Watching Severus walk away was painful. Yet she could not look away, not until the door clicked shut behind him, taking away all the warmth in the room. Who knew if she would ever see him again? As much as she knew that he was a formidable wizard, anything could happen in the heat of battle.
It hit her then, that once she stepped out of the room, they would be enemies.
Heather shook her head roughly. No, they each had their own roles to play, and it was time she got back to hers. She whipped out her copy of the Marauder's Map, something they had finally been able to replicate with some subtle inquiries to Sirius. One difference they had made was that students were coloured red on the map and everyone else was black. It was easy to pick out the black dots running around the place. At the current count, there were about sixteen intruders, though she would not discount the idea of more arriving.
Her observation of the map showed that the black dots seemed to be appearing on the seventh floor, near the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, to be exact. Of course, she should have figured that Draco would use the ROR for the invasion. The wards around Hogwarts were much too powerful for him to overcome on his own. Although she wasn't sure how the room was helping to smuggle intruders in, that wasn't the main issue at the moment.
She quickly sent off patronus messages to the teachers letting them know where the concentration of Deatheaters was the highest, as well as where they were coming from. That way they wouldn't be running around blind trying to fend off the attackers.
With that done, she called for Dobby.
"Mistress Heather!" the elf exclaimed, his ears flopping in excitement.
"Dobby," she spared a smile for him before getting straight to business, "are all the students accounted for?"
Dobby nodded eagerly. "Oh yes, Mistress! All the students be safe in house rooms! None of them been hurt by the bad wizards!"
She breathed a sigh of relief at the news. "That's great, thank you Dobby. You and all the other elves have done a great job." She was quick to continued speaking when she noticed Dobby's eyes start to water. "How- how about Draco Malfoy?"
Eyes narrowing at the mention of one of his former masters, Dobby said, "Dobby has been following Little Malfoy, like Mistress says! Little Malfoy is with bad wizards!"
She ignored the clear disdain in Dobby's tone. That was the house elf's prerogative. For now, however, she asked Dobby to teleport her to the corridor left of the Charms classroom. There was a trio of Deatheaters there which she should be able to handle, even on her own.
With a snap of his fingers, the room around her disappeared.
~~~
Heather didn't know how long she had been fighting. It all mixed into a blur of duck, shield, disarm, stun, rinse and repeat. Most of the Deatheaters she had encountered were little more than cannon fodder, easy enough to defeat on their own, but overwhelming in numbers.
At some point, Fred and George had joined her. They had been able to alert the Aurors once they received the signal.
She panted heavily as she watched the twins tag team the last Deatheater in the area. Even with her large magical core, she was tiring. She had been right when she assumed more Deatheaters would be arriving. She couldn't even keep count of how many she had faced in the past hour.
When Fred finally knocked out the stubborn Deatheater, she sighed, preparing to ask a house elf to pop them to the next group. Just then, the locator charm she had on her brother pinged.
Dumbledore and Hadrian had returned to Hogwarts at last.
"Fred, George, Rian's back." And from the feel of it, they were on top of the Astronomy Tower.
They both shared a look then nodded at her.
"You should go to him."
"We'll carry on."
She saw the determination in the gazes and smirked. "Rain hell on them."
Fred and George gave lazy salutes before getting popped away.
The Astronomy Tower was just a short distance from here, and so Heather started making her way there at a quick jog. The house elves were being immensely helpful, but it couldn't be easy teleporting people all over the castle. She didn't want to overwork them.
It took a short while to get to the base of the tower. When she headed for the stairwell, she realised that there was a barrier preventing her from passing through. She didn't dare touch it, fearing some sort of backlash. The ward felt...malevolent, for lack of a better word. The Deatheaters must have beaten her here. She cursed herself for being too slow. That was what she got for being complacent. She didn't know how many of them there were, but she was comforted by the fact that at least Dumbledore was with Hadrian.
She was going to try and take the ward down, but for all that she had read up on them, she had focussed more on ward creation, not destruction. Hopefully whoever had made this one was an amateur.
The sound of footsteps made her pivot around, wand at the ready. The faces that greeted her were familiar and welcome. "Professor McGonagall, Cedric!" she greeted in relief.
"Miss Potter?" the other witch said, lowering her own wand. "What are you doing here?"
Heather raked her eyes over their rumpled appearances. They seemed to be otherwise well, however, thank Merlin. "Hadrian and Headmaster Dumbledore are at the top of the tower, but there's a ward that's stopping me from entering."
"Hadrian's up there?" Cedric asked, clearly worried for his boyfriend.
She shot him a terse nod. "I think there are Deatheaters up there too. They must have put the barrier up to prevent us from helping. Do either of you have experience with dismantling wards?"
Professor McGonagall frowned, shaking her head. Cedric, however, stepped forward.
"I'll take a shot, but I'm no expert."
Well, it was better than nothing. Heather turned back to the puke green light of the ward as Cedric joined her. The first thing she did was use an analysing spell to get a general idea of the ward.
"It's a form of selective entry ward. A physical barrier, but doesn't stop spells. Multilayered." She narrowed her eyes. "Three...no four layers. The first is the actual physical wall. Second a trap. Third...some sort of offensive barrier? I can't tell what the fourth one is."
Cedric rubbed his chin as he considered the information. "The thing is probably keyed to the Dark Marks, if the DEs put it up," he stated.
Heather blinked rapidly at the sentence. Yes...that made sense. She wondered why it hadn't occurred to her.
"But we can't start taking it down unless we know what that last one is," Cedric huffed in frustration.
"I have a suggestion," Professor McGonagall said over their shoulders.
Starting a little, Heather turned to look at her. She'd almost forgotten the woman was there.
The Professor then transfigured a stray rock into a rabbit. "We should see what effect the ward has on something attempting to cross."
"Then we'd be able to infer what functions it has!" Cedric said brightly.
Immediately, they all stepped away from the entryway, well out of a possible blast radius. Professor McGonagall then released the rabbit, as they all watched closely for what would happen. It was disturbing, to say the least. The moment the poor thing jumped into the sickly green wall, it rebounded like a ball and fell to the ground, paralysed. Then it started twitching madly as it's fleshing started to smoke and char. Finally, it reverted back to a scorched rock.
It was a much-needed reminder that it hadn't been a realliving being, just a transfigured one.
"So, an immobilising layer," Heather concluded with a slightly green face, remembering the way the 'rabbit's' entire body had locked up.
"And the offensive layer is probably an electric attack of some sort, going by the way its muscles spasmed and then burned," Cedric said, sounding a little squeaky.
Professor McGonagall just had a verypinched look on her face. Like she'd discovered her whole class had decided to hand in dirty limericks instead of the essays she'd assigned.
"Okaaay," Heather drawled, "Any ideas?"
Cedric snapped out of his funk. "Yeah, First we have to handle the trap, or it'll activate as we try and take down the other layers."
"Alright," Heather said, "I can hold it steady as you try to dismantle the others. It'll collapse once the ward's structure is broken down, right?"
"That's right. Okay, I think I should be able to handle that. Professor, could you erect a shield around us in case anything goes wrong?"
"Certainly, Mr Diggory. Please, be careful you two." A swish of her wand and there was a strong, light blue Protego surrounding them.
Heather was up next. She took a deep breath and shot a streak of magic into the ward, aiming straight for the trap layer. She felt it the moment she caught hold, feeling the trap sort of freeze in place, like a stasis charm had been placed.
"Okay, go for it Cedric," she muttered.
She had to keep up a steady stream of magic as Cedric began to work on the ward. Normally, she wouldn't have any problem with this, but after the number of duels she'd been in today, she was dead tired. Hadrian was possibly in great danger up there, however, so she was fuelled by determination.
When the entire thing was finally gone, Heather relaxed with a pleased smile. That, was, of course when things went wrong.
Mad cackling and the sound of a horde of people came from within. There were people coming down from the tower, and she didn't think they were the friendly sort. She, Cedric and Professor McGonagall spread out like a fan to surround the doorway, hoping to block off the Deatheaters.
Heather briefly caught sight of several Inner Circle DEs – the Lestranges, the Carrow twins...Severus – before a hulk of a man charged towards her, knocking her onto her back. Her attacker was growling ferociously as he pinned her to the floor. She realised, with a jolt, that it couldn't be anyone other than Fenrir Greyback. He was more beast than man, despite the fact that the full moon was still a week away and that it wasn't even nighttime yet.
Fear shot through her as she tried to push the werewolf off, to no avail. She was no match for Greyback's brutish strength. Around them, the sounds of battle could be heard as more people joined the skirmish, but the blood rushing through her ears all but drowned them out.
Greyback smirked tauntingly as he raised his clawed hands, ready to rip her to shreds. That was when she finally came to her senses and retaliated. With a loud cry, she transfigured the rubble on the ground around her into shards of deadly silver and shot them straight into Greyback's vulnerable belly, throat, eyes, anywhere she could reach. The surge of wandless magic left her dizzy, draining her already low magic reserves. Spots danced in her vision, and she could only watch in snapshots as Greyback's face contorted in agony and rage, his deadly claws descending towards her.
Perhaps it was luck, perhaps a last burst of fear-induced adrenaline, or perhaps simply a miracle of magic, but Heather found the energy to grasp desperately at a large piece of silver and stab it through Greyback's ribs, directly into his beating heart. She felt no pain at the strips of flesh that were raked off her forearms as they narrowly glanced past his claws – reactions slowed already by the silver poisoning – only utter triumph as the light in feral yellow eyes dulled and the weight above her slumped, dead, atop her.
It knocked the breath out of her desperate lungs and her tenuous hold on consciousness finally slipped.
~~~
Coming back to awareness was like scaling up a sheer cliff one-handed. She struggled in the confines of her mind, frantically batting away sticky webs of drowsiness and exhaustion. She couldn't be here, there was plenty she needed to do! She needed to, she needed to...
With a gasp, her eyes shot open.
Everything was a blur of shapes and colours, and there was someone next to her, lying practically on top of her. The weight brought out a visceral reaction of wrath and terror and she scrabbled sightlessly at it, ignoring the pain in her arms.
A faint memory drifted to the forefront of her mind. Insane yellow eyes. Sharp, pointed claws, glittering ominously in the low light, rending her arms to ribbons.
Fenrir Greyback.
She needed him to get off! Get off! GET! OFF!
"Heather!" A sharp sting on her cheek. "Heather! Calm down! It's Poppy!"
Poppy?
Kind smiles. Lessons on reducing fevers, bandaging cuts, setting bones. Embarrassing lectures on puberty.
"There there," the soothing voice continued, "It's alright. You're safe here."
It lulled her, calming her rage. She blinked the blurriness out of her eyes, watching the familiar white walls of the infirmary come into focus.
Poppy's face was a welcome reprieve from her images of Greyback.
"What-" she coughed, trying to clear the grit in her throat.
A glass was placed gently at her mouth and she reflexively lifted her arms to grab it. Searing pain shot through her nerves, making her flinch.
"Stop, don't move your arms!" Poppy admonished, "They're injured."
Feeling rather useless, she let the matron tip water into her mouth. The refreshing coolness was a balm on her dry throat.
"Heather?" This time, she recognised the voice immediately. Her gaze shot to where she heard it from, drinking in the sight of her brother.
"Rian! You're alright!" Relief swept through her. Her brother was fine, no injuries save for a rapidly blooming bruise on his cheek. She squinted at it, wondering how he'd gotten it.
He saw where her eyes landed and shook his head. "Don't worry about it. I shouldn't have fallen asleep on top of you. I know what position you were in when you were found."
When she parsed through that statement, her eyes widened in guilt. She must have punched him in the face in her struggle earlier!
"No!" Hadrian said, eyes narrowing, "Don't you dare apologise!"
"Fine," she muttered, "I'm just glad you're okay."
He made a disbelieving sound. "I'm okay? We've all been worried about you! We found you, unmoving, under Greyback's body! I thought you'd di-died!" The way his voice broke over the word made her want to cry.
Heather heard the words 'Greyback's body', but refused to think on it for now. "Rian, I'm right here," she said softly.
"You were out for three days!"
Shocked, she turned to Poppy, who had been standing next to her bed. The school mediwitch nodded.
"You suffered a minor concussion," likely from being tackled to the unyielding stone floor, "severe magical exhaustion, deep gouges in your forearms and moderate blood loss," Poppy listed. "The concussion was easily treated, as was the blood loss. Your magic will be depleted for now, but it should recover over the next week with enough rest. Your arms, however..."
Suddenly panicked, Heather looked down at the thick bandages wrapped around her limbs. She tried to move her fingers. It caused bolts of pain, but she got them to twitch. She slumped back in relief, knowing that she hadn't lost the use of her hands. She could still make potions.
"Heather!" Poppy scolded, "Stop trying to aggravate your injuries! If you'd just listen! The claws tore through several muscles, but miraculously left your nerves undamaged. I'd have no way of curing them otherwise, so you're very lucky."
Heather nodded, knowing that there currently weren't any healing spells or potions that could fully regenerate nerves. It was why the Cruciatus was so devastating if one suffered it long enough.
"I've done what I can with spells, but you need potions to do the rest," Poppy continued. Her eyes then darkened. "I have some in stock, but knowing who made them, I think it's best you get them elsewhere."
She was confused for a moment. Severus' potions were the best! Why wouldn't she use them?
Hadrian caught her look scowled. "Snape killed Dumbledore," he spat with vehemence.
Heather flinched at the announcement, not even needing to fake her surprise. She'd known it would happen, but she'd still hoped that it wouldn't be so soon.
Poppy was also visibly angered. "Yes, I cannot believe that man! And to think that Albus had trusted him so!"
She had to hide her indignation and put on a look of betrayal. She could not bring herself to badmouth the man, however, so she remained silent. It was enough to convince them.
Shaking her head, she changed the topic. "Poppy, I know enough to recognise when a potion is tampered with. Just let me see the ones you have."
The mediwitch agreed and went to gather them from her cupboard.
"Heather," Hadrian said softly, once Poppy was out of hearing range, "I'm sorry. I know how much Snape-"
Heather shook her head sharply, looking into her brother's eyes. "We'll talk about this later. Privately, with the rest of the DA."
Rian's brows furrowed in consternation. "You can't possibly still trust-"
"Privately!" she reiterated. Her firm tone was enough to keep him from continuing that sentence.
"Here you are," Poppy said as she returned to the room. In her hands was a tray of potions. There were three different types on it, and Heather could already guess what they were.
"Hadrian get one of the blue ones and help me uncork it," she asked. That done, she took a careful sniff. Cardomom, mint, dittany. "That's a perfectly brewed Muscle Repair."
Another one, an amber coloured potion with silver flecks, was Growth Enhancer.
The last, she noticed, was actually one she had brewed herself. A runic Muscle Strengthening Tonic that worked faster and reduced soreness.
"Are you sure they are all safe?" Poppy asked dubiously.
Heather had to quash her urge to defend Severus, knowing that this was the whole point of the deception.
"Yes, definitely."
"Very well, then you should take one of each every night before you sleep for the next seven days. Do not strain your arms too much during that time, or you will set your recovery back!" the matron warned.
"Thank you," Heather said to Poppy, who nodded with an exasperated look before going to get her the phials she needed.
She turned her attention back to Hadrian, who had not stopped staring at her. There were dark bags under his eyes and it looked like he hadn't left her side in the two days she had been unconscious. It was probably true, since that's what she would have done had she been in his shoes.
"Hey, Rian, it's okay. No permanent damage-"
That must've been the wrong thing to say, because Hadrian snapped. "No? What about your arms, huh? There'll be scars there forever, I bet. Werewolf scars don't fade! And even if they do, that's not the point! What were you even thinking? Taking on a werewolf alone? When you knew you were low on magic! You keep telling me off about being too reckless and rushing into things and getting hurt, but you keep doing the same!"
"Hey!" she protested, "It's not like Iwas the one who attacked Greyback! I couldn't have just said, 'sorry, nope, could you not fight me please, much appreciated, old chap', now could I? I didn't rush into anything recklessly! Every adult was helping to defend Hogwarts, me included! I got injured, yes, but I also prevented Greyback from-"
She stopped in her tracks as it occurred to her. "Oh Merlin, I killed Greyback. I killed someone. I murdered an actual human being, oh Merlin."
"No, damnit, Heather!" Hands came up to frame her face and force her to look into Hadrian's eyes. "Listen to me! You didn't murder him. You killed him in self-defence. Heck in defence of any other child that might have fallen prey to his evil claws! You can't blame yourself for that!"
"But I killed him!"
"And I killed Quirrell! Does that make me a murderer?" Hadrian challenged.
"Of course not! He was going to kill you!" she said immediately.
"Then what makes what you did so different?"
"I-"
"Don't be a hypocrite, Heather!"
That, she had no response to. Intellectually, she knew what Rian said made sense, but it would take a while to reconcile that with her heart. So she just nodded a little, letting the argument go.
"I'm sorry for worrying you," she sighed, getting to the root of why her brother was so angry with her. "But I did what I needed to do to protect the students."
All Hadrian's previous bluster left him in a whoosh. "I know," he groaned, "I was just scared."
She wished she lift her arms to hug him, but she'd already tried Poppy's patience enough for one day. "C'mere." Hadrian jumped at the offer and dove into her bed, careful not to jostle her injuries. Having him close made a tight ball of stress in her gut release, and she let out a huge breath.
As if waiting for the right moment, Poppy came back with Heather's potions just then. With more stern instructions not to work too hard, she reluctantly let them go. If it wasn't for the uneasy status of Hogwarts' security, the matron would have kept her in bed for the full course of the seven days, Heather was sure. As it was, the three days she had already stayed had been risky enough. All the students had already been sent home, one week before the holidays were due to start.
Hadrian supported her weight as they made their way – slowly – to the floo in Poppy's office and babbled about the past days' events.
"The others were all really worried too, but Madame Pomfrey wouldn't let everyonestay. I'm sure you'll be smothered once you get out of here. Our plan worked, by the way, all the students were safe during the attack. Some of them had to be stunned to keep them from rushing out to help, though." His brows furrowed. "Those that wanted to help the DEs were bound and kept separate from the rest."
She was unsurprised by the revelation, knowing that there were some students who were on Voldemort's side, whether by choice or not.
"Come on, we're flooing to the Burrow."
Her eyebrows shot up at the announcement. "What about Sirius'?"
"Snape," Hadrian spat, "knows where it is."
"But the Burrow's hardly a secure location!"
"Relax, Bill's set up heavy wards around the place. There's gonna be a meeting of the whole Order tonight. I think they're thinking of putting Fidelius on the place too, but that's still up in the air."
As always, Hadrian insisted on flooing first and she didn't even make a play of protesting. Honestly, she didn't want to imagine falling onto the floor with her arms the way they were. She could just imagine it, her hands would shoot forward in reflex to break her fall, only the only things breaking would be them.
The floo jarred her arms a little, but the pain was tolerable. She could sense the noise in the room quieten as she arrived and she moaned, thinking of all the coddling she'd be subjected to.
"Heather!" "Heather!" "Heather dear!" "Heather harp!"
"Hey everyone," she said tiredly. "I'd wave, but I'm a little tied up at the moment."
The whole Weasley clan was in attendance, as were Hermione, Cedric, Fleur (whom she knew from her correspondence with Bill to be his girlfriend), Tonks, Remus and Sirius.
"Oh, Heather dear," Mrs Weasley said coming forward to pull her into a gentle hug. "How are you feeling?"
"Well enough to make-"
"-her usual bad puns!"
Fred and George joked weakly as they came to hover fretfully around her as well.
"Leave it to-"
"-the pros next time!"
She heard the double meaning in their words and she raised an eyebrow at them. "I'm not the one who went looking for a fight with Greyback," she repeated. And it wasn't like the aurors at the scene had eagerly offered to help.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Remus flinch.
"Really, everyone," she said, frustrated, "I'm fine! A week of potions and rest and I'll be right as rain!"
Everyone started talking at once, giving her a headache. It was then that Sirius – bless the man! – cut everyone off with his usual aplomb.
"Well, gotta say, Heather, I'm glad I've never really gotten on your bad side! You sure showed that Greyback who's boss!"
Everyone else looked at Sirius, almost scandalised, for the trivial way he had spoken of the vicious werewolf. For some reason, that got her to let out an involuntary giggle.
Fred and George were quick to pick it up.
"Yeah, you totally thrashed him!"
"You're, like half his size-"
"maybe a quarter as strong-"
"Hey!" she protested.
"But," they continued, ignoring her, "you got him!"
"And with pieces of rock, too!"
"Unbelievable!"
Heather shook her head and went to sit down. She was more tired than she wanted to admit.
"Prof McG even said it was a, what were her words again, Forge?"
"I believe, Gred, that they were 'a masterful bit of Transfiguration that she should be proud of'!"
"Okay, okay," Heather piped up, "enough about that. Tell me about what happened while I was out!"
~~~
"Heather."
She turned around, smiling when she saw Bill. She had excused herself partly to get away from all the chatter, but at least she knew Bill wasn't the smothering type.
"Just wanted to say I'm really glad you're alright." He put a hand on her head and ruffled her hair.
It was really nice. If there was anyone she thought of as an older brother figure, it would be Bill. She wasn't all that close to Charlie and Percy, but Bill? She'd exchanged letters with him for years now, and despite seeing him rarely due to his work and her schooling, she felt close to him.
"Thanks, I can't wait to get these bandages off! It's annoying not being able to move my arms freely."
That didn't make Bill smile like she'd thought it would. In fact, he frowned harder. "I'm sorry."
"There's nothing to be sorry about," she said, confused by the apology, "You weren't the one who did this to me."
Bill ran a hand over his face. "I was the one who found you after everything. I saw Greyback attacking you, but I couldn't get away from my own fight quick enough." He clenched his fists till they were white. "You were turning bluefrom being crushed under his body. I should have been faster, then maybe you wouldn't have been so badly hurt!"
Oh, the silly man! Merlin help her from martyring Gryffindors.
"Bill," she said firmly, "It sounds like you saved my life, actually. I could have suffocated under that damn Greyback had you not helped me. It wasn't your duty to help me fight. We all had our own battles that day."
"But I should've protected you! You're my little sister!" he said obstinately, like his words were absolute.
She couldn't help the wide smile that stretched over her face. "You did, trust me. Now, are you going to tell your little sister about the ring she saw on Fleur's right fourth finger?"
Bill narrowed his eyes, recognising the change in topic. However, he let it go when she looked at her expectant expression.
"Well, mum's been going crazy with wedding plans..."
And despite all the horrid stuff that had happened recently, Heather knew that there was joy to be found amidst it all.