It was torture, waiting for Harry and Luna to arrive back from the Ravenclaw. Johnny found himself pacing the common room, clutching his forearm in pain as he idly listened to the girls ask questions about Winona and pregnancy. When the portrait hole (the one they used to get in) Johnny was pleasantly surprised to see Tonks, Evan, Remus, Kingsley, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, Marcus Flint, Graham, Elizabeth and Devon Montague, and Mr. and Mrs, Weasley stepping out.

"Alright Johnny?" Marcus asked, clapping his hand as Elizabeth hugged him. Johnny stared at his former Quidditch teammates in shock.

"What're you guys doing here?"

"Daphne Greengrass and Pansy Parkinson sent around a message," said Graham. "If we're a true Slytherin, we should be loyal to no one but King Johnathan Grindelwald, so, here we are."

Johnny looked rather taken aback, but smiled as Tonks approached him.

"Hey, Johnny boy," Tonks smiled at him, changing her hight so she was level with Johnny. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed his forehead. "Can you believe it? The both of us as parents?"

"No I can't," Johnny chuckled, moving to hug Mrs. Weasley.

"Your mother is staying back with Muriel, Winona, Teddy and Andromeda," Lupin informed him, causing Johnny to nod appreciatively at the information his mother, child and godchild were out of the thick of the fighting.

When Harry finally arrived back, Johnny let out a relived sigh along with a collective number of people.

"Harry, what's happening?" said Lupin, he and Johnny meeting him at the foot of the stairs.

"Voldemort's on his way, they're barricading he school- Snape's run for it- What are you doing here? How did you know?"

"We sent messages to the rest of Dumbledore's Army," Fred explained. "You couldn't expect everyone to miss the fun, Harry, and the D.A. let the Order of the Phoenix know, and it all kind of snowballed."

"What first, guys?" called George, looking between Johnny and Harry. "What's going on?"

"They're evacuating the younger kids and everyone's meeting in the Great Hall to get organised," Harry said. "We're fighting, even the majority of the Slytherin's, Slughorn said they're loyal to no one but Johnathan Grindelwald."

There was a great roar and a surge toward the stairs, Johnny and Harry was pressed back against the wall as they ran past them, the mingled members of the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore's Army, and the old Quidditch teams, all with their wands drawn, heading up into the main castle.

"Come on, Luna," Dean called as he passed, holding out his free hand, she took it and followed him back up the stairs.

The crowd was thinning. Only a little knot of people remained below in the Room of Requirement, and Johnny and Harry joined them. Mrs. Weasley was struggling with Ginny. Around them stood Evan, Lupin, Fred, George, Bill and Fleur.

"You're underage!" Mrs. Weasley shouted at her daughter as Harry and Johnny approached "I won't permit it! The boys, yes, but you, you've got to go home!"

"I won't!"

Ginny's hair flew as she pulled her arm out of her mother's grip.

"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.

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

Fred and George looked slightly ashamed of themselves.

"Mum's right, Ginny," said Bill gently. "You can't do this. Everyone underage will have to leave, it's only right."

"I can't go home!" Ginny shouted, angry tears sparkling in her eyes. "My whole family's here, I can't stand waiting there alone and not knowing and-"

Her eyes met Harry's for the first time. She looked at him beseechingly, but he shook his head and she turned away bitterly.

"Fine," she said, staring at the entrance to the tunnel back to the Hog's Head. "I'll say goodbye now, then, and-"

There was a scuffling and a great thump. Someone else had clambered out of the tunnel, overbalanced slightly, and fallen. He pulled himself up no the nearest chair, looked around through lopsided horn-rimmed glasses, and said, "Am I too late? Has it started. I only just found out, so I-I-"

Percy spluttered into silence. Evidently he hadn't expected to run into most of his family. There was a long moment of astonishment, broken by Fleur turning to Evan and saying, in a wildly transparent attempt to break the tension. "So- 'ow eez leetle Teddy?"

Evan blinked at her, startled. The silence between the Weasleys seemed to be solidifying, like ice.

"I- oh yes- he's fine!" Evan said loudly. "Andromeda is with him and Evelyn-"

Percy and the other Weasleys were still staring at one another, frozen.

"Here, I've got a picture of Teddy and Winona?" Evan shouted, pulling a photograph from inside his jacket and showing it to Fleur, Harry and Johnny, who saw a tiny baby boy with a tuft of bright turquoise hair, and a tiny baby girl with a tuft of dark brown hair, both waving fat fists at the camera.

"I was a fool!" Percy roared, so loudly that Evan nearly dropped his photograph. "I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a- a-"

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

Percy swallowed.

"Yes, I was!"

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

Mrs. Weasley burst into tears. She ran forward, pushed Fred aside, and pulled Percy into a strangling hug, while he patted her on the back, his eyes on his father.

"I'm sorry, Dad," Percy said.

Mr. Weasley blinked rather rapidly, then he too hurried to hug his son.

"What made you see sense, Perce?" inquired George.

"It's been coming on for a while," said Percy, mopping his eyes under his glasses with a corner of his traveling cloak. "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 in a good imitation of Percy's most pompous manner. "Now let's get upstairs and fight, or all the good Death Eaters'll be taken."

"So, you're my sister in-law now?" Said Percy, shaking hands with Fleur as they hurried off toward the staircase with Bill, Fred, and George.

"Ginny!" barked Mrs. Weasley.

Ginny had been attempting, under cover of the reconciliations to sneak upstairs too.

"Molly, how about this," said Lupin. "Why doesn't Ginny stay here, then at least she'll be on the scene and know what's going on, but she won't be in the middle of the fighting?"

"I-"

"That's a good idea," said Mr. Weasley firmly, "Ginny, you stay in this room, you hear me?"

Ginny didn't seem to like the idea much, but under her father's unusually stern gaze, she nodded. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Lupin headed off to the stairs as well.

"Where's Ron?" asked Johnny, "Where's Hermione?"

"They must have gone up the Great Hall already," Mr. Weasley called over his shoulder.

"They said something about a bathroom," said Ginny, "as they passed you in the hurry, they took Padma Patil with them."

"The Chamber of Secrets," said Johnny in realisation, knowing they must be getting a Basilisk fang, and as he turned to Harry, his cousin collapsed once more.

When Harry had came around, he and Johnny sprinted to the Great Hall, the majority of the Slytherin's cheering loudly when they saw Johnny appear in the doorway. It was loud, until a high cold voice voice started singing, his voice echoing across the walls.

The enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall was dark and scattered with stars, and below it the four long House tables were lined with disheveled students, some in traveling cloaks, others in dressing gowns. Here and there shone the pearly white figures of the school ghosts. Every eye, living and dead was fixed upon Professor McGonagall, who was speaking from the raised platform at the top of the Hall. Behind her stood the remaining teaches, including the palomino centaur, Firenze, and the members of the Order of the Phoenix who had arrived to fight.

"...evacuation will be overseen by Mr. Filch and Madame Pomfrey. Prefects, when I give the word, you will organise your House and take your charges in orderly fashion to the evacuation point."

Many of the students looked petrified. However, Ernie Macmillan stood up at the Hufflepuff table and shouted; "And what if we want to stay and fight?"

There was a smattering of applause.

"If you are of age, you may stay," said Professor McGonagall.

"What about our things?" called a girl at the Ravenclaw table. "Our trunks, our owls?"

"We have no time to collect possessions." said Professor McGonagall. "The important thing is to get you out of here safely."

"Where's Professor Snape?" shouted a girl from the Slytherin table, Johnny recognised her as Quincey Dolohov.

"He has, to use the common phrase, done a bunk." replied Professor McGonagall and a great cheer erupted from the a few Slytherin's, the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws.

As Harry and Johnny passed, faces turned in their direction, and a great deal of whispering broke out in their wake.

"We have already placed protection around the castle," Professor McGonagall was saying, "but it is unlikely to hold for very long unless we reinforce it. I must ask you, therefore, to move quickly and calmly, and do as your prefects-"

But her final words were drowned as a different voice echoed throughout the Hall. It was high, cold, and clear. There was no telling from where it came. It seemed to issue from the walls themselves. Like the monster it had once commanded, it might have lain dormant there for centuries.

"I know that you are preparing to fight." There were screams amongst the students, some of whom clutched each other, looking around in terror for the source of the sound. "Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood."

There was silence in the Hall now, the kind of silence that presses against the eardrums, that seems too huge to be contained by walls.

"Give me Harry Potter, and give Johnathan Grindelwald to his father," said Voldemort's voice, "and they shall not be harmed. Give us Harry Potter and Johnathan Grindelwald and I shall leave the school untouched. Give us Harry Potter and Johnathan Grindelwald and you will be rewarded."

"You have until midnight."

The silence swallowed them all again. Every head turned, every eye in the place seemed to have found Harry and Johnny, to hold them forever in the glare of thousands of invisible beams. Then Quincey raised a shaking arm and screamed, "But they're there! Someone grab him them!"

Before Harry or Johnny could speak, there was a massive movement. The Gryffindors in front of them had risen and stood facing, not Harry and Johnny, but Quincey. Then the majority of the Slytherin's did the same, leaving only five or six there. Then the Hufflepuffs stood, and almost at the same moment, the Ravenclaws, all of them with their backs to Harry and Johnny, all of them looking toward Quincey and the other six instead, and Johnny and Harry, awestruck and overwhelmed, saw wands emerging everywhere, pulled from beneath cloaks and from under sleeves.

"Thank you, Miss Dolohov." said Professor McGonagall in a clipped voice. "You will leave the Hall first with Mr. Filch. If the ones who wish not to fight could follow."

Johnny heard the grinding of the benches and then the sound of seven Slytherins leaving on the other side of the Hall.

"Ravenclaws, follow on!" cried Professor McGonagall.

Slowly the four tables emptied. The Slytherin table was half full, a number of older Ravenclaws remained seated while their fellows filed out; even more Hufflepuffs stayed behind, and half of Gryffindor remained in their seats, necessitating Professor McGonagall's descent from the teachers' platform to chivvy the underage on their way.

"One, two, Jakey's coming for you, three, four, better lock your door," sang Jakob Grindelwald, warranting screams from the students who suddenly were scared. "I don't want to hurt you, children, Professors, friends and foe," Jakob's voice echoed around the walls, but he wasn't in the room, just like Voldemort. "I just want to fight my son, so if Johnathan Grindelwald will come to the courtyard, the war can begin. Times ticking, Johnny boy!"

Students stared at Johnny, who had a blank look on his face as he glanced up at the enchanted ceiling.

"You can't give in!" Pansy shrieked, grabbing ahold of her best friends arm as he tried to walk out the large doors. "He'll kill you, J! What about your daughter!?"

"I've got to finish this," said Johnny bluntly, and he removed his arm from Pansy's grip and let some emotion slip onto his face. He turned to Harry, and said in a quiet voice, "if I don't make it, you tell Hermione to grab my mother and Winona, and leave, and you remind them that I love them."

Harry nodded, a lone tear running down his face as he hugged Johnny. Once the hug ended, the students, the DA, the Professors and the Order stood on the stone steps to the courtyard as they looked out. In the centre stood Jakob, a mad grin on his face as the Giants and rouge Supernatural beings smashed the stone Hogwarts defence behind him.

"There he is! The man of the moment!" As he said that, Death Eaters began flooding the courtyard and the fighting began. Johnny let out a loud roar, only half shifting into his werewolf form as his right hand gripped the silver dagger Dumbledore gave him, his wand clutched left in his left. Johnny sprinted towards Jakob, deflecting curses as he went. When Johnny was about fifteen metres away, he threw the silver dagger, watching as it embedded itself in Jakob's shoulder.

"You little Half-Breed Bastard!" Jakob yelled, yanking the dagger out of his shoulder and throwing it to the ground a few feet away from them. "Is that all you got, son?"

"Of course not!" Johnny yelled, the rain soaking his skin as the fire illuminated their skin. "What about you, old man?"

"I'll show you old man," Jakob grunted. "Avada Kedavra!"

Johnny ducked the curse just in time, shifting back to his normal self as he slowly made his way to Jakob, skilfully avoiding curses and hexes as he went. When Johnny was close enough, Jakob let out a loud yell and flipped his son over his shoulder, the teenager letting out a grunt of pain as he hit the stone floor, the wind being knocked out of him.

"Told you, I'm not that old," Jakob grinned sadistically, raining punches down upon Johnny's faces. As Johnny continued to get beaten bloody, he noticed the silver dagger Dumbledore left him just out of reach of his fingers. With an ounce of strength, Johnny lifted his head and head butted Jakob harshly in the nose, sending the older man wailing in pain as he fell off Johnny in pain, clutching a bloody nose.

Even though the dagger wasn't far away, it felt like miles as Johnny began to crawl, his left eye swollen shut. Just as his fingers grasped the handle, Jakob dragged him backwards by the foot, causing Johnny to lose his grip. He spun around quickly, kicking wildly with his free leg. When he heard Jakob groan, Johnny scrambled to the knife and took a firm hold of it as Jakob flipped him around again.

"This is for Neville's parents," said Johnny, imbedding the knife in Jakob's chest. Jakob looked down at it, then back up at Johnny as he collapsed. Johnny pulled the knife out and stabbed Jakob again. "For my mother." Again. "For Sirius." Again. "For Bellatrix." Again. "For everyone you've ever harmed." Again. "For Hermione." Johnny yanked the knife out of Jakob's chest once more, covered in his father's blood, and he brought the knife down once more, imbedding it in Jakob's neck. "For me."

Johnny looked down at his father, breathing heavily as his father's blue eyes stared at him.

"In the bleak midwinter..." Jakob sung quietly as the life began to fade from his eyes. "Frosty wind made-" Jakob didn't get to finish, as his eyes closed and he died. Johnny sighed heavily, looking around the courtyard as the rain began to wash away some of the blood on him. Casualties littered the courtyard in all forms. Giants, spiders, werewolves, vampires, Death Eaters and students.

Johnny got up, pocketing the knife as he grabbed his wand and stumbled towards the entrance to the school, clutching his his ribs in pain. As he entered, he ran into Harry who gasped and hugged his cousin tightly.

"He's dead," Johnny grunted, a feeling of great relief washing over him. "Jakob's dead."

"Potter! Grindelwald!"

Aberforth Dumbledore stood blocking the corridor ahead, his wand held ready.

"I've had hundreds of kids thundering through my pub, boys!"

"I know, we're evacuating," Johnny said, "Voldemort's-"

"-attacking because they haven't handed you over, yeah," said Aberforth. "I'm not deaf, the whole of Hogsmeade heard him and Jakob. And it never occurred to any of you to keep those seven Slytherins hostage? There are kids of Death Eaters you've just sent to safety. Wouldn't it have been a bit smarter to keep 'em here?"

"It wouldn't stop Voldemort," said Harry, balancing Johnny, "and your brother would never have done it."

Aberforth grunted and tore away in the opposite direction.

Harry and Johnny skidded around a final corner and with a yell of mingled relief and fury they saw them: Padma, Ron and Hermione; both with their arms full of large, curved, dirty yellow objects, Ron with a broomstick under his arms.

"Where the hell have you been?" Harry shouted. Hermione let go off said yellow objects and embraced her fiancé, kissing him passionately.

"He's dead," Johnny muttered, cupping Hermione's bruised cheek. Johnny rested his forehead against hers and whispered, "Jakob! He's dead!"

"Chamber of Secrets," said Ron, pulling Hermione and Johnny back into the conversation.

"Chamber- what?" said Harry.

"It was Ron, all Ron's idea!" said Padma breathlessly. "Wasn't it absolutely brilliant? There we were, after we left, and Hermione said to Ron, even if we find the other one, how are we going to get rid of it? We still hadn't got rid of the cup! And then he thought of it! The basilisk!"

"What the-?" said Johnny and Harry in unison.

"Something to get rid of Horcruxes," said Ron simply.

Their eyes dropped to the objects clutched in Padma, Ron and Hermione's arms: great curved fangs; torn, they now realised, from the skull of a dead basilisk.

"But how did you get in there?" Harry asked, staring from the fangs to Ron. "You need to speak Parseltongue!"

"He did!" whispered Padma. "Show him, Ron!"

Ron made a horrible strangled hissing noise.

"It's what Johnny did to open the locket," he told Harry. "I had to have a few goes to get it right, but," he shrugged modestly, "we got there in the end."

"He was amazing!" said Padma. "Amazing!"

"They're so shagging after this," Hermione whispered in Johnny's ear, causing them to laugh.

"So.." Harry was struggling to keep up. "So..."

"So we're another Horcrux down," said Ron, and from under his jacket he pulled the mangled remains of Hufflepuff's cup. "Hermione stabbed it. Thought she should. She hasn't had the pleasure yet."

"Fucking genius!" yelled Johnny, slapping his forehead.

"It was nothing," said Ron, though he looked delighted with himself. "So what's new with you guys?"

As he said it, there was an explosion from overhead: All five of them looked up as dust fell from the ceiling and they heard a distant scream.

"I know what the diadem looks like, and I know where it is," said Harry, talking fast. "He hid it exactly where I had my old Potions book, where everyone's been hiding stuff for centuries. He thought he was the only one to find it. Come on."

"Go find your sister," Ron told Padma, who nodded quickly and kissed Ron goodbye.

As the walls trembled again, Harry led the other three back through the concealed entrance and down the staircase into the Room of Requirement. It was empty except for three women: Ginny, Tonks and an elderly witch wearing a moth-eaten hat, whom Johnny recognised immediately as Neville's grandmother.

"Ah, Potter, Grindelwald," she said crisply as if she had been waiting for them. "You can tell us what's going on."

"Is everyone okay?" said Ginny and Tonks together.

"'As far as we know," said Harry. "Are there still people in the passage to the Hog's Head?"

They knew that the room wouldn't be able to transform while there were still users inside it.

"I was the last to come through," said Mrs. Longbottom. "I sealed it, I think it unwise to leave it open now Aberforth has left his pub. Have you seen my grandson?"

"He's fighting," said Johnny.

"Naturally," said the old lady proudly. "Excuse me, I must go and assist him."

With surprising speed she trotted off toward the stone steps.

Johnny looked at Tonks.

"You should be with Teddy and your mother."

"I couldn't stand not knowing-" Tonks looked anguished. "She'll look after him- have you seen Evan?"

"He was planning to lead a group of fighters into the grounds-"

Without another word, Tonks sped off.

"Ginny," said Harry, "I'm sorry, but we need you to leave too. Just for a bit. Then you can come back in."

Ginny looked simply delighted to leave her sanctuary.

"And then you can come back in!" Harry shouted after her as she ran up the steps after Tonks. "You've got to come back in!"

"Hang on a moment!" said Johnny sharply. "We've forgotten people!"

"Who?" asked Hermione.

"The house-elves, they'll all be down in the kitchen, won't they?"

"You mean we ought to get them fighting?" asked Ron in shock.

"No," said Johnny seriously, "I mean we should tell them to get out. We don't want innocent casualties, do we? We can't order them to die for us."

There was a clatter as the basilisk fangs cascaded out of Hermione's arms. Running at Johnny, she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. Johnny stopped what he was saying and responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Hermione off her feet.

"Is this the moment?" Ron asked, grimacing, and when nothing happened except that Johnny and Hermione gripped each other still more firmly and swayed on the spot, he raised his voice. "Oi! There's a war going on here!"

Johnny and Hermione broke apart, their arms still around each other.

"I know, mate," said Johnny, who looked as though he had recently been hit on the back of the head with a Bludger, "so let me kiss my fiancé, alright?"

"Never mind that, what about the Horcrux?" Harry shouted. "D'you think you guys could just- just hold in your horniness in until we've got the diadem?"

"Yeah- right- sorry-" said Johnny, and gathering up fangs Hermione dropped, both pink in the face.

It was clear, as the four of them stepped back into the corridor upstairs, that in the minutes that they had spent in the Room of Requirement the situation within the castle had deteriorated severely: The walls and ceiling were shaking worse than ever; dust filled the air, and through the nearest window, Johnny saw bursts of green and red light so close to the foot of the castle that he knew the Death Eaters were still in the grounds. Looking down, Johnny saw Grawp the giant meandering past, swinging what looked like a stone gargoyle torn from the roof and roaring his displeasure.

"Let's hope he steps on some of them!" said Ron as more screams echoed from close by.

"As long as it's not any of our lot!" said a voice: they turned and saw Ginny and Tonks, both with their wands drawn at the next window, which was missing several panes. Ginny aimed a jinx at the enemy below.

"Good girl!" roared a figure running through the dust toward them, and they saw Aberforth again, his gray hair flying as he led a small group of students past. "They look like they might be breaching the north battlements, they've brought more giants."

"Have you seen Remus or Evan?" Tonks called after him.

"Evan was dueling Dolohov, Remus not far away," shouted Aberforth, "haven't seen them since!"

"Tonks," said Ginny, "Tonks, I'm sure he's okay-"

But Tonks had run off into the dust after Aberforth.

Ginny turned, helpless, to Johnny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"They'll be all right," said Harry. "Ginny, we'll be back in a moment, just keep out of the way, keep safe- come on!" he said to Johnny, Ron and Hermione, and they ran back to the stretch of wall beyond which the Room of Requirement was waiting to do the bidding of the next entrant.

I need the place where everything is hidden. Johnny begged of it inside his head, and the door materialised on their third run past.

The furor of the battle died the moment they crossed the threshold and closed the door behind them: All was silent. They were in a place the size of a cathedral with the appearance of a city, its towering walls built of objects hidden by thousands of long-gone students.

"And he never realised anyone could get in?" said Ron, his voice echoing in the silence.

"He thought he was the only one," said Harry. "Too bad for him I've had to hide stuff in my time... this way," he added. "I think it's down here...."

They sped off up adjacent aisles; their footsteps echoing through the towering piles of junk, of bottles, hats, crates, chairs, books, weapons, broomsticks, bats....

"Somewhere near here," Harry muttered. "Somewhere... somewhere..."

Deeper and deeper into the labyrinth they went, looking for objects. Johnny's breath was loud in his ears, and then his very soul seemed to shiver. There it was on an blistered old cupboard. The pockmarked stone warlock wearing a dusty old wig and what looked like an ancient discolored tiara.

"There!" Said Johnny. He had already stretched out his hand, though he remained few feet away, when a voice behind him said, "Hold it, Grindelwald."

He skidded to a halt and turned around. Crabbe and Goyle were standing behind him, shoulder to shoulder, wands pointing right at Johnny and Harry. Through the small space between their jeering faces he saw Draco.

"That's my wand you're holding, Grindelwald," said Malfoy, pointing his own through the gap between Crabbe and Goyle.

"Not anymore," panted Johnny, tightening his grip on the hawthorn wand. "Winners, keepers, Malfoy. Who's lent you theirs?"

"My mother," said Draco.

Harry and Johnny laughed, though there was nothing very humorous about the situation. They couldn't hear Ron or Hermione anymore. They seemed to have run out of earshot, searching for the diadem.

"So how come you three aren't with Voldemort?" asked Harry.

"We're gonna be rewarded," said Crabbe. His voice was surprisingly soft for such an enormous person: Johnny only ever heard him talk in a deep, rough voice. Crabbe was speaking like a small child promised a large bag of sweets. "We 'ung back. We decided not to go. Decided to bring you both to 'im and Mr. Grindelwald."

"Good plan," said Johnny in mock admiration. "One slight problem, I just killed my father about ten minutes ago," said Johnny, a grin on his face as Crabbe, Goyle and Malfoy looked between each other. Johnny and Harry began edging slowly backward toward the place where the Horcrux sat lopsided upon the bust. If Johnny could just get his hands on it before the fight broke out...

"So how did you get in here?" Harry asked, trying to distract them.

"I virtually lived in the Room of Hidden Things all last year," said Malfoy, his voice brittle. "I know how to get in."

"We was hiding in the corridor outside," grunted Goyle. "We can do Disslusion Charms now! And then," his face split into a gormless grin, "you turned up right in front of us and said you was looking for a die-dum! What's a die-dum?"

"Johnny?" Ron's voice echoed suddenly from the other side of the wall to Johnny's right. "Are you talking to someone?"

With a whiplike movement, Crabbe pointed his wand at the fifty foot mountain of old furniture, of broken trunks, of old books and robes and unidentifiable junk, and shouted, "Descendo!"

The wall began to totter, then the top third crumbled into the aisle next door where Ron stood.

"Ron!" Harry and Johnny bellowed, as somewhere out of sight Hermione screamed, and they heard innumerable objects crashing to the floor on the other side of the destabilised wall: He pointed his wand at the rampart, cried, "Finite!" and it steadied.

"No!" shouted Malfoy, staying Crabbe's arm as the latter made to repeat his spell. "If you wreck the room you might bury this diadem thing!"

"What's that matter?" said Crabbe, tugging himself free. "It's Potter and Grindelwald the Dark Lord wants, who cares about a die-dum?"

"Potter and Grindelwald came in here to get it," said Malfoy with ill-disguised impatience at the slow-wittedness of his colleagues. "so that must mean-"

"'Must mean'?" Crabbe turned on Malfoy with undisguised ferocity. "Who cares what you think? I don't take your orders no more, Draco. You an' your dad are finished."

"Boys?" shouted Ron again, from the other side of the junk wad. "What's going on?"

"Boys?" mimicked Crabbe. "What's going on- no, Grindelwald! Crucio!"

Johnny had lunged for the tiara; Crabbe's curse missed him but hit the stone bust, which flew into the air; the diadem soared upward and then dropped out of sight in the mass of objects on which the bust had rested.

"STOP!" Malfoy shouted at Crabbe, his voice echoing through the enormous room. "The Dark Lord wants Grindelwald alive even if Jakob is-"

"So? I'm not killing him, am I?" yelled Crabbe, throwing off Malfoy's restraining arm. "But if I can, I will, the Dark Lord wants them both dead anyway, what's the diff-?"

A jet of scarlet light shot past Johnny by inches: Hermione had run around the corner behind him and sent a Stunning Spell straight at Crabbe's head. It only missed because Malfoy pulled him out of the way.

"It's that Mudblood! Avada Kedavra!"

Johnny dived and knocked Hermione out of the way, the Killing Curse just missing him, and his fury that Crabbe had aimed to kill his fiancé wiped all else from his mind. Johnny shot his own Killing Curse at Crabbe, who lurched out of the way, knocking Malfoy's wand out of his hand; it rolled out of sight beneath a mountain of broken furniture and bones.

"Don't kill them! DON'T KILL THEM!" Malfoy yelled at Crabbe and Goyle, who were both aiming at Harry and Johnny: Their split second's hesitation was all Harry and Johnny needed.

"Expelliarmus!"

Goyle's wand flew out of his hand and disappeared into the bulwark of objects beside him; Goyle leapt foolishly on the spot, trying to retrieve it; Malfoy jumped out of range of Hermione's second Stunning Spell, and Ron, appearing suddenly at the end of the aisle, shot a full Body-Bind Curse at Crabbe, which narrowly missed.

Crabbe wheeled around and screamed, "Avada Kedavra!" again. Ron leapt out of sight to avoid the jet of green light. The wand-less Malfoy cowered behind a three-legged wardrobe as Hermione charged toward them, hitting Goyle with a Stunning Spell as she came.

"It's somewhere here!" Johnny yelled at her, pointing at the pile of junk into which the old tiara had fallen. "Look for it while I go and help R-"

"JOHNNY!" Hermione screamed.

A roaring, billowing noise behind him gave him a moment's warning. He turned and saw both Ron and Crabbe running as hard as they could up the aisle toward them.

"Like it hot, scum?" roared Crabbe as he ran.

But he seemed to have no control over what he had done. Flames of abnormal size were pursuing them, licking up the sides of the junk bulwarks, which were crumbling to soot at their touch.

"Aguamenti!" Johnny roared, but the jet of water that soared from the tip of his wand evaporated in the air.

"RUN!"

Malfoy grabbed the Stunned Goyle and dragged him along; Crabbe outstripped all of them, now looking terrified; Johnny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione pelted along in his wake, and the fire pursued them. It wasn't normal fire. As they turned a corner the flames chased them as though they were alive, sentient, intent upon killing them. Now the fire was mutating, forming a gigantic pack of fiery beasts: Flaming serpents, chimaeras, and dragons rose and fell and rose again, and the detritus of centuries on which they were feeding was thrown up into the air into their fanged mouths, tossed high on clawed feet, before being consumed by the inferno.

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had vanished from view: Johnny, Harry, Ron and Hermione stopped dead; the fiery monsters were circling them, drawing closer and closer, claws and horns and tails lashed, and the heat was solid as a wall around them.

"What can we do?" Hermione screamed over the deafening roars of the fire. "What can we do?"

"Here!"

Harry seized three heavy-looking broomsticks from the nearest pile of junk and threw one to Johnny, who pulled Hermione onto it behind him. With hard kicks to the ground, they soared up in the air, missing by feet the horned beak of a flaming raptor that snapped its jaws at them. The smoke and heat were becoming overwhelming: Below them the cursed fire was consuming the contraband of generations of hunted students, the guilty outcomes of a thousand banned experiments, the secrets of the countless souls who had sought refuge in the room. Johnny couldn't see a trace of Malfoy, Crabbe, or Goyle anywhere. What a terrible way to die....

"Guys, let's get out, let's get out!" bellowed Ron, though it was impossible to see where the door was through the black smoke.

And then they heard a thin, piteous human scream from amidst the terrible commotion, the thunder of devouring flame.

"It's- too- dangerous-!" Ron yelled, but Harry wheeled in the air.

"I'm getting Hermione out of here!" Johnny yelled, and Ron and Harry nodded and shouted their approval.

"IF WE DIE FOR THEM, I'LL KILL YOU, HARRY!" Hermione and Johnny heard Ron yell as they sped off, looking for the door.

The battle was still going on all around them as Hermione and Johnny landed. He could hear more screams than those of the retreating ghosts.

"Are you okay?" Johnny asked Hermione, cupping her face in his hands. Hermione nodded, her hands over Johnny's as she kissed him quickly. Harry, Malfoy, Ron and Gayle came tumbling out.

"Where's Ginny?" Harry said sharply. "She was here. She was supposed to be going back into the Room of Requirement."

"Blimey, d'you reckon it'll still work after that fire?" asked Ron, but he too got to his feet, rubbing his chest and looking left and right. "Shall we split up and look-?"

"No," said Hermione, her grip on Johnny's hand tightening. Malfoy and Goyle remained slumped hopelessly on the corridor floor; neither of them had wands. "Let's stick together. I say we go- Harry, what's that on your arm?"

"What? Oh yeah-"

Harry pulled the diadem from his wrist and held it up. It was still hot, blackened with soot, but as they looked at it closely they was just able to make out the tiny words etched upon it; WIT BEYOND MEASURE IS MAN'S GREATEST TREASURE.

A bloodlike substance, dark and tarry, seemed to be leaking from the diadem. Suddenly Harry felt the thing vibrate violently, then break apart in his hands, and as it did so, they thought they heard the faintest, most distant scream of pain, echoing not from the grounds or the castle, but from the thing that had just fragmented in his fingers.

"It must have been Fiendfyre!" whimpered Hermione, her eyes on the broken piece.

"Sorry?"

"Fiendfyre- cursed fire- it's one of the substances that destroy Horcruxes, but I would never, ever have dared use it, it's so dangerous- how did Crabbe know how to-?"

"Must've learned from the Carrows," said Harry grimly.

"Shame he wasn't concentrating when they mentioned how to stop it, really," said Ron, whose hair was singed and face was blackened. "If he hadn't tried to kill us all, I'd be quite sorry he was dead."

"But don't you realise?" whispered Hermione. "This means, if we can just get the snake-"

But she broke off as yells and shouts and the unmistakable noises of dueling filled the corridor. Johnny looked around and his heart seemed to fail: Death Eaters had penetrated Hogwarts. Fred and Percy had just backed into view, both of them dueling masked and hooded men.

Johnny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione ran forward to help: Jets of light flew in every direction and the man dueling Percy backed off, fast: Then his hood slipped and they saw a high forehead and streaked hair-

"Hello, Minister!" bellowed Percy, sending a neat jinx straight at Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes, apparently in awful discomfort. "Did I mention I'm resigning?"

"You're joking, Perce!" shouted Fred as the Death Eater he was battling collapsed under the weight of three separate Stunning Spells. Thicknesse had fallen to the ground with tiny spikes erupting all over him; he seemed to be turning into some form of sea urchin. Fred looked at Percy with glee.

"You actually are joking, Perce... I don't think I've heard you joke since you were-"

The air exploded. They had been grouped together, Johnny, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and Percy, the two Death Eaters at their feet, one Stunned, the other Transfigured; and in that fragment of a moment, when danger seemed temporarily at bay, the world was ripped apart, Johnny felt himself flying through the air, and all he could do was hold as tightly as possible to that thin stick of wood that was his one and only weapon, and shield his head in his arms: He heard the screams and yells of his companions without a hope of knowing what had happened to them-

And then the world resolved itself into pain and semidarkness: Johnny was half buried in the wreckage of a corridor that had been subjected to a terrible attack. Cold air told him that the side of the castle had been blown away, and hot stickiness on his cheek told him that he was bleeding copiously. Then he heard two terrible cries that pulled at his insides, that expressed agony of a kind neither flame nor curse could cause, and he stood up, swaying, more frightened than he had been that day, more frightened, perhaps, than he had been in his life....

And Hermione was struggling to her feet in the wreckage, and three redheaded men were grouped on the ground where the wall had blasted apart. Johnny grabbed Hermione's hand as they staggered and stumbled over stone and wood, Harry just sitting up as he groped the ground for his glasses.

"No- no - no!" Fred and Percy were shouting.

"No! Ron! Wake up!" Percy and Fred were shaking their brother, and Ron's eyes stared without seeing, the ghost of his last laugh still etched upon his face.