Future Nostalgia / Harry Potter Fanfic

The Battle of Hogwarts

Warning: long chapter again. Highly recommend reading in parts and taking breaks if long chapters aren't for you. Although, not as long as the chapter before this one.

The enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall was dark and scattered with stars, and below it the four long House tables were lined with disheveled students, some in traveling cloaks, some in dressing gowns. Here and there shone the pearly white figures of the school ghosts. Every eye, living and dead, was fixed upon Professor McGonagall, who was speaking from the raised platform at the top of the Hall. Behind her stood the remaining teachers, including the palomino centaur, Firenze, and the members of the Order of the Phoenix who had arrived to fight.

"...evacuation will be overseen by Mr. Filch and Madam Pomfrey. Prefects, when I give the word, you will organize your House and take your charges, in an orderly fashion, to the evacuation point."

Many of the students looked petrified. However, Ernie Macmillan stood up at the Hufflepuff table and shouted, "And what if we want to stay and fight."

There was a smattering of applause.

"If you are of age, you may stay," said Professor McGonagall.

"What about our things?" called a girl at the Ravenclaw table. "Our trunks, our owls?"

"We have no time to collect possessions," said Professor McGonagall. "The important thing is to get you out of here safely."

"Where's Professor Snape?" shouted a girl from the Slytherin table.

"He has, to use common phrase, done a bunk," replied Professor McGonagall, and a great cheer erupted from the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and very few from the Slytherins.

Estella moved alongside Harry, looking for Ron and Hermione. As they passed, faces turned in their direction, and a great deal of whispering broke out in their wake.

"We have already placed protection around the castle," Professor McGonagall said, "but it is unlikely to hold for very long unless we reinforce it. I must ask you, therefore, to move quickly and calmly, and do as your prefects-"

But her final words were drowned as a different voice echoed throughout the Hall. It was high, cold, and clear: There was no telling from where it came; it seemed to issue from the wall themselves. Like the monster it had once commanded, it might have lain dormant there for centuries.

"I know that you are preparing to fight." There were screams amongst the students, some of whom clutched each other, looking around in terror for the source of the sound. Estella had taken Harry's hand and pulled him close. "Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood."

There was silence in the Hall now, the kind of silence that presses against the eardrums, that seems too huge to be contained by walls.

His hand shook in hers, telling her Harry felt as terrified as she did.

"Give me Harry Potter," said Voldemort's voice, "and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded."

"You have until midnight."

The silence swallowed them again. Every head turned, every eye in the place seemed to have found Harry, holding them frozen in the glare of thousands of invisible beams. Then a figure rose from the Slytherin table, Pansy Parkinson. She rose a shaking arm and screamed, "But he's there! Potter's there! Someone grab him!"

Ian stood up.

"Don't be such a coward Parkinson!" he sneered.

Before anyone else could speak, there was a massive movement. The Gryffindors in front of them had risen and stood facing, not Harry, but the Slytherins. Then the Hufflepuffs stood, and almost at the same moment, the Ravenclaws, all of them with their backs to Harry, all of them looking toward Pansy instead.