The Third War by dumbledorefluertwins
Chapter Notes: Thank you to my beta and all the people over at the forums that practically wrote this for me - honestly, I had so much trouble writing the battle. I could see it my head, but seeing something and writing it down is rather difficult. The squid thing (You'll see when you read it!) is a bit pirates of the carriabean and pretty exciting and wonderful - I'd love to say I thought of it but I didn't. Anyway, EVIL cliffe at the end; you're all going to hate me!!
Harry couldn’t believe his eyes when he got to the lake. Ginny had been right that day in the restaurant. The Death Eaters had been recruiting. There were at least fifty masked Death Eaters, with around twenty un-masked new recruits. With only thirty Aurors and a handful of teachers, they were badly outnumbered.
With pure hatred, Harry saw Snape barking orders to a group of Death Eaters. He wanted desperately to shoot a curse at him. But there were more important things that had to be done..
Harry shot a jinx at a Death Eater who was locked in a duel with Ron. However, this seemed to alert the Death Eaters to his presence and many of them began to focus on Harry; shooting jets of light towards him. But Harry was far too quick and far too experienced. He sent a blasting spell at a group of Death Eaters while backing away to a fallen tree, which the Aurors were using as a shield. He ducked behind it quickly, and began to fire spells over the top. Within a few seconds Ron was next to him.
“About time you got here, there’s so many of them, and most of our Aurors are out of practice.”
“Are there any dead yet?” asked Harry, fearfully. To his relief, Ron shook his head.
“No, but we’ve had a couple of close shaves; I saw one Auror-” But what happened to this Auror Harry never knew because at that moment, an unmasked Death Eater managed to set the shield alight. In a swirling mass of orange flame and thick black smoke Harry ran, blindly, away from the shield, but when he reached clear air, Ron was nowhere to be seen. He surveyed the battle scene as he fought. It was a mass of fire, water and blood, lit by the burning trees and flashes of light from curses, jinx’s and hexes alike.
The Aurors were losing, badly. For some strange reason, the Death Eaters did not advance toward the castle but stayed by the watery depths of the Black Lake, causing as much destruction and pain as possible.
All this to let a few Death Eaters out of Azkaban? No, they’re planning something else… why attack Hogwarts? Why not the Ministry? Why here, when security is at the maximum?
“Harry! Over here!” Ron emerged from the smoke, coughing and spluttering, holding his shirt over his mouth and nose.
“Ron! Are you ok?” Ron nodded grimly.
“A few burns, but otherwise fine. There are three Aurors dead. They ran into a group of Death Eaters in the confusion; they couldn’t see because of the smoke and I- AGH!” Ron stumbled backwards, a deep gash in his side, sent by an unmasked Death Eater. Harry caught him as the Death Eater ran off, and pulled Ron up so he was standing.
“I thought he was an Auror “ I can’t tell with the new recruits.”
“Here,” said Harry, healing the cut, “that should hold until we can get you medical attention; were in a vulnerable area here though, we’ve got to move.” They ran, jumping over those that were unconscious or injured; although it killed him to do it, there was no time to help them.
They fought on by the edge of the lake, which Harry deemed to be the safest place because of the absence of the fire that seemed to be everywhere else.
How wrong he was.
Harry watched as, around one hundred meters away, Severus Snape, the murderer of Albus Dumbledore, searched the lake’s surface before seeing what he was searching for. A long, pink tentacle of the Giant Squid, just above the surface. He smiled nastily and raised his wand.
“Imperio!”
***
Jamie and Lillian ran along the dark passageway, their slipper clad feet making only the slightest of thuds against the wooden floorboards. They held their wands out in front of them, a small bead of light showing them the way. Jamie touched the wall, feeling the rough stone underneath his fingers.
“Lily, I don’t like this “ we should turn back.”
“Shut up. You’re just scared, keep moving. Look, I can see the exit.” And, sure enough, they soon found themselves facing the back of a portrait. They pushed it open gently, to find themselves in,
“Where are we?” The strange corridor did have portraits, like all the others, but they had all fled.
“Where are the portraits?”
“Stop asking questions, Jamie. I’m sure the Great Hall is around here somewhere.”
“Then why can’t we hear everyone?”
“I told you to stop asking questions, Ja- Danny!?” They could see Danny coming towards them, at first they were overjoyed; this had to mean the Great Hall was nearby, but as they looked closer, they could see his scared face and his bound hands. And, behind him, was the grinning face that they had seen so many pictures of, Bellatrix Lestrange.
***
The Giant Squid’s tentacles leapt out of the dark water, grabbing anyone it could reach, aside from Death Eaters.
“STAY AWAY FROM THE WATER!” yelled Harry, but in the noise and confusion no one paid any attention. With horror, Harry watched as a thick tentacle rose out of the water and wrapped around Viktor Krum, who screamed and struggled in vain, his wand dropping from his grasp to the ground. Harry and Ron ran forward, sending stunners at the usually gentle creature. But the spells seemed to have little or no affect on the Squid and neither Harry nor Ron could prevent it from pulling Krum down into the lake, never to return.
“He’s gone,” said Harry blankly, beside him Ron nodded, his face, too, blank and unbelieving.
“Ron! Harry! Get away from the water!” Cho Chang grabbed their arms and pulled them away, the three ran up the bank of the lake, Cho in between them. They stopped at the top, away from the dangers of the lake.
“Why is the Giant Squid doing this?” asked Cho.
“Harry and Me saw Snape bewitching it, probably with the Imperius Curse,” replied Ron.
“We’re losing badly; there are so many and-” but before she could answer, she was pulled down to the ground, a tentacle gripping her ankle, she screamed and tried to grab hold of something as the Squid dragged her along the ground toward the icy depths of the lake. Ron and Harry ran after her, reaching for her hands so that they might pull her back. Harry managed to grab hold of her right hand but, no matter how hard he pulled, he couldn’t compete with the squid’s strength. That brought the death toll up to seventeen.
They carried on fighting, occasional flashes of green or a glimpse of a pale pink tentacle making the toll rise even more. They were literally being slaughtered. Just when Harry began to shout retreat, a loud, deep horn sounded throughout the night sky, coming from the castle.
“That’s the signal! Run!” shouted a nearby Death Eater. And strangely, they did so. They retreated into the Forbidden Forest, leaving the remaining battle weary Aurors, confused.
“That’s weird, huh?” said Ron, watching them run into the forest. The logical thing to do would be to chase after them, but no one had the energy. Harry nodded, thinking.
That battle was so pointless… they weren’t doing it for fun, if they had wanted to kill for some they would have killed muggles… it had no point… they gained nothing… And then, Harry felt his insides plummet with horror.
“Ron,” he said slowly, “that horn… one of them said it was a signal… it came from the castle…”
“Oh, Merlin, you don’t think…” Harry nodded.
“They must have got into the castle.”
“But there were a few teachers there, looking after the kids, they would have sent us a message wouldn’t they?”
“Not if they didn’t have time… we need to go back “ EVERYONE! GO UP TO THE CASTLE NOW!” Exhausted, Harry ran, his heart pounding in his chest, his body screaming at him to stop, his breath catching painfully in his throat. He could almost hear his Healer telling him off for over-exerting himself but he ignored her and kept running until he reached the tall, oak doors to the castle. They were wide open and he groaned; it was practically inviting a Death Eater to come in. There was no Ginny. He ran in and cast his eyes over every square inch of floor looking for any trace of her. Then he saw it, from behind a large gargoyle, a tiny piece of soft blue material was visible in the shadowy gloom. He went behind and saw Ginny laying there, her eyes closed. She couldn’t be dead, not after everything they’d done…
”I do,” she said, her deep brown eyes shining from beneath the veil… “Harry!” she cried joyously, “I’m pregnant! We’re going to have a family!”… “I love you, Harry”… “Don’t get killed,”
“No, no, no,” he muttered, shaking his head. He bent down and checked for a pulse. It was there, and it was steady. He breathed a sigh of relief and revived her. Her eyes slowly fluttered open and she groaned.
“Merlin, Ginny! I thought I’d lost you! What happened?”
“There were six of them… Bellatrix… Macnair…” she said weakly, trying to sit up. Harry heard running behind him and he glanced round to see everybody that had been fighting coming in.
“Ginny! Sweet Merlin, are you okay?” Tonks ran over to Harry and Ginny. Harry helped Ginny stand up.
“Tonks, take Ginny… actually no, Ron, you take Ginny to the hospital wing, Kingsley, Dawlish and Tonks come with me; we need to count all the children. Everybody else search the castle; we’re looking for six Death Eaters including Bellatrix Lestrange and Macnair.” Everybody immediately followed his orders and split up. Harry, Tonks, Kingsley and the newly appointed guardian Dawlish ran into the Great Hall where crowds of students were sitting or standing, all talking anxiously. Tonks ran up to McGonagall and whispered something to her. She went pale and immediately started to yell orders to the already terrified children.
“EVERYBODY GET INTO YOUR HOUSES NOW!” Now that the students were silent, she could shout a little more quietly. “Gryffindors in that corner, Slytherins over there, Hufflepuffs where Professor Flitwick is and Ravenclaws over here!”
Harry ordered all the Gryffindors into lines of their year and began counting the heads of the seventh years. He could see Tonks doing the same.
Seventh years, all there. Sixth years, all there. Fifth-
“NOOOOOO!” Harry spun round to see Tonks sobbing on the ground. He began to walk towards her but stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Madame Hooch.
“Her son’s missing. Flitwick’s counting the rest,” she said, sadly.
“I have to go and-”
“No Harry “ carry on counting, Dawlish says one of his sixth years are missing too. There may be more missing. I’ll go and comfort her.” Harry desperately wanted to go over and reassure Tonks but Madame Hooch’s words had forced him into continuing. It didn’t take him long to realise that there was a fourth year missing.
“Who isn’t here?” He asked the group frantically.
“Nicolas! Where’s Nicolas?” shouted a blonde boy. Harry went over to him.
“Nicolas who?”
“Nicolas Taylor “ he’s my best mate, but he’s not here.”
“Did he come into the hall?”
“Yes, I was talking to him, but then he said something about being back in a minute and he walked off. I think someone was calling his name.”
“Go and tell Professor McGonagall that he’s missing.” The boy ran off and Harry moved on to the third years. Kingsley reported a second year, Rosaline Cutts, to be missing a few minutes later. Harry moved to the first years. And counted eighteen. There were meant to be twenty. Please no, he thought, please let them be here…
“NO! THEY MUST BE HERE!” He shouted. But they weren’t. Lillian and Jamie were missing.
***
“Sirius!” Hermione shouted at his empty bed. She’d heard a scream from upstairs but when she’d got there… She’d opened the door just in time to hear the crack of someone Disapparating. She ran downstairs, sobbing frantically and flooed into Hogwarts. She arrived in the Heads office, where she was shocked to discover Tonks, Lupin, Ginny, Harry and six other people she didn’t know in there, all crying.
“Hermione! They’re gone!” wailed Ginny, “Lillian and Jamie have disappeared!” Hermione gasped, covered her mouth with her hands and cried into them.
“I’m so sorry, Ginny… I was too slow… maybe if I… Merlin I’m so sorry…. I hate myself.”
“Hermione, What are you talking about?” asked Ginny, dread filling her stomach.
“Sirius… he’s missing… I heard him scream and then… a crack… and then he was gone.” There was silence and then a howl of pain, grief and despair as Harry sank to his knee’s, weeping for his children.