Dawn Rivera

The Elder Wand

The world has ended, so why has the battle not ceased, the castle fallen in silent horror, and every combatant laid down their arms? My mind is in freefall, spinning out of control, unable to grasp the impossibility, because Fred Weasley can not be dead, the evidence of all my senses must be lying -

And then a body falls past the hole the hole blown into the school and curses fly at us from the darkness, hitting the wall behind our heads.

"Get down!" Danny shouts, as more curses fly through the night: he and Ron both grab Hermione and I and pull us to the floor, but Percy lies across Fred's body, shielding it from further harm, and when Danny shouts, "Percy, come on, we've got to move!" he shakes his head.

"Percy!" I see tear tracks streaking the grime coating Ron's face as he seizes his older brother's shoulders and pulls, but Percy will not budge. "Percy, you can't do anything for him! We're going to - "

Hermione and I scream, and Harry and Danny turn, and do not need to ask why. A monstrous spider the size of a small car is trying to climb through the huge hole in the wall: one of Aragog's descendants have joined the fight.

Ron and Harry shout together and Danny raises his hands; their spells collide and the monster is blown backwards, its legs jerking horribly, and vanishes into the darkness.

"It brought friends!" Harry calls to the rest of us, glancing over the edge of the castle through the hole in the wall the curses blasted.: more giant spiders are climbing the side of the building, liberated from the Forbidden Forest into which the Death Eaters must have penetrated. Harry fires Stunning Spells down upon them, knocking the lead monster into its fellows, so that they roll back down the building and out of sight. Then more curses come soaring over Harry head, so close the force of them blows his hair.

"Let's move, NOW!" Danny says.

Pushing Hermione and I ahead of them with Ron, Harry and Danny stoop to seize Fred's body under the armpits. Percy, realising what Harry and Danny are trying to do, stops clinging to the body and helps; together, crouching low to avoid the curses flying at them from the grounds, they haul Fred out of the way.

"Here," says Harry, and they place him in a niche where a suit of armour stood earlier. I can not bear to look at Fred a second longer than I have to, and after making sure that the body is well hidden he takes off after Ron, Hermione and I. Draco and Gregory have vanished, but at the end of the corridor, which is now full of dust and falling masonry, glass long gone from the windows, I see many people running backwards and forwards, whether friends or foes I can not tell. Rounding the corner, Percy lets out a bull-like roar, "ROOKWOOD!" and sprints off in the direction of a tall man, who is pursuing a couple of students.

"Harry, Danny, in here!" Hermione screams.

She and I have pulled Ron behind a tapestry. We are wrestling together; Hermione and I are trying to restrain Ron, to stop him running after Percy.

"Listen to us - LISTEN, RON!" I say.

"I wanna help - I wanna kill Death Eaters - "

His face is contorted, smeared with dust and smoke, and he is 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!" says Hermione.

But I know how Ron feels: pursuing another Horcrux can not bring the satisfaction of revenge; I want to fight, to punish them, the people who killed Fred, and I want to find the other Weasleys, and above all make sure, make quite sure, that Misty is not - but I can not permit the idea to form in my mind -

"We will fight!" I say. "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!"