Apples and Snakes

The Siege of the Barricade

"I thought they'd given up on attacking this place!" I cried, as I ran into the fight, into the large antechamber, where Death Eaters were storming into the place. I jumped onto a moving staircase a couple floors down, and began casting spells.

"There's Potter!" I heard one shout.

"Retrieve the hostage and the others, and let's get out of here!" A witch shouted. They spread into the school, evading curses and hexes that were shot at them. I ran out to the patrol on the bridge, all of whom were unconscious or incapacitated, none of them dead.

They don't want to kill, I realized, a bit startled by that fact. What's going on?

I followed as closely as I dared, and ran through curses, to where we had Severus in a holding cell in the dungeons. The poor kids were getting overwhelmed by the Death Eaters, and one of their number was Stunned.

I conjured a wind, and blew them to the wall.

"You okay?" I asked the kids that were put on guard duty.

"Mostly, but Coraline isn't," one boy said.

"You mean Coraline Gaiman?" I asked.

"Yep," he replied. I realized that he was talking about the girl who was Stunned. I checked her pulse to make sure.

"She'll be just fine. Just get her to the Room of Requirement!" I barked. I looked at the Death Eaters, who were starting to recover. I aimed a series of hexes, which they were trying to end when I Stunned one of their number, and people came to back me up.

One went for Snape, and had knocked me and several others to the ground.

"BOMBARDA!' She roared, and we all ducked as debris went flying and dust went through the air.

He's out now.

I ran after them, realizing that they had Severus now, and about twenty of the kids from the other side running out, including Draco.

The leader's ditching the followers, huh? My curiosity was at least a little bit piqued by that. We fired jinxes, but they ran into the forest, dodging Hayden's animal attacks, and Disapparated.

"What was that about?" I asked, and saw that the others from the Death Eater sympathizers looked confused, too.

"The ones with the Dark Mark," one girl, Flora Carrow, I think, called out, and she stepped forwards. "All of the kids who had a Dark Mark left. I think they're planning a big siege on the castle."

I turned to face all of them. "How many of you joined because you were afraid? That you wanted to learn the Dark Arts, because no one ever told you about them?For any reason other than you believed the ideology?" Almost all hands went up. "If we all fight, we'd outnumber the Death Eaters gratefully. We could rig traps, we can repair the castle and barricade it against their big attack. Just join us, and we'll give you pardon when the war is over."

There were murmurs. "You can be the spark to start change. You can reverse the tyranny. I know that you're all excellent fighters. We can pack a lot of damage. You're braver than you think. You've proven that by fighting. Now fight with us, and become a little braver."

I stood there for a second, waiting, until everyone in that school raised the three finger salute to me. I blinked. They all respect me, they want to follow me into battle. I smiled. "Let's get this place cleaned up as best as we can, and we'll give them a screwing they'll never forget."