but this still felt like the moment everything should have ended.
How could Harry move on from this? How could they kill the snake, then Voldemort, and save the world, without Fred making a joke when this was all over? No, it had to be over now, or else Fred Wasley could not be dead.
Harry barely ducked in time, bringing Draco down with him, hand still tight around his, to avoid a body flying through the blown open wall beside them, a few curses coming in along with it.
“Get down!” He shouted, flattening against the floor, and Ron grabbed Hermione and fell to the floor as well. They watched as the wall opposite the one which had been blown inward became peppered with bright flashes of light, and, hearing the clattering of heels, Draco turned to see his parents running in the opposite direction, no doubt for the dungeons, carrying Goyle’s unconscious body between them. Good. Fred and Vincent were dead, they were past this world choosing not to be cruel for once.
“Percy, come on, we’ve got to move!” He turned back to see Percy had laid across Fred’s body, refusing to move as Ron crawled over and grabbed him by the shoulders, trying to forcibly pry him off even though he was still visibly sobbing too.
And then, through all the explosion, they heard the twin’s older brother choke, “He’s gonna make it to the wedding.”
“What?” Ron choked, furiously wiping at the tears running tracks through his soot covered face.
“He’s my best man,” Percy raised his head to look into his little brother’s eyes. “Both of the. They both have to make it.”
“Percy…” Ron muttered, but suddenly Hermione let out a scream and they all turned to see a spider the size of his car climbing through the huge hole in the wall.
Ron and Harry both shouted spells at the giant thing, having seen one before and getting flashbacks to Second Year, whilst Hermione and Draco watched it in horror as it fell backward, a black blur falling against the bright blue sky.
“It brought friends!” Harry called out, glancing over the edge of the hole and seeing more giant spiders scuttling up the side of the castle. “The Death Eaters must’ve gotten into the Forest. We have to go, NOW!”
He pushed Draco forwards, whispering, “Get Crabbe’s body,” in his ear before pushing Hermione and Ron away too, then turning and helping to lift Fred’s body, Percy quickly catching on and doing the same, to place him in an alcove safe from the spells still flying through the hole in the wall. Draco came over a moment later with Crabbe’s body, and gently laid it down beside the redhead.
Then the three of them ran after Ron and Hermione down the corridor, dodging falling rock and shattered glass, and pushing past people running madly backward and forward. Once they’d turned down another corridor, Percy let out a deep, animalistic roar of, “ROOKWOOD!” and started off running down the hall in the direction of a tall Death Eater chasing a group of Slytherins and Hufflepuffs.
“Harry, Draco, in here!” Hermione screamed and the trailing boys turned and followed her behind a tapestry where she was wrestling with Ron, and for a second Harry was prepared to yell because he thought they were about to snog again, when he realized she was stopping him from tearing off after Percy.
“Listen to me - LISTEN RON!”
“I wanna help - I wanna kill Death Eaters -” You could barely see strands of red in his hair for it was darkened with soot or light with the powder of dust. Hermione gripped his face in her hands, turning him to her.
“Ron, we’re the only ones who can end it! Please - Ron - we need the snake, we’ve got to kill the snake! The Shrieking Shack, Ron!”
Harry was shaking with the grief of Fred’s death as well, and beside him, he could see in Draco’s clouded eyes he was reliving embracing Crabbe’s body too. But didn’t Hermione want revenge too? They all did, and probably deserved that satisfaction after everything they’d gone through, but they couldn’t give up now when they were so close to winning.
“We will fight!” Hermione continued. “We’ll have to, to reach the snake! But let’s not lose sight now of what we’re supposed to be d-doing! We’re the only ones who can end it!” And now they saw she was crying too, needing to wipe her face with her singed sleeve as she spoke. “We need to get to the Shrieking Shack.”
“But that’ll take an hour, at least!” said Draco. “We’ll have to run all the way back to Hogsmeade -”
“No,” said Harry sternly, gripping his hand, and then Hermione’s, who in turn took Ron’s. “We know a short cut. Come on!”
And so they ran back into the thick of the battle, dashing down the steps of a staircase before them and running, full force, down the corridor billow. They turned, stunned, as they heard a pounded behind them and only had a moment to be in awe as a herd of galloping desks burst past, Professor McGonagall sprinting along with them. Her hair was fully astray and there was a gash in her cheek, but he pointed her wand forward and screamed, “CHARGE!” with fire in her eyes, disappearing around the corner.
“MALFOY!” They spun around and spotted a Death Eater at the top of the staircase, and Hermione shoved Harry into an alcove out of sight, but he’d still seen Draco. “Expelliarmus!”
Draco threw up a shield easily, used to it from hours training under Crouch Jr and using it repeatedly to protect the precious wand in his pocket. He and Ron began viciously dueling the Death Eater as Hermione threw Harry’s Invisibility Cloak over him.
“Stupefy!” Draco and Ron cried, voices united, and the Death Eater was flown backwards, toppling over the staircases railing. They then turned and ran down the next staircase with Harry, hidden under the cloak bringing up the rear.
“Draco, you better get under too!” Hermione was yelling but still Draco charged forwards into a corridor full of flashes of bright light. Duels, everywhere. Portraits lined this hall, stuffed with people screaming advice and/or encouragement, at Death Eaters, students, and teachers.
Dean was face to face with Dolohov, viciously fighting him with Parvati behind him, back to back, fighting with Travers. Travers caught sight of Draco, however, and tore away from the duel, bellowing out, “YOU!” and slicing his wand through the air. Parvati propelled and Dean caught her, while the Quartet turned to face the charging Death Eater.
“Stupefy!” “Confringo!” “Reducto!” “Expelliarmus!” they all yelled, and he wasn’t able to shield them all fast enough, Draco and Hermione’s spells colliding with him and sending him flying back into the wall on fire. Turning to see if Parvati was okay, they saw she had immediately joined in with Professor Sinistra on dueling with Nott.
“Wheeeeeeeee!” They all looked up and saw Peeves zooming above them, chucking Snargaluff pods at the Death Eaters, causing their heads to suddenly become engulfed in wriggling green tubers. One landed upon Harry’s head and, spinning around, a masked Death Eater pointed a finger at him and shouted, “Someone’s invisible there!”
“Those are Potter’s friends!”
“The Malfoy boy! Get ‘em!”
Their presence had truly been revealed now, but the three Death Eater’s distraction allowed Dean to knock the masked one out with a stunning Spell, Dolohov raising his wand to fight back but Parvati shooting him with a body Bind Curse, Nott now unconscious at her feet.
“Get under here!” Harry yelled, bounding up the marble staircase, and Ron and Hermione managed to get under, but before Draco could duck below he was blasted, spiraling away and into a wall behind him. Shrinking against the wall, the Gryffindors saw Yaxley approaching, glaring, a large, scarred over gash running down his face.
“‘Ello blondie,” he drawled, then reeled his wand back and fired a torture curse at Draco’s groaning body. In a moment, bright red tendrils of light were wrapping around him and his screams bounced off of the walls.
“DRACO!” Harry howled, giving Yaxley just a moment to turn towards the sound of his voice, confused, before he lunged out from under the cloak and tackled him to the floor, fighting the Muggle way, reached for a rock and bashing him right in the skull, so that he was lying limp in a second. He didn’t bother to see if he was still alive, scrambling for Draco, who was no doubt in a world of pain but still pushing himself to his feet with the wall as his support.
“Are you okay?” Harry asked, voice dripping with worry, and his boyfriend squeezed his shoulder, forcing a smile.
“I’m fine,” he wheezed, attempting to straighten and wincing. “But I suggest we all hide under the Cloak.”
Hermione threw the cloak off and ran down the steps towards them, glaring. “That’s what I’ve been trying to get you to do!” With that she successfully tossed it around all four of them and they were off bounding up the marble steps into the Entrance Hall again…
To find a Slytherins hell. Death Eaters were tackling their children as they fought through tears in their eyes. They saw Pansy being protected by Lee against a couple whose masks were off, revealing faces identical to hers. They saw Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini pleading with Crabbe and Goyle Senior to think of their sons. And turning from this disaster, they could see Flitwick and Kingsley, attempting to duel the Malfoys while they attempted to explain how they were on their side.
“Let them go!” Draco unexpectedly bellowed and a massive protego stretched between the teachers and the couple. Lucius and Narcissa looked around for the source, stunned, for only a moment before turning and running down the steps, still carrying Goyle with them.
The Quartet then turned and ran for the front doors, pushing past students running in every direction, carrying or dragging injured friends, chased by Death Eaters. Harry fired a Stunning Spell at one, but it soared over his head, nearly hitting Neville, emerging from nowhere with arms full of Venomous Tentacula.
A spell collided with something glass and the Slytherin hourglass shattered, spilled emeralds across the floor that people slipped and tripped over. Lavender Brown let out an ear piercing scream as she fell from the balcony and Padma Patill howled after her, watching her fall in horror.
Then there were bright white flashes all around them and the four looked up to see clear glass was now joining the green emeralds on the floor as Professor Trelawney tossed a crystal sphere into the air and waved her wand, serving it like a ball in tennis down to the fight below to collide with Crabbe Senior’s head, who was looking ready to hit Theodore with a killing curse.
At the same moment, the front doors were knocked inward and a wave of ginormous spiders scuttled into the hall, screams instantly filling the air as students, teachers, and Death Eaters scrambled for the steps.
“How do we get out?” Ron yelled out, for their exit was now clearly blocked by the Acromantula, but the next second they were being knocked aside by Hagrid thundering up the marble steps, brandishing his pink umbrella like a sword.
“Don’t hurt ’em, don’t hurt ’em!” he bellowed, and Harry remembered the beginning of his school year. Aragog had been sick -
“HAGRID, NO!” Without a second thought Harry dived out from under the cloak into the thick of it, ignoring his friends cries behind him and running straight towards the front doors, after Hagrid. “HAGRID, COME BACK!”
But it was too late; Hagrid was being carried away by the crowd of retreating spiders, lost in the blur of gray, and even with the sun now blazing down on his shoulders Harry wouldn’t be able to see him.
“HAGRID!”
Out onto the grounds he sprinted, knowing by the cries of his name his friends were following some feet behind, chasing the spiders carrying his friends away with desperation.
“HAGRID!” But before he could take another step he was being hugged around the waist by firm arms, and fought back viciously as he heard his Godfather’s voice, soft but tired from shouting, in his ear.
“Harry stop, he’s gone.”
“No he’s not! He’s in the forest we can still get him back -”
“We will but not now, Harry!” He was pushed down on the ground, and turning over he saw Sirius’s gray eyes, tired and worried. “You have a job to do, right?”
“Right…” Harry moaned, nodding, and squeezing his eyes shut. Trying to imagine Nagini and ignore the pounding in his head. His scar, burning worse than ever before. “Right…”
“Then get up, move forward, and keep fighting,” Sirius helped him to his feet and pushed him forwards into the fight, where he spotted his friends standing, lifting the Invisibility Cloak up to allow him under, “GO!”
He burst forward and under the Cloak, and the four charged further off through the courtyard, stumbling back almost immediately as the way to the exit of the courtyard was cut off by the fall of a giants mighty club. They group was wrenched with horror for only a second, however, as they soon realized the giants were their army too, and this one was bounding forward to swing at a terrified huddle of Death Eater while Fudge stood on a rock which they soon realized was actually the fallen head of a massive statue, pointing his wand forward and shouting out commands to the giant in their language.
Honestly impressive for someone who had once, not so long ago, been oh so cowardly.
Turning away from this display they ran for a different exit, barely dodging another massive pair of feet as they ran forward to aid the giant - Grawp, now showing just how undersized of a an actual giant he was - and immediately were firing fiery spells at another advancing swarm of Acromantula, but there were too many of them, and for a moment Harry was sure they’d overtake them as well -
“FOR VIKTOR!” Turning, they all let out various whoops of delight as, looking like true Champions, Fleur Delacour, Tess Whitlock, Fernando Escarra, Anya Sallow, and Hugo Olsson burst forth, all led by Cedric Diggory, and ran head on into the mob of spiders, immediately beginning to shower them with bursts of light they couldn’t handle, driving them back towards the forest as well, and offering a path for the Quartet to run through, which they gladly took.
But suddenly, as they were bounding towards the Whomping Willow, they were stopped short by a rush of coldness, feeling like all the air had been wrenched from their lungs and replaced with ice, and they looked up to see, black against the bright blue sky, Dementors, swarming down towards the castle, and Harry remembered the deaths and Hagrid being carried off and all the triumph the former Triwizard Champions had brought was gone.
“Come on, Harry!” came Hermione’s voice, and sensibly he knew it was right beside him but it felt so far away. Far, far away… “Patronuses, Harry, come on!”
He raised his wand, but all he felt was hopelessness. He couldn’t do this. How could he think he could do this? He was just a boy at the end of the day, playing big and special with the weight of the world left by Dumbledore on his shoulders, but Dumbledore was wrong, he couldn’t save anyone. Not Fred, not Viktor…
“HARRY, COME ON!”
She and Ron had cast their Patroneses but the silver terrier flickered and died, and the otter twisted and began to fade.
Maybe it would be better this way, he thought as the Dementors advanced. To die with now pain nor love, nothing that had wrenched at his heart so terribly since the moment he was born, only emptiness.
But then, suddenly, there was bright light at the corners of his vision, and a silver hare, a boar, and a fox were galloping through the air to meet the Dementors, which were falling back at their approach. From out of the courtyard had emerged Luna, Ernie, and Seamus, the latter’s puffy face black with soot and hair spiky, as if he was in Potions class and just exploded his cauldron for the hundredth time.
“Come on,” Luna turned and called to an advancing crowd of Dumbledore’s Army members. “Think of something happy!”
Ginny’s brilliant silver stallion galloped alongside her and she turned and grabbed the red head’s hand, who was staring at her with love and awe, and suddenly Harry understood as he met Draco’s gaze beneath the cloak.
“Something happy…” He muttered and, thinking of his love’s very real and alive presence he raised his wand - “Expecto Patronum!” - and his brilliant silver stag joined the fight.
“Harry!” The kids cried, looking around madly for him. “Where are you -”
They were cut off by screams and the blinding light of bright orange flames, and suddenly they were all ducking for cover behind rocks across the grounds or up against the stone walls of the courtyard. A jet of flame, spiraling in a cylinder, was pursuing them across the grass, leaving charred black remains of once fresh blades in its wake. Looking up, the kids were all struck with the purest form of horror at the sight of a black scaled dragon, flying over them, blocking out the sun, and turning and landing on one of the castle battlements, releasing a deep roar.
“What do we do?” Hermione screamed, and Harry saw in their hurry to dodge it the Cloak had slipped off and he and his friends were now visible. “It’ll destroy the whole school!”
“But he’d have to kill his own men too!” Ernie yelled, and there was no wondering whether the ‘he’ he referred to meant Voldemort.
They saw two great big forms bound towards the thing across the courtyard, and watched as the dragon rose and dived for the gargantuan giants swinging their clubs above their heads, prepared to smash it to pieces. But as they got the one dragon busy and distracted from burning the fighters, Order and Death Eater alike, to bits, another roar met their ears and the Quartet spun around to see a second green dragon speeding through the air.
Spells were peppering its armor and Harry saw little dots in the air that, as they got closer, he realized were people on brooms.
“Don’t harm his eyes!” Oliver Wood was directing Harry’s old Quidditch team. “He’ll destroy the whole school if we blind him -”
He was interrupted in trying to dodge the dragon’s swinging sharp tail, but a broom beside him didn’t miss and suddenly the tail sent the person spiraling through the air to collide with the ground somewhere inside the courtyard. Half of the brooms dived to where they landed and left the others wildly out of the power balance with a fiery dragon, but the next moment there were sharp cries the likes of which Harry had never heard before and, wheeling in the grass, he saw twenty Thestrals galloping through the air and out of the Forbidden Forest.
“Are those -” Hermione choked, and Harry nodded, and the Quartet watched in awe as the skeletal, winged black horses pounded and bit at the dragon and it howled but couldn’t get a good shot at them all, fire burst blindly up at the sky.
A roar filled the air and they turned again to see the other dragon had set one of the giants heads on fire, and it was now stumbling blindly, shaking their massive arms at their head before falling over, crushing who knows how many people in their wake.
The triumph of the presence of the Thestrals died, and Harry came to a shaky stand and watched in horror as the dragon lit up the battlements of the castle, the other killing some Thestrals, whose bodies fell pathetically onto the grass. A third could be visible in the distance, already releasing waves of fire, and he squinted and saw that what it was lighting up was the Quidditch Pitch, burning like a torch in the distance, the House towers collapsing like twigs.
And he knew, all around him, people were dying, either for the wand in Draco’s pocket, or the beating of Harry’s own heart.
Suddenly, the screams and cries of the battle, the roar of the dragons and their fire, and the crumbling of rock was drowned out by a cold and high voice blanketing the air for the second time, close to your ear, as if Lord Voldemort himself was breathing down all of their necks.
“You have fought valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery. Yet you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste. Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately. You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured. I speak now, Harry Potter, directly to you. You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me with your friend’s wand, have not given yourself and my weapon up, the battle recommences, and I will order my dragons to light fire on this entire school. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour.”
Harry collapsed to his knees, and immediately felt his friend’s hands on his shoulders. Down the path to the Forbidden Forest, the Death Eaters were retreating. Some looked back at him, and glared or taunted him as they passed, but he could not make any attempts to react. His heart was heavy, his eyes tired, and he needed to take this hour to rest but knew he had no choice but to turn himself in eventually, didn’t he?
Meanwhile Draco sat replaying Voldemort’s words in his mind. Slowly, his hand inched into his pocket and he felt the wand sitting there, and thought of his plan from before. Could it actually work? Would he be able to do it, when push came to shove? The thought of it made him raise his eyes up to the Astronomy Tower. It had never seemed so tall before now. He wondered, just for a moment, what it would feel like -
“Come on, Harry,” Hermione was saying, after what felt like an eternity of sitting there, watching the Death Eater’s retreat and the dragons land below the trees. She helped him up to his feet. “Let’s get back to the castle.”
“It’s three o’clock,” Harry groaned as they trudged back the way they came towards the castle. “We have forty-five -”
“Don’t think about that, mate,” said Ron. “Let’s just rest a while, then we can make a… plan.”
Before them was an apocalypse. Small bundles they knew to be bodies littered the ground where there wasn’t rubble. They saw the massive dead giant’s body in the corner, hands, feet, and wands poking out from under it, and Harry saw in a corner they hadn’t paid attention to earlier the bodies of burnt Inferi paired with burnt Death Eater’s, nearly indistinguishable. There were noticeably no bodies of the good, however; they must’ve been taken inside. How long had they sat there? Right, ten minutes.
Slowly, the group pushed open the great wooden doors into the entrance hall, finding it deserted, still, and silent, alarmingly so, with the walls stained with blood, the floor still covered in emeralds, glass, marble, and splintered wood. Many paintings had been torn and banisters ripped. For a moment the group paused and looked down the stairs to the dungeons, thinking of the Malfoys and Goyle.
“Where is everyone?” Hermione whispered, and they all looked at the doors to the Great Hall. Ron led the way towards them and, with a great creaking, pushed them inwards.
The House tables had been pushed against the walls, survivors sat on the floor in groups, muttering reassurances to each other. Up on the raised platform were the injured laid across transfigured cushions by Madam Pomfrey and anyone who wanted to help, including Hannah Abbott, who was reassuring the centaur Firenze. His flank poured blood and he shook, bent on his knees, unable to stand.
But across the middle of the hall, surrounded by sobs and screams, were the dead.
Fred’s body wasn’t visible but there was no wondering where he was; his entire family surrounded him. George kneeled at his head, howling, and Mrs. Weasley laid across his chest, body shaking with sobs as Mr. Weasley stroked her hair, though tears were pooling down his cheeks. Bill stood some feet away, Fleur hugging his waist, and Charlie sat beside Percy clearly attempting to calm him about something.
That’s when Harry noticed something was still missing as Ron joined the picture, hugging onto Percy. Where was Tess?
As if in answer the doors creaked again and Harry turned, though he didn’t know what he was expecting. For her to run through those doors, hair free and cascading down her back in coils, dressed in a white and gold pantsuit with a cape to match? For him to be brought back to the Yule Ball and see her beaming brightly at him?
But this world was evil and cruel, so he got nothing of the sort. Instead, Fernando walked through the doors with Cedric, Anya, and Hugo behind him, clutching gently in his arms a small, bloody and battered body, nearly unrecognizable, crumpled like a broken doll.
“TESS!” Percy released a howl and pushed Harry aside so hard he nearly fell, bounding across the hall to his fiance, and the other Champions watched with tears in their eyes as Fernando knelt down and let him half hold her.
“There was an explosion, and a tower collapsed,” Anya choked, pressing the back of her hand to her mouth. “I’m so sorry…”
There was no telling if Percy was even listening, as he had buried his head in who was supposed to be his future wife’s chest, sobbing and screaming uncontrollably, and behind him, Harry heard cries of grief as well, and turned to see Mrs. Weasley had sat up to clutch her face in grief, Fleur sinking to her knees and Bill bending with her, hugging her close while she cried.
Them bending down gave him a clear view of the bodies behind Fred’s, however, and Harry felt his world shatter around him. Had he thought the world had ended when Fred had died? That had been cruel, but this -
Stumbling forwards blindly, he stood before the bodies of Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, side by side and almost peaceful looking. They could have even been sleeping, their hands stretched out beside each other, as if they were attempting to reach the other’s hand in death.
Someone walked up beside Harry and he bent down on his knees, sobbing into his hands, letting Tonks kneel and wrap her arms around him.
Sirius could not be dead - not Lupin -
“I’m sorry,” Tonks croaked into his ear, offering him no comfort.
“You know something?” She told him after a moment and he had lifted his head, blinking at the pair of bodies blurrily through tears. “They’re married.”
“Huh?” He spun around, stunned as she nodded, chuckling madly, and he saw her eyes were bloodshot. She seemed to be shaking with the effort not to cry out and scream, or maybe she was just in pain; there was a cut sliced through her sleeve.
“Sirius wanted to give him a normal life, but they did it all in secret. Well, I was told but…” She took in a shaky breath. “After the flight and Snape betrayed us, they bought a flat in Kent. Married in secret in a Muggle church. Last month, Sirius told me he wanted to give Remus a baby. A family. But he wanted to make it a surprise. He arranged a surrogate; me.”
Harry’s eyes widened to the size of saucers and she managed a weak smile, patting her stomach. “Surprise.”
With that she broke off into heart wrenching sobs again and Harry squeezed her shoulder but didn’t know what else to do, especially when she embraced the pair, lunging forwards across their bodies.
Speechless, Harry rose to his feet and turned to find Ron and Hermione occupied in mourning Fred and Tess, the latter’s body having been carried over to lay beside him. Draco was gone though. He looked around madly, horror striking his chest, and spotted his pale head bobbing against the crowd, walking back towards the doors.
“Draco!” The Slytherin stopped short, allowing him to run forwards and grab his hand, pulling him back.
“We have to plan -”
“I have a plan,” said Draco, turning and Harry saw he was carrying the rucksack. Digging deep inside it for a moment he retrieved a flask with a clear memory swirling inside. Dumbledore’s gift.
“Are you sure… Now?”
“Yes,” said Draco. “When else? Harry, no matter what we do, this day’s ending with you fighting him. What did the will say? ‘and use it only -’”
“‘- in desperate need.’” Harry nodded, carefully picking up the vile and turning it in his hand. “So… You really think now is the time?”
Draco swallowed hard and nodded. “Yeah… I know it is.”
Harry looked back at the bodies but quickly turned away. He couldn’t think of the dead or dying right now, they needed to end this, and this memory, the vile in his hand… It might have answers.
“Okay I -” He looked at Draco’s eyes, those he loved so much, and faltered on words he wanted to say so bad by now but just couldn’t. Instead lunging forwards to hug the one he loved tightly, pulling back and kissing him gently on the lips. “Be safe.”
“I’ll be fine,” said Draco waving a hand. “Planning taking down Nagini with Ronnie and ‘Mione, nothing dangerous.” Harry beamed at him, never loving him more than he did now, and slowly backed away.
He held his gaze as long as he could before turning and bounding up the marble staircase, clutching the memory in his fist, thinking of all the answers it might hold. Draco watched him go with a faint smile that slowly dipped down, before turning and looking into the Great Hall.
He spotted Pansy and remembered all of his time with her in childhood, as well as Theo, and Blaise, and Daphne, and Millicent, and Tracey, and Crabbe and Goyle though they weren’t here. He looked at Fred and recalled befriending him in Fourth Year, but didn’t forget how rocky that relationship started. He watched Percy sob over Tess and remembered her kindness to him throughout the Tournament. He looked at all his teachers with love and respect, and finally his eyes found Ron and Hermione.
There was a time he hadn’t even cared to know their first names, but now seeing their faces brought tears to his eyes. All the memories, all the moments they’d shared, laughs and tears, shouts and hollers. Rocky and smooth, their relationship had always remained strong since Fourth Year, and simply staring at them, knowing he was about to leave them for good, was enough to make those tears fall down his cheeks.
“Goodbye.” He choked to Hogwarts, his family not bound together by blood, and turned and walked away up the staircase beside him, carefully, so as to avoid scattered emeralds and glass, thinking only of the Astronomy Tower, and how high up it had been. And what it would feel like…
He imagined it would be peaceful, and found solace in that as his walking sped up to running.
-*-*-*-
“Dumbledore!” It was the only thing on Harry’s mind but, somehow, miraculously, it was the correct password, and the gargoyle statue turned and allowed him to step onto the steps and rise up to the doors to the Headmaster’s Office.
It was, strangely, just as he and Draco had left it before Christmas. Snape hadn’t changed a thing, instead leaving the desk cleared save for paperwork, as McGonagall had, and the Sorting Hat high on its shelf, the box where the false Sword of Gryffindor had once sat was now empty, though, and all of the portraits were empty and vacant, including Phineas Nigellus Black. Every occupant must’ve run to their neighbors to view the battle.
Harry walked, footsteps echoing faintly against the silent airy office, over to the cabinet where the Pensieve was kept and picked it up, floating it over upon the desk. Uncorking the pristine bottle, he slowly poured the memory in and watched, in wonder, as the dark shapes began to swirl within. It was large, larger than anything he and Draco had viewed this year. So, with a great deep breath, he plunged forward through the surface of the memory, prepared for a long journey.