The Hogwarts Descendant

Chapter 91:

What they found out in the courtyard banished any previous thoughts completely from his mind.

Hogwarts, the place that had been a home and sanctuary for so many, was in rubble. Stone statues clashed with Death Eaters, spells striking them and reigning their rubble down on the duelers. Acromantulas were prowling around, snatching Order and Death Eater members alike and dragging them back towards the forest. Hagrid was running interference, screaming at the spiders and smacking them over the heads with a tree trunk.

The coble stones were chipped and cracked from the force of crowds and spells. A giant stood a hundred yards away, nearly twenty feet tall and swinging his club into the side of the Clock Tower. Death Eater forces were pouring through the open gates, the enchantments around the castle slowly beginning to fade like the castle's life-force itself was dying.

This courtyard had once been a peaceful welcoming place, a scenic place of serenity that echoed with the call of birds and the thestrals in the forest. Now it was painted in blood and echoed with the cries of the dying.

"Dahlia!" Pansy gripped her hand, yanking her into action. Dahlia stumbled out of the way, narrowly avoiding a killing curse that struck the castle wall behind her.

That woke her up. Dahlia stiffened, cataloguing the situation with a trained eye as she rattled off orders, "Astoria, Adrian, and Daphne - defend the Order. Pansy, Cris, Ginny, Luna, stop the Death Eaters that keep coming in."

"And us?" Theo and Blaise turned to Dahlia expectantly, cocking a brow at her. Draco was eyeing her with apprehension as if he already knew exactly what she was going to say

Dahlia smirked, cracking her knuckles and straightening her shoulders. "I believe we have a giant to slay, gentlemen."

"Why do we always get the hard jobs?" Theo whined as he trotted after Dahlia through the fray. They eliminated as many Death Eaters as they could as they made their way across the courtyard, focused on the one thing capable of wiping all of them out.

Dahlia shot spells at the Giant's back as they waded towards him, her spell ricocheting and striking an Acromantula instead. Not what she'd wanted, but useful.

"How are we supposed to take it down when spells don't hurt it?" Draco bellowed, throwing several Killing Curses at the giant before having to duck and run to avoid the giant's club.

"I'm trying to figure that out!" Dahlia grunted as she threw herself behind a column just in time to avoid being batted against the wall.

"Incarcerous!" Theo screamed, dancing around the giant's ankles. The ropes threw the giant off balance for a second before snapping. Theo was forced to disapparate and reappear beside Dahlia to avoid being scooped into the giant's hand.

"Brilliant!" Dahlia screamed, pointing her wand at the Giant's ankles. Thick ropes snaked out of her wand, wrapping around the giant's ankles and snaking up to his knees. Draco followed suit, sending chains coiling around the giant's legs.

The giant abandoned them all together and began a full scale assault on the ropes and chains immobilizing his body. The giant had just fallen to his knees when a great bellow shook the trees around them and a childlike roar echoed in the deepest voice Dahlia had ever heard.

"Grawp beat giant. H'grid say Grawp fight giants!"

The ground shook so hard that Dahlia's teeth chattered, and she barely had time to look up in time to see a second, slightly smaller giant, pounding over towards them from the forest.

It was terrifying - his greyish, green face was furrowed in a scowl, his mossy, yellow teeth barred. The large, apparently friendly, giant was dressed in nothing but a loin cloth that did very little to shield him when one was standing directly underneath him.