Sorry I've been gone so long.
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Harry was trudging slowly back to the Gryffindor dorms. Well, sort of. He'd had an urge to divert to the third floor near Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and his notes he made under the influence of the potion and some divination spells he'd learned that morning agreed with the urge. And considering how this weekend went from being horrid to spectacular due to the influence of that potion, he wasn't going to start ignoring it now.
Not when it was so close to wearing off. Something important might happen.
WOULD happen Harry mentally corrected, Dobby had asked to borrow the Sword Kindness. That couldn't be good. As it stood though, he was being harassed by an annoying insect that looked like a particularly ugly type of dung beetle that had started to buzz around him about the fourth floor.
He'd thought about making a duplicate to go back to the dorms and just continue to sleep in the room, but decided against it for now. Not only was he still unsure about the possibility of one of his duplicates going independent if they were separated long term, but he didn't want to condemn one of them to suffering under the scrutiny of the school, or in Snape's class when he wasn't willing to do it himself. That, Harry thought to himself, is an almost guaranteed to make a duplicate turn on him.
He'd actually used a note pad when going through his memories from the duplicates and made check marks for every duplicate created, destroyed [he tried not to think killed] and reabsorbed to make sure he got them all. He did NOT want a duplicate running around independent.
Still though, despite everything, this was hands down the best weekend of his life. He'd learned hundreds of new spells, to a degree not even Hermione could match. Relearned almost all of the spells he already new from the past to a much higher degree and could even cast a lot of spells silently now, like all the professors. He learned a surprising amount about runes, some Occlumency and even a smattering of Legilimency and arithmancy. Not to mention about a dozen new languages and an immense amount about his family.
And most importantly he'd managed to get a girlfriend. Multiple girlfriends in fact. He'd had his first kiss, the first time he'd ever seen a naked girl. He'd taking more then a little amount of time relieving himself when he got back. He was extremely glad the room protected him from the wards that let the professors know when anyone under fifteen got active. Hell, he'd even seen girls kissing each other. That was enough, despite his dislike of everyone right now, to get him curious about some of his female classmates and wonder what they'd look like kissing each other. The thought of Hermione kissing fellow fourth year Gryffindors Lavender or Sue Li, Parvati or even Salley-Anne Perks, not to mention some of the other girls in their year, or even other years was an incredible turn on, and something he'd never thought of Hermione, as something other than a friend, or even sister…
…'No!' He thought to himself [and more pointedly, the potion]. She WAS his friend, and yes, even a sister he wished he had. Besides, she had a serious crush on Ron [which was reciprocated] and despite everything with Ron, he did hope they'd be happy together. Not that he was successful in completely banishing his thoughts however, but he was forcing himself to think of of her being happy, which him using a potion to alter her mind wouldn't do. And it was that thought which managed to kill his fantasy. That smacked a little to close to mind control for his taste.
It didn't count with Vanessa, Joan and Lea however, Lea had admitted they were already that way. For several years in fact. All the potion did was tell him HOW to go about attracting them. Harry doubted that even a potion as powerful as Felix Felicis could alter past events that far back in time. For that matter, was it even capable of altering peoples sexual preferences? Harry was pretty sure it would be illegal if it was. At least he hoped the Ministry would be smart enough to outlaw something like that…
…Who was he kidding? They probably sold it to parents to make sure their kids turned out right. He just hoped that Collin never got a hold of any. Or for that matter, that second year girl, Romey, Ronda, Romilda, Robbin, no, Robbin was the last name of one of the other second years. It didn't matter, he wasn't interested in her or her vane personality.
Although that did bring up the question of why wizards didn't use it to prevent squibs?
Still, best weekend ever! Ron would be so jealous when he found out. 'Damn it!' Harry thought to himself, 'that was what was wrong now!' He didn't want to make him more jealous.
"Harry?" And speak of the devil. Harry turned around and saw Ron standing in the doorway to Myrtle's bathroom.
"Ron."
"I'm sorry Harry!" Ron blurted out before Harry could say anything else however. "I'm really sorry ok. I know I've been acting like a prat this past week, and feel like shite because of it. I… …I just never…" He came to a sputtering end to his words at that point, looking down at the floor.
"So," Harry began awkwardly, fell silent, thought about venting on Ron for a second, then thought better and finally finished; "So, we going to be acting like girls here or something?" Ok, he thought, that sounded way funnier in his head. Ron stared at him for several seconds in shock. Finally Harry threw his arm around Ron's shoulder, to happy to be talking to him again to hold his grudge. "Come on little sis, let's get you back to the dorms."
"You do realize that not only am I about nine inches taller than you, but I'm also about eight months older as well? That makes you the little sister."
"I'm not the one acting like a girl. Or coming out of the girls bathroom for that matter. What were you doing Ronda, hiding in the Chamber of secrets?"
"Yeah, yeah little Heidi," Ron said, grabbing Harry in a headlock and giving him a nouggy, "As a matter of fact I was doing a little exploring down there. Since I can mimic what you said to open the sink, I could get down there. I even remembered to grab a broom to fly back up. Did you know Dobby is working here?" He finished releasing Harry.
"Um, yeah. Well, not until Friday night, but I've been dealing with him all weekend. Why?"
"Oh, he brought one of those expanded space tents for me to sleep in down there. Even made sure I had food. Told me to stay down there until just now, he even said he made sure that Moody wouldn't be able to see us with his magic eye. Said something really important needed to be done at just the right time or lot's of people throughout world would die, but he didn't really explain."
"So I explored some down there, managed to get into the chamber and found the basilisk. You know, I always thought you were exaggerating it's size, or you know, you being so short was skewing your perspective or something, I mean, basilisks are only supposed to be a little bigger than a King Cobra. That damn thing was IMMENSE! Anyway, I did a little exploring in the chamber itself, found Slytherian's study. Dusty, but only from a couple of decades worth, not centuries, so I suppose I sat in the same chair that You-know-who sat in. Even read some of his old schoolbooks he left down there, they had a much better defense teacher then. Made doing some of my homework feel strange, but that's something I just couldn't pass up, farting in You-know's chair. If there was any other rooms down there, I couldn't get them to open."
"Er, yeah. The password to let the basilisk out wasn't open, so I assume Slytherian would have used something else for any other rooms as well." Harry said, his good mood dying. "Did Dobby really say 'people throughout world would die' when he talked to you?" Harry asked, his mind only skimming over everything else Ron said, not really processing it.
"Yeah. You up to something?"
"Not that I'm aware of. I'm pretty sure Dobby has other ideas though." Before he could continue, he heard a sound he recognized, but coming from a location no one was in. Paranoia spiking, he cast a silent '
Homenum Revelio' and getting a ping other than Ron, Harry whipped around, already beginning to silently cast '
Expelliarmus' at the invisible target even as his wand was still dropping into his hand from his new wand holster.
Putting a little more mental humph behind the spell, he watched it sail down the short corridor hitting the target even as Ron was drawing his wand from his pocket and dodging to the side. Luckily his spell hit before the target could defend himself, and a wand sailed to Harry's free hand while the target became visible again.
A now visible, and very surprised Headmaster. "Er, Professor, sorry." Harry said rather sheepishly, walking back to him to hand him his wand back, "You startled me." He added in defense of his actions.
Dumbledore stared at Harry for several seconds before glancing at his wand, then slowly, holding his hand out for Harry to place it in. "If I may," the Headmaster began, "What gave my presence away?"
"Er, you made a sound of some sort." Harry replied, glancing off to the side, hoping beyond hope the Headmaster didn't ask for further explanation. Not that it mattered, Ron was completely failing at hiding a smirk.
"Yes, well, if you'd been in attendance to Dinner tonight, you would have rather enjoyed, I think, the burritos the Elves served. I'm afraid I've developed a fondness for them when I was in the south western part of the States for the ICW a while back, and particularly enjoy the taste of refried beans." At that, both Ron and Harry lost their battle for self control and burst out laughing.
Slight smile on his face watching them, Dumbledore seemed to recognize that both needed a good laugh right now, but also a assessing look at Harry and the wand. "Here Harry, I believe this now belongs to you," he said much to Harry's surprise. "This particular wand has little loyalty to any one owner, but goes to whoever bests the current holder.
Use it well Harry." He finished, odd tone to his words Harry thought, like what he was saying had meaning on more than one level.
"Sorry about that Professor, I…" Harry cut himself off, he really HAD meant to disarm whoever was there, and not in a friendly spar or training session manner. He'd read a couple of books on wand lore, so knew that that meant there was a chance it's loyalty would switch. But the way the headmaster said it, meant that this particular wand was more prone to it than most. And the way the Headmaster said 'Use it well' was odd, and reminded him strangely of when he received his Dad's cloak in first year. His reading this weekend HAD included not only children's books, but some of the more obscure history texts and divination spells, and had also included some stuff on famous and legendary wands, and he thought he recognized this one, plus he now recognized the mark on them. "Is this Grindelwald's wand?"
"I took it from him, so yes, it once was, but no more. It was mine from that point to this, and now it is yours, Harry. Take care not to lose it."
"So I've now got two of the pieces?" Harry noticed Dumbledore's eyebrow rise, and Ron's look of confusion, . "Does this mean that my cloak will once again work against you?" He asked trying to mask what he was feeling with a little teenage belligerence.
"I dare say it will be harder, but not impossible to detect you without that wand." the Headmaster replied, "Perhaps I should create a pair of glasses that mimics Professor Moody's eye."
"Would it work if it wasn't part of the original set?" Harry returned, "I mean, the set was actually six pieces, not three. The brothers only received three of them as ransom for not killing him, there was still the Eye of Seeing, which Professor Moody has, the Mirror of Death, also described as a portal of some sort, which is lost, and the Stone of Life which is also lost. Plus of course, the Spirit Stone, or Resurrection Stone, which the youngest brother received which is also lost. Supposedly, they're the only things that work against each other." Ron's surprised 'Bloody hell!' when he clued in to what Harry was talking about went unremarked upon as the Headmaster once again stared at him. "Or am I mistaken?"
"In all honesty Harry, I'm not sure. The legend of the Three Brothers is a woefully incomplete record of the events surrounding the items, assuming there is any truth to them at all. But I must say, I've never heard of the other three items, nor even considered the possibility that one would need to collect more than three." The Headmaster said, not surprising Harry thought, he'd only learned of it when he'd gotten curious and asked the 'How-to' book how to prevent Moody from seeing thru his cloak, and branched out to learning about the Hallows as a group. "Was this what you discussed with Gellert when you went to see him yesterday?" Dumbledore asked a slight frown on his face, as if he was trying to decide if he'd be willing to believe it or not.
"You know, I don't think the topic of the Hallows even came up." Before Harry could continue, a new presence made itself known, as Professor Moody came 'jogging' around the corner, his clop/stomp footsteps oddly muffled, as if he cast a silencing spell on them. His look of shock when he noticed them was surprising, since normally he always knew were everyone was around him.
As Harry looked at him, Moody looked more and more awkward and desperate, and just in general looked WRONG somehow. Acting on instinct, almost certainly potion influenced, Harry quickly cast the spell '
Finite Miscugliem', the anti-potion version of the spell '
Finite Incantatem'. Unfortunately, Harry couldn't yet do this one without speaking it aloud, so Moody had a chance to dodge. Luckily he didn't, hearing the Finite portion of the spell, he must have assumed that Harry was casting the anti-spell version, which wouldn't affect potions. So the spell hit him square in the chest and almost instantly, he began to change shape, all three of them recognizing the affects of a polyjuice potion coming to an end. Moody dropped to his knee as a normal leg regrew knocking his fake leg to the side, and a natural eye dislodged the magical eye.
Rising to stand before them was a man, mid to late thirties, graying black hair oddly familiar, if sinister looking face, and a look of complete rage on his face. "Barty, it's been some time since you last graced this facility with your presence." The Headmaster said as glowing runes, made from the flames of the
Flagrate spell (don't get that one confused with
Flagrante Harry thought to himself) appeared hovering around his hands, "Although the reports of your death in Azkaban seem to have been exaggerated."
The man snapped his wand up and almost immediately the green light of the Killing Curse shot out, even as the Headmaster threw up a rock column in front of Ron and Harry and tried to dodge to the side. Luckily enough, Harry had already begun to silently cast '
Cerise Protego' and a shimmering red shield sprung up in front of Dumbledore. The green light went thru the shield, transforming into brown light and striking Dumbledore, causing him to double over for a second before righting himself in surprise.
A surprise echoed in the face of the other man. A look of abject fear replaced the look of rage as he called out 'Forthwith' while casting another green light at Dumbledore, who seemed to trust the new defence against it and hunkered down behind it as Harry cast it again around Ron and himself as the column descended back into the floor.
Dumbledore , who was working from the extreme disadvantage of no wand, had already cast several more defensive magics on the three of them. Harry was ninety percent sure if he wasn't worried about Ron and him, the Headmaster would be much more aggressive, but was wasting most of his efforts on protecting the two of them.
Meanwhile, about four or five individuals wearing the cloaks and masks of Death Eaters, had fell out of the other mans pocket at the word forthwith, landing in a heap at the feat of the fake Moody. Harry wasted no time throwing a couple of '
Pretoria' spells at the lot. Despite laying at the bottom of the pile, one of them managed to shield them from his spells. Ron's unusual contribution was a '
Engorgio Incendio' combination which seemed to engorge the flame from the
Incendio spell from a basic single target, or starting a fireplace, to taking up most of the hall. With all the shield spells up, nothing much came of it, but it was a major distraction. And enough for the Headmaster to go on the offensive, thrusting his hand out, the Death Eaters all went flying down the hall. Dumbledore, shifted slightly to be able to look at Harry while still watching his enemies, "Harry, the shield you used, how do…"
"Add the word
Cerise to the front of
Protego." Harry cut him off, "If the shield is red, it'll protect against the killing curse. You'll still get really sick though."
"I can
LIVE with sick Harry, you two need to get back to your tower.
NOW!" He added when it looked like both of them would rather stay and help. Turning back towards his now very cautious foes, he touched his throat and began to speak even as both Harry and Ron began to run back to the tower, his voice thundering thru the halls. "All Hogwarts students, please return to your dorms. All of our guest students, please return to your respective lodging. All teachers please go to to the nearest student dorm or lodging to aid in it's defence should that prove needed. If your way is barred due to spell fire, please retreat to the Hospital wing. Filius an… Sectu…"
The Headmaster's voice cut off for a couple of seconds, and Harry considered going back, but Ron grabbed his arm. "No Harry, for the first time since coming here, the adults are doing their jobs and protecting us instead of depending on us to protect everyone!
LET THEM!" So maybe Ron noticed that he had been spending more effort on protecting the two of them than defeating the bad guys as well.
Even as Dumbledore finished his, whatever that was, not a speech Harry thought, it became clear that getting back to the dorms might not be so simple, as there seemed to be several other groups of Death Eaters, as well as several Aurors fighting and causing chaos as well. He pulled Ron into an alcove and pulled out one of his cudgels from an expanded pocket, giving Ron a quick run down of how to use it; "Just swing this end at the bad guy, he'll be hurt and impaired. If you need him down for good, think 'Max power' at it, they'll go down hard. You can throw it at someone and it'll work,but anyone can pick it up and use it." He then cast '
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu' on the two of them enough to get about five duplicates each really glad he was wearing his ad-hock armor under his school robes now, but rather wishing he could have worn his conjured battle robes with those extra defensive spells built in. "Come on!" Harry said when it looked like Ron was going to question about the duplicates. And then they went back to running.
As they rounded the corner to the balcony above great hall and the main stairway, they saw Professor Flitwick along with an unknown Auror and some suits of armor, on the first level fighting a large group of Death Eaters. The Rons once again cast '
Engorgio Incendio' on the group of Death Eaters, but with a much more open area and no way of knowing which area the others were casting at, the spells spread out in a few, more even, dome shapes, which while avoiding the Professor and the Auror, only hit about half the bad guys.
It was one of those that managed to cast '
Glisseo' on the stairs just as the group of them started to ascend them, causing them to slide down towards the first level. Which while inconvenient, and making it so they had two more levels to ascend, wouldn't have actually been bad, except one of the Death Eaters hit the stairway with a '
Finite Incantatem' about halfway down. The sudden change from smooth slide to steps turned the ride rather more bumpy. As he was being bounced around, he wondered whether the potion was just winding down, or if this was a needed encounter. It was at this point Harry saw Ron bounce right into the railing, his head going between the supports while his body continued down causing him to snap out, breaking his neck. This caused the weird vibe Harry had been using to tell which one of the Rons was the primary to switch to one of the duplicates, saving his life.
Harry and his duplicates managed to land roughly on their feet at the bottom of the steps, almost in the group of Death Eaters making it difficult for Flitwick and the Auror to target this group of scumbags. Harry and his duplicates began casting again with three of them casting defensive magic while Harry himself and the other two went for offensive magic going with several '
Bombarda',
Expulso, and one or two '
Confringo' spells, but the Death Eaters had already cast the '
Fire Freezing' charm on themselves by this point causing Harry to switch to '
Acer Gelu' and freeze them instead of burning them.
Two of the Rons got right up and into hand to hand range, Harry's cudgel working impressively well, with one rather notable strike that Ron got in coming down directly onto the top of the Death Eaters head who's mask had come off. A Death Eater they had both seen from time to time, Gregory Goyle's father. Ron must have been using 'max power' because the '
Expulso', '
Reducto', and '
Flipendo' affects made it a rather surreal, if messy attack. '
Reducto' causes things to be explosively blown away, '
Expulso' just causes things to blow up, and '
Flipendo' knocks people around causing them to go end over end. One of two other Death Eaters that Ron had hit had been blown back after a hit to the chest, missing a large portion of his chest, like a kid striking a pinata, if you replaced the candy with body parts. The other one had been hit in his wand arm when he tried to block Ron, the '
Flipendo' flinging him around while his arm blew up in a spectacular and bloody amputation before he landed on his head and lost consciousness. Goyle however had all of that directed straight down from the top of his head to his feet, causing the '
Expulso' to affect every part of his body, '
Reducto' to blow his remains out in a relatively even circle, and the '
Flipendo' to turn that circle into a cloud of small chunks and bloody mist covering all of them in blood and viscera. It actually caused combat to pause for a couple of seconds.
The other three Rons cast '
Aguamenti' at the Death Eaters, yet it was apparent that what they got wasn't water, but something rather more rancid smelling as all three targets that were hit started gagging and gasping while trying to shield their eyes. Harry cast a '
Alchemyst' spell on the liquid Ron was shooting out, turning it into a mist and making it an area affect spell that Harry could somewhat control, spreading it to more of the Death Eaters, even as Ron explained. "Skunk Musk. Since '
Aguamenti' can actually create any non-magical liquid, I decided to give them a taste of nature. Nice addition by the way."
"Thanks" Harry said while mulling over what Ron had just said. He vaguely recalled Hermione mentioning that once, but he'd never really thought about it. The first thing he had thought of at the time was chicken broth, so had mostly ignored the spell. Now his mind went to something he remembered from before Hogwarts, when Dudley was still forcing him to eat all manner of unpleasant things. One had always stood out more than the rest. One so bad Aunt Petunia had actually made him stop.
Ghost Peppers! If Harry could create the juice from a Ghost Pepper, it'd be even more effective than skunk spray. Before he could enact it however, Goyle was hit and combat paused.
Then the last of this group of Death Eaters went down to stun spells from Flitwick and the Auror (and a sword thrust from on of the last two suits of armor in the great hall), who quickly ran over and joined them. But before they could say anything, a beach-ball sized area of darkness, surrounded by purple electrical looking affects came sailing into the hall. Professor Flitwick cast '
Avea Apara' creating a orange, dome shaped shield around them and one of Harry's duplicates cast '
Scindo' on the globe just as it exploded, managing to part it's area of affect, creating a cone that wasn't effected by the blast and helping in protecting them (Harry wasn't sure even a '
Avea Apara' spell could have stopped that blast). Thankfully, Flitwick's shield protected them from debris, not the least of which was an entire set of stairs from one of the upper floors landing on the dome with a terrifying crash.
None of the Death Eaters who had been merely unconscious survived. Harry
REALLY wanted to learn that spell.
Even as the blast was still echoing though the castle, two more Death Eaters came flying in on brooms, Nimbus 2001s if Harry wasn't mistaken. Flitwick cast a '
Densissima' charm on the air in front of one of them, turning it into a viscus mass, similar to thick, invisible syrup. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, just slowing you down and making you work to move, but at the speed they were flying, he might as well have done a bellyflop off Gryffindor tower onto the ground. He smashed into the glob, losing consciousness, before slowly sinking to the bottom of the mass, and then falling to the ruble strewn ground.
The Auror got the other one with a '
Incarcerous' spell, not tying the Death Eater up, but tying him to the remains of the stairway banister. Specifically tying his neck to the banister with a noose. Creating an effect similar to what killed the other Ron. Evidently, he was fed up with how deadly the spells they were using are and decided to stop trying for prisoners.
Just as they were starting to actually breathe again, several voices outside the entry called out a spell none of the wanted to hear, the shouted '
Agni Incaendium' from several different voices sent chills down their spines.
Fiendfyre! As the beasts of diabolical flame came roaring into the great hall, one of his duplicates cast '
Yam Securitas' summoning a Stag headed warrior made of Blessed water, carrying a shield and sword to do battle with one of the beasts of flame. Harry was really glad he'd learned those summoning spells now, even has he himself was casting '
Finite Invocazionum' (the version of finite for use on rituals and summoning magic) on another of the figures of flame.
Flitwick meanwhile cast a spell similar to what Dobby used on Malfoy at the end of his second year, and Dumbledore used earlier, and propelled all the death eaters, even the flyer from before, most of their fiend fire, and a good chunk of the rubble outside. Turning towards Harry to ask a question, Harry beat him to the punch, showing how to cast '
Finite Invocazionum' by doing so on the last bit of fiendfyre still inside along with his summoned water elemental warrior. Harry then wished the two of them good luck, grabbed Ron, telling the Professor they were heading for the dorms. The Professor sent the last two suites of armor with them as he and the Auror left to go outside and deal with the fiendfyre that had broken lose from the rather stupid, and now dead at the flaming hands of their own servants, Death Eaters.
Several of his duplicates had begun to summon lions using the '
Felidia' summoning spell he'd learned that afternoon, so before they were even back at the steps, they were accompanied by a pride of male lions (Harry didn't know why they were all males, but decided now wasn't the time to ponder).
Climbing the stairs was even more tedious and exhausting than normal due to the need for haste, running up seven flights of stairs isn't easy. Combined with the need for even more vigilance than normal, not only did they need to watch out for more Death Eaters, but the stairs themselves, by reason of alarms or damage to them, were even more active and mobile than normal. Before they reached seventh floor, they had to descend a level twice to take a different set of stairs as they moved under them, and had to jump across an opening that they were to close to fully stop before hitting open space.
They'd just made it back to the third floor balcony again though, when they noticed a couple of Death Eaters enter the hall below. They hadn't seen their group yet, so one of Harry's duplicates suggested a new spell they learned, and both Death Eaters became victims of conjured anvils thanks to the '
Acme' spell. Ron looked at Harry strangely as the four large anvils fell, with a whistle, onto the two Death Eaters below. They heard the whistle just before impact, and both had looked up and been hit in the face by something a lot bigger and moving as fast as a bludger. Harry made a mental note to modify his armor to include a top covering shield.
They managed to make it back to right before the Fat Lady's portrait before they encountered anymore Death Eaters. This group had set up an ambush in the hallway, though they were completely unprepared for the lions, who set the ambush off early. Harry and Ron exchanged more spell fire with them, but they were to close for anything other than really quick spells, giving the adults who all used silent casting a huge advantage. Harry though, could also cast silently, and Ron still had the cudgel, and the lions, although most were quickly dispatched, they did distract and impede them. The last three of Ron's duplicates were 'dispelled' in the fighting, but allowing for the new primary Ron, Harry and one of the lions to reach the portrait.
Calling out the password, they jumped inside ordering the Fat Lady to go to the next password on the list, but two of the Death Eaters managed to get inside before one of his duplicates outside managed to close the portrait, staying outside to deal with the last of them outside before fleeing to the Room of Requirement.
As the stumbled inside, Ron fell to the floor, the cudgel rolling away across the floor, leaving Harry to try and grapple with the rather large Death Eater, the lion having managed to get the other ones head in it's mouth and was shaking him like a dog with a new chew toy. Harry heard people yelling and screaming, but couldn't afford to pay any attention, fully concentrating on his fight as he was thrown around before being knocked in the back of the knees by the thrashing lion.
Harry managed to catch a glimpse of a sword blade flying by, inches over his head were just a second before his own back had been (and a second before that, the Death Eater's back had been before he twisted), striking the Death Eater in the stomach, and causing him to drop to the ground with a moan of… …Was that pleasure?
Getting up off the ground had never been harder, or more desperately needed, with the sounds of fighting outside the portrait. Between the lion thrashing someone around, Vincent Crabbe's father thrashing around in ecstasy, a blood soaked Ron desperately trying to stand and set himself for an attack and his own blood soaked shoes and robes, chunks of Goyle still falling from both of them, it took a bit to get to his feet.
Once he had, he saw a horrifically injured Hermione, the sword Kindness held out in front of her with blood running down it's edge explaining Crabbe's reaction to his injury. Ron grabbed Hermione in a hug, not smart in retrospect, but nothing bad happened thankfully. Harry was pretty sure his luck was on it's last legs with that final bit.
Looking beyond Hermione, he noticed Professor McGonagall, Nearly Headless Nick, and virtually the entire Gryffindor house standing and looking at them in complete shock, the Professors mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, trying to speak, but no words making it to her mouth. The rest of the house almost as bad. Sending a mental nudge down the magical link to his summoned lion as he put a hand on it's back to calm it, causing it to drop the now very dead Death Eater to the ground. "Stand guard at the entry. Don't let anyone through unless allowed by myself, Ron, Hermione, McGonagall, Nick or one of the Prefects." He order it, pointing to each person as he named them, and each Prefect separately. "Ron, the cudgel!" He said, pointing to were it had rolled. Ron quickly grabbed it before anyone else got brave enough to try.
Looking down at the still living Death Eater, he was startled to realize that he was right about who it was. Crabbe's father was rolling on the ground, shite eating grin on his face. Growing enraged that someone like him could find pleasure after this, he cast '
Finite Incantatem' on him knowing that the effect the sword had was based on a charm. Crabbe's moans quickly changed to screams of pain, basilisk venom having been embedded into the blade.
Harry then bent down and cast '
Rennervate' on him to make him more aware of what was going on, and slapped him hard enough to make him focus on him. "You're dying you know. The only thing that can save your life is Phoenix tears, and I highly doubt Fawkes is willing to save your life after tonight. You will die screaming in pain, like you have made so many do before." Harry told him, before pausing and looking for a second at Hermione. "But if you answer my questions, truly answer them. Then I won't prevent her from using the swords magic to turn your pain back into pleasure. You're choice!"
Seeing him nod yes, Harry began. "What was the purpose of the attack tonight? What was your intent?"
"We were to help Crouch grab you and cause as much damage and chaos as possible. If possible, kill some students and any professors we could, but their deaths were really irrelevant. We were to then cast fiendfyre on the castle as we left to draw out more defenders to kill as we left." He replied, as members of his house seemed to finally make a sound, even if it was just a sputtering and incoherent muttering.
"Who ordered this?"
"I'm not sure." Seeing Harry's look of disbelief, he went on. "I'm not! He claimed he was the Dark Lord, but he looked like an even more messed up house elf than that stupid little cretin that Lucius used to keep." He finished, not understanding the renewed rage once again on Harry's face.
Standing up, "Anyone else have any questions for this piece of shite? He's only got a few minutes left to live, so ask now?" Turning to Hermione, "If you want to ease his suffering, I won't stop you. But it's up to you."
"I killed him Harry! I killed the father of a classmate. He's dying because of me." She said, the look of appalled shock making her already injured face look even worse. "I killed him, but I can't bring myself to stop his pain. Not after what he said!" She cried, tears falling from her eyes.
"
NO!" Ron shouted, "No you didn't. You are not responsible. He made his own choices.
HE is the reason he is dead." With that, Ron took off his robe, thankfully wearing some muggle pants and a shirt underneath, threw it over Crabbe's form, and before anyone understood his intent, brought the cudgel down, pumping as much of his own magic into it as he could, down on Crabbe's chest with a blow that cracked the floor beneath him. Like Goyle earlier, his form literally exploded outwards, though this time there was more large pieces and his cloak helped to contain (a little, it at least didn't go up as far) the blood spray. Crabbe's head went spinning off, bouncing around like the ball in a pinball machine before coming to rest at the feet of the second year girls.
"
RON!" Several people shouted with various degrees of shock and horror. The second year girls looked ready to vomit, their feet covered in the last of the blood that had been in his head, the rest in a merry path across the common room before meeting up with the much larger blood splatter in the area around the three of them.
Ron looked up and glanced around, "What the hell are you doing?!" He yelled at everyone, "Can't you hear the fighting going on outside? Why haven't you set up defenses? Gotten the kids upstairs and blockaded the stairway? What if it had just been Death Eaters? Half of you morons would be dead before you even understood what was going on!" Ron paused for a second in thought as Nearly Headless Nick bent down and stuck his hands into the chest of the other Death Eater and shaking them around like someone washing their hands, before Ron continued, his chess skills coming to the fore. "Everyone under seventeen, get your arses upstairs to your dorms. Girls especially since most of the attackers seemed to be male, and the anti-male charms might help you! Form up defenses and create blockades on the landings! Each year is responsible for defending the next younger year! Prefects under seventeen, you're in the stairwells as well, get things organized and be ready to take the forefront of defense should those out here fall! Everyone else, create barriers in here! Do what it takes, but if you can't stop invaders cold, at least slow and injure them enough that the younger students might be able to hold them!"
Harry watched everyone still looking at them in shock, decided they needed motivation and cast a weak '
Sonorus' on himself. "
DO AS YOU'RE TOLD! MOVE IT!" The affect was almost instantaneous. Harry gave it another second, watching them run around like chickens with their heads cut off, but at least doing something, Nick repeating his 'hand washing' act in the head of Crabbe. Harry decided it was a ghost thing and wasn't his concern.
Deciding he didn't need to be so loud now, he cast '
Quietus' on himself just now noticing that he had been using Dumbledore's wand, and looked at Ron and Hermione. By unspoken agreement, both Harry and Ron took Hermione by an arm each and guided her to their favorite corner. Harry then cast '
Avea Apara' around them, causing a large, partial dome to form around them, it merging and conforming to the stonework of the corner. He then cast a '
Muffliato' so anything they said, or any noise they made couldn't be heard outside, but they could still hear past the barrier. Then he used '
Ex nihilo' to conjure curtains so no one could see in, he even remembered to make sure to cover over them so no one with a broom could see in, and they'd have privacy. He then used '
Ex nihilo' again to conjure up three buckets and handed them to an increasingly green looking Ron and Hermione, took the last bucket and promptly joined the other two in emptying his stomach.
He was so bloody fucking done with this place!
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Edited for spelling and grammar.
