𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐫 | n. tonks

xxxv

This was not how Hadley imagined her return to Hogwarts. This was not where she thought the final battle was going to take place. She didn't feel like she was prepared, but at the same time, she felt like everything she's worked for over the last two years has led up to this moment.

Hadley was in the Room of Requirement with Kingsley, Remus, Tonks, Oliver Wood, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, Bill, Fleur, Fred, George, Ginny, her mum and dad, and other Hogwarts students. It was nice to see her old Gryffindor dorm mates again, she just wished it was under different circumstances.

"So, you're engaged? That's so exciting!" Angelina smiled, examining the ring on Hadley's finger. "I always thought I'd be the first one to get married. You were so uninterested in boys."

"Makes a lot of sense now, doesn't it?" Hadley chuckled, glancing over at Tonks, who was speaking with Molly and Arthur.

The door to the Room of Requirement opened, and Harry came in.

"Harry, what's happening?" Remus asked as he went over to him.

"Voldemort's on his way. They're barricading the school. Snape's run for it," Harry told them. He looked around the packed room. "What are you doing here? How did you know?"

"We sent messages to the rest of Dumbledore's Army," Fred said. "You couldn't expect everyone to miss the fun, Harry. The D.A. let the Order of the Phoenix know, and it all kind of snowballed."

"What first, Harry?" George asked. "What's going on?"

"And how soon can I light those big dummies on fire?" Hadley asked, smirking as she exchanged looks with Fred and George. Tonks chuckled softly and shook her head. "Dora can't oppose to me playing with fire now. Not when it's a matter of life or death."

"Yeah, we should blow them up," Fred agreed, laughing as George mimicked an explosion noise with his mouth.

"They're evacuating the younger kids and everyone's meeting in the Great Hall to get organized," Harry said. "We're fighting."

The room turned to chaos as everyone made a run for the exit. Kingsley gathered Hadley and the rest of the Order together, instructing her and Tonks to help with the evacuation of the younger students.

"You're underage!" Molly shouted at Ginny, grabbing her arm to keep her from leaving. "I won't permit it! The boys and Hadley, yes, but you, you've got to go home!"

"I won't!" Ginny argued, ripping her arm out of Molly's grip. "I'm in Dumbledore's Army–"

"A teenagers' gang!"

"A teenagers' gang that's about to take him on, which no one else has dared to do!" Fred jumped to her defense.

"She's sixteen!" Molly cried. "She's not old enough! What you and George were thinking, bringing her with you–"

The twins glanced at each other, looking slightly ashamed.

"Mum's right, Ginny," Hadley said gently as Bill nodded. "Your safety comes first. It's the most important thing."

"Everyone underage will have to leave," Bill added. "It's only right."

"I can't go home!" Ginny shouted, tears of anger filling her eyes. "My whole family is here! I can't stand waiting there alone and not knowing and..." Her eyes met Harry's for a moment before she looked away. "Fine...I'll say goodbye now, then, and–"

There was scuffling and a thump as someone came out of the tunnel that connected the Room of Requirement to the Hog's Head. Hadley's eyes widened in disbelief, and she exchanged a look with Fred and George.

"Am I too late? Has it started?" Percy Weasley asked. "I only just found out, so I...I..."

The whole room fell silent. The Weasley siblings stood there looking at each other for a moment, the triplets whispering quietly to each other with sideways glances at Percy.

"That's Percy?" Tonks asked Hadley quietly. She nodded.

"He's a git," she muttered. "A power-hungry, Minister of Magic arse-kissing git."

"He's got a lot of nerve showing his face after everything he's done and said to us," Fred grumbled, crossing his arms.

"I was a fool!" Percy suddenly shouted. "I was an idiot, I was a prat, I was a...a–

"Ministry-loving–" Fred started.

"Family-disowning–" Hadley added, crossing her arms.

"Power-hungry moron," they said together.

"Honestly, you should've been in Slytherin," George said.

Percy swallowed and looked at Fred and Hadley, who waited for his response. "Yes, I was!"

Fred sighed. "Well, you can't say fairer than that." He extended his hand to Percy and motioned for George and Hadley to do the same. The two younger triplets exchanged a look before shaking hands with their older brother.

Molly burst into tears. She ran forward, pushed the triplets out of the way, and wrapped Percy in a crushing hug.

"I'm sorry, Dad," Percy apologized to Arthur. The man blinked back tears before hurrying to hug his son.

"What made you see sense, Perce?" George asked.

"It's been coming on for a while," Percy admitted, wiping his teary eyes with his traveling cloak. "But I had to find a way out, and it's not so easy at the Ministry. They're impersonating traitors all the time. I managed to make contact with Aberforth, and he tipped me off 10 minutes ago that Hogwarts was going to make a fight of it, so here I am."

"Well, we do look to our prefects to take lead at times such as these," George said, nudging Hadley with his elbow. "Now let's get upstairs and fight, or all the good Death Eaters will be taken."

"So, you two are my sisters-in-law now?" Percy asked Fleur and Tonks, shaking hands with both of them.

"Not yet," Tonks told him. "But if we make it through this battle, then I will be very soon."

"Ginny, no!" Hadley shouted at the same time as Molly, both of them making a move to run after the youngest Weasley.

"Molly, how about this," Remus began as Hadley blocked Ginny's path out of the room. "Why doesn't Ginny stay here, then at least she'll be on the scene and know what's going on, but she won't be in the middle of the fighting?"

"I–"

"That's a good idea," Arthur interrupted Molly. "Ginny, you stay in this room, you hear me?"

Ginny didn't seem to like that idea, but she nodded.

"Come on, Ley." Tonks put a hand on the small of Hadley's back and led her out of the Room of Requirement. "Let's get the younger kids out of here."