Begin Again (George Weasley/Draco Malfoy)

Forty.

Professors Flitwick, Sprout, and McGonagall lead groups of fighters to the highest towers (Astronomy, Gryffindor, and Ravenclaw) and they took equal groups with them. Fred, George, and Lee Jordan took groups of fighters to man the secret entrances into the castle. The rest of them all stayed on the grounds. I took off with Harry to find whatever it was we needed to find. He said he knew where the Diadem was now, and we needed to go back to the Room of Requirement. We ran into Ron and Hermione, who were holding onto a bunch of dead Basilisk fangs in one arm and holding hands.
   
It happened. It finally happened. They were finally being honest with each other about their feelings.
   
Ginny was now joined by two women when we got there, Neville’s grandmother and Tonks were both very happy to see us. Tonks hugged me tightly. She was a little more plump than the last time that I saw her, but she did just give birth not too long ago.
   
“Where is your father?” She asks, sounding urgent. We told her that he was on the ground fighting, and she ran out of the room. Neville’s grandmother followed her to go find her grandson. We had to kick Ginny out in order to change the room into the one that we needed. We told her to wait outside of the room, but she took off as soon as she had the chance to fight.
   
We changed the room into the one that we needed, where students have been coming to hide things for forever. It’s where Draco practiced his vanishing cabinet tricks last year, and where Harry hid the Half-Blood Prince’s book, too. “We’re never going to find it!” Cried Ron.
   
“We better start looking!” I shout and take off, beginning to search for a tiara, any kind of tiara.
   
It wasn’t long until we realized we weren’t alone. I had met up with Harry during our search, when we heard, “Hold it, Potter,” in the voice of my ex, Draco Malfoy. “That’s my wand you’re holding there.”
   
“Not anymore, it’s allegiance lies in me now that I took it from you,” Harry hissed back at my ex’s smug face. “Winner’s keepers, Malfoy.”
   
“Who’s wand is that?” I ask, looking at the one in his hand.
   
“My mother’s,” he snarls.
   
“Oh how sweet, your mummy saving your ass again,” I tease him, rolling my eyes. 

“What is your problem with me?” He hisses at me.
   
“My problem!” I screech, “Oh boy, we don’t have time for that conversation! You disgust me, Draco! You had so much potential to be better than your parents, and you chose the same, stupid path! You’re despicable!”
   
Ron and Hermione are with us then, holding the Diadem, and Hermione hands it off to Harry. Goyle sets the Cruciatus Curse on Ron, and I stun him and make him fall on his face, that’s when Crabbe started to set the place on fire. Harry found three brooms. We all mounted, Hermione behind Ron as we flew high above the three. Goyle came too and started to climb over to us, but he was engulfed in the flames. We saw Malfoy holding an unconscious Goyle, he must have passed out due to the smoke of the flames.
   
Harry shouted, “We can’t leave them here!”
   
“HARRY!” Ron shouted back, “IF WE DIE SAVING THEM I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!”
   
Harry and I flew back over to Malfoy, we hovered over the ground. Ron quickly helped Malfoy put the knocked out Goyle onto Harry’s broom and Draco mounted mine and we took off again. “Thank you,” says Draco as we fly to the exit. We crash landed, due to the flames almost catching up with us as we reached the door, Goyle had come to, and he and Draco take off running.
   
The flames got to the Diadem, and it was now melted. “He must have used Fiendfyre,” says Hermione, “That’s the only fire that could destroy a Horcrux.”
   
“We have to get to the Shrieking Shack! That’s where he is, that’s where the Snake is! He’s waiting for Snape there!” Shouts Harry and we start to run.
   
Fred and Percy were manning the entrance to the secret passageway that we needed. As we approached it, an explosion erupted. We were blown backwards, I held onto Harry and Ron as it happened. The four of us were all safe, but someone else wasn’t.
   
“No – no – no!” someone shouts, it was Percy. “FRED! No! NO!”
   
We sat up and Percy was shaking his brother, and Ron was now kneeling beside them, and Fred’s eyes stared without seeing, the ghost of his last laugh still etched upon his face. Harry stood up, and suddenly Hermione and I were at his side, but my body seemed to be moving without me telling it to. I was out of control at the sight of Fred, who looked identical to the man that I was in love with, lying dead on the floor. It made my anxiety skyrocket. Where was George? Was he okay? Was he already dead like Fred? Would I ever see him again? I didn’t know.
   
“Percy!” shouts Harry over the noise, “There’s nothing you can do for him right now but fight! Avenge him! It’s the only thing we can do!”
   
Percy gets up off his brother, wipes his eyes and runs off, shouting incantations and blocking all the curses thrown at him. We all ran into the tunnel then. Ron wanted to go back, to fight, but we told him not to, that we had to go to the shack and kill the snake. It was the only way we could end the fight. We had to kill the snake.
   
We hid and listened to Snape and Voldemort talking from outside the shack. The Dark Lord was talking about how the elder wand wasn’t working for him, because he didn’t kill the last owner, but Snape did. So, as long as Snape was alive, it wasn’t going to work Properly for him. He sent Nagini after Snape, and she bit him on the neck like she did to Mr. Weasley two Christmases ago now. This time it worked however, and Snape was for sure going to die. When Voldemort left, he took the snake with him, and Harry ran in to see the Professor lying on the ground.
   
“Look at me,” he says, and then he pulls memories out of his head in a thin, silver stream of light with his wand. “Take them.” His hand thudded to the floor, and Snape was no more.
   
The high, cold voice of Voldemort spoke to us again in a whisper like he did when we were in the Great Hall. “You have fought,” he said, “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 magic 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, directly to Harry Potter. You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait 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.”
   
We headed back to the castle then without talking. It was starting to reach dawn now. The castle was unnaturally silent. There were no flashes of light now, no bangs and scream echoing the corridors. We saw Neville and Oliver Wood picking up some dead bodies along our way back to the Great Hall.
   
Without a word to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I all headed for the Weasley family when we entered the Great Hall. They were huddled around Fred’s dead body. George was distraught, but I didn’t have time to comfort him because I noticed my mum was crying in the arms of Kingsley Shacklebolt next to the Weasley family. She was kneeling next to the dead bodies of my dad and step mother.
   
“No!” I say and run over to them. I am on my knees next to my dad. The tears start and they don’t stop. “No!” I say, but it’s more of a loud shout. “Dad, come on,” I say, taking his hand in mine, squeezing. “Dad, wake up!” I yell the command. “DAD!” I yell again, much louder. “Dad, come on! Your son – little Teddy – he needs you to wake up! I need you!”
   
“Adelaide,” my mum’s voice says next to me, “I’m sorry, love, he’s gone.”
   
“NO!” I scream this time, and I fling myself out of my mum’s grip and I lay myself over my dad’s chest, crying, soaking his clothes and my face with my tears. “He can’t be! He just can’t be! He has a baby waiting for him! He can’t be dead!”
   
“Oh, Adelaide,” my mum says softly, and her hand is on my back as I let the grief take over me. After about five minutes of me sobbing onto his lifeless body I sit up, and I see George is kneeling next to me now. I grab onto him and his arms wrap around me. I take in everything I can about him right now, mainly his touch and his scent. Anything I can take in I do it. He was still here, and my mum was still here, and I felt grateful for that fact. I never wanted to leave George’s side ever again.
   
We were all so somber right now. We had all lost someone (and in some cases, multiple people) close to us. We were all quiet, and sobs could be heard throughout the entire Great Hall. Students that knew my dad from his year as a professor came up to me and told me that they were sorry for my loss. Jude came up to me along with Amala, Hannah, and Sadie and I was so glad that they were all okay. It wasn’t until Ron asked me if I had seen Harry anywhere that I noticed he wasn’t in the Great Hall.
   
“That can only mean one thing then,” I say, not wanting to admit it, but I do anyway. “He’s gone to the forest to give himself up to Voldemort.”
   
“I hope that’s not true,” says Hermione, sounding worried. “We could have gone with him.”
   
“No,” I say shaking my head, “We couldn’t have. If he did go to the forest to Voldemort, I think we all know that he needed to do it alone.”
   
We sat there, in grief of losing loved ones and now worrying if we were going to have to add Harry onto that list now too when we heard the sound of Voldemort’s voice again. “Harry Potter is dead. He was killed as he ran away, trying to save himself while you lay down your lives for him. We bring you his body as proof that your hero is gone. The battle is won. You have lost half of your fighters. My Death Eaters outnumber you, and The Boy Who Lived is finished. There must be no more war. Anyone who continues to resist, man, woman, or child, will be slaughtered, as well every member of their family. Come out of the castle and kneel before me, and you shall be spared. Your parents and children, your brothers and sisters will live and be forgiven, and you will join me in the new world we shall build together”
   
There was a still silence in the grounds as he spoke.
   
I leapt to my feet and started walking. "Let's go. For Harry."
   
Everyone seemed to have followed my lead outside. Where we saw Voldemort, his Death Eaters, and Hagrid holding Harry’s limp body as they approached us. The Dark Lord was glad to greet us. There was an outcry of screams when we saw Harry’s limp body, but I didn’t say anything. I stood at the front of the group, eyeing down the Dark Lord hard.
   
Voldemort started spreading lies, saying that Harry was trying to save himself and leave the school, which anyone that knew Harry would know that was a lie. Neville shuffled forward, dragging an injured leg behind him slightly as he got closer to the Dark Lord. Bellatrix told Voldemort who he was as he approached.
   
“You’re a pureblood, boy, aren’t you?” Asked Voldemort.
   
“So what if I am?” spat Neville.
   
“You show spirit and bravery, you come of noble stock. You will make a very valuable Death Eater. We need your kind, Neville Longbottom.”
   
“I’ll join you when hell freezes over. Dumbledore’s Army!” hisses Neville and thrusts his fist into the air, causing an uproar of cheers that Voldemort silenced right away. Seconds later, what looked to be a misshapen bird flew out of the castle window. It dropped the sorting hat right in front of Neville, who picked it up. Voldemort said that Neville was going to make an example of what happened when people continued to defy him.
   
Neville kneels down, and takes something out of the hat. It was the sword of Gryffindor! In one, fluid motion, he swings the blade and cuts the snake’s head off. Voldemort screams. Harry then jumps out of Hagrid’s arms and makes a break towards the castle. He wasn’t dead! He was alive!
    We all follow him back into the castle, fighting alongside him. George and I started fighting next to my mum in the Great Hall. We jumped on a Death Eater named Dolohov, who my mum told me had killed my dad. I placed a protection charm around the two of us so we wouldn’t be hit by his curses. He got fed up with this and his killing curse rebounded and shot back at him. We had avenged the loved ones that 
   
The next one we took on led us out of the Great Hall by running away but we got himnin the end. We head back into the great hall just in time to witness Mrs. Weasley take on Bellatrix Lestrange. She shouts, “NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!” and they start dueling each other. The same thing that happened to Dolohov happens to Bellatrix, she gets hit by her own killing curse, thus killing herself.
   
My new Number 1 rule in life is to not fuck with Molly Weasley, ever.
   
Voldemort hissed as Harry revealed himself to the crowd. He went after Harry, of course, and the two started circling each other, talking. Harry told him why the Elder Wand doesn’t work for him, because the wands allegiance isn’t with him. Voldemort didn’t seem to understand this, because he had just murdered Snape, but he further explained.
   
“That night on the tower, it wasn’t Snape who disarmed Dumbledore, it was Draco Malfoy! So, if you wanted to kill someone, it should have been him. You killed Snape for no reason. But it doesn’t even matter, because I disarmed Malfoy a while ago, and now that wand’s allegiance is with me!”
   
Voldemort had enough of being taunted by a teenager. “Avada Kedavra!”
   
Harry was quick on the draw, “Expelliarmus!”
   
There’s now a big circle in the room where the two spells collided. The Elder wand flew high and it spun through the air. Harry caught the wand to watch Voldemort hit the ground like the shell of a man he was. He started to shrink, and then he withered away completely.
   
Shrieks and cheers of joy took over Great Hall while we all rejoiced with glee. Death Eaters started being rounded up and those who had been under the Imperius Curse started to come to. Kingsley was named Minister of Magic. I ran over to Harry, along with Ron and Hermione and we all had a four-way hug.
   
“We did it!” Shouted Ron, “We beat him!”
   
“We sure did!” agreed Hermione. It was nice to know that we finished our job, that we took on the Dark Lord and his gang and won! Now George and I could be together in peace. When I was released from the hug I ran to my mum and hugged her for a long time. I watched as George hugged Percy, and then Bill as I ran over to him and his family. I hugged Mrs. Weasley, and she told me how proud she was of me. When she let go of me I was swept off my feet by her fourth oldest son. Who planted a big kiss onto my lips.

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Here's part 40!

The next chapter is the last one, then there will be an Epilogue and that will be it!

-Emily Winchester.