A Sliver of Change | S. Black

Part 4: Chapter 10

Part 4:

Chapter 10 –

(1. I'm sorry & 2. Author's note at the end!! Enjoy)

TRIGER WARNING: This chapter contains gruesome and violent scenes containing blood and torture. Please read at your own advice.

May 2nd, 1998

Lia flew down the stairs of the great hall, Sirius pacing beside her with Ron and Hermione hot on their tails. Harry was leading the pack, his wand held out in front of him defensively, the rest of the group following his actions as a war raged around them.

Hidden behind the walls of Hogwarts before didn't allow them the knowledge of the wreck that was happening below in the courtyards, safe as could be in the castle they had all called home once. But after the shield had broken under Voldemort's command, death was brought into the yards and fighting continued to haunt the castle.

Flashes of green and white apparition floated throughout the yard, flying into the sky in majestical colours, but what lay beneath it had Lia's heart thudding in her chest. Two wizards, darkness and light fighting for their sides of the war, good versus evil.

It was a sight to behold, but it didn't contradict against the fight that laid on the earth, shattered bricks and rubble coating each inch of the ground and creating a dooming battlefield. It reminded her of the wreckage that remained after her mother died in the train station, but what Lia had thought was destruction then was nothing compared to what was in front of her now.

Her feet hopped over a body that withered on the ground, a death eater moaning in pain. She had a right mind to turn around and make him scream more, but flashes of light crossed her vision and she was thankful to Harry for hexing the person who tried to harm them.

"Thanks Harry," she mumbled, pushing her pace to move beside him as Sirius did the same on the other side. Hermione and Ron came to run beside Lia, the five of them looking like nothing but a pair of misfits; three teenagers, a girl who was in her mid-twenties but had a mind of a thirty-year-old, and a man who seeped destruction if anyone was to touch any of them.

As they ran down the stairs to the courtyard, she could finally have a view of the whole thing. Hundreds of wizards were facing off against each other, all of various ages and skills, yet all were wearing determination in their eyes. Ogres destructed against the bridge that once led to the castle, others swinging their bats around at people and rubble. Armed guards that Lia recognized as ones that hung about the castle's walls were set in a formation, combatting against the beasts and death eaters alike and protecting their home at all costs.

It was nothing like the first wizarding war where Voldemort took them out one by one, infiltrating their bases with the weakest link and playing with their minds in a war of mental stability. This was combat; pure and utter warfare that stunk with bloodshed and hope and misery. And although their side was holding their own, fighting until their final breaths with the yearning of a free world, it was only a matter of time until those ogres broke down every wall of the castle. Until the death eaters fed on their victims fear and destroyed each inch of them. Until the werewolves that Fenrir brought sucked their victims dry and feasted upon their skin.

They needed to find Nagini and destroy the final horcrux, and they needed to do it fast.

Hexes were being thrown each direction of them, not caring to see who it was as the five of them shot back their own spells, connecting with the targets each time. Part of her wished they could use the unforgiveable curses, reap upon them the very humanity they threatened to take, but she knew as she looked upon the carnage that Voldemort brought that it would make them no better than any of them.