Thorn | Neville Longbottom

Chapter 57: This Isn't Over

While Briar was running to get to Neville, the barrier was broken, and battles were breaking out around her. She was sending curses and hexes as she ran, but her mind was focused solely on finding Neville. There were screams and grunts all around her, and Briar did her best to defend her classmates when she saw they needed some assistance, but everything was bearing down on her and frazzling her senses.

After she fended off a pair of death eaters to allow a scared pair of third years to run off to safety, she sprinted up to the bridge and saw part of it collapse. With her heart cracking, she screamed, "Neville!"

He appeared at the end of the bridge and sprinted towards her, crushing her into a huge hug. He breathed into her hair, "Malfoy said he would rescue you and convinced me to come help here. I'm so sorry I didn't come myself."

"It's okay. We need to hurry," Briar pulled away and panicked when she noticed all of the death eaters storming the grounds.

As they sprinted back towards the school to find their positions for battle, many Slytherins were fighting side by side to hold back the death eaters. With their assistance, Briar knew that the war would be tipped in their favor.

Slytherins weren't to be underestimated.

Briar screamed in triumph as she passed a group of Slytherins who were fighting viciously and consequently doing a brilliant job fighting back the death eaters who were failing to enter the school. Neville looked at all of this with a wonder as they ran and shot out curses. He yelled over the chaos, "Who convinced the Slytherins to help, even after the way they were treated back there?"

She smugly smiled and called, "Me!"

Neville gripped her hand and beamed down at her. His eyes shone with pure adoration for his fierce soulmate.

Briar and Neville continued racing through the school, and Neville grabbed the Sorting Hat, but Briar was too preoccupied to ask why. A group of death eaters had started to come upon them, and a couple recognized Briar from that night at the Davies Manor. One smiled sickeningly and purred, "Ah, you're the pretty little Davies girl, aren't you? Come over here, angel. We'd love to chat."

The man licked his teeth and stared down Briar like he was a lion stalking its prey. She let out a guttural growl and fired off a series of stunning spells to knock the men unconscious. In the past few months, she had gotten incredibly good at this. Neville had joined her in this fight against the group, and within a matter of minutes, all of the group was lying about the dark stone floor.

To be extra safe, Briar casted the incarcerous spell on each of them to bind their bodies and render them immobile, even if they woke up and sought to fight further.

The pair of them moved on. As they dashed about the school grounds, helping their classmates and professors while also leading attacks themselves, they remained close to one another. They had little awareness of what any of the others were doing, but Briar swore they passed Hermione and Ron at some point, but she couldn't be certain.

The two of them had paused in a corridor to catch their breaths from all of the running and fighting, but they were unaware of the death eater creeping up behind them with sinister plans. Briar noticed a green light starting from a wand behind her, so she whipped around and casted protego instantly, but she watched as her attacker was sent flying from a particularly powerful stupefy spell.

Sirius was breathing heavily from a few paces away from where the death eaters had just been standing, and Briar's eyes watered to see her dad again. It had been far too long without him. She rushed forward and threw her arms around his neck. Sirius held her tightly in an embrace as well.