Before any question could be answered that was running through everybody’s head, the best thing happened. They all looked out the great doors to find flashes of red, as stunning charms flew about. They all looked back to the order who were all still inside struggling to push the Death Eaters out of the Entrance Hall. It wasn’t them who were stunning people outside.
Harry squinted from the second level.
McGonagall gasped at the sight of the charms.
Mundungus was the one to confirm all the hopes, “The Ministry is here! They are here!” he shouted.
Voldemort’s face contorted in disgust and fear. Sudenly, the happiness was broken apart. There was a huge flash of green light.
The Entrance Hall was blinded by the flash, and no one could see anything. Ron immediately held tightly to Hagrid, who stood above the green light that flooded the room, but couldn’t see anything that was happening amongst it. It sounded like a fist fight and riot had erupted when the witches and wizards were blinded. When the green finally faded away, the attention was focused on the second floor.
Lupin looked around the floor, Tonks had stopped twitching miserably, but lay still on the ground, her hair still changing colors. McGonagall lay next to her, breathing heavily as she struggled to sit up. Then Lupin turned to wear Harry was once standing. His body laid in a heap. His body, though, was not alone either. He looked over the ground, and none other than Lord Voldemort was piled on to the floor as well.
Ginny watched the events carefully, and the second the Ministry officials appeared, her heart leaped. They had won, Hogwarts had won, Dumbledore had won, and the Weasley’s had won.
Lavender heard the shout for the Ministry, and jumped up and shouted from joy. The girl watching the door, got confused and quickly swung open the door. “They did it! The Ministry is here!” Lavender squealed as Sir Cadegon appeared in the empty shredded picture frame.
“Ha ha! I knew I could protect you!” Sir Cadegon exclaimed as he drew his sword. Lavender let out the first laugh all evening, the second years were all smiling and cheering, and wondering what to do with the four Death Eaters they all had stunned.
“Ah, they won’t wake up any time soon, we need people to carry them down stairs though,” Lavender said grabbing the feet of a cloaked and hooded man. She slid the hood off the man and gave a small gasp.
Ron looked up to the second floor, in hopes of seeing Harry still alive. Voldemort had been defeated again, they all thought.
The Order all made a run for the stairs as the left over Death Eaters were rounded up by the Ministry of Magic. They all ran to side of McGonagall, or found themselves hovering over Harry. No one could tell if he was still alive or if he was still dead.
The commotion around them and the people constantly streaming up the stairs and bothering the bodies up there, Harry was moved, and when people bumped into his foot, they believed that he was still alive. And if not, they would still take him to St. Mungo’s as if he was to show the students some sign of hope that he lived, and Voldemort died.
Before Moody could really get up the stairs, they had lifted Harry’s body up and started to trudge down the stairs.
Molly Weasley ran to Ginny and screamed for her other children. All returned save for Charlie, and there was no sign of Arthur either. Fred and George weren’t in the order and had a shop in Diagon Alley to manage. Percy wasn’t fighting with Molly anymore, but he wasn’t in the Order yet either. Both Charlie and Arthur were found next to each other, on the ground.
Kingsley Shacklebolt ran to the fires with two house elves, and got two fires going. He told them to head to the Room of Requirement, and find Floo Powder, and lots of it.
The two houses elves did so and returned with a rather large bag of Floo Powder that they both carried panting down the stairs. He thanked them, and started Floo Powder portals, as a few St. Mungo’s Healers turned up.
Madam Pomfrey had not fought (only if she had to defned herself that is) but rather lingered around deciding which students were dead and which would need immediate medical attention.
Ron saw that Tonks still had a faint breath of air in her lungs, and was barely alive, very much in the state that Hermione was downstairs.
He then turned to McGonagall, who had finally managed to sit herself up right, but her breath was in gasps. He looked down stairs at Dumbledore, and then back to McGonagall. Severus Snape ran up the stairs, stared at McGonagall, and continued on to his destination, the Owlery.
Lavender had unmasked the still very alive Lucius Malfoy, whose face was hurt, and contorted. His eyes were still piercing Lavender Brown as he grabbed his mask back, and stood up rapidly, pulling his wand from the pocket of his cloak. “Stupefy,” said a second year from behind. And Malfoy’s face relaxed and he passed out again. Lavender gave another small smile of glee and happiness as she made it through the night, not knowing any of the details outside. She looked at the common room full of second years who were smiling and writing letters home telling them everything they could. The first years started to mingle down one by one, and Paravti joined Lavender, but no one else returned to the common room.
Ron ran back down the stairs, and over to where Hermione was laying. He looked at her face, it was pale, and she was just barely breathing. He looked up at Ginny, “What did she get hit with? By whom? Why?” he managed to ask, between the sobbing tears, as he looked down and grabbed to hold her cold hand.
“Voldemort. She wouldn’t tell him where Harry was. She just refused, so he put the Cruciatus Curse on her. It looked like something out of the books, about the raids. She floated above all of us, and she twitched compulsively, she was crying, but she didn’t scream out in pain. He tried the Imperious Curse before that, but that didn’t work on her either. Ron, we can’t manage her, father, and Charlie,” she whispered as she looked back at her mother who was sulking as she cradled Arthur’s head. Ron sobbing as well as he looked up to meet his mother’s glance.
Lavender wasn’t the only one to notice that no one was coming back. The second years noticed it to, and slowly, the first years caught on.
“Everyone stay put, stay where you are. Listen for my knock or for the password. But do not let anyone else who doesn’t do either of those. Here me out, I am going downstairs, I will return to let all of you know what the state of things are,” Lavender said. She felt like a babysitter, but these times were dire, and it was more like she was a mother to them.
Lavender stepped out of the portrait hole, and closed it behind her. She made a mad dash to the stairs and quickly leaped down them two at a time, making sure that she didn’t step on any of the trick stairs.
She was greeted with the same horror that Tonks found, that the Order found, that the other students found. Students piled on the floor, dead or just barely hanging on for dear life. She was on the second landing, and making her way down the first stair when she looked over to see McGonagall, and Tonks lying on the floor. Lupin was huddled over McGonagall, blocking her view on whether she was ok or not.
She ran down the stairs and gasped . There in the corner, she saw for the first time, the real of horror of what Voldemort had brought to Hogwarts. The death of the Headmaster, Dumbledore. She looked down at the floor to see the Weasley’s crying over two red-haired men. And then finally she saw Ron and Ginny cradling Hermione’s head. She looked around her.
In the Slytherin side, most were lying on the ground stunned, they had either been hit by other Slytherins, or just randomly were throwing curses at each other because they didn’t know who was good or bad.
The devastation of it all had happened in a single night. One night brought all of this death, one night brought all of this turmoil and suffering. One night had changed the lives of them and the lifestyle of Hogwarts forever. She ran up to Mad-Eye Moody whose magical eye was swiveling dangerously in all directions.
“Sir, the Gryffindor Common Room was breached. Nothing serious, but we have four stunned Death Eater’s in there, and quite frankly, we can’t deal with them really.” Mad-Eye gave a quick nod of his head and followed her back to the Gryffindor Common Room.
“Sir, can you tell me if he is still alive?” Lavender said looking back at the silent Moody.
He merely stared at her, “Voldemort has been…em…taken. So as far as we are concerned, he is in for a loss,” he said carefully as he watched her shiver at the sound of his name.
Mundungus ran over to the Weasley’s and surveyed the damage. He hustled for Molly to let go of Arthur and Charlie and let the St. Mungo’s Healers deal with him.
“They are still alive, Molly. Give them a chance to live by going with them to St. Mungo’s! They can live if you hurry!” he urged, and she got up and had two men levatate each of the bodies and travel through the green fire to St. Mungo’s.
“Stay here, Bill, with Ron and Ginny. The Floo Powder can’t all be used at once. Come when the mess is a bit more cleared up, please! Please stay put! Go and help them please!” she said as she sobbed woefully into a handkerchief that she made her wand create.
Amidst the tears and sadness, Ron had forgotten that his friends were also suffering. That Hermione was just barely a live, and that Harry may have just killed “You-Know-Who” for good, while getting himself killed.
Bill ran straight to where his sibling were holding Hermione’s head crying. “Bill, we need to get her to St. Mungo’s and now. Please help me lift her up.” Ginny said as she moved to the back of Hermione while Bill pulled out his wand and whispered a curse. Ron stared at him helplessly as Bill and Hermione both vanished through the fire.
Ron looked around, he needed to help someone. He needed to get these mysteries out of his head. He looked up and found Neville in the corner, a pile of Death Eaters encircling him, as Neville huddled nervously, holding his wand up and peaking his eyes through his fingers.
"Neville, did you do all of this?" Ron asked looking at the pile of bodies that mixed within each other.
“Umm…I think so…I am not quite sure. These guys made need to get to St. Mungo’s though,” Longbottom replied shakily.
“Let the Ministry deal with Death Eaters,” Ron replied, looking at all of the ones lying on the ground.
“Did you stun all of these?” Ron asked looking at Neville seriously.
“Yeah, well, I think so. My wand went off and sent these people to the ground. I think my wand was broke though, and just backfiring.”
A/N Hmm - so I think you should till stick around, becuase I am not finished yet! What is the true fate of Harry, Hermione, or even Voldemort. Were their losses all in vain?
*Thanks to a review (by witchwannab), I had made a mistake - it is actually Parvati in Gryffindor, not Padma ::shameful for messing up:: I changed as many as I could recall and saw, but I think I got most of them. If you happened to read a Padma, just tell me where in a review.