Sky Above//Remus Lupin

☽twenty eight ☾

After the hour is up everyone who is able to stands in the courtyard out front of the school. On the other side stands Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Hagrid is with them carrying what looks like a body.

"Who is that? Hagrid's carrying? Neville, who is it?" Ginny asks.

"Harry Potter... is dead!" Voldemort shouts.

Ginny screams, "No!" as she tries to run towards Harry in Hagrid's arms. "No!"

Dad is able to grab onto her and pull her back.

"Silence! Stupid girl! Harry Potter is dead. From this day forth you'll put your faith in me." Voldemort turns back to face his Death Eaters. "Harry Potter is dead!" the Death Eaters laugh. "And now it's the time to declare yourself. Come forward and join us... or die."

No one moves. We'd all rather die than have anything to do with Voldemort.

"Draco!" Lucius Malfoy says. Draco is standing on our side not the side of Voldemort. "Draco." He holds his hand out for his son to take.

"Draco. Come," Narcissa says.

Everyone watches as he walks towards Voldemort.

"Well done, Draco." Voldemort wraps Draco in a hug. Draco stands stiff and rigid like her wishes to be anywhere else. "Well done!" Draco walks to join his mother. Neville limps forward. "Well, I must say I'd hope for better." The Death Eaters laugh once more. "And who might you be, young man?"

"Neville Longbottom," Neville tells him.

The Death Eaters laugh.

"Well, Neville, I'm sure we can find a place for you in our ranks," Voldemort assures.

"I'd like to say something," Neville states.

"Well, Neville, I'm sure we'd all be fascinated to hear what you have to say," Voldemort taunts.

"Doesn't matter that Harry is gone," Neville starts.

"Stand down, Neville," Seamus tells him.

"People die everyday! Friends, family. Yeah... We lost Harry tonight. He's still with us. In here." Neville places his hand over his heart. "So as Fred, and Tonks... All of them. They didn't die in vain." Neville turns to face Voldemort. "But you will. Because you're wrong! Harry's heart did beat for us. For all of us! It's not over!" Neville unsheathes the sword of Godric Gryffindor.

Suddenly Harry falls from Hagrid's arms. He stands up wand drawn. "Confringo."

As he runs along the side of the courtyard Voldemort fires spell after spell at him. Death Eaters start to disapparate as the rest of us rush back into the castle.

"All remain into the castle," Harry instructs. "We have to kill the snake."

"You need this," Hermione tells him.

Voldemort fires a spell and Neville goes flying backwards. Everyone rushes back into the Great Hall followed by what is left of the Death Eaters.

Bellatrix fires a spell at Ginny who barely deflects it. She laughs as Mum steps up to her.

"Not my daughter, you bitch!" Mum shouts.

Mum fires a spell that Bellatrix deflects. Bellatrix fires three spells in rapid succession that Mum just blocks. Mum fires two more and then a third hitting Bellatrix. Bellatrix gasps before Mum fires one last spell causing Belltrix to burst into ash.

By the time the smoke settles and the dust clears Voldemort is dead. Harry succeeded in killing him. Everyone for the first time in a while can breathe a sigh of relief. It won't be easy for life to go back to the way it was everyone lost a lot today. But the people we did lose died so that my children and their children and their children can live in a world free of Voldemort and his terror.