All of the pent up stress and worry melted away from me as Fred stirred. My hands were blistered and aching from the Fiendfyre and moving the stones, but I didn't care; my mind raced as I pulled Fred out with the help of his brothers.
I saved him.
"Wazzgoinon?" Fred mumbled.
"You promised me!" I shouted at him. "You would stay away from the seventh floor corridor and—"
"Calm down," Percy said to me with a glare.
"He could have died! He was going to die if I hadn't called him—"
But I was cut off as a body fell past the hole blown into the side of the school, and curses flew in at us from the darkness, hitting the wall behind our heads.
"Get down!" Harry shouted as more curses flew through the night: He and Ron pulled Hermione and me to the floor and Percy jumped down as well. Fred rolled out from his spot and crawled to his discarded wand.
Over the edge of the castle through the hole in the wall the curses had blasted: More giant spiders were climbing the side of the building, liberated from the Forbidden Forest, into which the Death Eaters must have penetrated. All of us fired Stunning Spells down upon them, knocking the lead monster into its fellows so that they rolled back down the building and out of sight. Then more curses came soaring over my head, so close I felt the force of them blow my hair.
"Let's move, NOW!"
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, Percy, and I all ran down the corridor we had come from. Draco and Goyle had vanished, but at the end of the corridor, which was now full of dust and falling masonry, glass long gone from the windows, I saw many people running backwards and forward, whether friends or foes I could not tell. Rounding the corner, Percy let out a bull-like roar: "ROOKWOOD!" and sprinted off in the direction of a tall man, who was pursuing a couple of students, with Fred hot on his tail.
"Harry, in here!" I screamed.
Without Percy and Fred, the four of us hid behind a tapestry, but Hermione and Ron seemed to be wrestling together; Hermione was trying to restrain Ron, to stop him running after his brothers.
"Listen to me — LISTEN, RON!"
"I wanna help — I wanna kill Death Eaters —"
His face was contorted, smeared with dust and smoke, and he was shaking with rage.
"Ron! Percy and Fred will be okay," I shouted
"Ron, we're the only ones who can end it! Please — Ron — we need the snake, we've got to kill the snake!" said Hermione.
"We will fight!" I said. "We'll have to, to reach the snake! But let's not lose sight now of what we're supposed to be d-doing! We're the only ones who can end it!"
"You need to find out where Voldemort is because he'll have the snake with him, won't he? Do it, Harry — look inside him!" Hermione encouraged him.
After a moment, Harry gasped, "He's in the Shrieking Shack. The snake's with him, it's got some sort of magical protection around it. He's just sent Lucius Malfoy to find Snape."
"Voldemort's sitting in the Shrieking Shack?" said Hermione, outraged. "He's not — he's not even fighting?"
"He doesn't think he needs to fight," said Harry. "He thinks I'm going to go to him."
"But why?"
"He knows I'm after Horcruxes — he's keeping Nagini close beside him — obviously I'm going to have to go to him to get near the thing —"
"Right," said Ron, squaring his shoulders. "So you can't go, that's what he wants, what he's expecting. You stay here and look after Hermione and Madi, and I'll go and get it —"
Harry cut across Ron.
"You three stay here, I'll go under the Cloak and I'll be back as soon as I —"
"No," said Hermione, "it makes much more sense if I take the Cloak and —"
"Don't even think about it," Ron snarled at her.
"No, I can go! He will never—" Before I could finish, the tapestry at the top of the staircase on which we stood ripped open.
"POTTER!"
Two masked Death Eaters stood there, but even before their wands were fully raised, Hermione shouted, "Glisseo!"
The stairs beneath our feet flattened into a chute and she, Harry, Ron, and I hurtled down it, unable to control our speed but so fast that the Death Eaters' Stunning Spells flew far over our heads. We shot through the concealing tapestry at the bottom and spun onto the floor, hitting the opposite wall.
"Duro!" I cried, pointing my wand at the tapestry, and there were two loud, sickening crunches as the tapestry turned to stone and the Death Eaters pursuing them crumpled against it.
"Get back!" shouted Ron, and we flattened ourselves against a door as a herd of galloping desks thundered past, shepherded by a sprinting Professor McGonagall. She appeared not to notice us: Her hair had come down and there was a gash on her cheek. As she turned the corner, we heard her scream, "CHARGE!"
"Harry, you get the Cloak on," said Hermione. "Never mind us —"
But he threw it over all four of us; large though we were, I doubted anyone would see our disembodied feet through the dust that clogged the air, the falling stone, the shimmer of spells.
We ran down the next staircase and found ourselves in a corridor full of duelers. The portraits on either side of the fighters were crammed with figures screaming advice and encouragement, while Death Eaters, both masked and unmasked, duelled students and teachers. All four of us raised our wands at once, ready to strike, but the duelers were weaving and darting around so much that there was a strong likelihood of hurting one of our own if we were to cast curses.
"Argh!"
A fistful of tubers, from Peeves, hit the Cloak over Ron's head; the slimy green roots were suspended improbably in midair as Ron tried to shake them loose.
"Someone's invisible there!" shouted a masked Death Eater, pointing.
Dean made the most of the Death Eater's momentary distraction, knocking him out with a Stunning Spell; Dolohov attempted to retaliate and Parvati shot a Body-Bind Curse at him.
"LET'S GO!" Harry yelled. We grabbed ahold of the Cloak and all ran out of the corridor toward the top of the marble staircase into the entrance hall.
"I'm Draco Malfoy, I'm Draco, I'm on your side!"
Draco was on the upper landing, pleading with another masked Death Eater.
"Stupefy!" I whipped my wand at the Death Eater, hitting him square in the chest.
Draco looked around, beaming, for his saviour, and Ron punched him from under the Cloak. Draco fell backwards on top of the Death Eater, his mouth bleeding, utterly bemused.
"Ron!" I shouted at him.
"And that's the second time we've saved your life tonight, you two-faced bastard!" Ron yelled.
There were more duelers all over the stairs and in the hall, Death Eaters everywhere I looked; Yaxley was in combat with Flitwick, a masked Death Eater duelling Kingsley. Students ran in every direction, some carrying or dragging injured friends. I heard Harry directed a Stunning Spell toward the masked Death Eater; it missed but nearly hit Neville, who had emerged from nowhere brandishing armfuls of Venomous Tentacula, which looped itself happily around the nearest Death Eater and began reeling him in.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I sped down the marble staircase. Two bodies fell from the balcony overhead as we reached the ground, and a grey blur sped four-legged across the hall to sink its teeth into one of the fallen.
"NO!" shrieked Hermione, and with a deafening blast from her wand, Fenrir Greyback was thrown backwards from the feebly stirring body of Lavender Brown. He hit the marble bannisters and struggled to return to his feet. Then, with a bright white flash and a crack, a crystal ball fell on top of his head, and he crumpled to the ground and did not move.
"I have more!" shrieked Professor Trelawney from over the bannisters. "More for any who want them! Here —"
And with a movement like a tennis serve, she heaved another enormous crystal sphere from her bag, waved her wand through the air, and caused the ball to speed across the hall and smash through a window. At the same moment, the heavy wooden front doors burst open, and more of the gigantic spiders forced their way into the entrance hall.
"How do we get out?" yelled Ron over all the screaming, but before we could answer we were bowled aside: Hagrid had come thundering down the stairs, brandishing his flowery pink umbrella.
"Don't hurt 'em, don't hurt 'em!" he yelled.
"HAGRID, NO!"
I bolted out from under the Cloak, ducking under the streams of curses. As I ran to Hagrid, he vanished amongst the spiders, and with a great scurrying, a foul swarming movement, they retreated under the onslaught of spells, Hagrid buried in their midst.
"HAGRID!"
There were people calling my name, but I paid no mind as I ducked the curses that flew around. Running out into the darkness, the ground began to shake: A giant stood before me, twenty feet high, its head hidden in shadow, nothing but its treeline, hairy shins illuminated by light from the castle doors. With one brutal, fluid movement, it smashed a massive fist through an upper window, and glass rained down on me, forcing me back under the shelter of the doorway.
"Oh my—!" shrieked Hermione. I turned around to look for them but didn't see anything. The giant was now trying to seize people through the window above us.
The stone steps trembled as he stomped toward his smaller kin, and Grawp's lopsided mouth fell open, showing yellow, half-brick-sized teeth; and then they launched themselves at each other with the savagery of lions.
"RUN!" Harry roared; the three of them had jumped out from under the Cloak. The night was full of hideous yells and blows as the giants wrestled, and he seized my hand and tore down the steps into the grounds, Ron held Hermione bringing up the rear. We ran so fast that we were halfway toward the forest before we were brought up short again.
The air around us had frozen: Shapes moved out in the darkness, swirling figures of concentrated blackness, moving in a great wave toward the castle, their faces hooded and their breath rattling.
"Come on!" Hermione said from behind us. "Patronuses, come on!"
I raised my wand, but instead of the usual memory of happiness, I was met with doubt and fear; images of the fight in the Room of Requirement and nearly losing Fred, the dread of losing my friends... Nothing came out of my wand.
"CHARLOTTE, YOUR PATRONUS!" screamed Hermione.
Form beside me, Harry's silver stag pranced in the air, but disappeared; Ron's silver terrier burst into the air and expired; Hermione's otter twist in midair and fade; and my own wand trembled in my hand, tears running down my face, and as I shouted, a deerhound sped toward the Dementors to only die out. And then a silver hare, a boar, and a fox soared past our heads: The dementors fell back before the creatures' approach. Three more people had arrived out of the darkness to stand beside them, their wands outstretched, continuing to cast their Patronuses: Luna, Ernie, and Seamus.
"That's right," said Luna encouragingly, as if they were back in the Room of Requirement and this was simply practise for the DA. "That's right, Lottie... think of something happy!"
"Something happy?" I croaked my hands still shaking.
"We're all still here," she whispered, "we're still fighting. Come on, now."
Sniffling, I thought of my friends and our happy moments that passed and will soon come; There was a silver spark, then a wavering light, and then, with the greatest effort it had ever cost me, the deerhound burst from the end of my wand. It ran forward, and now the dementors scattered in earnest, and immediately the night was mild again, but the sounds of the surrounding battle were loud in my ears.
"Can't thank you enough," said Ron shakily, turning to Luna, Ernie, and Seamus, "you just saved —"
With a roar and an earth-quaking tremor, another giant came lurching out of the darkness from the direction of the forest, brandishing a club taller than any of us.
"RUN!" Harry shouted again, but we needed no telling: We all scattered, and not a second too soon, for next moment the creature's vast foot had fallen exactly where we had been standing. Looking up, I saw a battle between giants; the giants, Hagrid and Madam Maxime had saved last year, fought against the traitors.
"Let's get out of range!" yelled Ron as the giants swung their clubs again and their bellows echoed through the night, across the grounds where bursts of red and green light continued to illuminate the darkness.
"The Whomping Willow," said Harry, "go!"
The four of us ran across the grounds towards the angry tree; the willow that protected the secret at its roots with whiplike, slashing branches. Harry was far ahead of us, skirting the Willow's swiping branches, and peering through the darkness toward its thick trunk, trying to see the single knot in the bark of the old tree that would paralyze it. Ron, Hermione, and I caught up, I was so out of breath, I could not speak.
"How — how're we going to get in?" panted Ron. "I can — see the place — if we just had — Crookshanks again —"
"Crookshanks?" wheezed Hermione, bent double, clutching her chest. "Are you a wizard, or what?"
"Oh — right — yeah —"
Ron looked around, then directed his wand at a twig on the ground and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The twig flew up from the ground, spun through the air as if caught by a gust of wind, then zoomed directly at the trunk through the Willow's ominously swaying branches. It jabbed at a place near the roots, and at once, the writhing tree became still.
Harry went first, his wand illuminated, expecting at any moment to meet barriers, but none came. Following Harry into the earthy passage hidden in the tree's roots, I wondered how Ron and Harry could get through; the passage was so small, I could barely get through. We moved in silence, crawling through the tunnel.
We continued down the tunnel on our hands and knees, as silently as possible, all of my senses straining, expecting every second to be discovered, to hear a cold clear voice, see a flash of green light. As the tunnel began to slope upward, I tugged on Harry's ankle as Hermione did mine, and whispered, "The Cloak! Put on the Cloak!"
Harry slipped the cloak over himself and extinguished his illuminated wand. There were voices directly above us, only slightly muffled by the fact that the opening at the end of the tunnel had been blocked by an old crate. The crate moved a little, meaning Harry had gotten to the entrance.
And then I heard voices coming from the room directly ahead of us, only slightly muffled by the fact that the opening at the end of the tunnel had been blocked up by what looked like an old crate. Hardly daring to breathe, I edged right up to the opening and peered through a tiny gap left between crate and wall.
The room beyond was dimly lit, but I could see Nagini, swirling and coiling like a serpent underwater, safe in her enchanted, starry sphere, which floated unsupported in midair. I could see the edge of a table, and a long-fingered white hand toying with a wand. Then Snape spoke, and my heart lurched: Snape was inches away from where we crouched, hidden.
Bad went worse as we listened in on their conversation.
"Let me find the boy. Let me bring you Potter," I heard Snape say. "I know I can find him, my Lord. Please."
"And what of your darling daughter? She seems to always protect him."
Me?
"She will not be an issue, my Lord."
Snape strode past the gap, and I was bumped back by Harry; I held my breath to not make a sound.
"I have a problem, Severus," said Voldemort softly as I heard him get up.
"My Lord?" said Snape. Voldemort believed that the reason why the Elder wand didn't "work properly" for him was that Snape had killed Dumbledore, the previous owner of the Deathly Hallow wand.
And, according to legend, the only way to get the Elder wand was to kill its previous owner. That's what Voldemort did.
"It cannot be any other way," said Voldemort. "I must master the wand, Severus. Master the wand, and I master Potter at last."
I pushed forward to see through the crack. Voldemort swiped the air with the Elder Wand. It did nothing to Snape, who for a split second seemed to think he had been reprieved: But then Voldemort's intention became clear. The snake's cage was rolling through the air, and before Snape could do anything more than yell, it had encased him, head and shoulders, and Voldemort spoke in Parseltongue.
"Kill."
There was a terrible scream. I saw my father's face losing the little colour it had left; it whitened as his black eyes widened, as the snake's fangs pierced his neck, as he failed to push the enchanted cage off himself, as his knees gave way and he fell to the floor.
"I regret it," said Voldemort coldly.
He turned away; there was no sadness in him, no remorse. It was time to leave this shack and take charge, with a wand that would now do his full bidding. He pointed it at the starry cage holding the snake, which drifted upward, off my dad, who fell sideways onto the floor, blood gushing from the wounds in his neck. Voldemort swept from the room without a backward glance, and the great serpent floated after him in its huge protective sphere.
Tears flew down my face as I tried to push Harry up. Voldemort was gone, it was okay to go up. I tasted iron in my mouth, trying not to scream and cry from the tunnel. Now I was looking through the tiny crack between crate and wall, watching a foot in a black boot trembling on the floor.
Harry reappeared from under the cloak and raised his wand. I heard Hermione shout his name, but the crate lifted an inch into the air and drifted sideways silently. Harry quietly pulled himself into the room and I followed.
Crawling on the ground, I went over to the dying man: More tears streamed down my face as I saw his white face and the fingers trying to staunch the bloody wound at his neck. When my dad's widening black eyes found mine, he tried to speak. I pulled Harry down with me, and my dad seized the front of Harry's robes and pulled him close.
A terrible rasping, gurgling noise issued from his throat.
"Take...it... Take... it..."
Something more than blood was leaking from him. Silvery blue, neither gas nor liquid, it gushed from his mouth and his ears and his eyes; I conjured a flask from thin air and handed it to Harry. He lifted the silvery substance into it with his wand.
His eyes moved from Harry to mine and with an outstretched hand, I grabbed his own.
"Charlie. . . I. . . love—" he let out a small breath and didn't finish his sentence.
My watery coal eyes found his black ones, but after a second, something in the depths of the dark pair seemed to vanish, leaving them fixed, black, and empty. The hand holding mine thudded to the floor, and he moved no more.
"Dad," I cried.
Harry pulled me away from my father's lifeless body. I fought against his grip, trying to go back to him, but my force wasn't enough. I muffled my sobs through a bitten tongue and thrashed in Harry's arms.
"Charlotte– please, Charlotte, you have to be quiet," Harry whispered into my hair.
I clamp my own hand over my mouth and turn in Harry's arms, sobbing into his chest. Nothing could have prepared me for this moment, not even the memory of knowing it was going to happen.
This moment officially erased everything in Charlotte's mind– what little she did have. She had finally experienced a toll that solidified her place in this world. No longer was she the magical muggle daughter of Edward Harring, but the lost daughter of Severus Snape and Victoria Gaunt.
All memories of her past life were long lost, no one remembered her in the muggle world and no one knew of her past.
Stolen, the wizarding world would say, and found as she moved from foster home to foster home until she made it to Hogwarts where Charlotte worked hard to be a witch though believed she was a squib.
The magic of this world altered the memories and moments from the first time Charlotte had crossed Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. She had found her family, her place in this world– her old life being forgotten forever, truly full of Lost Memories.