"HARRY!" Hagrid shouted. "HARRY--WHERE'S HARRY?"
Sarah stunned and petrified as many Death Eaters as she could as they scrambled toward the castle, desperate to escape from the reinforcements. They followed a path carved by Lord Voldemort as he pushed through to the doors.
Sarah moved forward, casting a shield charm behind her so that the Centaur's arrows didn't pierce her back, then tripped over something thick and muscular.
She screamed as she looked into the eyes of Voldemort's giant snake. Barnaby pulled her to her feet, and Sarah realized the beast was dead. It lay in a pool of its own blood, its head cleanly sliced from its body, as if by a rapier.
"Yeah!" Barnaby yelled. "You get 'em Featherfur!"
Sarah glanced at him. Their disillusionment charms had worn off, and she saw him pump a fist as he stared up at the air. She followed his gaze and saw a formation of flying creatures above them. Thestrals and Hippogriffs, Featherfur in the lead, were now circling the heads of the giants and pecking, scratching, and kicking at their eyes while Grawp punched them in the guts.
The Death Eaters were now outnumbered, and the surprise attack had great affect. Sarah had difficulty finding new opponents to duel; nearly every enemy had either fallen or fled into the castle.
Still, while his followers dropped one after the other, Voldemort shrieked in rage and continued carving a path into the castle. Sarah ran after him. Nothing else mattered if Voldemort lived.
She saw him battling three strong fighters at once--McGonagall, Slughorn, and Kingsley. He still had time to send Killing Curses at anyone who dared to attack him from the side. Sarah saw a boy with red hair pull his bushy haired friend out of the way just before one such curse struck her. She saw Talbott transform into an eagle, his head vanishing just in time to be missed by the spell. She saw Diego charge forward, his face set with all the determination of someone who must try though they are doomed to fail.
"NO!"
Diego's spell actually hit Voldemort. Sarah saw him stagger before the killing curse left his wand and hit Diego directly in the heart. Diego landed on the crumbled courtyard floor.
Her eyes stinging with fiery tears, Sarah glared at Voldemort. Whatever spell Diego had hit him with hadn't done more than pause his attacks. Bellatrix had moved in front of him to fight off his combatants while he recovered, then he shoved her aside and continued to push McGonagall and the others into the castle.
Sarah charged forward. Diego would not die for nothing. She would kill Voldemort herself if she must to avenge his death.
"Duck!" Barnaby yelled.
She did, hardly slowing at all as he fired a spell at an oncoming Death Eater, blasting him so hard against the doors to the castle, Sarah heard them splinter as the Death Eater hit the ground.
As the remaining fighters flooded the entrance hall, Sarah followed after Voldemort, Barnaby right beside her. They had to jump out of the way as Hagrid tossed a Death Eater across the room. House-elves ran about at knee height, brandishing kitchen knives and rolling pins that they used to bring Death Eaters to their knees. Sarah and Barnaby fired a few more spells into he crowd before giving up. At the rate the battle was going, they were more likely to hit one of their friends than the Death Eaters. Instead, they followed after Voldemort.
"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"
Sarah was buffeted by the crowd, as every able body moved toward the sides of the Hall making way for the two most epic battles taking place. Barnaby grabbed Sarah's arm so that they wouldn't be separated as they backed up, every eye watching as Voldemort continued to battle his three opponents, and none other than Molly Weasley pushed three girls out of the way so she could take on Bellatrix Lestrange.
Every muscle in Sarah's body was tight with anxiety. She wanted to help, but from where she stood in the crowd it would be near impossible not to hit someone on her side, and Mrs. Weasley was insistent that Bellatrix was hers to finish.
"What will happen to your children when I've killed you?" called Bellatrix to her opponent. "When mummy's gone the same way as Freddie?"
Molly spoke in between each deadly slash of her wand.
"You--will--never--touch--our--children--again!"
Bellatrix laughed.
Then Sarah watched as the most kind, motherly figure she'd ever known brought down her wand a final time. Her curse caught Bellatrix in the chest. Bellatrix's smile fell, and her body followed suit.
Voldemort screamed. In his fury, he slashed his wand like a sword and McGonagall, Kingsley, and Slughorn were blasted off their feet, landing among the crowd of onlookers. The mad, red eyes turned to Mrs. Weasley, and Sarah realized she was seconds away from death.
She pushed forward, knowing she wouldn't make it in time as Voldemort pointed his wand at Molly, but then--"Protego!"
Voldemort staggered backward as a shield charm appeared in between him and Mrs. Weasley. Then, once more, Harry Potter appeared out of nowhere.
There were gasps, yells of shock, and cheers as every eye spotted him in the center of the room.
Voldemort stood a second, bewildered and out of his mind with fury, before he and Harry began circling one another.
"I don't want anyone else to try and help," said Harry, his voice loud and confident. "It's got to be like this. It's got to be me."
So, Sarah planted her feet on the ground, and watched. She watched the boy she'd seen die less than an hour ago, and she knew that this was the moment the whole wizarding world had awaited for seventeen long years.
"Potter doesn't mean that!" Voldemort hissed. "That isn't how he works, is it? Who are you going to use as a shield today, Potter?"
"No one. There are no more horcruxes." Sarah glanced at Barnaby, who gave her hand a hopeful squeeze. "It's just you and me," Harry continued. "Neither can live while the other survives, and one of us is about to leave for good..."
"One of us? You think it will be you, do you, the boy who survived by accident and because Dumbledore was pulling the strings?"
"Accident, was it, when my mother died to save me? Accident, when I decided to fight in that graveyard? Accident, that I didn't try to defend myself tonight, and still survived, and returned to fight again?"
"Accidents!"
Sarah thought Voldemort was about to strike, but he and Harry still circled as he spit out his tirade.
"Accident and chance and the fact that you crouched and sniveled behind the skirts of greater men and women, and permitted me to kill them for you!"
"You won't be killing anyone else tonight," said Harry. The circle between them became tighter as he stepped forward with bold strides. "You won't be able to kill any of them, ever again. Don't you get it? I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people--"
"But you did not!"
"--I meant to, and that's what did it. I've done what my mother did. They're protected from you. Haven't you noticed how none of your spells you put on them are binding? You can't torture them. You cant touch them. You don't learn from your mistakes, Riddle. do you?"
So that was why the silencing charms hadn't held? Sarah glanced around at the faces in the crowd, to see if they were as confused as she was. Barnaby's head was tilted to the side, as it always did when he was thinking hard. The rest of the crowd's eyes followed Harry and Voldemort as they circled, their expressions portraying every emotion from confusion, to excitement, to terror.
Then, the two spoke again, and Voldemort taunted and laughed at Harry, but Harry, unwavering, began to explain things that only confused Sarah even more. Things about Dumbledore, and Snape being his spy the whole time, even after the Headmaster's death. Things about Hallows and an all powerful wand.
It must have made some sense to Voldemort though, because even as he laughed at Potter's words, his face had assumed a shocked, blank expression, like when you've realized too late you've been the butt of the joke all along.
"I killed Severus Snape three hours ago, and the Elder Wand, the Deathstick, the Wand of Destiny is truly mine!"
If Voldemort believed this terrifying proclamation, which made the onlookers glance about worriedly, would rattle Harry, he was mistaken. Harry merely explained the apparent godly weapon's history, and how it had passed from Dumbledore to Draco Malfoy of all people, and then, to Harry himself.
"So it all comes down to this, doesn't it?" Harry spoke quietly, but the entire hall was so silent with anticipation that he was heard clearly by everyone in the room. "Does the wand in your hand know its last master was Disarmed? Because if it does...I am the true master of the Elder Wand."
Sarah blinked as the dawn's red sunlight burst through the hall's eastern windows. So, it would be a gamble, then. If she understood correctly, whoever the wand in Voldemort's hand truly belonged to--that would be the person destined to win this war.
At the same time, both wizards raised their wands.
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Expelliarmus!"
The two spells collided, the red light hitting the green in an explosion of flames, so strong that again Sarah had to shield her eyes. She looked up in time to see the green spell rebound, flying back toward its castor as the Elder Wand spun into the hair. Harry Potter caught it at the same time Voldemort hit the floor. He lay there, unmoving, his eyes rolled back into their sockets.
A moment of silence. Sarah, who'd seen the body fall only to rise again an hour ago, watched Voldemort with bated breath.
Lord Voldemort did not rise. He did not stir. He did not breathe.
The Great Hall exploded with cheers. Sarah hooked her arm tightly around Barnaby's as they were pushed forward by the crowd, every person in the room rushing to congratulate the boy who lived, the boy who'd conquered death and saved them all.
Sarah was reminded of the Death Eaters' celebration in the forest when they'd believed Harry to be dead at last, except this tumultuous celebration was a hundred times more eruptive. Fireworks were blasted into the air. The crowd fought one another to shake Harry's hand, Sarah received high-fives and hugs from close friends and complete strangers alike.
There was Talbott, grabbing Penny and pulling her in for a passionate kiss despite dozens of people watching. There was Professor McGonagall jumping up and down in excitement with Flitwick. There was, impossibly, miraculously, Diego Caplan, rushing forward to pull she and Barnaby into a three-way hug. And there, leaning against one of the stone braziers for support, half his head wrapped in thick bandages, was Jacob, to weak to join the rowdy celebration, but alive.
It was all over.
They had won.
*****
[A/N: I realize a lot of this chapter is not my own words (as always, everything in bold is a direct quote from J.K. Rowling's book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), but this scene is so integral to both stories that it wouldn't make sense not to include it. At this point, Sarah's story is the same as Harry's and all the other wizards who fought in the battle of Hogwarts. I hope you'll forgive me for using so many of Rowling's words and enjoy rereading her fantastic scene, this time from Sarah's point of view.]