The Family That Lived

²⁵|ᴇɴᴛᴇʀɪɴɢ ʜᴏɢᴡᴀʀᴛꜱ

It had been two days since they planned to take the fight to Hogwarts. Inside the walls of the school, two teachers had been trying their best to prepare for the war. Flitwick had taken the responsibility to guide years 1-4 to safety while McGonagall had started taking extra lessons for some of her gifted students.

Back at the tent in the middle of the forest, healing and energising potions were being brewed for the recently escaped prisoners.

Today was the day that they decided to leave for Hogsmeade. They packed up, leaving so trace of their stay.

"Do we burn them?" Neville asked, holding up a couple of black robes. They were the clothes Lily, Remus, Sirius and James were wearing when they escaped the death eaters.

"No!" Harry screamed, even though Neville was nowhere close to destroying the clothes in his hands.

"We need to get close to Tom to kill Nagini. This will give me the perfect disguise" Harry exclaimed, not before grabbing one robe from Neville. "You can burn the rest," he said giving a silly triumphant smile.

"That is so dangerous. No, we need another plan!" Hermione screamed, again stopping Neville by grabbing his shoulder, even though he wasn't moving.

"Do we have another plan?" Harry asked, his eyebrow arched upwards. Clearly, the other girl was not happy to be put on the spot, because this conversation had turned into a quarrel.

"No, but when I come up with one I will try to make sure that nobody gets killed."

"Well this just risks me, I never asked you to come" Harry retorted. For a second there was a smile but then he questioned himself, Why am I doing this?

Similarly, Hermione opened her mouth and reached for a book next to her, ready to hit the boy's head. She stopped herself when she saw the grin fade and realised that it was stress. She knew that Harry thought that if somebody had to risk their lives, it would be him.

"I will try to be cautious," he said, politely and approached her.

"I don't want you to get hurt" she replied. She gave in to the boy in front of her and hugged him. I would die rather than lose you, I would die rather than letting you die, she whispered.

Harry wanted to argue but he realised that he would also do the same. So he just nodded and kissed her forehead.

_____________________________________

All held hands as they apparated to Hogwarts, accidentally and unknowingly setting off the Caterwauling Charm that alerted Death Eaters to their arrival. James whispered, "take out the invisibility cloak" to his son.

Harry did as told and muttered, "Engorgio". All thirteen stood still near a wall, covering themselves in the blanket sized cloak.

"Bring out the dementors", they heard a death eater yell.

In less than a minute appeared the ragged black creatures. Around 10 feet high and sucking up any source of peace and happiness in sight. The foul creatures were gaining on the hidden crowd, sensing their fear.

Harry's eyes met with his father's. James arched an eyebrow, he knew what his son was thinking, looking at the wand positioned in his hand. Harry nodded and James shook his head. The elder man indicated towards himself and now the boy shook his head.

The entire group was clearly confused by the speechless interaction.

James saw the lack of attention from the death eaters at the moment and snapped his fingers. Harry's attention broke as he looked at his father. James took the opportunity of his son's distraction and cast his stag.

The Patronus was powerful enough to fight off all the dementors, but also bright enough to attract the much worse death eaters.

"Who? Who's there" asked one as he neared their location.

"Oh! I apologise gentlemen. My goat here tripped of your alarm and I had to cast my patronus to fight all the dementors from scaring my precious friend" said an aged man.

He was so familiar. Similar white beard flowing down his chin. A pale face. Aberforth Dumbledore, the thought struck all of them at the same time.

"Why should I let you go?" asked another death eater. "You wasted our time."

Because you would be rather killing innocent witch and wizards right now, Harry thought.

"I can just ask you politely" Aberforth replied with a smile.

"I don't have the time and energy to waste on you. This should never happen again" another one said and soon there were no dementors or death eaters in vision.

Aberforth gently opened his door again and kept it open. Everybody still in the cloak, in a synchronised motion moved in.

"He sent you didn't he. Albus sent you" the elder man questioned looking nowhere in particular.

"Yes, he did and we need your help. I need to get inside Hogwarts" Harry said confidently, as he shed off the cloak.

Everybody followed his lead and soon there were 14 visible people in the room.

"Why would I help you?" Aberforth asked again. His monotone voice was similar to the one he was so used to.

Ron noticed the agitation in his friend, the tension rise in his shoulder and stepped in before anything got out of hand. "He told us you would help us, we must finish the mission."

For the first time, there was a different response. A chuckle was heard followed by "Albus' plan? Tell me, do you know anything about him?"

"This is not about him, this is about the threat that towers above us. It is about the wizard trying to turn us to the dark side" Harry said. His voice cracked in certain places but the power behind the words was recognisable.

Sirius stepped forward and put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "He is right, I don't know much about Albus either but right now he is not the reason we need your help. We need to go to Hogwarts and fight."

"We are fighting to get rid of this nightmare, the violence, the darkness, the ruthless murders," Draco said.

Neville came forward and continued saying "torture to the point of insanity, children growing without their parents."

"Worrying about the ones you love because when they step out of the house, you don't know if they will come back" Hermione added.

There was a long silence before Aberforth raised his head and spoke to a painting "you know what to do."

They all watched as the beautiful young woman started walking, slowly disappearing from sight. The tension of uncertainty was quick to spread.

"She's coming back" Fred pointed out. George continued "with somebody."

The portrait opened and in the small passage was a hunched over, very familiar, Minerva McGonagall.

"I never thought I would be this happy to see Remus, Sirius, James, Fred, George and Harry at the same place." she shook her and looked upwards saying "oh the trouble."

The smile on her face was genuine and it slowly spread across the room as they all followed her.

The portrait opened up to the Gryffindor common room. All were greeted by a collection of gleaming faces.

"They want to fight with you Potter," McGonagall said.

A wave of agreement passed through the crowd and then a child came running. "Meeting in the grand hall!"

"We must hide them," a student said pointing at the newly arrived group.

"No! we are coming with you," Lily said. This time the wave of agreement came from the opposite side of the room.

"Lend us some robes, will you?" Sirius said and a couple of students found it in themselves to laugh.

"Aren't you a little too old to be trying to blend with teenagers, old man?" Draco asked, his eyes sparkling as he directed this remark to Sirius.

"Oh shut it. I should be laughing at you. Today I will get to see you in a Gryffindor tie." Everybody laughed together as Draco scrunched his nose.