Running AIAOY 7

Chapter 17

"Stop you're crying!"  The Death Eater in charge for forcing Hagrid on whipped the half-giant again.  Ever since they had forced the beast to carry the dead Potter twins, it had blubbered and wailed.

Hagrid tried to quiet himself.  The whip bit through his coat, slicing through his layers and his skin.  But he couldn't.  Harry, who Hagrid had introduced to magic, and Rebecca, who had helped him unimaginably through the years, were dead.  Their bodies were heavy as a thousand stones in his arms, his grief weighing them down even more.

Hagrid's feet plodded on, through the forest where he had been taken to the bridge that would take Voldemort and his troops to the courtyard outside the Great Hall.  There were fresh footsteps in the mud, but the Death Eaters paid them no attention.  As far as they were concerned, the battle was over.

The four who had watched Hagrid pick Harry and Rebecca up from the ground, who had seen how limp their bodies were without life, had returned to the Great Hall minutes before Voldemort had mobilised.  The three fifth years waved away Ron and Hermione, and left Draco to describe what they had seen.

Neville listened carefully, brushing the Sorting Hat off as he joined those still strong enough to stand, meeting the arriving forces in the courtyard.  He limped, but couldn't consider remaining with the injured.  He could still move, and that was all he needed.

The castle lay in ruins.  Walls had crumbled and smoke still rose from the ashes.  Hogwarts was in pieces.

Ginny was the first Weasley to stand from Fred's side, and the first to exit the hall.  Molly and Arthur, and a stream of Weasleys with one notable face missing, followed her.  "W-who are they?"  Ginny demanded.  "Who is that Hagrid's carrying?!"

Students and staff members filled the courtyard.  Those who realised where Harry and Rebecca had gone, what had happened, let their tears fall freely.

Voldemort raised his hands up, gesturing to his still-strong numbers.  He grinned as he addressed the feeble resistance.  "Harry and Rebecca Potter are dead!"

Ginny lunged forward, shouting and fighting against the hands that held her back.  Harry and Rebecca...dead?  Her screams bounced off the stones until Voldemort waved his wand and silenced her.  The emptiness of loss reverberated through the growing crowd.

Ron and Hermione stared emotionless.  Though they had had the barest of warnings, the time to prepare themselves, seeing Harry and Rebecca in Hagrid's arms broke something in both of them.  Draco, near them, tightened his hold on his wand.  Their deaths would not be for nothing.  

"Stupid girl!"  Voldemort spat his words towards Ginny.  "Did you really think they would beat me?  Lord Voldemort?"  He walked forward and pointed at himself with the Elder Wand, once again speaking to all present.  "From this day forth, your faith rests in me!"  Voldemort marched back to the front of his Death Eaters, laughing.  "The Potters are dead!"

George narrowed his eyes.  He had been consumed by murderous rage, first his twin, now Rebecca and Harry.  He didn't plan on living through the day, he would die fighting.  His eyes hadn't left Hagrid and he had seen--he thought he had seen--Rebecca's fist clench when Voldemort called them the Potters.  But it wasn't possible.  

"Now..."  Voldemort tapped his wand to his other hand.  "Now is the time to declare yourselves.  Come forward and join us!"

Bellatrix stepped forward to watch the assimilation of the resistance to their forces.  "Join us, or die."  She smiled maliciously at the prospect of killing all those who refused.

No one moved.

Nigel, Yara, and Louis had each other's hands by their sides, and they held them tighter.  Draco caught sight of the look Louis was giving Voldemort, he had received the same look years before.