Incendio

While she had continued her fight, the faces of those who had died before her eyes littered her mind. She couldn't stop seeing their last expression of hope or exuberance as they died. It had only fueled her fight more. She didn't even see who she was fighting anymore, it was all just a blur of sights and sounds. She was sweaty and she could taste blood in her mouth.

A single solitary face brought her out of her furious mayhem. Her brother stood before her. Amongst the fighting circled around them, they stood still looking into each others eyes. He looked like another man, the baby fat stripped from his cheeks, dark circles enrapturing his eyes and his hair to his shoulders now. He wore black robes that he'd rolled the sleeves up on. Samantha felt a small relief he did not bear a mark on either arm.

Samantha's guilt continued as they stared in an infinite lock, she had killed the woman he loved. He didn't know it yet, at least she presumed he didn't. She wondered if it really was her fault that he was the way he was.

He didn't raise a wand to her, he didn't move to duel, which brought Samantha a deep gratefulness. She did not want to be pushed to kill him too. He nodded at her, his dark eyes never leaving as if he was thinking the same way.

The two of them moved a part and joined other duels. The hot tears continued in her eyes as she watched him duel her friends. The mercy he had bestowed, was reserved for her alone. He was soon out of sight and she continued in her battles.

When Voldemort called for the armistice, she couldn't bring herself to follow everyone to the Great Hall. She felt like an extreme failure. She couldn't face everyone. She wasn't a good leader, she wasn't a good friend, she wasn't even a good sister or daughter, she wasn't anything in the moment other than a failure. She knew no one was going to give up Harry, she certainly wouldn't. So she also knew by extent, she would probably die.

It was an hour or so before dawn was to arrive and Samantha just wanted to spend her last moments alone. She glimpsed out the windows as she walked through the halls of her old school. The grounds outside looked like it was covered in a blanket, a blanket of bodies and debris. She climbed a few stairs in slight solidarity. There were a few students who seemed to be in similar states, quietly huddled up or standing with their eyes wide. She didn't look to see who was alive or dead.

She rounded an old corner down a hallway near the Transfiguration classroom. At the end of the hall was the door to the Gazette headquarters. She opened the door, it was seemingly untouched, aside from the window being blown out. She looked out to see people were collecting the dead and she peeled her eyes away.

She looked around the room, missing the days when the contents of this room were her whole world. She missed when being a writer was all she had. Samantha noticed one of her old notebooks sitting on a desk near her.

She wanted to say goodbye to her parents and she wanted to have a single account of the battle that wasn't twisted. She was sure Voldemort and his followers would tell a different story so she wanted her account written.

She poured everything she had gone through, onto the page. None of it was her normal style, it was unfiltered and honest as she wrote in first person. Everything, down to every little thought or detail made it onto the page. The sounds of the bombs, the smell of flesh, the taste of blood in her mouth all were explained in fervent detail. Her own personal thoughts about the battle, her friends, her family and even her enemies poured from her onto the page.

She fidgeted a bit and felt a burning in her side. She lifted her shirt to see a large gaping gash across her lower abdomen. She decided maybe she'd need to clean it. It was pretty bad and it smelled rancid. She dug into her bag and grabbed her Essence of Dittany. She pulled out bandages and began wrapping it.

"I knew I'd find you here." Lee said leaning in the doorway. His eyes were glazed with tears as he looked at her.

Samantha nodded briefly pulling her shirt back down. "I figured I'd stay here until I was told to go somewhere else."

"I was sent to find you." Lee said with red eyes coming and sitting beside her. "No one had seen you in a bit and we feared the worst."

Samantha nodded, "I'm alright."

He blurted out, this time in a full sob, "Fred's dead."

Samantha's heart stopped. She felt the tears well in her eyes again. He couldn't be. Just a few hours ago they were joking around the dinner table. He was telling her to wash up while wearing his signature kiss the cook apron and making pies.

"I saw him, they have everyone who's, you know, gone, in the Great Hall." He was struggling to talk.

Samantha asked after letting Lee sob. "I saw Marietta and Elsie, when they, you know," Samantha couldn't finish her words as Lee began to sob more. "Are they down there?"

"What's left of them is." Lee said with a giant heave of his chest.

"Anyone else we know?" Samantha asked.

Lee nodded his head silently.

"Who?"

"Lavender Brown."

Samantha shook her head, she had been her roommate for years. She couldn't imagine her beautiful face being destroyed.

"Tonks and Remus too." Lee admitted softly sniffling back a few tears.

"I thought Tonks was back with Teddy!" Samantha exclaimed.

Lee shook his head before standing up. "No. She wasn't." His hand was gripped into a tight fist and he looked down at her. "They are still bringing more people in. I'm going to go help. I was just supposed to see if you were alive."

Samantha nodded. She turned back to her notebook.

"Is this really the time Sam?" Lee asked nodding to her filled notebook and seeing the ink on her fingers.

"It's for mum and dad, so they know what happened."

Lee's eyes widened as he spoke, "We're going to live Sam."

Samantha looked at Lee, this time the tears were from her eyes. She shook her head, "I don't know."

"I'm going back down to help with the bodies." He said before leaving the room.

She could hear his footsteps leave.

She lifted her shirt to check her wound after he was out of the room. It wasn't bleeding through the bandages so she assumed it was holding.

She stuffed the little journal into her bag and began her descent from her hiding place a few minutes later. She noticed as she descended the staircase and looked out a window that a parade of Death Eaters had begun making their way from the forest. They had Hagrid close to the front, with Voldemort. Hagrid was carrying something.

She began running to the Great Hall where people had begun filing out onto the grounds. There was already a great crowd as she too exited and followed. She couldn't see immediately what was going on, the crowd was too thick and she wasn't particularly tall.

She could hear the screaming and that's when she knew what had happened. Harry Potter was dead. He was what Hagrid was carrying in his arms. Her heart went directly into her throat. He couldn't be dead. Not Harry, he was supposed to be victorious, not die. She mourned for the world around her, but she also mourned for her classmate. She'd known Harry her whole childhood and it was just another blow to her grief.

Samantha began pushing her way through the crowd, to try and better see what was happening.

Voldemort called for silence. She had never heard his voice before, except when he had called for the armistice. It was just as horrifying as she would have expected, he sounded like every word he spoke had a growl at the end of it. She didn't want to hear him as he explained that Harry had died trying to save himself. She pushed through the crowd.

Samantha wouldn't believe that Harry would ever have tried to simply run away and save himself. He would never have done that, he barely wanted to involve anyone, let alone let anyone die for him.

Bang!

A flash of light had now silenced the crowd by what Samantha recognized as a very powerful silencing charm.

She elbowed her way further, she was near the middle of the crowd. She felt someone's elbow in her rib cage and another person step on her foot. She could hear Voldemort's taunts to the crowd.

She finally arrived where she could see Hagrid place Harry's body on the ground before Voldemort's feet. Voldemort himself was a monster to behold, with slits for eyes and snakelike features. His skin resembled that of a cold corpse. A large snake slithered around his feet.

"He beat you!"

Samantha recognized Ron Weasley's voice shouting and the charm was broken. The whole crowd began shouting again, disconcerting her ears. She stopped her journey and began yelling out expletives towards the Death Eaters as well.

Bang!

Another silencing charm had been placed upon the crowd. She noticed another figure running through the crowd of people. This person didn't seem to mind the people around him, just pushed his way through. It was Neville. He broke through the Death Eater's barrier.

Samantha now ran through what was left of the crowd, realizing what he was doing.

"Stop!" She yelled silently into the charmed area. She was near the front now, she could get to him. Someone grabbed her from behind, stopping her attempt. She struggled trying to get out of their arms.

She turned to see it was McGonagall, tightly holding her around the shoulders.
Samantha stopped her cries and looked at McGonagall who was still holding her back. McGonagall looked horrified and Samantha decided it was best not attempt to get over the line. Samantha ceased her struggling and looked at the line of Death Eaters holding the onlookers back. She wondered how Neville had even managed to get through. McGonagall loosened her grip but kept hold of her shoulders.

Samantha could see everything now and regretted that deeply. Harry was laying on the ground, sprawled out. She couldn't breathe as Voldemort disarmed Neville and he fell back onto the ground with no wand, and no defense. Her hands were both shaking without control. She couldn't bring herself to watch as Voldemort asked Neville to join him, because she knew the answer.

After Neville refused to join and the crowd had to be silenced again, Samantha heard a raspy hissing noise above her. She looked up towards the sound. She saw a vulture circling and she recognized the vulture immediately. It was her mother, it had to be. Samantha couldn't take her eyes off of it, and gripped her wand tightly. If her mother was there, did this mean reinforcements were coming? The vulture flew away and back out of sight. Her mother would have stayed, it was just a vulture.

Her moment of distraction was interrupted by something zooming through the air right above the crowd. A small rolled up article flew into the hand of Voldemort. He pronounced that there would never be a sorting again, Hogwarts would only celebrate Slytherin.

Neville was now on his knees and the snake was near him. Before anything else happened, Samantha's eyes briefly met Neville's. She didn't want to watch him die. She felt sobs leave her chest as Voldemort shoved the hat onto Neville's head at set the hat on fire.

Samantha and everyone around her screamed. It was during the unified scream that Samantha looked up and saw the vulture on the horizon again. The vulture was accompanied by a small little black dragon flying beside it and blowing flames. Beneath the two flying figures was a large crowd, hundreds of witches and wizards were running towards the castle. The crowd sounded a war cry as the vulture reached the ground and transformed into her mother, who lead the crowd towards them.

Arrows began flying around them, the centaurs from the forest were firing at the Death Eaters. More winged creatures joined the small dragon and had begun attacking the Death Eaters below them.

A swish and a clang of metal brought everyone's eyes back to Neville. With a single stroke, he cut off the head of the snake that had been circling Voldemort's feet. Beside the snake, where Harry's body should have been, there was nothing.

In the brief silence a realization passed between the crowd. They were going to win.