Serpent in the Lion's Den

46. The Battle of Hogwarts

The courtyard was chaos.

Death Eaters, trolls and werewolves led by Fenrir Greyback duelled and fought against the students, teachers and staff of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry. Pillars had been upturned and toppled over by misled spells, the walkways had been cracked and uplifted by dark magic and the sky was a dark grey with the only light coming from a bright green dark mark etched into the sky.

Draco, Ginny and Seamus ran through the Great Hall where the wounded were being quickly treated by Poppy Pompfrey and where the courtyard was visible from its entrance doors. As they stepped out onto the courtyard they ran into Ron and Hermione.

"Where's Harry?" Ginny asked as Draco rushed to Hermione's side and wrapped his arms around her, wiping her tear-stained cheeks with his thumbs.

"Minnie, what's wrong?"

"Professor Snape is dead, he gave Harry his memories and it turns out Snape was on our side since before the Order got back together" Hermione sniffled, "Harry's gone into the Forest alone to meet Voldemort because he promised to stop the killings if he did. He told us to kill the snake... it's the last horcrux."

"You destroyed the other two? You found the diadem?" Draco asked and Hermione nodded, "Ron's idea, we used a Basilisk fang... where's Neville?"

"He's... he's gone. I'm sorry." Draco said and held her tighter as a fresh wave of sobs came from both Ginny and Hermione. Ron hugged his sister and buried his face to her shoulder to mask his own tears and grief.

"The Dark Lord isn't going to stop these killings; we have to help." Draco announced to the group and they all nodded in agreement.

"How very Gryffindor of you," Seamus said as he began to walk away, wand at the ready.

"Where are you going?" Ron shouted after him "To find Dean... I'm in love with him... figured he should know" he replied smiling and entered the battlefield, the other wizards at his tail, all grinning at one another – Ginny most of all.

"Let me guess Weaslette... more money coming your way?" Draco smirked. "Of course, Ferret, another three galleons for me, this time actually from Fred and George" she grinned.

The stone soldiers McGonagall had charmed to life were slowly crumbling to ash as more Death Eaters swarmed the courtyard, followed by a pack of Acromantulas. Draco jumped onto a broken pillar and began shouting curses at the beasts as they scuttled towards the Order.

"Conversus ad statuas!" Draco shouted and one by one the Acromantulas turned to stone.

"Cool trick, always knew you took after your Aunt!" a voice shouted from Draco's left and the Slytherin turned, ready to hex whoever dared to compare him to Bellatrix. "Oh, you didn't think I meant the barmy witch of an Aunt? No, I meant your cool Aunt... my mum to be exact."

"Nymphadora? Andromeda's daughter? Is she here?" Draco exclaimed, looking at the witch who looked so similar to old picture's he'd found in his mother's room of her and her sisters. Minus the pink hair which burnt to a deep burgundy as the witch spoke

"No one calls me Nymphadora, it's Tonks and no my mother isn't here, she's looking after my son Teddy. Named after his grandad he is, his dad's the one over there." She smiled and pointed upwards to a tower where Professor Lupin was just visible duelling with a couple Death Eaters.

"Professor Lupin?" Draco asked and the witch nodded, sending a few hexes at approaching wizards, "I'm sorry we haven't met before now, I'd like to change that and make it up to your family if we both survive this. Starting with this," the wizard turned to where Professor was fighting a losing battle with three advancing Death Eaters and shot three curses one after the other, taking out all three. He turned back to his cousin who was staring wide-eyed and shrugged before taking off in another direction towards a tuft of ginger hair.

"All okay Weasel?" he asked as he reached Ron's side who was having a hard time fighting of an advancing werewolf. "Absolutely Malfoy, I really wanted to spend my time duelling with a werewolf whilst worrying whether my best friend is still alive!" Ron spat and sent a final curse at the werewolf until it dropped dead on the stone. Draco smirked in approval and turned to search for hazel eyes and bushy hair until he heard Ron's shaky voice,

"Bloody hell" Three more werewolves had approached and had their eyes locked on the two wizards, their teeth snarling and dripping with saliva. The Gryffindor and Slytherin raised their wands and both shouted "Incarcerous!" at the same time sending black ropes from their wands and taking down two werewolves. Draco used his wand to transfigure two rocks on the floor into daggers and sent them into the binded werewolves' hearts as Ron threw jinxes at the final, largest one. The wizards caught one another's eyes and nodded,

"On three" Ron said, "one... two-"

The werewolf was lifted into the air as large claws dug into its sides. A familiar, white dragon threw the werewolf into the air and caught it between its teeth, swallowing it down its vast neck.

"Hey lil' bro, someone order backup?" came a voice from above them.

Charlie Weasley sat astride the albino dragon and waved down to a shell-shocked Ron down below. The sky was littered with dragons as well as wizards on brooms aligned in an arrowhead formation, the wizard at the point of the arrowhead shouted out,

"Dive in three... two... one... DIVE!" shouted Oliver Wood and dozens of figures dipped towards the ground. Groups of three lifted trolls from the ground and threw them into the Black Lake whilst others grabbed the hoods of Death Eaters and threw them up for the dragons to catch between their teeth. Ron looked around and grinned,

"We're winning."

"Don't get ahead of yourself Weasel, there are still at least twenty werewolves and Greyback isn't dead, neither is the snake."

"Me and Mione both have a Basilisk fang; I'll go find her and we'll find the snake." Ron shouted and didn't wait for Draco's response before running through his allies that were slowly advancing on the enemy, claiming the side closest to Hogwarts as their own. Draco took a second to see who needed the most help and settled on his cousin but he was beaten to it as Remus jumped to his wife's aid, battling the Death Eaters running towards them. Draco continued to make his way over regardless, his eyes still searching the crowd for the bird's nest of hair he'd grown to love and when his eyes locked back onto his destination, he only saw his cousin standing against the group. Remus was on the ground, a dark patch of red growing and soaking his shirt. Tonks looked down at her husband and angry tears filled her eyes as Draco dropped to the floor to help the wizard up. The witch screamed and ripped her wand sideways, sending all the Death Eaters in a fifty-foot radius backwards.

"Tonks, help me get him into the hall" Draco shouted, silently impressed by his cousin's strength as they both hooked an arm around Remus' back and dragged him into the hall. Poppy Pompfrey came over immediately and began tending to the curse in his side, asking Tonks if she knew the curse used. As the witches spoke Draco surveyed the room; it smelt of dark magic and death, it clung to his chest and stung his eyes as he watched people lose their family and their friends. Through it all he made out a sea of red hair and ran the length of the hall, fearing for the worst.

He stopped short and breathed a small sigh of relief when he saw a frizz of brown within the red. Hermione had her arms wrapped around Ron and Ginny as they sobbed and spoke incoherently into her shoulders. She carefully unwound herself from the wizards who clutched at one another instead and sat down on the floor, her arms reaching out and holding George tightly. He collapsed against her and screamed in agony as she held him. Draco stepped forward and realised why all the Weasley family were clutching to one another with tears pouring down their cheeks. Fred laid in a stretcher at their feet, lifeless and unmoving.

Before Draco could move to try and help or to turn back to his cousin and her dying husband, a voice wavered through the battle and the sorrow. Lord Voldemort and a swarm of his closest and strongest death eaters walked across towards Hogwarts.

"Enough! Harry Potter is dead."