We will meet again ~ Fred Weasley

- We Will Meet Again -

"They could not promise tomorrow. They could only promise that, wherever the darkness took them, they would find their way back to one another."

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Harry's fingers slipped between hers, warm and familiar, and for a moment the simple contact almost broke Katherine's concentration.

She didn't look at him.

She couldn't.

Her eyes remained fixed on the students gathered throughout the Room of Requirement, taking in the shifting shadows cast by the hundreds of candles and the anxious faces surrounding them. Some were whispering. Others stood completely silent. A few were checking their wands for the third or fourth time, as though somehow inspecting the wood and the core might reassure them that they were ready for what was coming.

Nobody was ready.

Not really.

They had simply reached the point where there was no longer anywhere left to run.

Every one of them knew what tonight might cost.

Some were barely old enough to understand the full weight of what they were preparing to do.

Others had already experienced enough of the war to know exactly what was coming.

Katherine had spent the entire journey to Hogwarts going over their plan until she could have recited every step backwards.

It wasn't a plan she particularly liked.

It wasn't even a plan she was convinced would work.

But it was the best one they had.

And, more importantly, it gave them a chance.

They couldn't simply storm through Hogwarts searching every classroom until they happened to stumble across Voldemort's Horcrux.

The castle was under Death Eater control.

Snape was Headmaster.

The Carrows were roaming the corridors.

Students were being watched, punished and intimidated.

Even the walls seemed to have become hostile.

There were too many variables.

Too many places for something to go wrong.

So they had decided to divide the problem.

It was based upon the plan Katherine, Harry, Ron and Hermione had already used when they broke into Gringotts: divide the objectives, keep moving, never allow themselves to become trapped in one place, and above all else, find the Horcrux before Voldemort realised exactly what they were doing.

Only this time there were far more people involved.

And far more opportunities for something to go catastrophically wrong.

Harry would create the distraction.

Katherine would search for the information they were missing.

Ron and Hermione would remain with the students until they knew exactly what they were dealing with. While also trying to find something capable of destroying the Horcrux as the Sword of Gryffindor was left abandoned in Gringotts.

And nobody would move into open battle until they knew where the Horcrux was.

That was the part that had been bothering Katherine most.