Their moment of bliss was rudely interrupted however as just then a body fell past the hole blown into the side of the school, and curses flew in at them from the darkness, hitting the wall behind their heads.
"Get down!" Harry shouted, as more curses flew through the night. Y/n had grabbed Hermione and pulled her to the floor.
"Come on we've got to move!" Harry cried.
Fred let out a cry of pain.
"Fred!" Ron and Percy said worried.
"It's my leg...I think it's broken." Fred told them. "Still, better that then being dead..." He then tried to joke.
"Come on give me your arm." Percy told Fred.
"Perce just go. I'm going to slow you guys down otherwise." Fred said back.
"I've already tossed away my family once I won't do it again!" Percy quickly said.
Hermione screamed now, and Y/n, turning, did not need to ask why. A monstrous spider the size of a small car was trying to climb through the huge hole in the wall. One of Aragog's descendants had joined the fight.
Y/n raised his wand but Ron and Harry shouted together as their spells collided and the monster was blown backward, its legs jerking horribly, and vanished into the darkness.
"It brought friends!" Harry called to the others, glancing 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. Harry 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 Harry's head, so close he felt the force of them blow his hair.
"Let's move, NOW!"
"Percy just carry Fred we will clear the way!" Y/n told him as Y/n lifted Hermione to her feet now and pushed her ahead of him.
Percy quickly scooped up Fred now.
"I'd prefer dinner first Percy." Fred said to him.
"Oh shut up." Percy said as he moved forward carrying Fred.
Together, crouching low to avoid the curses flying at them from the grounds, they all moved out of the way.
"Here." said Harry, and they placed Fred down in a niche where a suit of armor had stood earlier.
"Percy can you look after Fred? We need to go on ahead." Y/n asked him.
"I'll protect him with my life." Percy nodded.
The four rushed ahead now to see that Malfoy 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, they saw many people running backward and forward, whether friends or foes none could tell.
"In here!" Hermione screamed.
She had pulled Y/n and the other two behind a tapestry.
"What is the plan now?" She asked as the four all looked at one another in the enclosed small space.
Ron however pulled Y/n into a massive hug, surprising him.
"R-Ron?" Y/n asked.
"You saved his bloody life. All those times I was a git to you as well...I'm sorry mate." Ron said sounding angry with himself.
"Ron, it is alright. Fred is alive, so we just need to keep looking forward."
Ron nodded and released Y/n with a look of gratitude still etched upon his face.
"There is just the snake left now, we have got to kill the snake!" Y/n told them.
"We will fight!" Hermione said. "We'll have to, to reach the snake! Let's not lose sight now of what we're supposed to be doing! We're the only ones who can end it!"
The events of the last few minutes had taken their toll on them all and Hermione took great heaving breaths to calm herself as she turned to Harry.
"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!"
Y/n nodded in agreement. This was the only way.
They watched as Harry closed his eyes on her command, and at once, the screams and the bangs and all the discordant sounds of the battle were drowned until they became distant, as though he stood far, far away from them...
He was standing in the middle of a desolate but strangely familiar room, with peeling paper on the walls and all the windows boarded except for one. The sounds of the assault on the castle were muffled and distant. The single unblocked window revealed distant bursts of light where the castle stood, but inside the room it was dark except for a solitary oil lamp.
He was rolling his wand between his fingers, watching it, his thoughts on the room in the castle, the secret room only he had ever found, the room, like the Chamber, that you had to be clever and cunning and inquisitive to discover... He was confident that the boy would not find the diadem...although Dumbledore's puppet had come much farther than he had ever expected... too far...
"My Lord." said a voice, desperate and cracked. He turned, There was Lucius Malfoy sitting in the darkest corner, ragged and still bearing the marks of the punishment he had received after the boy's last escape. One of his eyes remained closed and puffy. "My Lord...please...my son..."
"If your son is dead, Lucius, it is not my fault. He did not stay like the rest of the Slytherins. Perhaps he has decided to befriend Harry Potter?"
"No...never." whispered Malfoy.
"You must hope not."
"Aren't...aren't you afraid, my Lord, that Potter might die at another hand but yours?" asked Malfoy, his voice shaking. "Wouldn't it be...forgive me...more prudent to call off this battle, enter the castle, and seek him y-yourself?"
"Do not pretend, Lucius. You wish the battle to cease so that you can discover what has happened to your son. And I do not need to seek Potter. Before the night is out, Potter will have come to find me."
Voldemort dropped his gaze once more to the wand in his fingers. It troubled him...and those things that troubled Lord Voldemort needed to be rearranged...
"Go and fetch Snape."
"Snape, m-my Lord?"
"Snape. Now. I need him. There is a...service...I require from him. Go."
Frightened, stumbling a little through the gloom, Lucius left the room. Voldemort continued to stand there, twirling the wand between his fingers, staring at it.
"It is the only way, Nagini." he whispered, and he looked around, and there was the great thick snake, now suspended in midair, twisting gracefully within the enchanted, protected space he had made for her, a starry, transparent sphere somewhere between glittering cage and tank.
With a gasp, Harry pulled back and opened his eyes, at the same moment his ears were assaulted with the screeches and cries, the smashes and bangs of battle.
"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?"
"Voldemort has never been one to throw himself into battle unless he thinks he needs to fight. He fears Death too much." said Y/n.
"Really?" Ron asked.
"Why else would he make the Horcruxes? He seeks to flee from death as it is his one true fear." Y/n explained.
"He thinks I'm going to go to him." Harry told them now.
"But why?" Hermione asked.
"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 three can stay here, 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..."
"Do not even think about it." Y/n stopped her.
Before Hermione could get farther than "Y/n, I'm just as capable..." the tapestry at the top of the staircase on which they stood was ripped open.
"POTTER!"
Two masked Death Eaters stood there, but even before their wands were fully raised, Hermione shouted. "Glisseo!"
The stairs beneath their feet flattened into a chute and she, Y/n, Harry, and Ron hurtled down it, unable to control their speed but so fast that the Death Eaters' Stunning Spells flew far over their heads. They shot through the concealing tapestry at the bottom and spun onto the floor, hitting the opposite wall.
"Duro!" shouted Y/n, pointing his 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 he, Harry, Y/n and Hermione flattened themselves against a door as a herd of galloping desks thundered past, shepherded by a sprinting Professor McGonagall. She appeared not to notice them. Her hair had come down and there was a gash on her cheek. As she turned the corner, they heard her scream. "CHARGE!"
"I do so treasure that woman sometimes..." Y/n could not help saying proudly.
"Harry, you get the Cloak on," said Hermione. "Never mind us..."
But he threw it over all four of them, large though they were, he doubted anyone would see their disembodied feet through the dust that clogged the air, the falling stone, the shimmer of spells.
"Together then?" Y/n asked.
"Together." Harry nodded.
They ran down the next staircase and found themselves 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, dueled students and teachers. Dean had won himself a wand, for he was face-to-face with Rookwood, Parvati with Travers. Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione raised their 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 their own side if they cast curses. Even as they stood braced, looking for the opportunity to act, there came a great "Wheeeeeeeeeeee!" and, looking up, Y/n saw Peeves zooming over them, dropping Snargaluff pods down onto the Death Eaters, whose heads were suddenly engulfed in wriggling green tubers like fat worms.
"Argh!"
A fistful of tubers had 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, Rookwood attempted to retaliate and Parvati shot a Body-Bind Curse at him.
"LET'S GO!" Harry yelled, and he, Ron, Y/n and Hermione gathered the Cloak tightly around themselves and pelted, heads down, through the midst of the fighters, slipping a little in pools of Snargaluff juice, 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.
"Stupid boy...Feel free Ron." Y/n said as he pointed his wand at the Death Eater and stunned them as they passed. Malfoy looked around, beaming, for his savior, and Ron punched him from under the Cloak. Malfoy fell backward on top of the Death Eater, his mouth bleeding, utterly bemused.
"And that's the second time we've saved your life tonight, you two-faced bastard!" Ron yelled as they continued on.
"Better?" Y/n asked him.
"Been wanting to do that for years..." Ron said back.
There were more duelers all over the stairs and in the hall, Death Eaters everywhere Y/n looked. Yaxley, close to the front doors, in combat with Flitwick, a masked Death Eater dueling Kingsley right beside them. Students ran in every direction, some carrying or dragging injured friends. 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, Y/n and Hermione sped down the marble staircase. Glass shattered to their left, and the Slytherin hourglass that had recorded House points spilled its emeralds everywhere, so that people slipped and staggered as they ran. Two bodies fell from the balcony overhead as they reached the ground, and a gray blur that Harry took for an animal 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 backward from the feebly stirring body of Lavender Brown. He hit the marble banisters 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 banisters. "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.
Screams of terror rent the air. The fighters scattered, Death Eaters and Hogwartians alike, and red and green jets of light flew into the midst of the oncoming monsters, which shuddered and reared, more terrifying than ever.
"How do we get out?" yelled Ron over all the screaming, but before either Harry Y/n or Hermione could answer they 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!" Harry forgot everything else. He sprinted out from under the Cloak, running bent double to avoid the curses illuminating the whole hall.
"HAGRID, COME BACK!"
But he was not even halfway to Hagrid when he saw it happen. Hagrid 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!"
Harry heard someone calling his own name, whether friend or foe he did not care. He was sprinting down the front steps into the dark grounds, and the spiders were swarming away with their prey, and he could see nothing of Hagrid at all.
"HAGRID!"
He thought he could make out an enormous arm waving from the midst of the spider swarm, but as he made to chase after them, his way was impeded by a monumental foot, which swung down out of the darkness and made the ground on which he stood shudder. He looked up, A giant stood before him, twenty feet high, its head hidden in shadow, nothing but its treelike, 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 upon Harry, forcing him back under the shelter of the doorway.
"Oh my..." shrieked Hermione, as she, Y/n and Ron caught up with Harry and gazed upward at the giant now trying to seize people through the window above.
"No!" Y/n yelled, grabbing Hermione's hand as she raised her wand. "I am sorry but if you stun him, he will fall and crush half the castle beneath him..."
"HAGGER?"
Grawp came lurching around the corner of the castle, only now did Harry realize that Grawp was, indeed, an undersized giant. The gargantuan monster trying to crush people on the upper floors looked around and let out a roar. 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 night was full of hideous yells and blows as the giants wrestled, and Harry tore down the steps as Y/n seized Hermione's hand and quickly followed him into the grounds, Ron bringing up the rear. Harry had not lost hope of finding and saving Hagrid, he ran so fast that they were halfway toward the forest before they were brought up short again.
The air around them had frozen. Y/n's breath caught and solidified in his chest. 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...
Harry, Ron and Hermione closed in beside him as the sounds of fighting behind them grew suddenly muted, deadened, because a silence only dementors could bring was falling thickly through the night.
"Patronuses." Y/n quickly said to the others raising his wand. "Expecto Patronum!"
A silver cat shot out from the end of his wand as he heard Hermione and Ron cast their own and soon a silver otter and terrier joined his own. He noticed the absence of a Stag.
"Come on, Harry!" said Hermione's voice. "Patronuses, Harry, come on!"
Harry raised his wand, but a dull hopelessness was spreading through him. How many lay dead that he did not yet know about, he felt as though his soul had already half left his body...
"HARRY GET IT TOGETHER !" shouted Y/n.
A hundred dementors were advancing, gliding toward them, sucking their way closer to what was like a promise of a feast.
Y/n saw Ron's silver terrier burst into the air, flicker feebly, and expire, he saw Hermione's otter twist in midair and fade. Only his cat was still formed and it reared up its hind to pounce forwards. Y/n felt his grip on his wand tighten with the cold.
And then a silver hare, a boar, and a fox soared past Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione's heads, joining the cat as 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 spell practice for the D.A. "That's right, Harry...come on, think of something happy..."
"Something happy?" Harry said, his voice cracked.
"We're all still here." Luna whispered. "We're still fighting. Come on, now..."
"Fight Harry." Y/n said to him. "Fight to protect the ones we love."
There was a silver spark, then a wavering light, and then, with the greatest effort it had ever cost him, the stag burst from the end of Harry's wand and Y/n's patronus leaped upon its back. The stag cantered forward with the cat, and now the dementors scattered in earnest, and immediately the night was mild again, but the sounds of the surrounding battle were loud in their ears.
"Can't thank you enough." said Ron shakily, turning to Luna, Ernie, and Seamus.
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 them.
"RUN!" Harry shouted again, but the others needed no telling. They all scattered, and not a second too soon, for the next moment the creature's vast foot had fallen exactly where they had been standing. Harry looked round, Ron, Y/n and Hermione were following him, but the other three had vanished back into the battle.
"Let's get out of range!" yelled Ron as the giant swung its club again and its bellows echoed through the night, across the grounds where bursts of red and green light continued to illuminate the darkness.
"A good idea! We need to make our way to the Whomping Willow!" said Y/n. "Come on!"
The four sprinted, half believing they could outdistance death itself, ignoring the jets of light flying in the darkness all around them, and the sound of the lake crashing like the sea, and the creaking of the Forbidden Forest though the night was windless, through grounds that seemed themselves to have risen in rebellion, they ran faster than they had ever moved in their lives, and it was Hary who saw the great tree first, the Willow that protected the secret at its roots with whiplike, slashing branches.
Panting and gasping, Harry slowed down, skirting the Willow's swiping branches, 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, Y/n and Hermione caught up, Hermione so out of breath she 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 and holding onto Y/n's shoulder for balance. "Are you a wizard, or what?"
"Hah...reminds me... of our first year..." Y/n said, directing his wand at a twig on the ground and 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.
"Perfect!" panted Hermione.
"Wait." Harry stopped them.
For one teetering second, while the crashes and booms of the battle filled the air, Harry hesitated. Voldemort wanted him to do this, wanted him to come...Was he leading Ron, Y/n, and Hermione into a trap?
"Harry, we're coming, just get in there!" said Ron, pushing him forward.
Harry wriggled into the earthy passage hidden in the tree's roots. It was a much tighter squeeze than it had been the last time they had entered it. The tunnel was low-ceilinged, They had to double up to move through it nearly four years previously, now there was nothing for it but to crawl. Harry went first, his wand illuminated, expecting at any moment to meet barriers, but none came. They moved in silence, Harry's gaze fixed upon the swinging beam of the wand held in his fist.
At last the tunnel began to slope upward and Harry saw a sliver of light ahead. Hermione who had gone next tugged at his ankle.
"The Cloak!" she whispered. "Put the Cloak on!"
Harry reached behind him and she forced the bundle of slippery cloth into his free hand. With difficulty he dragged it over himself, murmured "Nox" extinguishing his wandlight, and continued on his hands and knees, as silently as possible, all his senses straining, expecting every second to be discovered, to hear a cold clear voice, see a flash of green light.
And then he heard voices coming from the room directly ahead of them, 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, Harry edged right up to the opening and peered through a tiny gap left between crate and wall.
The room beyond was dimly lit, but he could see Nagini, swirling and coiling like a serpent underwater, safe in her enchanted, starry sphere, which floated unsupported in midair. He could see the edge of a table, and a long-fingered white hand toying with a wand. Then Snape spoke, and Harry's heart lurched, Snape was inches away from where he crouched, hidden.
"...my Lord, their resistance is crumbling."
"And it is doing so without your help." said Voldemort in his high, clear voice. "Skilled wizard though you are, Severus, I do not think you will make much difference now. We are almost there...almost."
"Let me find the boy. Let me bring you Potter. I know I can find him, my Lord. Please."
Snape strode past the gap, and Harry drew back a little, keeping his eyes fixed upon Nagini, wondering whether there was any spell that might penetrate the protection surrounding her, but he could not think of anything. One failed attempt, and he would give away their position.
Voldemort stood up. Harry could see him now, see the red eyes, the flattened, serpentine face, the pallor of him gleaming slightly in the semidarkness.
"I have a problem, Severus." said Voldemort softly.
"My Lord?" said Snape.
Voldemort raised the Elder Wand, holding it as delicately and precisely as a conductor's baton.
"Why doesn't it work for me, Severus?"
In the silence Harry imagined he could hear the snake hissing slightly as it coiled and uncoiled — or was it Voldemort's sibilant sigh lingering on the air?
"My...my Lord?" said Snape blankly. "I do not understand. You...you have performed extraordinary magic with that wand. Used it to extinguish a powerful magic the Grindelwalds have desperately coverted themselves... "
Harry looked back to Y/n for a moment to see that he had indeed heard this.
"No." said Voldemort. "I have performed my usual magic. I am extraordinary, but this wand...no. It has not revealed the wonders it has promised. I feel no difference between this wand and the one I procured from Ollivander all those years ago."
Voldemort's tone was musing, calm, but Harry's scar had begun to throb and pulse. Pain was building in his forehead, and he could feel that controlled sense of fury building inside Voldemort.
"No difference." said Voldemort again.
Snape did not speak. Harry could not see his face. He wondered whether Snape sensed danger, was trying to find the right words to reassure his master.
Voldemort started to move around the room. Harry lost sight of him for seconds as he prowled, speaking in that same measured voice, while the pain and fury mounted in Harry.
"I have thought long and hard, Severus...Do you know why I have called you back from the battle?"
And for a moment Harry saw Snape's profile. His eyes were fixed upon the coiling snake in its enchanted cage.
"No, my Lord, but I beg you will let me return. Let me find Potter."
"You sound like Lucius. Neither of you understands Potter as I do. He does not need finding. Potter will come to me. I know his weakness, you see, his one great flaw. He will hate watching the others struck down around him, knowing that it is for him that it happens. He will want to stop it at any cost. He will come."
"But my Lord, he might be killed accidentally by one other than yourself..."
"My instructions to my Death Eaters have been perfectly clear. Capture Potter. Kill his friends... the more, the better... but do not kill him. I have sent the Grindelwalds to join the battle now, their desire to kill the boy that disgraces their bloodline is inspired. Where others have failed me I am sure they will not..."
Y/n felt coldness run through his body. His parents and Atticus could already be in the castle. How many would fall at their hands?
"But it is of you that I wished to speak, Severus, not Harry Potter. You have been very valuable to me. Very valuable." Voldemort spoke again.
"My Lord knows I seek only to serve him. But...let me go and find the boy, my Lord. Let me bring him to you. I know I can..."
"I have told you, no!" said Voldemort, and Harry caught the glint of red in his eyes as he turned again, and the swishing of his cloak was like the slithering of a snake, and he felt Voldemort's impatience in his burning scar. "My concern at the moment, Severus, is what will happen when I finally meet the boy!"
"My Lord, there can be no question, surely..."
"But there is a question, Severus. There is."
Voldemort halted, and Harry could see him plainly again as he slid the Elder Wand through his white fingers, staring at Snape.
"Why did both the wands I have used fail when directed at Harry Potter?"
"I... I cannot answer that, my Lord."
"Can't you?"
The stab of rage felt like a spike driven through Harry's head. He forced his own fist into his mouth to stop himself from crying out in pain. He closed his eyes, and suddenly he was Voldemort, looking into Snape's pale face.
"My wand of yew did everything of which I asked it, Severus, except to kill Harry Potter. Twice it failed. Ollivander told me under torture of the twin cores, told me to take another's wand. I did so, but Lucius's wand shattered upon meeting Potter's."
"I...I have no explanation, my Lord."
Snape was not looking at Voldemort now. His dark eyes were still fixed upon the coiling serpent in its protective sphere.
"I sought a third wand, Severus. The Elder Wand, the Wand of Destiny, the Deathstick. I took it from its previous master. I took it from the grave of Albus Dumbledore."
And now Snape looked at Voldemort, and Snape's face was like a death mask. It was marble white and so still that when he spoke, it was a shock to see that anyone lived behind the blank eyes.
"My Lord...let me go to the boy..."
"All this long night, when I am on the brink of victory, I have sat here." said Voldemort, his voice barely louder than a whisper. "Wondering, wondering, why the Elder Wand refuses to be what it ought to be, refuses to perform as legend says it must perform for its rightful owner...and I think I have the answer."
Snape did not speak.
"Perhaps you already know it? You are a clever man, after all, Severus. You have been a good and faithful servant, and I regret what must happen."
"My Lord..."
"The Elder Wand cannot serve me properly, Severus, because I am not its true master. The Elder Wand belongs to the wizard who killed its last owner. You killed Albus Dumbledore. While you live, Severus, the Elder Wand cannot be truly mine."
"My Lord!" Snape protested, raising his wand.
"It cannot be any other way." said Voldemort. "I must master the wand, Severus. Master the wand, and I master Potter at last."
And 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. Harry saw Snape's face losing the little color 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 Snape, 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.
Back in the tunnel and his own mind, Harry opened his eyes. He had drawn blood biting down on his knuckles in the effort not to shout out. Now he was looking through the tiny crack between crate and wall, watching a foot in a black boot trembling on the floor.
"Harry!" breathed Hermione behind him, but he had already pointed his wand at the crate blocking his view. It lifted an inch into the air and drifted sideways silently. As quietly as he could, he pulled himself up into the room.
He did not know why he was doing it, why he was approaching the dying man. He did not know what he felt as he saw Snape's white face, and the fingers trying to staunch the bloody wound at his neck. Harry took off the Invisibility Cloak and looked down upon the man he hated, whose widening black eyes found Harry as he tried to speak. Harry bent over him, and Snape seized the front of his robes and pulled him close.
A terrible rasping, gurgling noise issued from Snape's throat.
"Take...it...Take...it..."
Something more than blood was leaking from Snape. Silvery blue, neither gas nor liquid, it gushed from his mouth and his ears and his eyes, and Harry knew what it was, but did not know what to do.
A flask, conjured from thin air, was thrust into his shaking hands by Hermione. Harry lifted the silvery substance into it with his wand. When the flask was full to the brim, and Snape looked as though there was no blood left in him, his grip on Harry's robes slackened.
"Look...at...me..." he whispered.
The green eyes found the black, but after a second, something in the depths of the dark pair seemed to vanish, leaving them fixed, blank, and empty. The hand holding Harry thudded to the floor, and Snape moved no more.
Harry remained kneeling at Snape's side, simply staring down at him. Y/n put his hand down on Harry's shoulder now. It was an odd sight to see their old professor dead in front of them, even if he had betrayed them all. He did not know what to feel, except shock at the way Snape had been killed, and the reason for which it had been done.
Y/n was about to utter some words goodbye, when quite suddenly a high, cold voice spoke so close to them that Harry jumped to his feet, the flask gripped tightly in his hands, thinking that Voldemort had reentered the room.
Voldemort's voice reverberated from the walls and floor, and Harry realized that he was talking to Hogwarts and to all the surrounding area, so that the residents of Hogsmeade and all those still fighting in the castle would hear him as clearly as if he stood beside them, his breath on the back of their necks, a deathblow away.
"You have fought." said the high, cold voice. "Valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery.
Yet you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste.
Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately.
You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured.
I speak now, Harry Potter, directly to you. You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommences. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour."
Both Ron and Hermione shook their heads frantically, looking at Harry.
"Do not listen to him Harry." said Y/n. "He is trying to lure you."
"It'll be all right." said Hermione wildly. "Let's...let's get back to the castle, if he's gone to the forest we'll need to think of a new plan..."
She glanced at Snape's body, then hurried back to the tunnel entrance. Ron followed her.
"Come on Harry." Y/n urged him and Harry gathered up the Invisibility Cloak, then both looked down at Snape one last time.
They crawled back through the tunnel, none of them talking, and Y/n wondered whether Harry was thinking about Voldemort's words in his head.
'You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest...One hour...'
Small bundles seemed to litter the lawn at the front of the castle. It could only be an hour or so from dawn, yet it was pitch-black. The four of them hurried toward the stone steps. A lone clog, the size of a small boat, lay abandoned in front of them. There was no other sign of Grawp or of his attacker.
The castle was unnaturally silent. There were no flashes of light now, no bangs or screams or shouts. The flagstones of the deserted entrance hall were stained with blood. Emeralds were still scattered all over the floor, along with pieces of marble and splintered wood. Part of the banisters had been blown away.
"Where is everyone?" whispered Hermione.
"The Great Hall most likely." Y/n said quietly.
Ron led the way as he and Hermione followed him inside with Harry behind them.
Y/n saw that the house tables were gone and the room was crowded. The survivors stood in groups, their arms around each other's necks. The injured were being treated upon the raised platform by Madam Pomfrey and a group of helpers. Firenze was amongst the injured, his flank poured blood and he shook where he lay, unable to stand.
The dead lay in a row in the middle of the Hall. Y/n recognized a few faces amongst the dead as sadness filled him. There was Lavender Brown, Ron's old girlfriend, Katie Bell, the girl Y/n had played Chaser alongside for Gryffindor and a boy he knew by the name of Marcus Belby, who had once attended a Slug Club meeting with him.
They reached a familiar group of redheads now that seemed to take notice of them and Y/n quickly found himself being dragged into a tight hug as kisses were furiously planted on his cheeks.
"You saved him! You saved him!" He heard Molly Weasley cry as she held him with shaky arms.
Y/n turned his head to see Fred sitting down beside George, and both gave him a grin.
Y/n then looked around to see Mr Weasley and Ginny both appreciatively looking at him. Bill and Fleur stood beside them both with a smile, and even Percy, who was hanging back gave him a nod of respect.
"You saved him!" Mrs Weasley carried on.
"I...just did what I could Mrs Weasley." Y/n said trying to stay modest.
Without a word to Ron Y/n and Hermione Harry silently walked away. The Great Hall seemed to fly away, become smaller, shrink, as Harry reeled backwards from the group. He could not draw breath. He could not bear to look at any of the other bodies, to see who else had died for him and so he silently disappeared to find a place to think in peace and view what Snape had left behind.
"Come now Molly give the boy some room to breathe." Mr Weasley said to his wife finally and she relented, letting Y/n go.
"Now, what's this I heard about you and Hermione deciding to get married?" Mrs Weasley asked looking at the both of them with her hands on her hips.
"Oh, Well...Um..." Hermione began to stammer as she and Y/n started to remember the fuss the woman had put up about Bill marrying Fleur so quickly.
"I'd say you are both too young but...Oh you two were made for each other." Molly said shaking her head with a smile. "You must let us know when you are having the wedding so we can start making arrangements."
"I think we should concentrate on getting through this battle first Mrs Weasley." Y/n said to her.
"Yes...Yes of course." Mrs Weasley nodded calming back down now. "Oh...come here both of you." She said opening her arms.
Hermione moved first as Mrs Weasley wrapped her arms around her in a warm hug. "Congratulations dear."
"Thank you." Hermione said hugging her back.
"Bill said you had a nice ring." Ginny said joining in the girls now.
"Yes, Y/n gave me his Grandmother's engagement ring." Hermione said as she raised her hand to show it off.
"It iz most beautiful." Fleur said looking at it again.
"Wow." Ginny couldn't help but say.
"What a lovely thing to pass to you." Mrs Weasley smiled.
"Wish mum had been this enthusiastic about Bill and Fleur getting married. Would have saved loads of time." Ron said quietly to Y/n.
"She is just grateful because I was lucky in saving Fred." Y/n said brushing it off.
"We owe you our gratitude as well." A voice said and Y/n turned his head to see Lupin and Tonks approaching them.
"You are safe..." Y/n said, sounding relieved as he quickly moved forward and pulled Lupin and Tonks into a hug.
"In no short part to you." Lupin told him, he and Tonks hugged back before both let go. "Dolohov was starting to get the better of me before you showed up." Lupin told him.
"And as much as I hate to admit it...I wouldn't have been able to take on Bellatrix alone without Remus's support." Tonks added. "We managed, just about to keep her back until you know who called back his forces."
"She will be back, and it gets worse...My parents and Atticus are about to enter the fight now." Y/n told them.
"That is not inviting news to hear at all." Lupin admitted with a grimace.
"Leave them to me, they are my burden to bear. I must be the one to put them down." Y/n said.
"You must look after yourself as well Y/n." Lupin told him. "Teddy needs his godfather alive. As does your future family." Lupin said, putting his hand on his shoulder.
"I..." Y/n started but then stopped and nodded. "I will do everything possible to keep myself and everyone else alive."
"I'm sure you will." Lupin nodded removing his hand now. "Tonks and I are going to rest for a while before that battle restarts."
Y/n nodded as the two walked past him and said hello to the others now.
Y/n turned his head as he looked around the hall, but his brow furrowed as he noticed one person's absence.
Harry.