Eternal Love

Part eight

A couple days of spell practicing had passed. It was today. The War. It was the 2nd May. The day Voldemort had arranged to attack. Fred, George and I were all in the Room of Requirement. Snape had changed it to an area for us to sleep in. Suddenly, there was a noise in the hatch. It was our only way in and out of the castle now as Snape made sure no one got out without being seen. Quite annoying really. Suddenly, the hatch door flung open, and Neville stood there.
"I've got a surprise for you," he smiled.
Seamus said something, but I wasn't really listening. I was sat next to Fred. I looked down briefly at his hand, which was so close to mine they practically touched. Before I knew it, Harry, Ron and Hermione walked in. There was a round of applause followed by lots of cheering. At the same time, Fred and I stood up. "Ron! Harry! Hermione!" I shouted.
They looked at me and smiled.
"Okay we need to find something, it's in the castle somewhere," Harry explained.
"What is it?" Seamus asked.
"We don't know," Harry replied.
"Where is it?" Seamus questioned.
"We don't know that either," Harry answered. "We know it's not much to go off."
"Yeah that's nothing to go off," Seamus spoke.
I laughed, before Fred looked at me.
"We have to go," he whispered.
I followed him and George out of the Room of Requirement. We crept passed all the guards until we found Molly, Tonks, Kingsley, Remus, Arthur, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Dean, Fleur and Bill.
"Y/n, George, Fred," Tonks spoke as soon as she saw us. "You're here."
"Snape is calling every student to the Great Hall, so we are waiting for Harry to speak in there before we enter," Molly explained.
Fred pulled me aside.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I have to do this, in case we don't make it," he replied, his expression sad.
"Don't say that, we will be fine. What is it anyways?"
"Listen, y/n, ever since I first met you in our first year I have loved you, and I never stopped. I was so glad you wanted to be our friend again this year. I would risk my life to protect yours."
"Oh, Freddie, I would do the same for you, I love you too."
He placed a soft kiss on my lips. His lips were smooth, and relaxed, whereas mine were tense from the War about to happen. He pulled away.
"Come on, love," he said, taking my hand and dragging me back to George.
"You did it?" George laughed.
He nodded.
"Is everyone ready?" Remus asked.
Everyone said yes. We listened carefully for our queue to enter, but Snape started talking.
".... if anyone here is to aid, Potter... student or teacher, you will be treated as...equally.... guilty," he began.
There was a hush of silence. "If anyone is.... I invite you to step forward..... now!" He finished.
There was silence again. Then there were footsteps. We could hear a loud gasp from the students in the hall. I grabbed Fred's hand and squeezed it in fear.
"It's okay," he muttered under his breath.
Thankfully, we heard Harry's voice, rather than a student deciding to turn him in.
"It seems despite your exhaustive, defensive strategies," Harry began, as we entered the Hall behind him. "You still have a bit of a security problem, Headmaster."
People across the room gasped as they turned to look at us.
"Wow, we really know how to make an entrance here at Hogwarts," George whispered, laughing slightly at the end.
We stood together as a group, practically blocking the doors.
"How dare you stand where he stood," Harry spoke again. He raised his voice. "Tell them how it happened that night. Tell them how you looked him in the eye, a man who trusted you, and killed him. Tell them!"
Snape raised his wand at Harry, leaving the crowd in shock. They backed away hastily, as McGonagall stormed in front of Harry with her own wand out. At the back of the hall, we raised our wands as back up, prepared to fight Snape if we had to. She fired a spell at Severus which he deflected easily. She fired another one, which curled around and flew straight at him. He deflected again. She continued to fight, but nothing worked. One after another, she fired the same, fire spell at him, but he blocked them all. Behind, two people collapsed to the floor. Snape backed away and transformed into a shadowy figure, which bounced side to side and leapt out the window, shattering it, leaving him to disappear into the night. Smiling, McGonagall turned around and lit the dim hall back up with the small fire cups at the side of the room. They glowed a deep orange. The crowd cheered and grinned, running over to the centre of the hall. I hugged Fred and he hugged me back. "I love you, Freddie," I whispered.
"I love you too, darling."
All of a sudden, there was a ear-piercing scream. A little girl sat in the corner of the hall, screaming at the top of her lungs and covering her ears. "What's happening?" I asked Fred, my hands shaking.
I looked to see Draco stood by Pansy: he seemed nervous.
"I'm not sure, but whatever it is isn't good," Fred responded.
There was a deep voice that began to speak, starting in Parseltongue. It was Voldemort. He asked for Harry to be brought to him, and no one would get hurt. We knew we weren't giving up that easily. Everyone else backed away from Harry.
Pansy pointed towards Harry. "What are you waiting for?" She yelled. "Someone, grab him."
Protectively, Ginny walked in front of Harry, putting her arms around him whilst facing Pansy, followed by Hermione who stood a little farther back, then Cho and some of her Ravenclaw friends, then Molly and Lavender, and then a few others. George, Fred and I stood nearer to the front. Fred placed his hand in mine, and I grasped it tightly. Soon enough, there was a group of people surrounding Harry, all who loved him and were prepared to risk everything for him.
From the corridors, I heard Filch's voice. He came running in, carrying his cat. "Students out of bed! Students in the corridor!" He shouted.
"They are supposed to be out of bed you blithering idiot," McGonagall replied.
I heard George snigger from behind me, and I copied.
"Oh.. sorry ma'am," he said.
"As it happens, Filch, your arrival is most opportune," McGonagall said as she walked from the front of the room towards the centre where we were stood. "If you would, I would like you please to lead Miss Parkinson and the rest of Slytherin house from the hall."
"Exactly where is it, I'll be leading them too, ma'am?"
"The dungeons will do."
Everyone aside from the Slytherin house cheered and clapped.
Fred and I waited for instructions, whilst Harry went to talk to McGonagall. As we stood there, I heard part of their conversation.
"I presume you have a reason for returning, Potter, what is it you need?" she asked.
"Time," Harry answered. "Professor, as much as you can get me."
"Do what you have to do. I'll secure the castle," she said as Harry started to walk away. "Potter, it's good to see you."
"It's good to see you too, Professor."
I saw Harry come running passed us. I followed George towards McGonagall and Fred came with me.
"What's the plan?" Molly asked.
"We need people at all parts of the castle, every possible place. Fred, George, Y/n, you especially need to go to the West Wing. Remus, Kingsley, you need to be nearby. And Arthur, you and another person can guard the centre of that part of the tower. Molly, Professor Slughorn and anyone else that isn't in the tower, you will come and guard the front gates with me," McGonagall explained.
I glanced nervously at Fred. I realised Draco wasn't helping, and was in the dungeons. I tried to forget about it, and followed Fred and George up towards the West Wing. Kingsley and Remus were in front of us, walking towards one part of the that Wing.
When we got there, we rested our hands on the railings. I looked at Fred and George. I could tell they were nervous.
"You okay, Freddie?" George asked.
There was a pause.
"Yeah."
George nudged his shoulder with his elbow. "Me too."
Fred smiled, turning to look at me. "Love, it's gonna be okay. We will be fine. And when it's all over you can come stay at the burrow as long as you need, and help out in Weasley Wizard Wheezes."
"Thanks, Freddie."
We waited, patiently. McGonagall had created a dome barrier above the top of Hogwarts that covered the entire school grounds to protect everyone inside, or at least delay Voldemort from getting to Harry so he could destroy the Ravenclaw Diatom. Across near the end of the bridge, I spotted a small boy. He appeared to taunt the massive gathering of horribly dressed men and women who were stood on the outside of the safety board surrounding the school. I pointed towards the boy. "I wonder who that is," I laughed.
"My guess is Seamus," George said as soon as he saw him.
"Nah, maybe Dean," Fred sniggered.
"I'm guessing Neville," I spoke, sure it was him.
I hastily looked the opposite way. The attack was starting. Voldemort stood at the front of a cliff in the distance, Bellatrix slightly behind, and then the other Death Eaters and helpers of Voldemort. "My parents are over there," I whispered, sadly.
George and Fred looked over towards Voldemort, noticing Lucius and Narcissa standing together behind him. They hadn't changed their mind to help us. All of a sudden, they raised their wands, all of them: my parents, Voldemort, Bellatrix, the followers. A small, bright white ball of light shot out of the ends of their wands simultaneously, and headed towards the boarder. It hit the roof of the protection and began to destroy it, creating bursts of colour as it hit the top, making the barrier slowly fade away, as if it were melting. Several more white lights were shot from the wands until it was destroyed completely. No more safety. Or barrier. Immediately, I looked back towards the boy I thought was Neville, and saw him twist on his heels before running as fast as he could across the bridge. The people on the other side he was taunting started to charge after him, laughing as they raced across the bridge. Under the weight, the bridge creaked. "Look!" I shouted, pointing towards the boy.
"Those are snatchers, darling," Fred replied as he glanced over.
"Who?" I asked.
"The group of people chasing that boy," George answered.
The boy ran across the wooden bridge, as it started to fall, the Snatchers not far behind. It suddenly collapsed. The Snatchers slipped down, falling to their doom along with the boy. "Oh no!" I screamed.
I saw at the last part of the bridge that hadn't been destroyed, Luna was stood there, in shock. Out of nowhere, two hands appeared at the end of the bridge. It was Neville, the boy was Neville. He pulled himself up, Luna and Ginny helping. As soon as they were up, they hurried across the left over bridge towards the castle.
"We need to go help them," George said, after watching them closely.
"We were told to guard up here," Fred responded, his eyes saddened at the thought of losing Ginny. "Never mind lets go."
"Wait where to?" I asked.
Fred looked towards me and held my hand. "Y/n, come with me to the Room of Requirement, we can be together then, love."
I nodded. "What about George?"
"I'll be close by," he smiled.
I smiled back at him. I grasped Fred's hand and he dragged me down the stairs of the tower. George followed behind us. We ran through the corridors of the school, wands out ready to fight. A Death Eater flew towards us and appeared in front of Fred. He jumped back in fear. "Stupefy!" I yelled.
We watched as the Death Eater flew backwards into a wall. "Come on," I spoke. We continued to run through Hogwarts until we reached the Room of Requirement. George carried on running a bit down the hall. We were prepared to fight properly.