Emma Potter; Going to War

120: Meeting the wolves

The world had ended, so why had the battle not ceased, the castle fallen silent in horror, and every combatant laid down their arms? my mind was in free fall, spinning out of control, unable to grasp the impossibility, because Fred Weasley could not be dead, the evidence of all my senses must be lying — And then a body fell past the hole blown into the side of the school, and curses flew in at them from the darkness, hitting the wall behind their heads. 

 "Get down!" Harry shouted, as more curses flew through the night: He and Ron had both grabbed Hermione and pulled her to the floor, but Percy lay across Fred's body, shielding it from further harm, and when Harry shouted, "Percy, come on, we've got to move!" he shook his head.

A curse hit me with a full blast, I recalled numbly the shouting of my name, shrieks of victory and landing with a hard impact on the forest floor. I recalled the heartbreaking grief I felt, and the numbing disbelief as well. 

I wanted to close my eyes and dream away from this wretched war. I almost did--but then I felt something wet on my face. I opened my eyes blearily, hard ice-blue eyes were staring at me. I looked up to see, a wolf kneeling in front of me. I frowned vaguely, I didn't know there were normal wolves in the forest. I sat up, every inch of my body was aching. I looked up and saw an entire pack surrounding me. Instead of feeling scared, I felt an eerie sense of calm. Instead of growling at me, the wolves were looking at me in a sort of companionship. 

Maybe they knew I could turn into one of them, maybe they knew that I didn't mean them any harm. Either way, I felt mutual trust. I know that they would help if I asked. I looked at them, they looked at me in turn, I felt all their gazes on me. I looked at the battle progressing a short bit away and then at the wolf closest to me, who I think was the alpha. 

"Will you help us?" I whispered. 

Why should they?

You mean nothing to them. 

But the wolf simply howled, signalling the pack to stand beside him. Under the gazes of the wolves, I got up. The alpha and I walked side by side as equals to the edge of battle. 

"The ones in masks," I whispered, " and the spiders. Kill them. Kill them all."

The alpha seemed to nod, then howled and with howls of their own, the wolves ran into battle. Snarling, biting, scratching.

I saw Nicholas and Zoe locked back to back facing about ten death eaters each. I whistled to catch a wolf's attention. "There," I said pointing, "help them."

"Emma, in here!"

Hermione's arm shot out and dragged me behind the tapestry with Harry and Ron. I saw that Hermione was trying to restrain Ron, to stop him running after Percy.

 "Listen to me — LISTEN, RON!"

 "I wanna help — I wanna kill Death Eaters —"

 His face was contorted, smeared with dust and smoke, and he was shaking with rage and grief. 

 "Ron, we're the only ones who can end it! Please — Ron — we need the snake, we've got to kill the snake!" said Hermione. 

 But I knew how Ron felt: Pursuing another Horcrux could not bring the satisfaction of revenge; I too wanted to fight, to punish them, the people who had killed Fred, and I wanted to find the other Weasleys, and above all make sure, make quite sure, that they were not — but I could not permit that idea to form in my mind — 

 "We will fight!" Hermione said. "We'll have to, to reach the snake! But let's not lose sight now of what we're supposed to be d-doing! We're the only ones who can end it!"