"Keep going! Reinforce the enchantments!" Lupin yelled.
The clash of spells firing from opposite sides of the wall, opposite sides of the world, made for a fantastic fireworks display. If he wasn't so worried they were about to die, Barnaby would have been tempted to grab popcorn.
He glanced on either side of him, at Merula and Elena. Their families were waiting on the other side of the barrier, just as his was. He saw, by the light of a thousand spells, the excited glints in their eyes. They longed to see their relatives, could hardly wait for the barrier to lift. Barnaby, on the other hand, wished with all his might he would never see his parents again.
He was afraid of them, as he'd never been afraid of anything of his life. He'd always been afraid of them; first of disappointing them, then of becoming them, but now it was just a natural predatory fear of being destroyed by them. He could see their faces as they'd tortured him in the cellar for days--his father's furious scowl, his mother's insistent smile, and his Gran's cold glare as she watched, enjoying the revenge for the year's she'd wasted raising him. Barnaby worried that if he saw his parents tonight, he'd crumple to the floor, as he had so many times back in the cellar.
"Giants!" he heard someone cry.
An entire tree flew at them through the sky, flipping end over end until it collided with the barrier. It splintered into hundreds of pieces upon impact, but a sickening crunch resounded along the barrier, like ice cracking.
"Hold! Hold!" yelled Lupin, and several people who'd dived out of the way jumped to their feet to resume their spellwork.
Two giants came into view, each at least twenty-five feet tall, grumbling angrily and waving clubs in their arms.
One of the giants swung its club at the weakening barrier, right over the training grounds. To Barnaby's horror, it passed through.
"Move!" he heard Sarah scream.
He dove to the side. the club slammed into the ground, leaving a crater exactly where Barnaby and Elena had been standing a moment before.
"Hit its eyes! The eyes!" Lupin yelled.
Barnaby clambered to his feet, disoriented by all the shouting and colliding bodies. Jets of light were firing from all directions. When the giants weren't yelling, he could hear Death Eaters advancing on them.
Sarah. Where was Sarah?
He ran out of the way of the giant's heavy footsteps, searching frantically for her blonde ponytail. He spotted her standing upon one of the wooden tables they used for polishing broomsticks. She was shooting spells, aiming at the eyes of the nearest giant. She didn't see its companion coming at her from the side, raising its club.
Barnaby yelled to her, but she couldn't hear over the thunderous roars of the giants. He ran as fast as he could, but he wouldn't make it it time.
He heard a whinny from above him. The thestrals had heard the commotion and had come from the forest.
"Pluto!"
The lead thestral dived down and Barnaby jumped on its back. There hadn't been time to put on a saddle or bridle, but Barnaby nudged the creature with his legs, steering it toward Sarah. Squeezing his legs around the horse's middle with all his might so as not to fall, he reached out and grabbed her, swinging her on the horse behind him right as the giant's club came down.
"Woah!" yelled Sarah. "Thanks." She positioned herself so she was properly seated behind him. "Can you get me closer so I can get at the eyes?"
Barnaby turned Pluto round and they galloped through the air to circle round the giant's head. Furious, it raised its hand to swat at them, but Sarah fired a sleeping charm directly into his face. The giant howled, staggering in place for a moment before its eyelids drooped. It flung its club at the castle, breaking several windows.
"Please fall backward, please fall backward, please fall backward," Sarah pleaded. Finally, it did, collapsing on top of a couple of very unfortunate Death Eaters before it began to snore.
"Nice," said Barnaby. "I'll take us to the other--"
Pluto whinnied in terrified pain as a spell shot at them from above. It grazed Barnaby's knee, slicing through the skin and muscle like a boat carving through water. The spell also cut into Pluto's wing, severing it almost cleanly in two. The thestral careened and galloped as hard as it could, flapping his good wing with all his might, but they were spiraling downwards from fifty feet in the air.
"Arresto Momentum!" Sarah yelled, and Barnaby felt his fall slowing. But the spell wasn't powerful enough for Pluto.
"Let go! Barnaby, let go!"
Pluto was dragging him down. "I'm sorry," he told him, then released his hold, watching Pluto careen toward earth with a panicked whinny. The thestral crashed and skidded in the stone courtyard, and Barnaby knew he was dead.
He and Sarah landed on their feet beside him. Barnaby fell to the ground after trying to put pressure on his sliced knee. He saw Pluto's empty white eye, and the blood spattered on his chest from the slicing charm. He turned away.
"Episkey!" Sarah shouted, and Barnaby's wound closed. He stood up, wincing slightly. His knee was still sore.
The battle raged around them. More and more Death Eaters were running through what used to be the barrier. The Hogwartians were being pushed back into the castle.
Barnaby fired stunning spells into the mass of black cloaks, backing away as they advanced.
"Where are the others?" Sarah yelled.
"Dunno!"
Sarah and Barnaby found themselves pushed back into the castle. The entrance hall was so packed, you were just as likely to be hit by a spell from someone on your side as an enemy. Everyone staggered as the building shook around them. A giant had struck the castle wall with its spiked club. There was a pause in the fighting as everyone ran out of the way of chunks of stone raining down on them. Sarah and Barnaby were buffeted by the crowd. He grabbed her hand, but they were pulled apart as Death Eaters and Order members alike ran for their lives.
"No!" Barnaby pushed and fought to get back to her, but soon her scared face was lost in the crowd.
Someone managed to transfigure the falling rock into water. Barnaby was doused, but not dead. Then, he had a hand on his throat. He was lifted from his feet, propelled up the marble staircase to the second landing. Barnaby tore at the hand, but it seemed to be made of black smoke. His back slammed into the wall behind him, knocking one of the portraits to the floor. The hand disappeared as his feet found ground, and Barnaby dove to the side, a killing curse just missing him.
Barnaby shot up to face his attacker, and met Drystan Lee as he ascended the stairs, a wide grin on his face.
Barnaby wanted to stand up to his father. He wanted to blast him off the staircase and find Sarah. He wanted tell him that he wasn't afraid, that he didn't care what his parents thought of him anymore. But Barnaby didn't do any of those things.
He turned and ran.
"Ha! A coward as well as a blood-traitor and an imbecile, are we?" his father called. "Well, not to worry, boy. I'll soon rid you of your miserable existence!"
Barnaby turned a corner, running smack into someone who'd been hiding there.
"Tulip!"
"Watch it!" she yelled, holding the large, burlap sack above her head. "Get behind me, hurry."
Barnaby did, and Tulip tossed the bag around the corner, yelling, "What's the only thing more revolting than a mega-dungbomb? You are, Scum!"
Barnaby heard the sounds of Death Eaters gagging and swearing. As a green smoke cloud appeared out of the corner, Tulip grabbed his hand. "We should probably leave."
Barnaby followed her up two more flights of stairs. There were far fewer fighters here, and he was able to stun three unsuspecting Death Eaters as they climbed. They paused in a new hiding spot around another corner.
"That was brilliant!" Tulip breathed.
"I've gotta find Sarah," said Barnaby, as soon as he had enough breath.
"Nice to see you, too."
"Sorry. And thanks. I was--I was probably about to die back there."
She grinned. "There's more where that came from. I've got some frog spawn soap, a few nose biting teacups I might chuck at them, more dungbombs--hey, watch it!"
Barnaby had charged forward to peer down through the many moving staircases toward the bottom floor, but in all the chaos he saw no sign of Sarah.
"Incarcerous!" Tulip shouted, binding the Death Eater that had just reached the landing in thick ropes.
With one hand, she pulled the slack taught, then with the other, she yanked her foe's wand out of her grip. Tulip backed the Death Eater against the railing, holding him down while she tied the end of rope around one of the balustrades.
"No!" wailed the Death Eater, realizing what was about to happen. "Mercy!"
"The Vigilante shows no mercy," said Tulip, then she stuck a biting teacup to the man's nose.
His wail of agony became a terrified scream as Tulip pushed her over the railing. Barnaby watched her disappear and the rope snapped taut.
"Damn."
Tulip dragged him back to the safety of the corridor. "You gotta be more careful, Lee!"
"Right. Sorry," he said again.
"Come one, I think Tonks is up defending the Northern battlements."
"But--" he said, glancing back toward the stairs.
"Sarah'll be fine, she's a big girl. Help me clear out the crowd from above and then I'll go with you when it's safe to go down."
Barnaby nodded, then followed her up the staircases toward the top floor. They ran into few people on their way; most of the fighting was still taking place on the lower floors. When they did meet a Death Eater, Tulip and Barnaby took them out easily. Now that he was thinking clearly, or rather not thinking at all, his old instincts for fighting had kicked in, and he hexed and cursed Death Eaters with such speed, they barely noticed him coming before they fell.
Once, he only just stopped himself in time from hitting a couple of students, a girl with bushy brown hair and a tall ginger lad Barnaby recognized as Charlie's brother. They rushed past him, each carrying what looked like a load of giant snake fangs. Barnaby didn't think on it much; he'd already witnessed Sprout directing several students to chuck pots of devil's snare from the battlements, and he'd even spotted Professor Trelawney bewitching her stash of crystal balls to fly at Death Eaters' heads. He supposed snake fangs were just as likely a weapon as the others.
"Tonks!" Tulip shouted, once they'd reached the northern battlements. The two exchanged a quick hug before firing spells at the giants and Death Eaters that were storming the castle. "You should be at home with Teddy!"
"What, and miss all the fun?" said Tonks. "This will be one hell of a bedtime story for him."
"Let's just make sure he hears it from you," Barnaby heard Lupin say.
Several Death Eaters had procured broomsticks and were attempting to fly over the battlements. Barnaby cast, "Evanesco!" and one of the brooms vanished beneath its rider. He forced himself not to watch his victim plummet to the earth below as he looked for another target.
He was nearly deafened as Grawp roared and charged forward to engage the nearest giant, over a head taller than he was. The giant, caught by surprise, staggered back and fell to the ground, Grawp jumping on top of them.
"We're doing alright," Tonks yelled, a flash of red light erupting from her wand to stun an oncoming Death Eater. "We might just make it!"
Barnaby hoped she was right, as he fired spell after spell down at the Death Eaters below them. The crowd of black robes did seem to be thinning. He wondered if the situation was the same inside the first floors, and if Sarah were alright. He forced himself not to think about it, telling himself that every Death Eater he stopped from getting inside was one less for Sarah to worry about.
"Watch out!" Tulip yelled, and a giant's club hurled down at them.