a rose by any other name

chapter forty-five ❃ this isn't over

A few people slowly stepped out first and Ron and Hermione quickly pushed their way to the front. They stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Harry in Hagrid's arms and Hagrid sobbed over him quietly, Ron's face went as pale as Draco's, and Hermione looked like she was about to faint. Molly Weasley stepped up beside them and gasped, causing everybody else to leave the Great Hall and stop opposite us, the Death Eaters, leaving a gap in the middle.

That's when I noticed Cedric standing with Pansy just to the side of Ron and I nudged Draco, looking in their direction. Draco followed my eyeline and I felt him physically relax when he saw them, he immediately tensed up again as Voldemort began to speak. Cedric and I shared longing looks and he smiled at me reassuringly. I was questioning a lot of things right now. "Harry Potter is dead!" Voldemort said cheerily and the Death Eaters surrounding us started laughing. Draco gripped my hand and we both grimaced as everybody who hadn't noticed stared in horror at Harry's body. "Well, you must bow down to me now." He said holding out his hand, "Who will go first?"

Nobody moved. Everybody opposite us just glared at Voldemort when to my surprise, a boy I knew to be Neville Longbottom, from Gryffindor stepped forward. Everybody behind him gasped and I immediately knew why... he was quite good friends with Harry, and he was just giving up like that? I noticed now that he was carrying The Sorting Hat.

"Well I must say; I'd hoped for better. Is this truly the best Hogwarts has to offer?" Voldemort chuckled and the Death Eaters laughed, except for me and Draco. I noticed Bellatrix grinning at him and remembered that she was the one who killed his parents, not many people knew that, but Draco had told me when we first met. I could only imagine the rage he was feeling right now; I just couldn't imagine why he was actually handing himself over. "Well, by stepping forward, he lives to see another day." Voldemort said glancing over at everybody behind him.

Neville cleared his throat "I'd like to say something." He said and I glanced over at Voldemort whose brow furrowed. I then looked over at Harry and... I could have sworn I just saw his eyes flicker. I kept my eyes on him but listened to what was happening in front of me, "Very well, I'm sure we'd all be fascinated to hear what you have to say." Voldemort said and I saw Neville turn to face the others behind him from the corner of my eye. "It doesn't matter that Harry is gone." He started and I drew my attention away from Harry, intrigued by where he was going with this as a worried murmur rippled through the crowd. "Stand down Neville." Another boy said walking forward, but Ron hesitantly held him back.

"People die every day. Friends. Family. Yes, we lost Harry tonight. But he's still with us, here..." Neville said tapping over his heart. "And so, is Fred and Remus and Tonks and... all of them. They didn't die in vain." I processed his words; did he mean Fred Weasley? I searched the crowd for George and when I found him, he was in fact alone, my heart stung as I thought what it must be like to lose your best-friend and family member, I had never seen George without Fred. I looked at Ron who was looking at the Death Eaters with disgust.

Neville turned back to the Death Eaters and looked straight at Bellatrix, "But you will." He turned to the three snatchers that caught Hermione, Ron and Harry the other day "And you and you and you will." Then finally, he turned to Voldemort. "And so, will you. Because you're wrong. Harry's heart did beat for us, all of us..."  I looked back at Harry now and saw his eyes open, I quickly nudged Draco and he looked at Harry gasping quietly so no one would notice. I looked over at Cedric who was already looking at me and nodded my head, he looked at me questionably and I smiled before leaning closer to Draco. I knew what we had to do, "Harry has a good chance of winning this Draco, we have a chance to be free. You know what we need to do." I whispered looking over at Pansy and Cedric and Draco shook his head, "It's too risky, someone would surely kill us Ris." He said and I gripped his hand tighter, "Wouldn't you rather die knowing you were doing the right thing than die knowing you didn't even try to stand up for what you really believe in? Draco this is wrong, and you know it." I said and Draco looked over at Harry who was beginning to stir and then back at Pansy, he danced between them both before slowly nodding his head, "Okay fine. But if we die, I'm so going to kill you Ris." He said and I laughed a little, "Just promise me you will follow me okay." I said and he nodded. "We're in this together." Now I just had to wait for the right time.