𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦 ; 𝒹.𝒽

fifty-seven

Althena and Remus stood side-by-side outside with their wands in the air, helping form a shield around the castle. The sky beautifully glowed, "it doesn't feel real," Althena started, "it's coming to an end. All these years. These bloody years. And it's going to end with Aurora losing more," she quietly said.

"I'm frightened, truth be told."

"Of what?"

"That we won't win."

"We will."

Remus looked at her, "I hope so. For them."

She nodded, "We will win."

They hugged one another tightly before heading off in opposite directions to where they were instructed to be. 

Back inside the castle, Harry stood with Aurora, Augustus, and Celestina. 

"I'll shoot my patronus into the sky when it's time," Harry grimly said to Aurora with Augustus and Celestina standing behind her. 

Harry looked to the two, "I'm sorry. Honestly."

"It'll be worth it," Celestina said.

"It better be," Aurora replied. 

"I'll hunt for the last Horcrux, Aurora, you–"

"Fight."

"I was going to say for you to sit it out."

She raised a brow, "do you honestly think I'd do that? I'm not."

"You're not at your strongest, Aurora," Hermione said. 

"And you all are? We're all tired here. I've got no right to sit this out. Don't try and argue with me, you're wasting your time."

Everyone shared a look, but didn't protest. 

"We can fight too," Augustus spoke up, "it takes more than Avada Kedavra to kill us anyways so..."

"The more help the better," Ron responded. 

The six left the Great Hall and split up in different directions. Aurora walked outside and looked around. Slughorn walked up to her, "I've wanted to meet you for ages. I use to teach your parents back in the day. They'd be proud."

"Thank you," she quietly responded. 

She looked up to a bridge on her right, where George was standing next to Fred. He caught her gaze, and gave her a soft smile. She smiled back, praying to Merlin he would make it out. She caught sight of Percy, someone she had heard much from others but had yet to meet. 

Celestina walked out next to her, "it's beautiful," she said, looking up at the forcefield. 

"It won't last," Aurora replied. 

And it didn't. When Voldemort and the Death Eaters arrived outside of the forcefield, it didn't take long for their Dark Magic to overpower the enchanted dome. Death Eaters swarmed Hogwarts, and chaos engulfed the school.

Up in a hallway, Margot ran down it, "Romare?!"

He shifted his gaze from the forcefield coming down to her voice, "Margot?"

She ran up to him and hugged him tightly, "Bloody hell," she whispered.

"Darling, you shouldn't be here. Circe–"

"Is sound asleep. I need to be here."

He looked down at her with sad eyes, and kissed her forehead. 

The two were eventually forced out of the hallway as it became swarmed with Death Eaters. They ran out into the courtyard and found students struggling against even more. Aurora was sending blast after blast with Althena being a mere few meet away. 

"There's too many!" Althena yelled. 

Ben struggled to hold his own, the sight of him was difficult enough as he was noticeably smaller amongst the sea of people. 

Romare looked at the scene worriedly and raised his wand up, before bringing it back down against the stone. A rift several thousand feet deep formed across the main courtyard, and several Death Eaters and students alike fell into it. 

It gave people a chance to push Death Eaters down the rift, clearing up several in seconds. 

Aurora was suddenly knocked down by blunt force, hitting her head against a rock and dropping her wand but not knocking her out. A weight was suddenly on her, and her blood ran cold when she realized who it was. 

Fenrir Greyback was wildly snapping at her, barely missing her as Aurora began to lose strength to hold him back. Her head was dangling off of the rift, facing death in more than one way. 

Althena caught a glimpse of the scene out of the corner of her eye, and completely abandoned the person she was fighting to get to her in time. She raised her wand to yell those two fateful words at Fenrir, but an explosion knocked her down. 

Her wand fell down the rift, but she gave no thought to it as she pushed herself into Fenrir and rolled both of them down the rift. 

"Althena!" Aurora yelled as she turned on her stomach, watching Althena fall, completely helpless. 

She stayed there dormant for what felt like hours. She stared down at the rift until she heard a scream that came from Ben. 

A Death Eater was freely using Crucio on the young boy, smiling why doing it. She snapped back and grabbed her wand, which was a few feet away from her. She yelled Avada Kedavra, and the Death Eater was gone. 

She knelt beside Ben, "can you get up?"

He nodded, and she helped him up. 

"I'm sorry," he whispered, "I should be doing better."

"No. Don't apologize."

Ben looked past Aurora, his eyes widening. 

"Watch out!"

Before Aurora could react, she was being pushed to the ground once again. Another weight was on top of her. She carefully pushed Ben off of her with trembling hands, and felt her heart drop somehow more at the sight of his eyes open, unmoving.

She took a deep breath and closed his eyes, feeling the guilt rise in her stomach. 

He took a hit for her. He lost his life for her. A young boy.

She stood up shakily, trying to find out who did such a thing. 

She saw a head of long frizzy hair with some white in it. 

Bellatrix.

She smiled crazily and ran off, and Aurora started off after her. She followed her up a flight of stairs inside, throwing curses her way while she was at it. 

"She's coming to get me again!" Bellatrix yelled.

She brought down a chandelier in front of Bellatrix. She stopped at the same time as her cousin. She turned around to Aurora and started throwing curses, and Aurora deflected each and every one with full fury.

"I killed your father! I killed that little blonde Gryffindor!"

"Sectumsempra!"

Bellatrix was thrown to the ground with cuts forming all over her body. She continued to smile wildly, "oh... you are brutal. You got that from me and your dead aunt," she whispered manically. 

Aurora stood above her and watched her bleed out, saying nothing. 

When Bellatrix drew her last breath, Aurora let out a breath of relief. 

She touched her hand to her forehead, feeling blood coming from it. She ignored it and ran out of the hall and back out to the fight.