Rosabella Black|Daughter Of Sirius Black|(Book 7)

The Elder Wand

Harry's Point Of View:
The world had ended, so why had the battle not ceased, the castle fallen silent in horror, and every combatant laid down their arms? My 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 my 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 our heads.
   "Get down!" I shouted, as more curses flew through the night.
Ron and I had both grabbed Hermione and pulled her to the floor but Percy lay across Fred's body, shielding it from further harm.
    "Percy, come on, we've got to move!" I shouted.

Percy shook his head.

   "Percy!" I yelled and I 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're going to –" I said.

Hermione screamed, and I, turning, did not need to ask why. A monstrous spider the size of a small car was trying to climb through the huge hole in the wall. One of Aragog's descendants had joined the fight.

Ron and I shouted together.

Our spells collided and the monster was blown backward, its legs jerking horribly, and vanished into the darkness.
   "It brought friends!" I 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. I 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 my head, so close I felt the force of them blow my hair.
   "Let's move, NOW!" I said.

Pushing Hermione ahead of me with Ron, I stooped to seize Fred's body under the armpit. Percy, realizing what I was trying to do, stopped clinging to the body and helped. Together, crouching low to avoid the curses flying at us from the grounds, we hauled Fred out of the way.
   "Here." I said, and we placed him in a niche where a suit of armor had stood earlier.
I could not bear to look at Fred a second longer than I had to, and after making sure that the body was well - hidden, I took off after Ron and Hermione.

Malfoy and Goyle had vanished but at the end of the corridor, which was now full of dust and falling masonry, glass long gone from windows, I saw many people running backward and forward, whether friends or foes I could not tell. Rounding the corner, Percy let out a bull-like roar:

"ROOKWOOD!"

Percy sprinted off in the direction of a tall man, who was pursuing a couple of students.
   "Harry, in here!" Hermione screamed.
Hermione had pulled Ron behind a tapestry. They seemed to be wrestling together, and for one mad second I thought that they were embracing again. Then I saw that Hermione was trying to restrain Ron, to stop him running after Percy.
    "Listen to me – LISTEN RON!" Hermione begged.
   "I wanna help – I wanna kill Death Eaters–" Ron said and 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!" Hermione said.

But I knew how Ron felt. Pursuing another Horcrux could not bring the satisfaction of revenge. I too wanted to fight, to punish them, the people who had killed Fred. The same people who killed Lucas. I wanted to find the other Weasleys, and above all make sure, make quite sure, that Rosabella was not – but I could not permit that idea to form in my mind –
   "We will fight! 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!" Hermione said, she was crying too, and she wiped her face on her torn and singed sleeve as she spok.
Hermione took great heaving breaths to calm herself as, still keeping a tight hold on Ron, she turned to me.
    "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!" Hermione said.