the last verse ; harry potter [2]

twenty six ; the castle wakes

Hogwarts castle was waking.

Something inside was sparking, and as the castle had been so dull for so long, it was livening as the night went on, livening as the night turned to very early morning. And the castle, so dormant for so long, was soon to be fuller than it had all year: Kingsley and Lupin were the first through the portrait door, all wary smiles and wands readied, but there was something awake inside of them, too. A new energy bounded through them, for they felt alive, for they knew that today was the day.

Then, Oliver Wood, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinnet came through the portrait with large bottles of butterbeer which they shared with everyone, and they could feel it: the renewed energy within them, the sense of power, of importance. They knew what tonight was, for they wouldn't be here if they didn't.

Then it was Bill and Fleur and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and Fleur had the same look of determination she had when she competed in the Triwizard Tournament and Bill's scar didn't look menacing, it looked threatening, because he was a survivor. Molly and Arthur hugged their children and Diana as if they were the same and asked where the other three were, and Diana told them that they'd be back soon.

It was all of them, the soldiers, the ones who would fight tonight in the revolution. They were together, sipping on mugs of butterbeer, and they could feel the anticipation starting in their heart and expanding to their limbs, to their mind.

And they all crowded around the windows, for outside, a dome was spreading overhead, pulsing larger and larger, a barrier between them and Voldemort. That only meant that the castle was awake and roaring, and teachers were assembling, and students were being wakened.

Harry and Luna appeared stumbling through the door, and they all awaited his report.

"He's on his way," he said, looking right at Diana, and she knew what he meant. Voldemort was coming for his wife, and he was going to kill everyone that got in the way.

"They're barricading the school," Harry said, and a spark shocked the entire group for they felt ready, they were reading to fight.

Harry greeted the newcomers with surprise and smiled weakly at Diana before announcing, "They're evacuating the younger kids and everyone's meeting in the Great Hall to get organized," he said. "We're fighting."

And they were all awake, yelling war cries and cheering, for this was what they were born for, this was what they were meant to do. They had their wands at the ready with no hesitance, they were reared for this, they were going to fight, for that was what they had always been ready to do.

And Diana was going to fight to. She was going to protect this family that she had made, this family of kids and wizards and witches and she loved them, loved them like the family she had never had. She was going to fight for her sleeping mother who gave up these years to protect the daughter she had never met. She was going to fight, for this was a play and she had a verse; they all did. Their verses created a war cry.

They were all surging to the stairs, stumbling to be the first out, all ready to fight. The Order of the Phoenix, school Quidditch teams, and parents alike fumbled out of the door, ready for the fight.

"Come on Luna," Dean called, holding out his hand. The dreamy girl took it and they went up together.

Only a knot of people remained, nearly all of them with bright orange hair.

"You're under age!" she heard Molly shout; Ginny was standing defiantly in front of her, her eyes hard. "I won't permit it! The boys, yes, but you, you've got to go home!"

"I won't! I'm in Dumbledore's Army---"

"A teenagers' gang---"

"A teenagers' gang that's about to take him on, which no one else has dared to do," said Fred in Ginny's defense.

"She's sixteen!" Molly shouted. "She's not old enough! What were you two thinking, bringing her with you--?"

"Mum's right, Ginny," said Bill gently. "You can't do this. Everyone under-age will have to leave. It's only right."

"I can't go home!" she shouted, her eyes sparkling with tears. "My whole family is here, I can't stand waiting there alone and not knowing---"

"How about she stay here?"

Diana had said it without thinking, and they all turned to her. "In the Room of Requirement, I mean. One person has to stay inside to keep it open, what if Ginny stayed in here? None of the Death Eaters will be able to get in."

Ginny thanked her silently, and Mrs. Weasley fumbled. "Oh--well--I guess that'd be---"

The portrait door opened all of a sudden and yet another red-haired Weasley entered.

"Am I too late? Has it started? I've only just found out, so I--I--"

Percy spluttered into silence, and the rest of his family stared.

In a feeble attempt to ease the atmosphere, Fleur said, "So, 'ow eez leetle Teddy?"

Lupin, having just realized she was asking him, stuttered a reply. "I--oh yes--he's fine! Yes, Tonks is with him, at her mother's. Diana, they told me you visited?"

She hummed in response, and he nodded. The last time they had spoken, she'd called him a coward. They gave each other a sympathetic smile, I'm sorry.

It was still silent, and Lupin fumbled with his jacket pocket. "Here, I have a picture!"

The little blue-haired baby was laughing in the picture, waving his meaty little fist.

"I was a fool!" Percy roared so suddenly that Diana jumped and Lupin nearly dropped the photo. "I was an idiot, a pompous prat, I was a--a--"

"Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron," Fred supplied.

"Yes, I was!"

"Well, you can't say fairer than that," said Fred, holding his hand out to his older brother.

Mrs. Weasley burst into blubbering tears. She ran forwards, pushing Fred out of the way so she could nearly tackle Percy, and Mr. Weasley smiled at his son and patted his wife on the back.

"I'm sorry, dad," said Percy, which made Mrs. Weasley cry even louder.

"What made you see sense?" asked George.

"It's been coming on for awhile," said Percy, holding his wailing mother. "But I had to find a way out and it's not so easy at the Ministry, they're imprisoning traitors all the time.  I managed to make contact with Aberforth and he tipped me off ten minutes ago that Hogwarts was going to make a fight of it, so here I am."

"Well, we do look to our prefects to take a lead at times such as these," said George. "Now let's get upstairs and fight, or all the good Death Eaters will be taken."

"So, you're my sister-in-law now?" Percy asked Fleur, and they shook hands.

"Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley barked as the girl tried to escape behind her siblings as they left. "Stay in this room, do you hear me?"

Ginny sulked but did not protest. Molly, Arthur, Lupin, Fleur, Bill, and Percy made their way up the stairs.

"Where's Ron and Hermione?" Harry asked Fred.

"Something about a bathroom," Fred shrugged.

"Are you sure---?"

He collapsed in a yelling heap, and Diana's beast roared.

They could see him: Tom Riddle, outside of the Hogwarts gates, watching the wakened castle stumble to life. Diana and Harry clutched each other on the way to the Great Hall, and they could feel it, as could everyone else:

The Dark Lord was coming. What god would there be to save them?