On God?

Chapter 50

in which the shit ends

"NO!" The sound cut through the thick silence, and I felt myself flinch. Professor McGonagall, who I had never heard yell so loudly until this moment, was the one to scream. Bellatrix laughed, delighting in the older woman's despair.

It hit me now. Professor McGonagall probably taught so, so many of the Death Eaters now in front of her. And they spat in her face.

I couldn't move. I knew he wasn't really dead, that he was only putting on a false front. But he was so unmoving...he looked pale and stiff, and panic set in as I began to doubt everything. What if he really was dead?

"No!"

"No!"

"Harry! HARRY!"

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny's voices were almost worse. They sounded raw with exhaustion and desperation and heartbreak and I wanted to yell out that he wasn't really dead.

I felt Blaise slip his hand into my mine, grasping it tightly. I glanced at him, and he must have noticed how pale I was, because he leaned down to whisper something into my ear.

"Remember your promise to your sister. When all this is done, you'll go home to her."

The screams and yells of the crowd gathered in front of the castle was cut off by Voldemort yelling out. "SILENCE!" Voldemort cried, and there was a bang and a flash of bright light, and silence was forced upon them all. "It is over! Set him down, Hagrid, at my feet, where he belongs!"

I noticed Hagrid now, as if for the first time, and the gentle giant set Harry carefully down on the grass, backing away after he did so.

"You see?" Voldemort said, striding backward and forward right beside the place where Harry lay. "Harry Potter is dead! Do you understand now, deluded ones? He was nothing, ever, but a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him!"

"He beat you!" Ron yelled, and the charm broke, and the defenders of Hogwarts were shouting and screaming again until a second, more powerful bang extinguished their voices once more.

"He was killed while trying to sneak out of the castle grounds," Voldemort said, and there was a relish in his voice for the lie, "killed while trying to save himself - "

I ripped free of Blaise's grasp and ignored his protests, striding through the crowd until I got to the front.

"Ah." Voldemort's voice was almost pleased, borderline insulting. "Blair Black. I thought you had crawled into a hole and died somewhere."

Jeers and laughter rose from the ranks of the Death Eaters, and I grit my teeth and raised my chin.

"I am not afraid of you." I called out. Voldemort looked taken aback, opening his mouth to speak when I continued.

"My name is Blair Black, and I will keep fighting until there is no breath left in my body." I felt Theo and Blaise's presences at my back now, and I felt stronger knowing they were with me.

"My father died fighting for the same cause we are fighting for. To defeat you." I pointed at Voldemort. "He outsmarted out. He outsmarted all of your little cronies too, and by the time you realized what had happened, it was too late. He was already dead."

"You are going to die, Blair Black." Voldemort spoke softly, but his voice was threatening in it's own way.

"Maybe. But I won't have died for nothing. Harry hasn't died for nothing. Harry died for us. All of us. But if you all give up now, then it will have been for nothing." I turned to look at the students behind me now, determination burning in my eyes.