Rallying the Troops and Research Groups

(Y/N)'s POV

A few days later, after Hogwarts had slowly gotten used to it's new power couple I received a letter at dinner, I recognised the handwriting as Dumbledore's, The note itself was pretty simple, "(Y/N), please come to my office at your earliest convenience, perhaps while you are waiting you might enjoy some Toffee Eclairs."

I was curious as to what he wanted to see me for, but decided it was best to head there immediately. "Oh, I've been summoned, wish me luck" I said, passing the note to the others to read, trying to ignore the fact that upon reading it, Harry kind of glared at me, as if he found the idea of me being asked over him as some sort of insult.

I pushed it out of my mind, setting off after pecking Hermione and stepping out the room. When I got to the statue I said, "Errr...Toffee Eclairs?" luckily this allowed me entrance.

Yet again, just like my last visit, Dumbledore was nowhere to be seen, but I guess he warned me this time. So after a while of stroking Fawkes and wandering around aimlessly, he arrived.

He sat down at his desk and smiled, saying "I assume you are wondering why I've called you here?" I shrugged, "Yeah, admittedly I did wonder about that during the long trek over here, but to be fair, I was offered sweets, so it wasn't my biggest concern."

"Well, feel free to partake." He extended a hand over a bowl of assorted sweets, I took a few of my personal favourites, I was running low after visiting Malfoy. "I hear you were successful in creating your spell" he said.

Part of me was concerned about him knowing information that I hadn't told anyone about yet. But I brushed it off, it's his school, I imagine the paintings just told him. "For the most part, we still haven't been able to fully test it yet, for obvious reasons" he nodded.

"It is still a remarkable achievement that will no doubt be marked in wizarding history." "I don't really care about all that stuff; I just like being right about my theories and I know it will help a lot of people." I explained truthfully.

I remember where developing the Philosophers Stone got Nicolas Flamel, so fame, glory and gold weren't really that big of a priority for me. "If you don't mind, would you please demonstrate?" I shrugged, performing the charm.

Upon displaying it to him, his eyes lit up in the light of the flame, "Simply astonishing." "You continue to impress me (Y/N)" he said as if he were reminiscing. "Well, we still don't know if it works, so don't celebrate just yet, and I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff I overlooked."

He nodded, "What are it's drawbacks?" I pondered this question for a moment, "Well, it's not instantaneous so you'd have to know the spell was coming, we haven't found an incantation to make it simpler yet and it's a pretty complex spell to teach..." That was all I can think of.

"Oh, and it gets pretty hot when you stay near it too long, seriously, I felt like I'd been sitting in a sauna last time." He chuckled, "Good, it is often in acknowledging our weaknesses that we improve the most."

"Nevertheless I would be happy to reward you with a commendation for special services to the school and towards the betterment of wizards, the first of its kind." He presented me with a plaque with a fancy silver shield on it like in the trophy room.

It was exceptionally shiny and had my name emblazoned on it in big bold lettering, I was over the moon, I couldn't believe he would go this far. I mean I was given something similar in second year, but this felt more personal, more unique, something that was just mine.

But then I thought of something. "You should really put Hermione on this too, and Hagrid, and Mrs. Weasley and Professor Snape." "Snape?" He enquired, I nodded, "Yeah, I got the idea for three rotations from him and that healing spell."

"And I'm sure there's a bunch of other people I can't think of right now." He seemed a little put off by this, "But it was you that provided the unifying theory, you who created the spell." I nodded, "Yes, but the little stuff matters, without those people helping me, it wouldn't work. It was a group effort."

"Are you sure you would not like to accept this as it is?" "Nah, Hermione would never let me hear the end of it, besides, I don't need to. Like you said, I'm gonna be famous" I winked. Dumbledore smiled at me broadly. "It gives me great pleasure to see that the future is in safe hands" he muttered.

It was a bit weird to put it like that but I suppose he was right in a sense. "Would you like me to teach you it Professor?" I asked, more because I was just keen to share it to as many people as I can. To my surprise he shook his head.

"I feel you would simply find yourself getting frustrated with me my boy." I was a little confused "Why?" surely a spell as useful as mine would be excellent in the hands of someone like Dumbledore. Why would he turn it down? Maybe just by seeing it he could replicate it, maybe he was just that good.

He took a second to think, "They say one cannot teach an old dog new tricks, but actually I am of the belief that you can. However, when a dog is as old and tired as me, I find there is little point in doing so."

I shrugged again, "Suit yourself I s'pose" he smiled at me, "That will be all (Y/N), thank you for coming to see me." I smiled back. "No problem, bye Professor"

I found this whole experience very strange, usually he had a point to make or something for me to do whenever I visited him, that just felt like a friendly chat for no reason. "See you later" I added as I descended the steps. "Yes. Goodbye."

As I got back to the common room, I found Harry and Ginny sitting together happily, occasionally sharing small kisses. The whole time, Ron was glowering at them and huffing while Lavender did Divination homework.

I sat down next to Hermione, who immediately asked me what Dumbledore wanted, I explained our conversation and to my surprise, she frowned at me. "Why didn't you say yes you prat? You deserve it" she scolded.

I shrugged and just leaned in to cuddle her closer, I couldn't give her an answer if I wanted to, I didn't have the answer. For now, I was content to just laugh at Ron's sour expressions.

But, to my dismay, Ron's tolerance was not to be tested much as we moved into June, Harry and Ginny's time together was getting less and less frequent and overt.

The culprit being the fact Ginny's O.W.L.s were approaching and she was therefore forced to revise for hours into the night. Giving me terrible memories of our O.W.L.s and the terrors of Hermione's revision timetable.

Speak of the devil,  Hermione dropped into the seat next to me with a purposeful look on her face. "I want to talk to you, Harry." "What about?" said Harry suspiciously. Only the previous day, Hermione had told him off for distracting Ginny when she ought to be working hard for her examinations.

"The so-called Half-Blood Prince." "Oh, not again," he groaned. "Will you please drop it?" I sided with Harry, "I agree, can we just leave that all behind us please, we can go one year without something from the past coming back to bite us, It'll be a new record"

"I'm not dropping it," said Hermione firmly, "until you've heard me out. Now, I've been trying to find out a bit about who might make a hobby of inventing Dark spells-" "He didn't make a hobby of it -" "He, he - who says it's a he?"

"We've been through this," said Harry crossly. "Prince, Hermione, Prince!" "Right!" said Hermione, red patches blazing in her cheeks as she pulled a very old piece of newsprint out of her pocket and slammed it down on the table in front of Harry.

"Look at that! Look at the picture!" Harry picked up the crumbling piece of paper and stared at the moving photograph, yellowed with age; Ron and I leaned over for a look, too. The picture showed a skinny girl of around fifteen.

She was not pretty; she looked simultaneously cross and sullen, with heavy brows and a long, pallid face. Underneath the photograph was the caption: Eileen Prince, Captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones Team.

"Quite a looker she was, though I do like her eyebrows" I commented, wondering if this woman was ever a close friend of Moaning Myrtle. "No wonder she was so good at Gobstones, they are an excellent distraction" I chuckled.

"So?" said Harry, scanning the short news item to which the picture belonged; it was a rather dull story about inter-school competitions. "Her name was Eileen Prince. Prince, Harry." They looked at each other and Harry realised what Hermione was trying to say.

He burst out laughing. "No way." I tried my best to repress laughter, knowing that this would end badly for me most of all if I did.  "What?" "You think she was the Half-Blood...? Oh, come on." said Harry in disbeleif.

She looked to me, I shrugged, my chest hurt from holding back laughter, I choked out.  "Hermione, I appreciate the diligent research, but you have no sources to back it up other then her name and blood status, it's a bit of a stretch."

"Well, why not? Harry, there aren't any real princes in the wizarding world! It's either a nickname, a made-up title somebody's given themselves, or it could be their actual name, couldn't it?"

They began to laugh, but out of loyalty to Hermione, I was under obligation to not laugh, despite the blood vessels in my head wanting to burst with how much of a chuckle I was holding back. "Ok, ya got me, It's me, I'm the half blood prince!" I giggled, "I thought the nickname was cool" I snorted.

Hermione did not find this amusing. "Thought I'm so good I might as well be a Prince." "No, listen! If, say, her father was a wizard whose surname was "Prince", and her mother was a Muggle, then that would make her a 'half-blood Prince'!"

"Yeah, very ingenious, Hermione..." "But it would! Maybe she was proud of being half a Prince!" "Listen, Hermione, I can tell it's not a girl. I can just tell." "The truth is that you don't think a girl would have been clever enough," said Hermione angrily.

"How can I have hung round with you for five years and not think girls are clever?" said Harry, stung by this. "It's the way he writes. I just know the Prince was a bloke, I can tell. This girl hasn't got anything to do with it. Where did you get this, anyway?"

"The library," said Hermione, predictably. "There's a whole collection of old Prophets up there. Well, I'm going to find out more about Eileen Prince if I can." "Enjoy yourself," said Harry irritably. "I will," said Hermione.

"And the first place I'll look," she shot at him, as she reached the portrait hole, "is records of old Potions awards!" Harry scowled after her for a moment, "I'm gonna be paying for that later, I hope your happy." I sulked.

"She's just never got over you outperforming her in Potions," Ron explained, returning to his copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. "You don't think I'm mad, wanting that book back, do you?" "Course not," said Ron robustly. "Absolutely." I said.

He seemed hurt by this and asked why. "This Prince bloke was a raving lunatic in schoolboy form and I guarantee you he is in some way shape or form related to Snakeface" I explained. "What makes you say that? Said Harry raising an eyebrow.

I shrugged, "When is anything we ever do not related to him to some extent? Don't tell me you've never noticed." Ron had a very different opinion to me, "He was a genius, the Prince. Anyway...without his bezoar tip..." he drew his finger significantly across his own throat.

"I wouldn't be here to discuss it, would I? I mean, I'm not saying that spell you used on Malfoy was great-" "Nor am I," said Harry quickly. "But he healed all right, didn't he? Back on his feet in no time."

"Yeah," said Harry; this was perfectly true, although his conscience squirmed slightly all the same. "Thanks to Snape...""...and (Y/N), I swear, everyone always forgets about the amazing stuff I do, it's ridiculous, see this is why I wanted to be royalty"

"You still got detention with Snape this Saturday?" Ron continued, ignoring my pleas for recognition. "Yeah, and the Saturday after that, and the Saturday after that,'" sighed Harry. "And he's hinting now that if I don't get all the boxes done by the end of term, we'll carry on next year."

Harry was shaken from these bitter reflections by the appearance of Jimmy Peakes, who was holding out a scroll of parchment. "Thanks, Jimmy...hey, it's from Dumbledore!" said Harry excitedly, unrolling the parchment and scanning it.

"He wants me to go to his office as quick as I can!" They stared at each other. "Blimey," whispered Ron. "You don't reckon...he hasn't found...?" "Better go and see, hadn't I?" said Harry, jumping to his feet. He hurried out of the common room

Hermione and I were sitting together in the common room doing Snapes latest homework while Ron sat opposite of us and grumbled and groaned about its difficulty, I was just about to take a well needed break when Harry came back.

"What does Dumbledore want?" Hermione said at once. "Harry, are you okay?" she added anxiously, seeing that he was clearly in a rush and that he was sweating profusely. "I'm fine," said Harry shortly, racing past us.

He dashed up the stairs and into his dormitory, then he stepped back down the stairs and into the common room, skidding to a halt next to us as we shared a collective glance, looking stunned.

"I haven't got much time," Harry panted, "Dumbledore thinks I'm getting my Invisibility Cloak. Listen..." Quickly he told us where he was going, and why. He did not pause either for Hermione's gasps of horror or for Ron's hasty questions.

"...so you see what this means?" Harry finished at a gallop. "Dumbledore won't be here tonight, so Malfoy's going to have another clear shot at whatever he's up to. No, listen to me!" he hissed angrily, as both Ron and Hermione showed every sign of interrupting.

"I know it was Malfoy celebrating in the Room of Requirement. Here." He shoved the Marauder's Map into Hermione's hand. "You've got to watch him and you've got to watch Snape, too. Use anyone else who you can rustle up from the DA."

"Hermione, those contact Galleons will still work, right? Dumbledore says he's put extra protection in the school" "But if Snape's involved, he'll know what Dumbledore's protection is, and how to avoid it, but he won't be expecting you lot to be on the watch, will he?"

"All right, but how do we know what were looking for?" I asked at once, Harry very helpfully shrugged, "You'll know it when you see it I s'pose" he said quickly. "Oh, brilliant.." I sighed. "Harry-" began Hermione, her eyes huge with fear.

"I haven't got time to argue," said Harry curtly. "Take this as well" He thrust the socks into Ron's hands. "Thanks," said Ron. "Er, why do I need socks?" "You need what's wrapped in them, it's the Felix Felicis."

"Share it between yourselves and Ginny too. Say goodbye to her from me. I'd better go, Dumbledore's waiting." "No!" said Hermione, as Ron unwrapped the tiny little bottle of golden potion, looking awestruck.

"We don't want it, you take it, who knows what you're going to be facing?" "I'll be fine, I'll be with Dumbledore," said Harry. "I want to know you lot are okay...don't look like that, Hermione, I'll see you later..."

And he was off. "Well, beats doing Snape's homework" I said, looking over the map. We quickly formed a sort of strategy, as Harry said, we were to divide the Felix between us, but I didn't take any, instead opting to give the last mouthful to Ginny as there were only about three.

The plan was as follows, since we knew the Room of Requirement was a big part of Malfoys plan, whatever that plan may have been, Ron was going to find Draco on the Marauders map, if he couldn't it was safe to assume he was inside.

If that was the case, I was going to stay stationed outside the room, since I could do the best Disillusionment charm, from there I could keep an eye on any activities if the door were ever to open.

If it did, I was going to alert the whole DA who were going to head to the room if I ever gave the signal. The signal was the rapid heating of DA coins, which I was going to do with Hermione's since hers could now also signal the whole DA at once.

I wrestled Hermione for her DA coin, but she was reluctant to get anybody involved and was even more reluctant for me to risk getting myself hurt, but after five minutes of heated debate she finally caved, sending a message to all of Dumbledore's army.

We improvised the plan when only Luna, Ginny and Neville were answering. Now, instead of the original plan, While Ron, Ginny, and Neville kept guard outside the Room, Hermione and Luna were stationed outside Snape's office.

As they did this, I was going to patrol between the two as I was the fastest in both my human and Animagus form. So that if either party needed help, I could offer support, I was also given the role of handling Draco Malfoy, whom we assumed was the key to his and Snape's plan somehow.

As I prepared to go ferret hunting and Hermione rallied the troops, Ron was scouring the map for any names of concern, Malfoy's especially, when we were done preparing and I was fully equipped with my coin we looked to Ron hopefully.

He grimly shook his head, that did make me a little more nervous, but I had already committed to the role. Hermione gave me a scared look,

Reading her thoughts, she was tempted to full body bind me to stop me from going, but I winked and stuck my tongue out and she quickly dismissed these thoughts. Which was lucky, because I hated getting hit with that spell.

"Ok, see ya in a bit, hopefully later rather then sooner. Love you" I kissed her passionately, "If anything happens, stay safe yeah?" I made her promise, she nodded I looked to Ron, "You too idiot," he nodded.

I sprinted off to the Room of Requirement, ducking past the extra security and the teachers on patrol and barely avoiding Peeves as he bobbed through the castle painting moustaches on some paintings of monks.

I had to duck into the trophy room to avoid a patrolling Mrs. Norris, it was there I noticed a new display case, it stood out to me immediately, I basically had this whole room memorised since I got detentions with Filch almost every other day.

Looking at it curiously, I found a silver shield with my name on it, which would be fine, but that was the only name present. The same one Dumbledore had presented to me a while ago. "Old man thinks he's slick, he's in for it when he gets back" I complained.

Sighing, I stuck Hermione's DA coin to a string I had made from my bootlace and tied it around my neck so I'd feel any change and had quick access to it and headed off when it was safe.

"This is going to be a long night, I can feel it" I muttered to myself, transforming as I first stationed myself outside the Room of Requirement and waited for the others to make their way here.

I totally called it, this night dragged on forever, after a while I felt as if this whole job was pointless, if Malfoy was inside the room, he wasn't showing his face, and even if he did, he'd be alone, he couldn't stop all of us.

It was another ten minutes before I saw Ron, Neville and Ginny outside the room, so I made a quick purring noise as confirmation they were safe, Ron was the only one who wasn't startled and nodded firmly, so I made my way to Snape's office.

After ducking and diving through the castle I ended up at his office, this time waiting for Luna and Hermione to find their way to the posts they had taken. As they did, I approached Hermione happily, tail swaying and purring.

To her credit, Luna didn't even flinch upon seeing me and smiled brightly, I trusted her enough to share my little secret with her, so I shifted back to stretch for a bit and said "If he does anything shifty, just set him on fire like first year" to Hermione regarding Snape.

She pouted, despite the seriousness of our mission, "I set his robes on fire" she mumbled, Luna was apparently not paying attention to our conversation and was instead focused on her new theory that I was some sort of rare breed of weretiger creature she had read about.

I made this rotation several times during the night, for what must have been at the very least an hour and a half, but I kept going. Hoping to catch Malfoy in the act and stop him, or at the very least gnaw on Snape if I was given the opportunity.

It was all quiet on the western front, or so I thought, until one of my returns to the Room of Requirement, I came to a very curious sight, the hallway was pitch black, like something was obscuring it.

At first, I was in a panic, thinking the room was on fire, but getting closer, the smoke looked unnatural. It's because it wasn't smoke, I realised when the door to the Room of Requirement materialised and slid open...I think.

It was darkness, absolute darkness spilled out of the doorway, It was the kind of darkness that swallowed up everything around it, I couldn't see through it no matter how hard I tried. I knew it immediately, Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder.

Fearing my friends had literally been blindsided, I strode closer to the door, staying in my animagus form to keep the element of surprise on my side if needed.

I don't care who you are, you don't expect to be ambushed by an invisible panther in the middle of a castle. So I waited, ready to pounce on anyone who exited the darkness.

Viewing it from the outside, I saw the faintest flicker of light emerge at the other end, skirting around the cloud of man made darkness, I got closer to it, hoping that it was just one of my friends.

But I wasn't that lucky and to my horror out stepped Draco Malfoy, and behind him was a small army of Death Eaters: Corban Yaxley, Fenrir Greyback, the Carrows, flanked by two more I wasn't familiar with; they all suddenly emerged, sneering and scowling.

I couldn't see my friends through the darkness, it had encompassed the entire hallway, almost end to end, I stood on the perimeter, waiting anxiously, I was horrified, if they had left the room unharmed, what was in their wake?

As much as I wanted to go check, since I didn't see signs of a fight I decided it was best to just keep on them, I don't know what they were planning but I don't think they were here to renovate the castle.

Looking into the minds of my friends, I found each of them I could see them in my head. All looking panicked, but safe. This calmed me down exponentially and let me clear my head a bit, I suppose that the Death Eaters had wanted to remain as covert as possible, so they didn't alert the Order.

It made sense and played into my hands, if they were being cautious of the Order it meant they would have been expecting them not the DA and I. So, they weren't looking for me.

I used Legilimency to somewhat calm my friends, I explained to them what I had seen and said that I would try some recon, I told them that when the darkness faded they should follow after me and I'd try to keep them updated.

I followed after the Death Eaters, only a couple of steps behind them, fearing I may lose them if they were able to dart around certain corners and passageways, especially in this castle.

"To the tower" commanded Yaxley as they all marched forward and to my relief, away from my friends, Draco in the front of the pack, holding his Hand of Glory for some reason.

I recognised the two unknown Death Eaters after a couple of seconds, the two closest to Malfoy were Thorfinn Rowle and Gibbon, I could tell by comparing them to recent mugshots in the Prophet.

I was so tense the further I got from my friends, the higher my anxiety rose, were they following me yet? Had they alerted the others of the invasion? These are the thoughts that made themselves enter my head in the silence, the only noise being their clattering footsteps and the rustling of their clothes and the occasional grunt.

As for me, I was staying as quiet as possible, not daring to make a sound as I padded along behind them. Looking at them, I could tell they had something planned, they walked with purpose and had their wands at the ready.

I could tell they were wary about meeting any interference, any speaking they did where in hushed whispers. The two I recognised as the Carrows being the most talkative.

I couldn't tell which was which, they were both as ugly as each other. Both of them were looking giddy and excited. Yaxley was almost the exact opposite, it was clear he had taken charge and was trying to maintain some professionalism.

Greyback was my biggest concern, not that I knew it yet, he slowly trudged behind the rest of the group, occasionally growling a little or sniffing the air. I should have realised why, but by the time I did, it was too late.

I stalked behind them, my only illumination being the moonlight that peered through the windows. To my relief, I did see the commotion had stirred some of the portraits into action, who had taken it upon themselves to alert the security and by proxy the Order to the intruders.

I decided it was best to alert the others, hoping they would hurry, and if I was lucky, meet the Order along the way.

Still invisible to the naked eye, I turned back into my normal form so I could feel for my DA coin, hoping to at least alert the others that something was happening. I managed to get the message out, but that turned out to be a huge mistake.

I followed them for about a minute, as they rounded a corner to duck around a patrol, I noticed we were stood next to a mural window on one side of the castle, reaching from the floor to the middle of the wall.

Figuring this was a good landmark, I reached for my coin again to tell them there was a message coming, and tried my best to establish a mental link with Ron, who I knew then best, to tell him where I was.

But I was pulled out of my own head when Greyback spoke for the first time, his voice low and gravelly. "There are lots of little morsels running around Hogwarts I'd like to play with" he growled, pausing momentarily "Lots of little-"

"-Rats!" He said, launching out an arm and catching me by the neck, lifting me off my feet. The others turned sharply, one of them using their wands to dispel my charm. "Who do we have here Draco?" Cackled the closest Carrow. "Friend of yours?"

Draco just shook his head, looking gaunt and sickly. Both of the Carrows cackled, "Not your lucky day boy." I was so frustrated, I can't believe a foolish mistake like not recognising a wolf hunting a scent had gotten me caught, now they knew the Order and the DA was onto them and it was all my fault!

"Kill him quickly, we don't have time for this!" spat Rowle, anxiously looking down the hallway I had come from. Gibbon looked incredibly excited. "Yeah but sending up the mark might quicken the old man's pace to come and see us."

The Carrows were both eager to 'make me suffer' for sticking my nose in things, so they were both eager to torture me, lovely people they were. The only thing that slowed them down was deciding who got to do it, they bickered back and forth with each other, until they had the brilliant idea to both do it together.

They both went to raise their wands and end my life quickly but painfully, but, with a moment that was either a stroke of luck or incredible bad fortune, Greyback clearly had other plans. "I found the boy, he's mine to tear into!" he countered viciously.

"No" said Yaxley commandingly, "Just a bite." said Greyback in response to the command, I spat at him, "Mate, trust me, you're about to bite off more than you can chew with me." I said angrily, several of the Death Eaters chuckled and he smiled, showing me his jagged teeth.

Yaxley seemed against it, "You will wake the whole castle" "Well, there's an idea" I thought as Greyback turned to me, saying "Well, not if he can't scream" he reared back his head and widened his jaw, his eyes glancing towards my throat

If I was fated to become a meal for Fenrir Greyback like my brother had predicted all those years ago, my only solace was the fact that with a meal as big as I was, there was a good chance he'd choke on me.

But I was still eager to avoid giving him the satisfaction of being right, I launched my head forward towards an incoming Greyback, aiming for the bridge of the nose as always, but actually finding his forehead as he cackled and laughed at my attempt and moved his head to stop me.

"Ohhh, this one's a fighter, it's been a while since I've had one of those" he snarled with horrible connotations. "Why do I always headbutt!" I thought woozily, my eyes watered and my head spun, I felt as if I had just headbutted the entrance to Diagon Alley.

As my hands found my wand, Greyback said, and bit forward again in an attempt to rip out my throat. Fortunately, I got off a spell first, the first one to clatter its way into my pain addled mind, thinking still of how I'd get through a wall.

I needed to draw attention to my location and get this freak off me, so, not thinking of the consequences. I kicked off his chest, shredding my clothes on his gross werewolf claws in the process, put my wand between us and said "Bombarda!" I was launched a few feet backwards by the force of the impact.

As soon as the spell left my wand, everyone was on the floor, I heard windows shatter and howls of pain from the werewolf, looking around, the entire corridor was a mess, dust and smoke everywhere. The Death Eaters were getting to their feet, coughing and spluttering wildly.

Then I heard a horrifying sound, it was a low, rumbling growl, no, surely not, it was the wind passing through the now open window, nothing could have survived that and still have to capacity to growl. This was the thought I had to comfort myself.

Until I looked at the epicentre of the explosion and found out how very wrong I was. Still standing, but crouched low to the floor like an animal, was Fenrir Greyback. The stench of burning flesh hitting the air as I looked down at his torso.

The clothes on his chest shredded and scorched, revealing the muscle and sinew that was now exposed by the impact, then I realised, his clothes had burned to tatters, meaning that wasn't remnants of cloth, it was skin, pulled from the bone.

I was frozen in place, looking at the patch of exposed flesh on Greyback's chest that went down to the bone. With every breath, the flesh rose and fell, looking as if his organs were about to flood from his body.

It was like someone had gone at his chest with a jackhammer and he had somehow survived "What the fu-" I said, backing up in genuine fear before he snarled at me so intensely that my voice died in my throat. This wasn't the man anymore; this was the animal.

Knowing I was outnumbered until reinforcements arrived, I decided to take the initiative, "Incendio!" I sent a plume of fire towards the two flanking Malfoy. Because they had their backs to me, they were scouring down the hall, preparing for reinforcements.

Gibbon and Rowle both screamed in pain as their robes were set alight, Gibbon falling to the floor and the Rowle trying to pat the flames with his hands.

I would have thought he'd have been smart enough to at least use his wand, but first off, I wasn't complaining and second, I imagine the only thing you can think of while you're on fire is how much it sucks to be on fire.

As for Malfoy, he was as scared of Greyback as I was, more even, he made a noise between the Fat Lady being mauled by a dragon and some sort of bird being tortured and promptly fell on his bony behind, narrowly avoiding the flames I sent his way.

I sent out four more spells in sequence, the Carrows were the least prepared because of their bickering and the explosion, so one got hit with a stunner and the other with the knockback jinx. Both fell to the floor incapacitated.

The Death Eater I recognised as Corbin Yaxley waved his wand and my depulso dissipated and backfired, sending my wand ricocheting off behind me. I should have guessed as much, I was good, but even I couldn't take five Death Eaters and a werewolf at the same time.

Speaking of which, Greyback, who was closest to me and my most pressing threat, just took the stunner I sent at him, point blank, and barely flinched. "Not good" I thought as he began snarling at me again, blood pouring out of his chest.

I had no idea how he was still alive, but I didn't have much time to debate werewolf physiology. He dashed towards me and leapt forwards for my face. Out of sheer horror and disbelief, I was woefully under prepared for this turn of events.

There was little I could do except cover my face and flinch, waiting for the pain. My eyes were forced open, I didn't dare blink, part of me recognising that if I did, they wouldn't open again. Luckily, this gave me an excellent view of Fenrir Greyback getting sideswiped in mid air by a charm, knocking him away from me.

I turned to see my reinforcements. Ron, Neville and Ginny, being followed by other order members. Bill and Lupin being the only two I could recognise. I was so glad to see them I was honestly surprised they weren't preceded by a chorus of angels.

Then, as my back was turned to them, two of the Death Eaters flung curses towards me, most likely very upset that I had ruined their plans, or because I set them on fire.

Then, in another stroke of uncanny luck, Neville hit me in the mouth with a Full body bind jinx, which would normally suck, but It meant my head slammed into the floor fast enough that the two spells, that didn't look very pleasant, careened over my head.

The skirmished continued for a minute or two, I'm sure it was very intense, but all I saw was the ceiling and it wasn't very informative, but I did know one thing, if we ever had another DA meeting, me and Neville are going to work on his aim.

From what I could tell, the Order was gaining ground, most of the Death Eaters having to retreat, running off in the direction of their destination, wherever that was.

But not after some losses on our side, I heard an the thud of a body after a fierce roar from Greyback. I pitied that poor soul, but I really wished someone would take the time to get me up so I could help!

As Yaxley backed away from the battle, I heard his calm voice say, "This is how you deal with rats, Greyback" and suddenly my whole body lurched to the side, and I was unable to stop as my back skidded across the floor.

I was poked and stabbed in the back by shards of broken glass, scraping and tearing at my skin, that's how I knew my destination, the window that I had blown out was exposed to the open air and I couldn't move to prevent myself from falling to my death, I couldn't do the countercurse without a wand yet.

Lupin was the first to react, first pointing his wand at me and barely hitting me with the counter curse for the full body bind, but this did nothing to help the fact I was still wandless and skidding across the floor to my doom.

The mural window beside me was shattered and I was being pulled towards the edge of where it met the floor. As my legs swung out from under me I gripped as best I could against the stone in front of me, but whatever curse Yaxley had used, it was pulling me harshly to my death with huge amounts of force.

Unfortunately I think this was what Yaxley had counted on, as with Lupin out the way and with Gibbon still slinging spells everywhere he could, the remaining Death Eaters were able to form some sort of barrier and ascend into the tower unimpeded.

Lupin dropped to his knees, sprawling across the floor faster then I could ever have imagined him to be capable of and reached out a hand to grasp for my robe.

In a second of uncanny luck that was close to divine intervention, he missed my robes, but his fingers caught the edge of the necklace I had fashioned for my coin and while it did rather harshly jolt my neck, it also slowed me down for a fraction of a second. It gave me enough time to say the words, "The tower"

Then, my luck ran out, it snapped and I began tumbling backwards out of the window that I had shattered previously, into the night and my imminent demise below. With a rush of cold air, my stomach hit my throat and I was met with the nauseating feeling of being in free fall.

As I fell, something else rose, high above the castle, fitting ominously in with the weather and painting a bleak sign of change over Hogwarts, the dark green of the spell rose into the air.

A skull appeared first, almost as if the starlight had pooled together coming together to form a horrifying but oddly serene skull that floated in the sky, then the smoke entangled itself among the skull, writing around and inside it like a snake. The Dark Mark hung over Hogwarts.

Harry's POV

"We did it, Professor!" I whispered with difficulty; suddenly realising that I had a searing stitch in my chest. "We did it! We got the Horcrux!" Dumbledore staggered against me.

For a moment, I thought that my inexpert Apparition had thrown Dumbledore off-balance; then I saw his face, paler and damper than ever in the distant light of a streetlamp. "Sir, are you all right?"

"I've been better," said Dumbledore weakly, though the corners of his mouth twitched. "That potion...was no health drink..." And to my horror, Dumbledore sank on to the ground.

"Sir, it's okay, sir, you're going to be all right, don't worry-" I lied, not fully knowing if he would but hoping for help.

Looking around desperately for, all I could think was that somehow I had to get Dumbledore quickly to the hospital wing, but nobody came to our aid.

"We need to get you up to the school, sir...Madam Pomfrey..." I voiced my thoughts. "No," said Dumbledore. "It is...Professor Snape whom I need...but I do not think...I can walk very far just yet..."

"Right...sir, listen, I'm going to knock on a door, find a place you can stay, then I can run and get Madam-" "Severus," said Dumbledore clearly. "I need Severus..."

"All right then, Snape, but I'm going to have to leave you for a moment so I can-" Before I could make a move, however, I heard running footsteps.

My heart leapt: somebody had seen, somebody knew we needed help, looking around I saw Madam Rosmerta scurrying down the dark street towards them on high-heeled, fluffy slippers, wearing a silk dressing-gown embroidered with dragons.

"I saw you Apparate as I was pulling my bedroom curtains! Thank goodness, thank goodness, I couldn't think what to...but what's wrong with Albus?" She came to a halt, panting, and stared down, wide-eyed, at Dumbledore.

"He's hurt," I explained in a panic. "Madam Rosmerta, can he come into the Three Broomsticks while I go up to the school and get help for him?" I practically begged. She looked dumbfounded.

"You can't go up there alone! Don't you realise...haven't you seen?" "If you help me support him," I said, not listening to her, "I think we can get him inside-"

"What has happened?" asked Dumbledore. "Rosmerta, what's wrong?" "The...the Dark Mark, Albus." And she pointed into the sky, in the direction of Hogwarts. Dread flooded my body at the sound of the words so I turned and looked.

There it was, hanging in the sky above the school: the blazing green skull with a serpent tongue, the mark Death Eaters left behind whenever they had entered a building...wherever they had murdered.

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