CHAPTER THIRTEEN:

Third Person Narrative:

Charlie, Hermione, and Ron managed to arrive at the second-floor corridor girl's lavatory with mere moments to spare before the entirety of Hogwarts joined forces in the courtyard; the protection spells being casted were visible through the castle windows.

Leading the way inside, Charlie threw open the door and set the Nimbus 2000 down, Hermione and Ron at his heels. The room looked exactly as it had been the last time they had been there, five years ago. They could hear Moaning Myrtle, the bathroom's ghost, gurgling mournfully in her stall for a moment, then she emerged, her head peaking through the wall, for she'd heard the door close loudly behind them.

"Well, well, well, nice of you three to visit after all these years," she whined, her ghostly figure now hovering above them. "But where's Harry? It's been ever so long since he came to visit me."

"He's otherwise occupied right now, Myrtle," Charlie replied as he approached the sink, staring at the familiar emblem of a snake carved into the tap.

"Oh, but what brings you here?" asked Myrtle, eyeing Charlie up and down flirtatiously. "Have you missed me? Because I've missed you. You've changed so much since I've last saw you... far more handsome."

Hermione shot her a look of pure malice.

"Give it a rest, Myrtle," she said hotly. "It's never going to happen."

The ghostly girl grinned, laughing to herself, then said, "Jealousy is such a deadly disease, isn't it, Granger? Oh well, if it does indeed aim to kill, you are more than welcome to share my toilet."

"Listen Myrtle, we'd love to catch up," said Ron sarcastically, interjecting before Hermione had the chance to retaliate. "But we have more important things to be doing."

Myrtle scoffed, enraged, her entire mood changing within an instant.

"Of course you do. No one ever has time for ugly, miserable, moping, Moaning Myrtle!"

And with that, Myrtle let out a prolonged high-pitched cry of anger as she slowly drifted away. Before she could fully disappear however, Hermione, non-verbally, cast the Langlock Jinx on the poltergeist, gluing her tongue to the roof of her mouth. They heard her start to gag as she went through the wall.

"What? It's just so that she doesn't go and blab about us being here," explained Hermione nonchalantly, as both Charlie and Ron shot her looks of confusion.

"Right," said Charlie, smirking.

Turning his attention back to the sink, he began mumbling to himself, making odd strangled hissing sounds. Ron's expression did not change at the peculiar action, but Hermione's face was blazoned with stress, not really sure what to expect and even less sure that it would work. The last time they'd entered the Chamber of Secrets, she'd been rendered useless after being petrified by the basilisk. So now, all she could do was watch and listen as her boyfriend's voice grew louder and more certain.

As Charlie made a strange combination of hisses and rasping sounds in the back of his throat, there was a grating noise that suddenly issued from the sink. Hermione jumped at the sound, her eyes wide, arms dropping to her side as she watched the tap begin to glow, spinning as the sink slid down, revealing the large open pipe that was the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.

Muffling a laugh at Hermione's reaction, Charlie placed his index finger finger under her chin, closing her mouth, which had fallen open in astonishment. He grinned down at her, interlacing their fingers with his opposite hand and giving hers a squeeze to bring her back to earth.

"See what you miss when you get yourself petrified?"

He was so happy and elated by the successful mimicry of Parseltongue that he found it easy to joke.

"Charlie... that was..." Hermione faltered as she looked up at him, clearly impressed.

Ron chuckled behind them, picking the Nimbus 2000 up off the floor, which is where it had been discarded upon entry to the second-floor bathroom.

"Hermione Granger at a loss for words," he teased, shouldering the broom. "That's got to be a first."

Hermione's cheeks turned a bit pink as she continued to gaze at Charlie in admiration, then, realizing she'd been caught, she brushed a piece of her hair behind her ear and said, "Shut up, Ron."

Hiding his pleased smile, Charlie led the way towards the entrance, climbing into the pipe and glancing back at Hermione as he sat on the edge.

"I'll go first, I'll call back up to you if it's safe," he said firmly, glancing down at the dark depths of the sink.

"But Charlie..."

Hermione was stopped by the look on his face.

"I'll go first," he repeated. "Ron, don't forget the broom."

With one last reassuring look to Hermione, he pushed off the edge and slid down, disappearing from sight. It was just as unpleasant as Charlie remembered. He didn't go as fast this time though, now that he was fully-grown. He was going slow enough that he didn't quite shoot out of the end like last time, but it was with an uncomfortable thump that he landed on the damp stone below. The floor, he saw, was still littered with half-decayed animals. He glanced around and saw nothing of immediate danger.

Scrambling to his feet, Charlie lit his wand quickly,  illuminating his surroundings, and stood at the end of dirty and slimy pipe, waiting patiently.

"Okay! You can come down!" he called, and he settled into a comfortable position to catch his girlfriend, bracing himself for impact. Soon, Hermione flew out of the pipe and into Charlie's waiting arms, knocking him backward until they toppled over one another.

"Sorry, my love —" Hermione began, but was quickly cut off as Ron came shooting down the pipe, landing on top of both of them before they'd even had the chance to stand. Charlie's body was crushed against the stone floor, and he grunted in pain as Ron accidentally kicked him in the groin.

"Oh shit, sorry!"

"Get — off — me!"

Pushing himself up off the ground, Ron deposited the broom near the pipe's entrance as Hermione climbed off of Charlie and reached down to help him up. Slightly winded, he staggered as he stood, brushing the dirt from his knees.

"You couldn't have waited ten seconds?" he asked Ron, clutching at his bruised ribs, as he raised an accusing eyebrow in the ginger's direction.

Ron frowned, "I'm sorry!"

"It's fine," Charlie raised his wand, noticing that they had returned to the place where Gildory Lockhart's Memory Charm had backfired. He quickly found the gap in the rocks that Ron had excavated to let him, Harry, and Ginny back through. "Come on," he said, nodding towards it. "Through there."

All three of them kept their wands out, Charlie's illuminating the way, as they proceeded down the dark corridor, listening to the sound of their footsteps echoing against the stone walls. Buried underneath the rocks, Charlie knew, was the crumbling remains of translucent skin suspended in the form of a large snake. They pressed on nevertheless; the light of Charlie's wand casted strange shadows against the walls, playing tricks on their tired eyes.

As they turned a corner, Charlie heard a sharp intake of breath. Instinctively, he glanced behind him at Hermione and noticed the paleness of her face in the glow of his wand, the light reflected in her wide eyes. There was a hauntingly familiar image that suddenly flashed through his mind — it was of Hermione's face as he was tortured in front of her at Malfoy Manor — and he instantly reached out for her, holding her hand in his.

"There's nothing down here anymore, you know," he told her. "We're safe in these tunnels."

"I know," said Hermione quickly, her voice a little too high. "I — I just —"

"It's not as scary as it looks," reassured Ron. "It's actually sort of cool once you get passed the fact that a giant snake used to slither about down here."

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Thanks for that comforting piece of information, Ronald," she whispered sarcastically. "That makes me feel loads better."

"I said used to!" said Ron, shrugging. "Past tense!"

"It doesn't matter," Charlie dismissed. "Let's just keep moving, yeah?"

Without another word, Charlie interlaced his fingers through Hermione's as they walked onwards. Every few moments, he'd throw a glance back over his shoulder to make sure she was okay. Hermione felt a warmth tingling in her palm under her boyfriend's fingertips, spreading up her arm, and eventually her whole body seemed to relax with his touch.

After walking for a bit, they'd finally arrived at the infamous wall carved with two entwined serpents. They halted before it, and both Ron and Hermione looked at Charlie expectedly. Clearing his throat, Charlie focused solely on the emerald glint in the eyes of the serpents and repeated the same strangled hissing sounds he'd been making earlier. The wall immediately split into two halves, sliding open in front of them to reveal the room beyond.

Emboldened, Charlie trudged on into the high-ceiling Chamber of Secrets, the other two following quickly behind him. With a shiver of uneasiness, they surveyed the room as though waiting for the basilisk to strike at any moment, albeit they knew it'd been killed many years ago. The same stone serpents as before were twisted around each other on either side of the chamber, lining the walls until they faded into the body of the giant statue of Salazar Slytherin, which still remained untouched at the heart of the room.

As they walked further inside, Hermione's hand tightened around Charlie's at the sight of the dead basilisk lying on the ground before them. The carcass rested where it had fallen after Charlie had run it through with Gryffindor's sword. The damp, cool air in the cavern had done much to slow the process of decay. Rather than the bones they had been expecting, they instead saw a sunken, shriveled memory of what the great beast had been.

The ghastly sight jolted Ron out of his silence.

"Lovely," he grunted, unnerved. "Let's just grab the fangs and get out of here, yeah? This place gives me the creeps."

"I'll second that," Hermione replied in a voice that was made small by the vastness of her surroundings. The three of them hurried to the head of the basilisk.

The creature's mouth was agape, revealing a row of yellow, sharp teeth; they seemed to be the only things that weren't rotting. Charlie reached down and picked up one that was discarded a few yards away from the mouth. With a jolt of surprise, he realized it must've been the one that pierced his arm when he twelve. He tucked the fang into his pocket, along with his wand, and moved to pull a few more from the basilisk's decayed skull.

"Be careful, Charlie," Hermione warned.

"Yeah," muttered Ron, "I don't fancy another near death experience like the one in second-year, okay?"

"Neither do I," said Charlie quietly, and he gripped one of the curved, yellowed fangs, preparing to give it a massive jerk. Surprisingly, the fang pulled free of the skull quite easily, loosened from the years of decay. Startled by how easily the it had come free, however, Charlie lost his footing and staggered backwards.

"Easy Charlie, easy!"

Within an instant, Ron had leapt forward and caught his best friend before Charlie could fall and possibly re-puncture himself with the fatal basilisk fang. With Ron's help, Charlie quickly righted himself and held his balance, flashing a polite smile in consideration.

"Sorry, I wasn't prepared for that," Charlie moved back to the skull and pulled more of the fangs free. "I think this ought to be enough, don't you?"

"I think that's more than enough," said Hermione, rummaging in her little beaded bag for the cup of Helga Hufflepuff. "But we should probably destroy Hufflepuff's Cup now. There's no telling what we'll walk into when we go back up to the surface."

Ron nodded, "Good idea."

When Hermione pulled the Horcrux out from the depths of her beaded bag, Ron took ahold of it and sat it on the floor a few feet from the basilisk's skull. Fumbling with the fangs in his hands, Charlie dropped all but one into the beaded bag. He then stretched his hand out and offered the remaining fang to Hermione.

"What?" she questioned, startled, as she glanced between the basilisk fang and Charlie's eyes. "I think one of you should do it."

"No, I think it should be you," said Charlie happily. "Ron's already had the pleasure of destroying one, and now I think it should be your turn."

Hermione furrowed her brows.

"What about you?"

"I'll get another chance, I'm sure. There's still a few Horcruxes left, remember?" Charlie laughed, forcing the decayed object into her hand. "Go on, Hermione. This'll be something to tell our kids someday."

Determined by this depiction of her future, Hermione set down the beaded bag at once. With her eyes locked on Charlie's, she flashed him a small smile before taking the basilisk fang into her hands. Her gaze now fixated upon the Horcrux, she bit her lip.

"You okay?" Ron asked, misreading her expression.

"Hold it steady," she commanded, her eyes full of ferocious determination.

"Listen," warned Ron. "It's not going to be easy to destroy this thing, okay? Before I destroyed the locket, it tried to... persuade me. It'll show you what you fear most and play on your insecurities."

Hermione blinked.

"Is that meant to be reassuring...?"

"I'm just telling you to be prepared," said Ron anxiously.

"You've got this, Hermione," reassured Charlie, kneeling down next to Ron, as he reached for the other handle of the Horcrux. "Don't listen to anything it says to you, or believe anything it shows you. It'll fight back, but all you've got to do is stab it, okay?"

"Okay," whispered Hermione, her tone somewhat terrified. Fang still held aloft, she took a deep breath. Then, with her eyes closed, she lifted the basilisk fang directly above Hufflepuff's Cup.

As Hermione was about to plunge the fang down into its centre, however, the Horcrux suddenly reacted as though it'd sensed an incoming threat. Hufflepuff's Cup thrashed violently under Charlie and Ron's hands momentarily. Then, once the soul fragment inside finally realized it couldn't forcefully escape, the cup began filling itself with endless amounts of water, rapidly overflowing. Hermione was instantly brought back to her senses, but as she brought her hand down, there was a blast of water so strong that all three of the Gryffindors were thrown backwards.

Charlie landed on his back some thirty feet away. Coughing up the excess water that flooded his windpipe, he managed to pull himself into a sitting position just in time to see a hazy cloud of light being issued from the cup, swirling around the object and expanding until it began to form into distinct images.

"I have seen your heart, Hermione Granger, and it is mine."

To his horror, Charlie looked up to see Hermione standing in front of the Salazar Slytherin statue, frozen, as figures of her parents materialized in the air above the Horcrux. Her eyes filled with unshed tears at the sight of them, their weirdly distorted heads looking down upon her disappointedly. Similar to the Slytherin locket, Hufflepuff's Cup oozed with the essence of Voldemort's soul, reimagining harsh figures of its attacker's loved ones.

"Hermione, don't liste—"

But any attempt either Charlie or Ron made to voice their frustrations was drowned out as floods of water came crashing down upon them, pinning them down to the stone floor. Waves of water kept receding only to then suffocate them once more, giving them a few seconds to gasp for air and close their mouths before the next wave came.

"Stab it, Hermio—" Ron tried to shout.

But Hermione was too transfixed, tears trickling down her face, as the Riddle version of Mr. Granger shook his head, then said, "We are so disappointed in you, Hermione."

"D-Dad...?"

"How could you do this to us?" cried the image of her mother, "We trusted you. Now we'll never see you again..."

"Mum, y-you can't —"

"It's okay, dear, we're better off without her," crooned the Riddle version of her father. "Aren't we much happier?"

"Much happier indeed!" sneered the Riddle version of Monica Granger, clapping her hands together excitedly. "We were finally given the chance to rid ourselves of our sorry excuse for a daughter."

"Wish I could say the same," came the familiar voice of the Riddle-Charlie, whose distorted body emerged from the Horcrux, as the other two figures jeered. "I'm stuck with the filthy little Mudblood unfortunately. It's a shame, isn't it? I could've had any girl I've ever wanted, but you just kept getting in the way..."

"Hermio—" Charlie began in a pleading voice, but more water quickly flooded his mouth, his eyes alarmed by the distant shapes forming in the hazy cloud of smoke.

Loud screams echoed around the Chamber of Secrets, filling the air, and Hermione flinched upon realization of the recurring word that was being shouted — Mudblood. The word got louder and louder, starting to sound like people she knew, and the shadows briefly transformed into them too. Hermione panicked as she sunk back to the floor, defeatedly crying into her hands, until suddenly the cloud reimagined into her father once more. The Riddle version of Wendell Granger reached out and caressed her face, holding her chin and looking at her judgingly. Hermione suddenly felt very exposed.

"What the hell has happened to you?" he asked, and his vivid scarlet eyes gleamed in the darkness. "You're a failure, Hermione. You've lost everything."

"It's — not — real — !" Ron managed to shout, but Hermione couldn't move, her body eerily still as if she'd been petrified by the basilisk all over again.

"Oh, Hermione," sneered the Riddle version of Mr. Granger disapprovingly. "You really have lost your touch, haven't you? You used to be so smart, now you're blinded by something as common as love..."

Hermione swallowed, not daring to look at Charlie.

"You've fallen for a lie."

Hermione shook her head, biting her lip to stop the tears from pouring from her eyes.

"He doesn't love you."

"Don't listen to it, Hermione! I love yo—" shouted Charlie from a distance, his voice gargling from the waves of water crashing down upon him.

Ron spluttered, "STAB — IT — !"

"I could never love you," spat the Riddle-Charlie in contradiction. "I'll never be happy as long as I'm with you... filthy little Mudblood... you're nothing to me..."

"You're l-lying," Hermione's voice broke, the basilisk fang trembling in her hands. Charlie watched, feeling helpless, as more tears leaked from his girlfriend's eyes and slowly slid down her cheeks.

"How can you be so sure?" challenged the Riddle-Charlie. "Why would someone like me ever settle for someone like you? I don't want you... your own parents don't even want you..."

"S-Stop!"

"And why should I?" The Riddle-Charlie cackled. "Are you going to Oblivate me next? Please, by all means, you'd be doing me a favo—"

"I said STOP!"

And as the sound of her profound voice ricocheted off the walls, Hermione closed her eyes, raised the basilisk fang, and plunged it straight down into the depths of the Horcrux, cracking it in half. At the same moment, there was a horrible scream which echoed through the Chamber, just like the locket. The cup splashed into the puddles of water surrounding it, sizzling as it made contact. Then, with a shudder of horror, it suspended itself into the air and exploded into millions of tiny pieces.

The force of the waves subsided once the Horcrux was destroyed, enabling Charlie and Ron's freedom from the water that persistently threatened to drown them. Charlie continued to cough up water as he staggered to his feet, his heavily soaked clothes weighing him down.

"Hermione..." he whispered, his voice cracking on the word. Hermione was still standing in front of the Slytherin statue, only this time she took a victorious stance, clutching the basilisk fang tight in one hand.

At the sound of her boyfriend's voice, she turned around, her face blazoned with traumatizing shock. Before she could move, however, one final wave of water poured out from the eyes of the giant Slytherin statue, soaking them entirely, and washed away any remnants left behind by the Horcrux. Stunned into silence, Hermione finally locked eyes with Charlie as droplets of water ran down their shivering bodies.

He cleared his throat, unsure of what how to begin.

"Are you okay — ?"

There was a clatter in response as the basilisk fang cascaded out of Hermione's hand and onto the floor. Running at Charlie, she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him so passionately that he was almost knocked off-balance. Instinctively, Charlie pulled her closer and responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Hermione off her feet.

(A/N: loll relax, it's Charmione I swear...)

"W-What'd you do that for?" he asked as they reluctantly broke the kiss after several fleeting moments.

"Because no one, not even some cruel version of my own subconscious, is ever going to make me doubt the way I feel about you," she whispered, playing with the hairs on the back of his neck. "And if we're about to die, then the only thing I want to do is remind you of how much I love you. Because I do... I really do."

"I love you, too... so much," Charlie cupped her cheeks, claiming her lips again. "I'll happily say it over and over again — I love you, I love you, I love you..."

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

Charlie and Hermione broke apart at last, their arms still wrapped around one another.

"I know, mate," muttered Charlie, who looked as though he'd recently been hit on the back of the head with a Bludger, "so let me snog my girlfriend, all right?"

"Can we just go back up to the surface?" asked Ron, sighing. "I'd rather not watch you two go at it like a bunch of horny rabbits while everyone else is fighting for their lives."

"Yeah — right — sorry —" said Charlie quickly, and he and Hermione set about gathering their things, both pink in the face.

The sound of silence echoed around their now peaceful surroundings, and the three Gryffindors shared a final glance between one another. Euphoric at their success, they made their way back out of the Chamber of Secrets and followed the tunnel back towards the pipe. One by one, they mounted the Nimbus 2000; Charlie couldn't help but grin as Hermione's arms wrapped tightly around his waist.

"Hurry up, will you?" asked Ron, struggling to balance on the tail-end of the broom. "The quicker we get out of this place, the better."

"Hold on tight," Charlie whispered to Hermione, reassuring her over her well-known fear of heights.

And when she nodded against his back, Charlie flew upwards and steered them up through the pipe, with his infamous Chaser's flight pace, before emerging into the girls' bathroom once again. They landed on the stone tile and Hermione reluctantly released her hold on him, clutching her beaded bag in her arms as they all dismounted. Moaning Myrtle was floating nearby, still struggling to form words under Hermione's Langlock Jinx.

"Nice seeing you, Myrtle!" Charlie shouted as he, Ron, and Hermione stalked right past her and out into the second-floor corridor. It didn't take long to realize that the castle had since erupted into deafening explosions and bloodcurdling screams. There were flashes of spells flying past the windows, painting the sky into a widespread of different colours.

"That doesn't sound good," said Ron anxiously, gulping, as they listened to the chaos eliciting from the floors below them.

"We've got to find Harry," commanded Charlie, and he led the way down the corridor towards the Entrance Hall. He checked his watch; it was five minutes to midnight, and though they'd destroyed another Horcrux, they had yet to find the last one...

We're too late.

Reaching the first floor at last, Charlie turned a corner, but he had taken only a few steps down the new corridor when the window to his left broke open with a deafening, shattering crash. As he, Ron, and Hermione leapt aside, a gigantic body flew in through the window and hit the opposite wall. Two large and furry animals came hurrying in through the new opening, whimpering, and one of them instantly flung itself at Charlie.

"Hagrid!" Charlie bellowed, welcoming the affections of his fully-grown canine, Ludo, as the enormous bearded figure clambered to his feet. "What the — ?"

"Char, yer here! Yer here! Hermione an' Ron, too!"

Hagrid stooped down, bestowed upon all three of the Gryffindors a cursory and rib-cracking hug, then ran back to the shattered window, his boarhound, Fang, at his gigantic heels.

"Good boy, Grawpy!" he bellowed through the hole in the window. "I'll see yer in a moment, there's a good lad!"

Beyond Hagrid, out in the dark night, Charlie saw bursts of light in the sky, as the shield which guarded the castle took a huge blow of green, while tiny blue dots caused ripples on its surface.

"Blimey, Char," panted Hagrid, "this is it, eh? Time ter fight?"

"Hagrid, where'd you come from?"

"Heard You-Know-Who from up in our cave," said Hagrid grimly. "Voice carried, didn' it? 'Yeh got till midnight ter gimme Potter.' Knew yeh mus' be here, knew what mus' be happenin'. So we came ter join — me, Grawpy, Fang, an' Ludo. Smashed our way through the boundary by the forest, Grawpy was carryin' us. Told him ter let me down at the castle, so he shoved me through the window, bless him. Not exac'ly what I meant, bu' — where's Harry?"

"That is a really good question," muttered Charlie. "Come on, let's go this way."

The four of them hurried together along the corridor, Fang and Ludo lolloping beside them. Charlie could hear movement from the corridors all around; fleeing footsteps and startled screams. Through the window, he watched in horror as the shield collapsed, and the forms of Death Eaters began swarming into the grounds, flashes of light illuminating the dark grounds.

"Where're we goin'?" puffed Hagrid, pounding along at Charlie's heels, making the floorboards quake.

"We've got to find Harry," said Hermione, following as they made another random turn. "He's got to be around here somewhere..."

The first casualties of the battle were already strewn across the passage ahead. The two stone gargoyles that usually guarded the entrance to the staffroom had been smashed apart by a jinx that had sailed through another broken window. Their remains stirred feebly on the floor, and as Charlie leapt over one of their disembodied heads, it moaned faintly, "Oh, don't mind me... I'll just lie here and crumble..."

Its ugly stone face made Charlie think suddenly of the marble bust of Rowena Ravenclaw at Xenophilius's house, wearing that mad headdress. Then, pulled from his thoughts by Professor Sporut, who was thundering past with Neville and half a dozen others, Charlie raised a curious brow as he noticed all of them wearing earmuffs and carrying what appeared to be large potted plants.

"Mandrakes!" Neville bellowed at Charlie over his shoulder as he ran. "Going to lob them over the walls — they won't like this!"

With a shrug, Charlie sped off alongside Hermione and Ron, with Hagrid, Ludo, and Fang galloping behind them. They searched corridor after corridor, passing portrait after portrait, while the painted figures raced beside them, screaming news from other parts of the castle. As they reached the end of the sixth-floor corridor, the whole castle shook, and Charlie knew, as a gigantic vase blew off its plinth with explosive force, that it was in the grip of enchantments more sinister than those of the teachers and the Order.

"It's all righ', Fang — it's all righ'!" yelled Hagrid, but the great boarhound had taken flight as slivers of china flew like shrapnel through the air, and Hagrid and Ludo pounded off after the terrified dog, leaving Charlie, Hermione, and Ron alone.

They forged on through the trembling passages nonetheless, their wands at the ready, and for the length of one corridor the little painted knight, Sir Cadogan, rushed from painting to painting alongside them, clanking along in his armour, screaming encouragement, his fat little pony cantering behind him.

"Braggarts and rogues, dogs and scoundrels! Drive them out, Undesirables, see them off!"

Charlie hurtled around a corner and found Fred and a small knot of students, including Lee Jordan and Hannah Abbott, standing beside another empty plinth, whose statue had concealed a secret passageway. Their wands were drawn and they were listening at the concealed hole.

"Nice night for it!" Fred shouted as the castle quaked again, and Charlie sprinted by, elated and terrified in equal measure. Along yet another corridor he, Ron, and Hermione dashed, and then there were owls everywhere, and Mrs. Norris was hissing and trying to bat them with her paws.

"Charles!" Aberforth Dumbledore stood blocking the corridor ahead, his wand held at the ready. "I've had hundreds of kids thundering through my pub, Charles!"

"I know, everyone's evacuating," explained Charlie quickly, "Voldemort's —"

"— attacking because you haven't handed Potter over, yeah," said Aberforth gruffly. "I'm not deaf, the whole of Hogsmeade heard him. Did it never occur to any of you to keep a few Slytherins hostage? There are kids of Death Eaters that you've just sent to safety! Don't you think it would've been a bit smarter to keep 'em here?"

"It wouldn't stop Voldemort," said Charlie logically, "and your brother would never have done it."

Aberforth grunted and tore away in the opposite direction. Emboldened by Dumbledore's legacy, Charlie led Ron and Hermione onwards, reaching the seventh-floor corridor at last. Once they skidded around the final corner, they saw, with a breath of mingled relief and exhaustion, Harry Potter barrelling towards them from the opposite end of the corridor.

"Where the hell have you been?" he shouted, flinging his arms around all three of them. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"

"Chamber of Secrets," said Ron breathlessly.

"Chamber of — what?" questioned Harry, pulling back, as he glanced between each of them with a look of utter confusion.

"It was Ron's idea!" exclaimed Hermione. "After you left, the three of us got to talking about what our next move was. Even if you did find the last Horcrux, we still hadn't found a way to destroy it. We still hadn't got rid of the cup! And then Ron remembered the basilisk!"

Harry blinked, "What the — ?"

"Something to get rid of the Horcruxes," echoed Charlie, nodding downwards. Harry's eyes dropped towards Hermione's beaded bag, which had now been opened, and he noticed the great curved fangs that were torn from the skull of the dead basilisk.

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

"He did!" said Hermione excitedly. "Charlie managed to mimic your voice perfectly. It worked, Harry!"

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

"So we're another Horcrux down," beamed Charlie. "Hermione stabbed the cup with one of the fangs, and it exploded into pieces. You should've seen it!"

"Brilliant!" yelled Harry, hugging them again. "I bloody love you — all three of you."

"It was nothing," said Charlie, though he looked delighted with himself. "So what happened to you and Luna? Have you found the last Horcrux — ?"

As he said it, there was an explosion from overhead. All four 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 hid Snape's Potions book, where everyone's been hiding stuff for centuries. He thought he was the only one to find it! Come on, quickly!"

As the walls trembled again, Charlie grabbed Hermione's free hand and followed Harry as he led them back through the concealed entrance and down the staircase into the Room of Requirement. It was empty except for five women; Elaina, Ginny, Luna, Tonks, and an elderly witch wearing a moth-eaten hat, whom Charlie recognized immediately as Neville's grandmother.

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

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

"As far as we know," answered Harry, crossing them room to place a reassuring kiss to his girlfriend's forehead. "Are there still people in the passage to the Hog's Head?"

He knew that the room would not 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 that Aberforth has left his pub. Have you seen my grandson?"

"He's fighting," Charlie told her, smiling softly.

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

With surprising speed, she trotted off toward the stone steps. Then, with his brow raised, Charlie turned his attentions towards Tonks.

"I thought you were supposed to be with Teddy at your mother's?"

"I couldn't stand not knowing what was going on," Tonks looked anguished. "Teddy's safe with my mum — have you seen Remus?"

"He was planning to lead a group of fighters to the ramparts, I think —"

Without another word, Tonks sped off.

"Elaina," called Harry, "I'm terribly sorry, darling, but we need you to leave too... and you as well, Ginny and Luna. We won't be long, then you can come back in."

Ginny looked simply delighted to leave her sanctuary, while Harry reluctantly let Elaina leave his grip. With one last kiss, she'd disappeared up the Room of Requirement's steps alongside Ginny and Luna.

"Hang on a moment!" said Ron sharply. "We've forgotten someone!"

"Who?" asked Hermione, intrigued.

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

"You mean we ought to get them fighting?" questioned Charlie, raising a brow. "They were helping people Disapparate."

"No," said Ron seriously, "I mean we should tell them to get out. We don't want any more Dobbies, do we? We can't order them to die for us —"

"Ron, that's..." Hermione started, apparently lost for words. Charlie and Harry were also shocked to witness Ron finally shed some of his prejudices. It had taken a war for him to do it, but they were proud of him regardless.

"You're right," Hermione finally managed to agree. "But what about the Horcrux?"

"D'you think we could wait until we've got the diadem?" Harry asked, looking to Ron for approval.

He nodded, "Yeah, I suppose."

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. Through the nearest window, Charlie saw bursts of green and red light so close to the foot of the castle that he knew the Death Eaters must be very near to entering the place. Looking down, Charlie saw Grawp 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," muttered Ron as more screams echoed from the passerby.

As they watched the chaos unfold, Hermione remained by Charlie's side, never allowing the narrow space between them to widen; it was clear she was as reluctant as he was to lose sight of each other. On their left, Charlie saw Elaina and Tonks, both with their wands drawn at the next window, which was missing several panes. Elaina sent a well-aimed jinx into a crowd of fighters below.

"Good girl!" roared a figure running through the dust toward them, and Charlie 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 giants of their own."

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

"He was dueling Dolohov," shouted Aberforth, "haven't seen him since!"

"Tonks," whispered Elaina, "I'm sure he's okay —"

But Tonks had already ran off into the dust after Aberforth. Elaina turned, helpless, to Charlie, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Her hands were trembling in fear for her loved ones.

"They'll be all right," said Harry, though he knew they were empty words. "Love, we'll be back in a moment, just be careful out here — come on!" he said to Charlie, 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.

On their third run past, the door materialized under Harry's internal command. The furor of the battle died the moment they crossed the threshold and closed the door behind them. Suddenly, everything was eerily 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.

"So Voldemort never realized anyone could get in?" asked Charlie, his voice echoing in the silence.

"He thought he was the only one," whispered 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; Charlie could hear the others' footsteps echoing through the towering piles of junk, of bottles, hats, crates, chairs, books, weapons, broomsticks, bats, and endless stacks of useless items...

"It's somewhere near here," Harry was muttering to himself in the distance. "Somewhere... somewhere..."

Deeper and deeper into the labyrinth Charlie went, looking for any sign of Ravenclaw's infamous diadem. His breath was loud in his ears, sending chills down his spine. Then, as he turned a sharp corner, his eyes widened as they landed upon a blistered old cupboard, and on top of it, there was a pockmarked stone warlock wearing a dusty old wig and what looked like an ancient, discoloured tiara.

Charlie had already stretched out his hand, though he remained several feet away, when a voice behind him said, "Hold it, Hawthorne."

He skidded to a halt and turned around, drawing his cypress wand. Crabbe, Goyle, and Zabini were standing behind him, shoulder to shoulder, their wands pointed in the Gryffindor's direction. Through the small space between their jeering faces, however, Charlie also saw the pale face of Draco Malfoy.

"Gone off on your own, have you?" said Malfoy, pointing his own wand through the gap between Crabbe and Goyle. "Guess you'll just have to be the one to tell Potter that I'd like my wand back, then."

"Can't do that," panted Charlie, tightening his grip on his wand. "It belongs to Harry now, I'm afraid. What's wrong with the one you've got?"

"It's my mother's," sneered Malfoy. "It's very powerful, but it's not the same. It doesn't... understand me."

Charlie laughed, though there was nothing very humorous about the situation. He could not hear Harry, Ron, or Hermione anymore. They seemed to have run out of earshot, searching for the diadem.

"So how come you four aren't with Voldemort?" asked Charlie, attempting to buy himself some time.

"We're gonna be rewarded," muttered Crabbe. His voice was surprisingly soft for such an enormous person; Charlie had hardly ever heard him speak in his years at Hogwarts. Crabbe was smiling like a small child promised a large bag of sweets. "We 'ung back, 'Awthorne. We decided not to go. We're gonna bring you an' Potter to 'im instead."

"Good plan," said Charlie in mock admiration. He could not believe that he was this close, and was going to be thwarted by Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Zabini. Slowly, he began edging back towards where the Horcrux sat lopsided upon the bust. If he could just get his hands on it before the fight broke out...

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

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

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

"Why didn't you tell her, Malfoy?" Charlie asked quickly, ignoring Crabbe's question and thinking fast.

"What?" snarled Malfoy, though his expression betrayed him.

"Bellatrix, back at your place — you knew it was us, but you didn't say anything. I'm curious as to why."

Malfoy stuttered.

"What's he talking about?" growled Goyle, but just then, Harry's voice echoed from the other side of the wall to Charlie's right.

"Charlie? What's going on? Have you found it?"

"It's Potter!"

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 Harry stood. Charlie heard innumerable objects crashing to the floor on the other side of the destabilized 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 the Dark Lord wants, who cares about a die-dum?"

"They came in here to get it," reminded 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 orders from you no more, Draco. You an' your dad are finished."

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

"Charlie?" mimicked Crabbe, laughing. "Almost forgot what that scum sound like — no, Hawthorne! Crucio!"

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

"Harry!" Charlie shouted. "It's here! I've found the diadem! Quick, I need your help — !"

"NO! STOP HIM! CRUCIO! CRUCIO!"

"STOP!" Malfoy shouted at Crabbe, his voice echoing through the enormous room as Charlie dodged the Unforgivable Curses with astonishing skill. "We have orders to keep him and Potter alive —"

"So? I'm not killing 'im, am I?" yelled Crabbe, throwing off Malfoy's restraining arm. "But if I can, I will! His own father wants 'im dead anyway, so what's the difference — ?"

There was a sudden scarlet light that shot past Charlie by mere 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!"

Charlie's heart dropped to the floor. He saw Hermione dive aside, and his fury that Crabbe had aimed to kill his girlfriend wiped all else from his mind. Outraged, he shot a Blasting 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 that exploded in the crossfire.

"Don't kill him! DON'T KILL HIM!" Malfoy yelled at his Slytherin colleagues, who were now all aiming their wands at the Gryffindor in question. Their split second's hesitation was all Charlie needed.

"Expelliarmus!"

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

Crabbe wheeled around and screamed, "Avada Kedavra!" again, but Harry and Ron leapt out of sight to avoid the jet of green light. The wandless Malfoy cowered behind a three-legged wardrobe as Hermione charged toward them, hitting Goyle with a Stunning Spell as she ran. However, as another jet of green light was casted by Crabbe, Charlie quickly leapt over a pile of miscellaneous junk and dragged Hermione into his arms as they dived for cover, missing the Killing Curse by mere inches.

"I'll kill that son of a bitch," Charlie cursed under his breath, and he hurled another Blasting Curse over the wardrobe where he'd taken refuge. His hands shaking with rage, he turned to Hermione, surveyed her potential wounds, and asked, "Alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said breathlessly, and more spells that were misfired in their direction sent random objects cascading down from the ceiling. "Where's the diadem?"

"It's somewhere in there!" Charlie told her, pointing at the pile of junk into which the old tiara had fallen. "Look for it while I go and help —"

"CHARLIE!" she screamed abruptly.

The roaring, billowing noise behind him gave him a moment's warning. Looking over the wardrobe, Charlie saw Harry, Ron, and Crabbe running as hard as they could up the aisle toward them.

"CRABBE'S SET THE BLOODY PLACE ON FIRE!"

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

The young Slytherin, however, seemed to have no control over what he'd done. Flames of abnormal size were pursuing them, climbing up the sides of the junk bulwarks, which were crumbling to soot at their touch.

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

"It's no use!" shouted Harry. "RUN!"

Malfoy and Zabini grabbed the Stunned Goyle and dragged him along, while Crabbe outstripped all of them, looking terrified. Charlie, Harry, Ron, and Hermione pelted along in his wake, and the fire pursued them rapidly. It was not a normal fire; Crabbe had used an incantation which Charlie had vaguely known as Fiendfyre, or cursed fire. As they turned a corner, the flames chased them as though they were alive, sentient, intent upon killing them.

Then, with a horrendous roar, the fire began mutilating, forming into a 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 in the air into their fanged mouths, tossed high on clawed feet, before being consumed by the inferno.

Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Zabini had vanished from view. With Harry, Ron, and Hermione just ahead of him, Charlie slashed his wand down behind his back, sending piles of furniture cascading down behind them. For a split-second, he thought it had worked; the flames seemed to have been halted. But then there was a scream and a bird-like creature of fire slammed through, raining smouldering debris everywhere. The fiery monsters began to circle them, drawing closer and closer, claws and horns and tails lashed, and the heat was solid as a wall around them.

The four Gryffindors stopped dead, out of breath.

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

"Protego!" shouted Charlie in desperation, and his Shield Charm managed to stop the flames in their path for a moment. The force of it, however, sent Ron flying back into a set of heavy-looking broomsticks.

"Here!" he yelled quickly, scrambling back to his feet as the fiery beasts pounded against the shielded wall.

"Ron, that's genius!"

Without missing a beat, Harry seized one of the brooms from the nearest pile of junk and threw one to Charlie. Having understood, Charlie swung his leg over the second broom and pulled Hermione onto it behind him, while Harry and Ron did the same with brooms of their own. With hard kicks to the ground, they soared up in the air, nearly avoiding the horned beak of a flaming raptor that broke through the Shield Charm and snapped its jaws at them. Hermione's hands wrapped tightly around Charlie's waist as the smoke and heat became overwhelming the further they ascended towards the ceiling.

Below them, the cursed fire was consuming the contraband of generations of hunted students, the guilty outcomes of a thousand banned experiments, and the secrets of the countless souls who had sought refuge in the room. Charlie could not see any trace of Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, or Zabini anywhere. He swooped as low as he dared over the marauding monsters of flame to try to find them, but all he could see was the depths of never-ending fire.

What a terrible way to die...

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

Then, over the thunderous roars of the flame, Charlie heard a thin, piteous human scream from amidst the terrible commotion, the rumble of devouring fire.

"We can't leave them!" he shouted, glancing through the opaque clouds of black smoke at Harry and Ron.

"You're joking, right?" yelled Ron angrily, dumbfounded. "Those bastards just tried to kill us!"

"If we leave them," Harry coughed, "we're no better than they are."

"It's — too — dangerous — !" Ron shouted, but Charlie had already wheeled in the air. His eyes watering from the smoke, he raked the firestorm below, seeking a sign of life, a limb or a face that was not yet charred or singed.

Then, with a breath of utter relief, he saw them. Malfoy and Zabini had their arms around the unconscious Goyle, the three of them perched on a fragile tower of charred desks. Consciously unaware of Hermione's arms tightening around him, Charlie dived. Malfoy saw him coming and raised one arm, but even as Charlie grasped it, he knew at once that it was no good; Goyle was too heavy and Malfoy's hand, covered in sweat, slid instantly out of Charlie's —

"IF WE DIE FOR THEM, CHARLIE, I'LL KILL YOU!" roared Ron's voice, and, as a great flaming chimaera bore down upon them, he and Harry managed to drag Goyle and Zabini onto their brooms and rose, rolling and pitching, into the air once more. Charlie circled back down and, with a huge effort, grabbed the top of Malfoy's robes. With help from Hermione, they hauled the blonde-haired Slytherin upwards until he flopped over the very end of the broom.

"The door, get to the door, the door!" screamed Malfoy, and Charlie sped up, following Harry, Ron, Zabini, and Goyle through the billowing black smoke, hardly able to breathe. Below them, the last few objects unburned by the devouring flames were flung into the air, as the creatures of the cursed fire cast them high in celebration: cups and shields, a sparkling necklace, and an old, discolored tiara —

"Charlie! The diadem!" Hermione yelled in his ear.

"What are you doing? What are you doing? The door's that way!" screamed Malfoy, but Charlie made a hairpin swerve and dived. The diadem seemed to fall in slow motion, turning and glittering as it dropped toward the throat of a yawning serpent, and then he had it, caught around his wrist.

Charlie swerved again as one of the fiery serpents below lunged at him; he soared upward and straight toward the place where, he prayed, the door stood open. Harry, Ron, Zabini and Goyle had vanished ahead of them; Malfoy was screaming in fear. Then, through the smoke, Charlie saw a rectangular patch on the wall and steered the broom at it, and moments later clean air filled his lungs.

Malfoy fell from the broom and lay facedown, coughing, gasping, and retching. Charlie slowed up, Hermione hanging on for dear life as her boyfriend managed to avoid smashing into the far wall. They clambered down, entangled together, and rejoiced once their feet reached the solid ground. Behind them, the door to the Room of Requirement had vanished, and Harry and Ron sat panting on the floor beside Zabini and Goyle, who was still unconscious.

"C-Crabbe," choked Malfoy as soon as he could speak. "C-Crabbe..."

"He's dead," said Ron harshly.

There was silence, apart from panting and coughing. Then a number of huge bangs shook the castle, and a great cavalcade of transparent figures galloped past on horses, their heads screaming with bloodlust under their arms. Charlie looked around when the Headless Hunt had passed; the battle was still going on around them. He could hear more screams from the courtyard than those of the retreating ghosts. Panic flared within him, but neither he nor Hermione yet moved to disentangle themselves.

"Where's Elaina?" asked Harry worriedly, standing on alert. "This is where we left her, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, but her and Ginny are both gone," said Ron sharply. "Mum's going to absolutely lose it! Ginny was supposed to go back into the Room of Requirement."

"I don't know if it will still work after that fire," said Hermione, as she got to her feet and pulled Charlie up alongside her.

Ron too stood, rubbing his chest and looking left and right. "Shall we split up and look — ?"

"No," said Hermione firmly, her eyes unmoving from her boyfriend. Malfoy, Goyle, and Zabini remained slumped hopelessly on the corridor floor; neither of them had wands. "I think we're better off sticking together — Charlie, have you got the diadem?"

"The diadem?" echoed Harry, his eyes alit with curiosity. "You found it? I thought we might've lost it in the fire!"

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

There was a blood-like substance, dark and tarry, that seemed to be leaking from the Horcrux. Then, with a shudder of horror, Charlie felt the thing vibrate violently before breaking apart in his hands. As it did so, he thought he 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!" gasped Hermione, her eyes on the broken piece.

Harry blinked, "Sorry?"

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

"Must've learned the spell from the Carrows," muttered Charlie grimly.

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

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

Hermione broke off, however, as screams and shouts and the unmistakable noises of dueling filled the corridor. Charlie looked around and his heart seemed to fail; the Death Eaters had penetrated Hogwarts. Fred and Percy Weasley had just backed into view, both of them dueling masked and hooded men.

Charlie, Harry, Hermione, and Ron ran forward to help, their wands held tight. Jets of light flew in every direction and the man duelling Percy backed off, retreating quickly. 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, then said, "You actually are joking, Perce... I don't think I've heard you joke since you were —"

Before anyone could realize what was happening, the air exploded. They had been grouped together: Charlie, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Fred, and Percy, with the two Death Eaters at their feet, one Stunned, the other Transfigured. There was a fragment of a moment that passed, when danger seemed temporarily at bay, before Charlie felt himself flying through the air, and all he could do was hold his cypress wand as tight as possible and shield his head in his arms. Echoing all around him, Charlie heard the panicked screams and fearful shrieks of his companions without a hope of knowing what had happened to them —

Please, not Hermione... not Hermione...

And then the world resolved itself into pain and semi-darkness: Charlie was half-buried in the wreckage of a corridor that had been subjected to a terrible attack. The cold air told him that the side of the castle had been blown away, and the hot stickiness on his cheek told him that he was bleeding copiously.

Then, as his consciousness faded in and out, Charlie heard a terrible cry that pulled at his insides, that expressed agony that 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...

"Hermione!" he heard his own voice call out, hoarse and unfamiliar.

To his utter relief, Charlie felt the world come back into focus at the sight of Hermione struggling to her feet in the wreckage. He limped over towards her, lifting her into his arms, as Harry sat up on the floor next to them, fixing the broken glasses on the tip of his nose. Behind them, however, three redheaded men were grouped on the ground where the wall had blasted apart. Charlie, Hermione, and Harry held onto one another for support as they staggered and stumbled over the stone remnants of the explosion.

"No — no — no!" someone was shouting. "No! Fred! NO! NO!"

It took a moment for Charlie to realize what had happened. Surrounded by the rubble, Percy was shaking the motionless body of his younger brother, and Ron was kneeling beside them, and Fred's eyes stared without seeing, the ghost of his last laugh still etched upon his face...

The world had ended, so why had the battle not ceased, the castle fallen silent in horror, and every combatant laid down their arms? Charlie's mind was in free fall, spinning out of control, unable to grasp the impossibility, because Fred Weasley could not be dead, the evidence of all his senses must be lying —

And then a body fell past the hole blown into the side of the school and curses flew in at them from the darkness, hitting the wall behind their heads.

"Get down!" Harry shouted, as more curses flew through the night, and he grabbed Charlie and Hermione and pulled them to the floor. Ron fell forward, but Percy lay across Fred's body, shielding it from further harm, and when Harry shouted, "Percy, come on, we've got to move!" he shook his head.

"Percy!" Charlie saw tear tracks streaking the grime coating Ron's face as he seized his elder brother's shoulders and pulled, but Percy would not budge. "Percy, you can't do anything for him! We can't —"

Hermione screamed and Charlie, turning at once, did not need to ask why. There was was a monstrous spider the size of a small car trying to climb through the wall towards them; one of Aragog's descendants had joined the fight. Charlie, Hermione, Harry, and Ron shouted together; their spells collided and the monster was blown backward, its legs jerking horribly, and vanished into the darkness.

"Its brought friends!" Charlie called to the others, glancing over the edge of the castle through the hole in the wall the curses had blasted. More giant spiders were climbing the side of the building, liberated from the Forbidden Forest, into which the Death Eaters must have penetrated. Charlie fired Stunning Spells down upon them, knocking the lead monster into its fellows, so that they rolled back down the building and out of sight. Then more curses came soaring over Charlie's head, so close that he felt the force of them blow his hair, and he yelled, "Let's move, NOW!"

Pushing Hermione ahead of him with Harry and Ron, Charlie stooped to seize Fred's body from the ground. Percy, realizing what Charlie was trying to do, stopped clinging to the body and helped. Together, crouching low to avoid the curses flying at them from the grounds, they hauled Fred out of the way.

"Here," whispered Charlie, and they placed him in a niche where a suit of armor had stood earlier. He could not bear to look at Fred any longer than he had to, and after making sure that the body was well-hidden, he took off after Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Malfoy, Zabini, and Goyle had vanished, but at the end of the corridor, which was now full of dust and fallen glass from the windows, Charlie saw many people running backward and forward, whether friends or foes he could not tell. Rounding the corner, Percy let out a bull-like roar: "ROOKWOOD!" and sprinted off in the direction of a tall man, who was pursuing a couple of students.

"Charlie, in here!" called Hermione, and her boyfriend followed her voice without thinking twice. Charlie's three friends seemed to be wrestling behind a nearby tapestry, then, with a closer look, he realized that Harry and Hermione were trying to restrain Ron, to stop him running after Percy.

"Listen to me — LISTEN, RON!" shouted Harry.

"No, I want to help — I want to fucking kill them —"

His face was contorted, smeared with dust and smoke, and he was shaking with rage and grief.

"Ron, we're the only ones who can end it! Please — Ron — we need the snake, we've got to kill the snake!" sobbed Hermione.

Deep down, Charlie knew how Ron must've felt. Pursuing another Horcrux could not bring the satisfaction of revenge; he too wanted to fight, to punish them, the people who had killed Fred, and he wanted to find the other Weasleys, to make sure they were all right, but he could not permit that idea to form in his mind.

"We will fight!" said Hermione, her eyes searching, pleading with Charlie's now as she turned to him. "We'll have to, to reach the snake! But let's not lose sight now of what we're supposed to be d-doing! We're the only ones who can end it!"

In that moment, Charlie's love for his girlfriend was overwhelming, his desire to hold her could barely be contained; his chest heaved with the exertion of it all. Hermione was crying too, and he managed to cup her cheek in his hand, wiping her face with his thumb as she spoke. Heaving great breaths, she tried to calm herself for what she was about to say as, still keeping a tight hold on Ron, she turned to Harry.

"You need to find out where Voldemort is, because he'll have the snake with him, won't he? Do it, Harry — look inside him!"

Sure enough, abiding by this command proved to be easier than Harry would've liked to admit. Swapping positions with Charlie, he closed his eyes, and at once, the screams and bangs and all the discordant sounds of the battle were drowned until they became distant, as though he stood far, far away from them...

Then, with a gasp, Harry opened his eyes a few moments later and his ears were assaulted with the screeches and cries, the smashes and bangs of battle.

"He's in the Shrieking Shack! The snake's with him, it's got some sort of magical protection around it. He's just sent Lucius Malfoy to find Snape."

"Voldemort's been sitting in the Shrieking Shack this entire time?" echoed Charlie, outraged. "He's not even fighting?!"

"He doesn't think he needs to get involved," said Harry, panting. "He thinks I'm going to go to him."

"But why?"

"He knows we're after the Horcruxes — he's keeping Nagini close beside him — obviously I'm going to have to go to him to get near the thing —"

"Right," said Charlie sharply, squaring his shoulders. "So you can't go, that's what he wants, what he's expecting. You stay here with Ron and Hermione, and I'll go and kill the snake —"

"That's not an option!" argued Hermione, and when her boyfriend opened his mouth in rebuttal, her eyes narrowed. "No, no, don't even think about it! You're not going anywhere, do you understand me?"

"Then I'll go," growled Ron. "I'm looking to kill something anyway —"

But, without missing a beat, Harry cut across Ron.

"Don't be ridiculous!" he said icily. "You three stay here, I'll go under the Cloak and I'll be back as soon as I can —"

"No," Hermione disputed again, "it makes much more sense if I take the Cloak and —"

"Absolutely not," said Charlie hotly, his firm gaze challenging his girlfriend's stony one. Before Hermione could retort, the tapestry at the top of the staircase on which they stood was ripped open.

"POTTER! UNDESIRABLES!"

Two masked Death Eaters stood there, but even before their wands were fully raised, Hermione shouted "Glisseo!"

The stairs beneath their feet flattened into a chute and she, Charlie, Harry, and Ron hurtled down it, unable to control their speed but so fast that the Death Eaters' Stunning Spells flew far over their heads. They shot through the concealing tapestry at the bottom and spun onto the floor, hitting the opposite wall.

"Duro!" cried Hermione, pointing her wand at the tapestry, and there were two loud, sickening crunches as the tapestry turned to stone and the Death Eaters pursuing them crumpled against it.

"Watch out!" shouted Ron, and he, Charlie, Harry, and Hermione hurled themselves against a door as a herd of galloping desks thundered past, shepherded by a sprinting Professor McGonagall. Her hair had come down, there was a gash on her cheek, and she was so focused that she appeared not to have notice them.

As she turned the corner, they heard her scream, "CHARGE!"

"Harry, get the Cloak on," said Hermione, pulling it from her beaded bag. "Never mind us —"

But Harry wouldn't have it. He threw the Cloak over all four of them; large though they were, he doubted anyone would see their disembodied feet through the dust that clogged the air, the falling stone, the shimmer of spells.

Together, they ran down the next staircase and found themselves in a corridor full of duelers. The portraits on either side of the fighters were crammed with figures screaming advice and encouragement, while Death Eaters, both masked and unmasked, dueled students and teachers. Dean Thomas had won himself a wand, for he was face-to-face with Dolohov, Parvati Patil with Travers.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

(A/N: for visual purposes <3)

Charlie, Harry, Ron and Hermione raised their wands at once, ready to strike, but the duelers were weaving and darting so much that there was a strong likelihood of hurting one of their own side if they cast curses. Even as they stood braced, looking for the opportunity to act, there came a great, "Wheeeeee!" and looking up, Charlie saw Peeves zooming over them, dropping Snargaluff pods down onto the Death Eaters, whose heads were suddenly engulfed in wriggling green tubers like fat worms.

"ARGH!"

A fistful of tubers had hit the Cloak over Ron's head; the damp green roots were suspended improbably in midair as Ron tried to shake them loose.

"Someone's invisible there!" shouted a masked Death Eater, pointing.

Dean made the most of the Death Eater's momentary distraction, knocking him out with a Stunning Spell; Dolohov attempted to retaliate, and Parvati shot a Body Bind Curse at him.

"LET'S GO!" Harry yelled, and he, Charlie, Hermione, and Ron gathered the Cloak tightly around themselves and pelted, heads down, through the midst of the fighters, slipping a little in pools of Snargaluff juice, toward the top of the marble staircase into the Entrance Hall.

"I'm Draco Malfoy! I'm Draco, I'm on your side!"

Malfoy was on the upper landing, pleading with another masked Death Eater; Charlie Stunned the Death Eater as they passed. The blonde-haired Slytherin looked around, beaming, for his savior, and Ron punched him from under the Cloak. Malfoy fell backward on top of the Death Eater, his mouth bleeding, utterly bemused.

"And that's the second time we've saved your life tonight, you two-faced bastard!" Ron yelled.

There were more duelers all over the stairs and in the hall. Death Eaters were everywhere Charlie looked: Yaxley, close to the front doors, in combat with Flitwick, a masked Death Eater dueling Kingsley right beside them. Students ran in every direction; some carrying or dragging injured friends. Charlie directed a Stunning Spell towards one of the masked Death Eaters; it missed but nearly hit Neville, who had emerged from out of nowhere brandishing armfuls of Venomous Tentacula, which looped itself happily around the nearest Death Eater and began reeling him in. Then, appearing behind Neville, Luna sent a fierce hex into a crowd of Death Eaters attempting to make their way up the stairs.

Charlie, Harry, Hermione, and Ron sped down the marble staircase; there was glass shattered on the left, and the Slytherin hourglass that had recorded House points spilled its emeralds everywhere, so that people slipped and staggered as they ran. Two bodies fell from the balcony overhead as they reached the ground, and a grey blur that Charlie mistook for an animal sped four-legged across the hall in attempts to sink its teeth into one of the fallen.

"No, not her! Stupefy!" roared Ron, and with a deafening blast from his wand, Fenrir Greyback was thrown backward before he could reach the recovering body of Lavender Brown. The werewolf hit the marble banisters and struggled to return to his feet. Then, with a bright white flash and a crack, a crystal ball fell on top of his head, and he crumpled to the ground and did not move.

"I have more!" shrieked Professor Trelawney from over the banisters. "More for any who want them!" And with a move like a tennis serve, she heaved another enormous crystal sphere from her bag, waved her wand through the air, and caused the ball to speed across the hall and smash through a window.

At the same moment, the heavy wooden front doors burst open, and more of the gigantic spiders forced their way into the front hall. Screams of terror rented the air; the fighters scattered, Death Eaters and Hogwartians alike, and red and green jets of light flew into the midst of the oncoming monsters, which shuddered and reared, more terrifying than ever.

"How do we get out?" yelled Ron over all the screaming, but before his friends could answer, they were bowled aside; Hagrid had come thundering down the stairs, brandishing his flowery pink umbrella.

"Don't hurt 'em, don't hurt 'em!" he cried.

"HAGRID, NO!"

Charlie forgot everything else; he sprinted out from under the Invisibility Cloak, running with his head bowed to avoid the curses illuminating the whole hall.

"HAGRID, COME BACK!"

But he was not even halfway to Hagrid when he saw it happen: Hagrid vanished amongst the spiders, and with a great scurrying, a foul swarming movement, they retreated under the onslaught of spells, Hagrid buried in their midst.

"HAGRID!"

Charlie heard someone calling his own name, whether friend or foe he did not care. He was sprinting back into the courtyard, and the spiders were swarming away with their prey, and he could see nothing of Hagrid at all.

"HAGRID!"

He thought he could make out an enormous arm waving from the midst of the spider swarm, but as he made to chase after them, his way was impeded by a monumental foot, which swung down out of the darkness and made the ground on which he stood shudder. Looking up, Charlie caught sight of a giant stood before him, twenty feet high, its head hidden in shadow, nothing but its treelike, hairy shins illuminated by light from the castle doors. With one brutal, fluid movement, it smashed a massive fist through an upper window, and glass rained down upon Charlie, forcing him back under the shelter of the doorway.

"Charlie! Oh my — !" shrieked Hermione, as she, Harry, and Ron, whom were no longer hidden under the Cloak, caught up with Charlie and gazed upward at the giant now trying to seize people through the window above.

"DON'T!" Harry yelled, grabbing Hermione's hand as she raised her wand. "Stun him and he'll crush half the castle —"

"HAGGER?"

Grawp came lurching around the corner of the castle; only now did Charlie realize that Grawp was, indeed, an undersized giant. The gargantuan monster trying to crush people on the upper floors turned around and let out a roar. The stone steps trembled as he stomped toward his smaller kin, and Grawp's lopsided mouth fell open, showing yellow, half brick-sized teeth; and then they launched themselves at each other with the savagery of lions.

"RUN!" Charlie roared; the night was full of hideous yells and blows as the giants wrestled, and he seized Hermione's hand and tore down the steps into the grounds, Harry and Ron hurrying along behind them. Charlie had not lost hope of finding and saving Hagrid; he ran so fast that they were halfway toward the forest before they were brought up short again.

Then, with a shiver down his spine, the air around them had frozen: Charlie's breath caught and solidified in his chest. Shapes moved out in the darkness, swirling figures of concentrated blackness, moving in a great wave towards the castles, their faces hooded and their breath rattling...

Harry, Ron, and Hermione closed in beside him as the sounds of fighting behind them became suddenly muted, deadened, because a silence only Dementors could bring was falling thickly through the night, and Fred was gone, and Hagrid was surely dying or already dead...

"Come on, mate!" shouted Harry's voice from a distance. "Patronuses, Charlie, come on!"

Charlie raised his wand, but a dull hopelessness was spreading throughout him: How many more lay dead that he did not yet know about? How much longer would he be able to hold Hermione's hand in his, to tell her he loved her...? He felt as though his soul had already half left his body...

"COME ON!" screamed Harry, although all four of the Gryffindors had been seemingly drained from their exhausting journey, unable to find the strength to continue.

There were hundreds of Dementors advancing advancing, gliding toward them, sucking their way closer to Charlie's despair, which was like a promise of a Hogwarts feast. He saw Harry's stag burst forth briefly before dissipating, and Ron's silver terrier similarly twisted in midair and faded. Hermione's wand flickered feebly nearby, unable to produce her infamous otter, while Charlie's own wand trembled in his hand, and he almost welcomed the oncoming oblivion, the promise of nothing, of no feeling...

And then a silver horse, a swan, and a fox soared past Charlie, Harry, Ron, and Hermione's heads; the Dementors fell back before the creatures' approach. Three more people had arrived out of the darkness to stand beside them, their wands outstretched, continuing to cast their Patronuses: Ginny Weasley, Cho Chang, and Seamus Finnigan.

"We can do this," said Ginny encouragingly, as though they were back in the Room of Requirement and this was simply spell practice for the D.A. "Come on, think of something happy..."

"Something happy?" whispered Ron, his voice cracked. "But Fred..."

Harry exhaled slowly, "The ones that love us never really leave us, though, mate."

"He's right," said Hermione, half-sobbing, half-smiling. "We're all still here, we're still fighting... come on..."

Emboldened, Charlie reached out to his left, scrambling for Hermione's hand again and, with all his might, he thought of her touch, of her comforting warmth, and of every happy memory it brought flooding back —

He thought of when they'd first met, on the steps of the Entrance Hall, when she'd criticized his father's supremacist ideologies.

He thought of the time he'd ran to hug her in the Great Hall after finding out she'd been released from the Hospital Wing.

He thought of the awkward tension, during third year, where they had no idea what to do with the feelings stirring between them.

He thought of their first kiss at the Yule Ball, of how beautiful she looked that night.

He thought of the first time he'd seen her — all of her — that night in the Room of Requirement.

He thought back to the countless nights they'd fallen asleep behind the curtains of his four-poster, their bodies blissfully entwined.

He thought of the dance they'd shared in the tent, of the kiss that brought them back together...

There was a silver spark, then a wavering light and then, with the greatest effort it had ever cost him, the phoenix burst from the end of Charlie's wand. It flew forward, soaring alongside Harry's stag and Ron's terrier, and the Dementors fell back as the bright light broke through the darkness like dawn on the horizon. The Patronus evidently missing in the horde of silver animals, however, was Hermione's signature otter.

"Expecto Patronum!"

As the incantation fell from her lips, Charlie was suddenly blinded by the bright light of Hermione's long-awaited Patronus twisting in the air. To his utter surprise, however, his eyes settled upon the tip of his girlfriend's wand just as another silver phoenix rose to new life, soaring alongside its counterpart in perfect unison. The resurrection birds intertwined as they flew at the Dementors, gliding over the cantering silver animals of their allies, and immediately the night was mild again, but the sounds of the surrounding battle were loud in their ears.

"Hermione," awed Charlie, turning to look at his girlfriend with wide eyes, "how did you — ?"

"I don't know," she said bashfully. "It just — it just happened..."

"Tonks told me her Patronus changed because of her love for Lupin," Ginny piped up, winking. "Make of that what you will, I suppose."

"That was bloody brilliant," said Ron shakily, paying no mind to the reddened cheeks of Charlie and Hermione behind him. He turned to Ginny, Cho, and Seamus, then said, "You just saved —"

With a roar and an earth-quaking tremor, another giant came lurching out of the darkness from the direction of the forest, brandishing a club taller than any of them.

"RUN!" Charlie shouted again, pulling Hermione forward, but the others needed no telling; they all scattered, and not a second too soon, for the next moment the creature's vast foot had fallen exactly where they had been standing. Charlie looked around: Harry and Ron were following them, but the other three had vanished back into the battle.

"Let's get out of range!" yelled Ron, as the giant swung its club again and its bellows echoed through the night, across the grounds where bursts of red and green light continued to illuminate the darkness.

"The Whomping Willow!" cried Harry. "Let's move!"

Snapped back into reality, Charlie somehow walled it all up in his mind, crammed it into a small space into which he could not look now. Thoughts of Fred and Hagrid, and his terror for all of the people he loved, scattered in and outside the castle, must all wait, because they had to run, had to reach the snake and Voldemort, because that was, as Hermione said, the only way to end it. He focused on Hermione's hand in his, and followed behind Harry as quickly as possible.

Charlie sprinted, half-believing they could outdistance death itself, ignoring the jets of light flying in the darkness all around him, and the sound of the lake crashing like the sea, and the creaking of the Forbidden Forest though the night was windless; through grounds that seemed themselves to have risen in rebellion, he ran faster than he had ever moved in his life, Hermione somehow keeping pace with him, and it was he who saw the great tree first, the Willow that protected the secret at its roots with whiplike, slashing branches.

Panting and gasping, Charlie slowed down, skirting the Willow's swiping branches, peering through the darkness toward its tick trunk, trying to see the single knot in the bark of the old tree that would paralyze it. Harry and Ron quickly caught up, but Hermione was so out of breath that she could not speak.

"How — how're we going to get in?" panted Ron. "I can — see the place — if we just had — Crookshanks again —"

"Crookshanks?" wheezed Hermione, bent double, clutching her chest. "Are you a wizard, or what?"

"Oh — right — yeah —" Ron looked around, then directed his wand at a twig on the ground and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The twig flew up from the ground, spun through the air as if caught by a gust of wind, then zoomed directly at the trunk through the Willow's ominously swaying branches. It jabbed at a place near the roots, and at once, the writhing tree became still.

"Perfect!" panted Charlie, but as he went to move towards the opening, Harry seized his arm.

"Wait, what if it's a trap —"

"Harry, we're coming with you, so just get in there!" said Charlie firmly, pushing him forward.

With a grateful smile, Harry led the way into the earthy passage hidden in the tree's roots. It was a much tighter squeeze than it had been the last time they had entered it. The tunnel was low-ceilinged: they had had to double up to move through it nearly four years previously; now there was nothing for it but to crawl. Charlie took the lead, his wand illuminated, expecting at any moment to meet barriers, but none came. They moved in silence, Charlie's gaze fixed upon the swinging beam of the wand held in his fist. fist. At last, the tunnel began to slope upward, and as Charlie saw a sliver of light ahead, Harry tugged at his ankle.

"The Cloak!" he whispered. "Get under!"

Charlie reached behind him and Harry forced the bundle of slippery cloth into his free hand. With difficulty, he dragged it over all four of them, murmured, "Nox," extinguishing his wandlight, and continued on his hands and knees, as silently as possible, all of his senses straining, expecting every second to be discovered, to hear a cold, clear voice, see a flash of green light.

Then, with his index finger drawn to his lips, Charlie quickly silenced the others as he heard voices coming from the room directly ahead of them, only slightly muffled by the fact that the opening at the end of the tunnel had been blocked up by what looked like an old crate. Hardly daring to breathe, Charlie, Harry, Hermione, and Ron edged right up to the opening alongside one another and peered through the tiny gap left between the crate and wall.

The room beyond was dimly lit, but Charlie could see Nagini, swirling and coiling like a serpent underwater, safe in her enchanted, starry sphere, which floated unsupported in midair. He could see the edge of a table, and a long-fingered white hand toying with a wand. Then Snape spoke, and Charlie's heart lurched: the ex-Potions Professor was inches away from where he and others were crouched, hidden.

"...my Lord, their resistance is crumbling —"

"— and it is doing so without your help," said Voldemort in his high, clear voice. "Skilled wizard though you are, Severus, I do not think you will make much difference now. We are almost there... almost."

"Let me find the boy, let me bring him to you. I know I can find him, my Lord, please let me."

Snape strode past the gap, and Charlie drew back a little, keeping his eyes fixed upon Nagini, wondering whether there was any spell that might penetrate the protection surrounding her, but he could not think of anything. One failed attempt, and he would give away his and the others' position...

Before anything else could happen, Voldemort stood up at last. Charlie could see him now, see the red eyes, the flattened, serpentine face, the pallor of him gleaming slightly in the semi-darkness.

"I have a problem, Severus," said Voldemort softly.

"Yes, my Lord?"

Voldemort raised the Elder Wand, holding it as delicately and precisely as a conductor's baton.

"Why doesn't it work for me, Severus?"

In the silence, Charlie imagined he could hear the snake hissing slightly as it coiled and uncoiled — or was it Voldemort's sibilant sigh lingering on the air?

"M-My Lord?" said Snape blankly. "I do not understand. Y-You have performed extraordinary magic with that wand."

"No," denied Voldemort. "I have performed my usual magic. I am extraordinary, but this wand... no. It has not revealed the wonders it has promised. I feel no difference between this wand and the one I procured from Ollivander all those years ago."

Voldemort's tone was musing, calm, but Charlie could tell from the low groans behind him that Harry's scar had begun to throb and pulse; there was pain building in his friend's forehead, and Harry could undoubtedly feel that controlled sense of fury building inside Voldemort.

"No difference," disputed Voldemort again.

Snape did not speak, and from his position, Charlie could not see his face. He wondered whether Snape sensed danger, or whether he was trying to find the right words to reassure his master. Voldemort started to move around the room: Charlie lost sight of him for a few seconds as he prowled, speaking in that same measured voice, while the anticipation instilled a sense of fear within the Gryffindor spectators.

"I have thought long and hard, Severus... do you know why I have called you back from battle?"

And for a brief moment, Charlie saw Snape's profile. His eyes were fixed upon the coiling snake in its enchanted cage.

"No, my Lord, but I beg you will let me return. Let me find Potter."

"You sound like Lucius. Neither of you understands Potter as I do. The boy does not need finding, for he will come to me. I know his weakness, you see, his one great flaw. He will hate watching the others struck down around him, knowing that it is for him that it happens. He will want to stop it at any cost. He will come."

"But my Lord, he might be killed accidentally by someone other than yourself —"

"My instructions to the Death Eaters have been perfectly clear. Capture Potter. Kill his friends — the more, the better — but do not kill him," said Voldemort lowly. "Yes, at his request, I may have allowed for Fenwick to dispose of his own heir, but that's merely a gracious formality. However, it is of you that I wished to speak, Severus, not anyone else. You have been very valuable to me... very valuable."

"I seek only to serve you, my Lord. But — let me go and find the boy. Let me bring him to you. I know I can —"

"I have told you, no!" hissed Voldemort, and Charlie caught the glint of red in his eyes as he turned again, and the swishing of his cloak was like the slithering of a snake. "My concern at the moment, Severus, is what will happen when I finally meet the boy!"

"My Lord, there can be no question, surely — ?"

"— but there is a question, Severus... there is."

Voldemort halted, and Charlie could see him plainly again as he slid the Elder Wand through his white fingers, staring at Snape.

"Why did both the wands I have used fail when directed at Harry Potter?"

"I-I cannot answer that, my Lord."

"Can't you?" asked Voldemort icily. "My wand of yew did everything of which I asked it, Severus, except to kill Harry Potter. Twice it failed. Ollivander told me under torture of the twin cores, told me to take another's wand. I did so, but Lucius's wand shattered upon meeting Potter's."

"I have no explanation, my Lord."

Snape was no longer looking at Voldemort, his dark eyes were still fixed upon the coiling serpent in its protective sphere.

"I sought a third wand, Severus. The Elder Wand, the Wand of Destiny, the Deathstick. I took it from its previous master. I took it from the grave of Albus Dumbledore."

Then, as Charlie clenched his fists involuntarily, Snape had now looked at Voldemort, and his face had paled significantly against the shadows. It was marble white and so still that when he spoke, it was a shock to see that anyone lived behind the blank eyes.

"Tonight, when the boy comes, it will not fail you. I am sure of it. It answers to you, and you only."

"Does it?"

"My Lord?"

"All this long night, when I am on the brink of victory, I have sat here," said Voldemort, his voice barely louder than a whisper, "wondering, wondering, why the Elder Wand refuses to be what it ought to be, refuses to perform as legend says it must perform for its rightful owner... and I think I have the answer."

Snape did not speak.

"Perhaps you already know it? You are a clever man, after all, Severus. You have been a good and faithful servant, and I regret what must happen."

"My Lord —"

"The Elder Wand cannot serve me properly, Severus, because I am not its true master. The Elder Wand belongs to the wizard who killed its last owner. You killed Albus Dumbledore. While you live, Severus, the Elder Wand cannot truly be mine."

"My Lord!" Snape protested, raising his wand.

"It cannot be any other way," hissed Voldemort. "I must master the wand, Severus. Master the wand, and I can defeat Harry Potter at last."

"My Lor—" but Snape never finished his protest as, with a swipe of the air with the Elder Wand, there was suddenly a deep gash that appeared on his throat.

For a split-second, Snape did not move, but then with a horrible crunch, his back collapsed into the wall of the shack. Then, with a shudder of horror from Charlie in the tunnel, there was a gentle thud as Nagini lowered herself to the ground, her cage removed, and before Snape could make a final wave of his wand, the snake encased him, head and shoulders, and Voldemort spoke in Parseltongue.

"Nagini... kill."

With another crunch, Charlie saw Snape's face losing the little colour it had left; it whitened as his black eyes widened, as the snake's fangs pierced his neck, not once, but twice, and then three times, slamming its victim into the wall on each occasion.

"I regret it," said Voldemort coldly.

He turned away; there was no sadness in him, no remorse. It was time to leave this shack and take charge, with a wand that would now do his full bidding. Voldemort pointed the Elder Wand at the snake, which drifted upward, off Snape, whose blood was gushing from the wounds on his neck. The Dark Lord swept from the room without a backward glance, and the great serpent floated after him, once more encased in its protective sphere.

His eyes watering, Charlie had drawn blood from biting down on his knuckles in the effort not to shout out. He, Harry, Hermione, and Ron, each of whom were shaking in fear, had watched Snape's attack unfold through the tiny crack between crate and wall, and now froze, paralyzed, as Snape's black boots trembled on the floor.

"Charlie!" breathed Harry behind him, but he had already pointed his wand at the crate blocking his path; it lifted an inch into the air and drifted sideways silently.

Crawling out from underneath the Invisibility Cloak, Charlie pulled himself up into the Shrieking Shack as quietly as he could. He did not know why he was doing it, why he was approaching the dying man who'd killed his grandfather. In the same way, he did not know what he felt as he saw Snape's white face, or the fingers trying to staunch the bloody wound at his neck. Unable to help himself, Charlie stepped forward and looked down upon the man he hated, whose widening black eyes found the young Gryffindor as he tried to speak.

His breathing ragged, Charlie bent over Snape, placing his hand on the wound man's neck, trying to apply pressure, trying to stem the flow and ease his pain. Behind him, he heard Harry, Hermione, and Ron scramble into the room, each of them free from the magical properties of the Invisibility Cloak.

Then there was a terrible, rasping, gurgling noise that issued from Snape's throat as he seized Charlie's collar and pulled him close.

"Take... it... take... it..."

Something more than blood was leaking from Snape. Silvery blue, neither gas nor liquid, it gushed from his mouth similar to how tears from poured from his eyes, and Charlie knew what it was, but knew not what to do. He looked to Hermione, who he saw was already conjuring a small flask, as if from thin air, and she thrust it into his shaking hand as she, Harry, and Ron all crouched down next to their friend and the dying man.

As Charlie lifted the flask up against Snape's cheek, collecting the silvery substance, Harry replaced his hands over the bloody wound on the elder man's neck, applying pressure. When the flask was full to the brim, and Snape looked as though there was no blood left within him to spill over the Shrieking Shack's hardwood floor, his grip on Charlie's collar slackened.

"I'm... sorry..." he whispered, his blackened eyes pleading with Charlie's. "I'm... so... sorry..."

With a tear rolling down his cheek, Charlie nodded against his better judgement, his resentment for Severus Snape slowly melting away.

Then, with a jerk of Snape's head, Harry's green eyes managed to graciously find the lifeless black ones.

"You... have... your... mother's... eyes..."

As a few more seconds passed, something in the depths of the dark pair of eyes seemed to vanish, leaving them fixed, blank, and hauntingly empty. The hand at Charlie's collar thudded to the floor, and Severus Snape moved no more.

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Author's Note:
*this chapter was not proof read*

this chapter may be one my favourites ngl <3

I hope you enjoyed as much as I did!! the DH finale is coming next... 👀

[insert begging for comments and votes here]

also, we recently reached 300k views and I LOVE YOU!!! writing this story has been such an incredible experience, and I'm so grateful for everyone's continued support <3

ENJOY!!

xo, selena