Chapter Fifty
Confronting the Faceless 💀 CompleteMay 2-3, 1998
"Until the very end."
When McGonagall dismissed the students from the Great Hall, Gabe was already working on a way to smuggle himself and his friends back into the castle so that they could still fight. No way was he going to sit this one out, and he knew Romilda and Nate would agree with him, albeit for different reasons.
He manages to get his friends to pull to the side of the Gryffindor herd being led towards the Room of Requirement to share his plan.
"We just have to pretend to be prefects." He says with a grin. "Say that we are sixth years who already turned seventeen - we are of legal age and can fight. Who is going to know the difference?"
"Other than the actual sixth year prefects you mean?" Romilda teases. "Sounds good to me. Nate, you in?"
"Michael is going to stay and fight, so yeah, I'm in." He replies, already sounding a bit resigned. Gabe frowns and tries to catch his friend's eye, but things have remained rocky between him and his best friend since Michael's injuries, and it seems that even with a massive battle coming up Nate is clinging to his bitterness.
It's honestly a bit too easy to fake their ages and rank - the Order members who are helping with the evacuation don't even blink when the three of them climb back out of the portrait hole and head for the Great Hall to help with preparations.
"Adults are really dumb sometimes." Romilda decides with a grin. "I like it."
"I think they just forget that kids are actually smart." Nathan mutters, mostly to himself but Gabe hears and laughs all the same.
"All the better for us, yes?" He points out, but Nathan has gone quiet again and Gabe sighs. Worth a try.
Romilda rolls her eyes but doesn't comment - Gabe knows that she's said her piece to both of them and has officially "washed my hands of male idiocy" and is leaving them to figure things out on their own. Gabe sometimes appreciates it, but other times wishes she was a bit more the nosy, pushy brat she'd been the past few years.
Thankfully, when the fighting actually starts whatever resentment Nate is still feeling doesn't stop him from having their backs. Gabe is feeling a little giddy when the stand down order comes through, but he drops from that pretty fast when Romilda immediately sags against the nearest wall, gripping her leg.
"You okay?" Nate asks, and she gives him a wry look that's answer enough.
"We should go see where everyone is gathering." Gabe suggests. "There are probably healers who can look at your leg."
Romilda nods and attempts to stand back up, but ultimately needs assistance from Nate to actually rise and start moving, leaning on him heavily as Gabe leads them back through the castle, which is a hollow, burned, and battered mess.
He hadn't actually realized how much damage was happening before - seeing it now makes his gut twist uncomfortably. But he pushes forward - he can hear voices now and steers towards them.
They run into a small group heading for the Great Hall, and they join the trek. Gabe doesn't recognize anyone in the group, and he keeps scanning for familiar DA faces, hoping to find friends who have survived.
Romilda is hurried to the back of the Great Hall to be treated when they arrive, while Nathan and Gabe are shooed to the side of the room to wait with the other relatively uninjured fighters.
They sit side-by-side in silence, and Gabe can see Nate nervously eyeing every person who comes into the Great Hall, looking for anyone familiar. Gabe can't blame him - he's doing the same thing.
They spot a few DA members - Logan Griffith is with his guardian, and Susan Bones joins them after a while, Terry Boot stumbles in with assistance from an Order woman Gabe doesn't recognize, Ginny rushes in a panicked mess and shouting for her brothers - but Michael is yet to make an appearance and Gabe is getting twitchy.
Nathan, oddly enough, seems to be the more calm one between them for once. At least until another familiar face stumbles into the room and Nathan immediately leaps up and runs across the Great Hall.
Gabe can only blink stupidly for a moment at the sudden shift, and then he's awkwardly averting his eyes because Nathan is full on making out with Seamus Finnigan in the doorway of the Great Hall. The teen standing next to Seamus looks vaguely amused by the situation, and though he's familiar Gabe can't quite put a name to the face.
All three boys walk back over to Gabe, and Nate is firmly clutching Seamus's hand as they go.
Gabe raises an eyebrow, but smiles to show he's not judging. Nate had come out to him the year before, and he'd said then that he didn't care, and he intends to prove that now. "Hi, I'm Gabe." He introduces himself to the one face that he can't name yet, and he doesn't miss the way Nate's lips curl up appreciatively at the casual acceptance the introduction implies.
"Dean Thomas." The dark boy says with a tired grin, accepting the handshake. "Muggleborn, Shay's best friend." He adds, for context? Or maybe it's an English custom Gabe hasn't run into yet.
"Um, Pureblood, Nate's..." He suddenly hesitates. He still sees them as best friends but-
"He's my best friend." Nate supplies, looking straight at Gabe with a hopeful apology in his eyes. "Not sure how he puts up with me though."
"Romilda helps." Gabe offers with a half smile, and Seamus laughs.
"Wow, high praise there." He teases, and the four of them settle in to wait. They chat as if they're in Hogsmeade getting butterbeer rather than perched on a bench in the Great Hall pretending bodies aren't being carted in minute by minute as time passes.
"Shay!" Someone shouts, and it's Neville, waving over his lieutenant. "We could use some help."
Seamus squeezes Nate's hand, hugs Dean, and then bounds up and hurries off to assist.
"So. That's new?" Gabe offers after a moment, and Nate snorts.
"Yeah, about a month, though we've been easing into it for most of the year, I think. I was going to tell you but then the dungeon stuff happened."
Dean seems to pick up on this being a sensitive topic, as he suddenly sees someone he knows who needs help and politely makes himself scarce.
"I'm still sorry about that." Gabe says after a moment. "He said go so I went. I... can't say I'd do differently, now." He adds honestly.
Nate sighs. "I know, and he wouldn't want you to. I was just... I don't know. Irrational."
"Upset, and fairly. I have put put... how you put it... 'flair' over safety before." Gabe mutters, the admission nearly getting stuck in his throat, but he manages to choke it out.
Nate blinks, and then laughs. "Are you actually listening to Romilda about something?" He asks with a slightly teasing tone, and Gabe shoves him off the bench.
"Shut up, no." He grumbles, but he knows he's smiling and Nate is too and maybe things will turn out alright after all.
They sit in comfortable silence for a while before Nate speaks again, softer now and a bit vulnerable.
"I don't know how you do it. You and Romilda. And I think I get a little jealous sometimes." He admits, but Gabe isn't quite sure what he's talking about, and he says as much.
Nate shrugs. "I mean, you both seem so calm about all this." He waves a hand over the death and pain laid out in front of them in an ugly, broken tapestry. "I feel about ready to throw up - if I didn't know Michael was out in that mess somewhere I would've been happy to hunker down in Hogsmeade. I joined the DA because you did - I never would have without that, but you and Romilda were all over it from day one. I don't know how you both are so brave."
"You're brave too." Gabe says immediately, and then actually stops to think about what Nate had said before continuing. "And anyway, I'm pretty sure I just don't think things through all the way." He gives a self-deprecating laugh. "So I don't think to be scared. Romilda is just insane."
Nathan snorts at that and they settle back into quiet observation. Dean makes his way back around at some point to rejoin them, and he and Nathan talk a bit about the school year, and more specifically Seamus, and Gabe leaves them to it as he continues to scan for DA (and Romilda now, too. Her leg hadn't been that bad, why hasn't she rejoined them yet?).
The other two are partway through a debate about something called "football" when the voice cuts through the air again, freezing everyone and making Gabe's hair stand on end.
"Harry Potter is dead."
They sit in silence, listening to the blasphemic crap the Dark Lord is spewing for far longer than they probably need to, and Gabe is instantly on his feet when Voldemort extends the invitation out onto the grounds.
"Gabe." Nate tries to protest, geting half-way up himself before Gabe gently pushes him back down.
"Wait for Romilda." He says sharply. "I'll be back."
He doesn't wait for the reply, already letting himself get swept up in the flow of other people pouring out the doors and into the main courtyard.
It's a mess out here too, the shattered remains of crushed statues intertwined with puddles of blood and... is that hair?
Gabe quickly looks away before he makes himself sick.
There's a wall of people moving towards them from the Forbidden Forest in a steady march - a wave of Deatheaters perfectly in sync.
Gabe would never admit it, but the sight is terrifying. The entire group halts simultaneously on Voldemort's command, and now he can see Hagrid the groundskeeper cradling a limp form just behind Voldemort and he feels ill.
Then the screaming starts, and it gets worse.
"NO!"
"No!"
"No!"
"Harry! HARRY!"
He can recognize Ginny's voice, and the raw fury and anguish in it ignites something in him and he joins the rising tide of voices shouting and screaming insults and hatred at the black wave when-
"SILENCE!"
His tongue suddenly weighs too much to lift, and judging by the instant quiet around him the other fighters are experiencing the same thing. And that.. that was scary, too. How could one spell, not even said correctly, silence an entire group of people?
"It is over!" Voldemort hisses, mockery and pleasure dripping from the tone and disgusting Gabe quite thoroughly. "Set him down, Hagrid, at my feet, where he belongs!"
Gabe glares uselessly as the groundskeepers is apparently forced to obey, clumsily moving forward and lowering the body, though it's clear he tries not to jostle it.
"You see?" Voldemort gloats, and Gabe returns to glaring at the man, ignoring the shudder of revulsion that continuously travels down his spine at the sight of the Dark Lord's face. "Harry Potter is dead! Do you understand now, deluded ones? He was nothing, ever, but a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him!"
"He beat you!" One of the Weasleys - Ron, right, Gabe kind of remembers him - shouts and just like that his tongue is working again, if only for a moment before Voldemort throws another silencing charm over them. It feels like a victory though, especially considering the rage on his pallid, twisted features.
His voice remains as disturbing and cold as ever though. "He was killed while trying to sneak out of the castle grounds," And if anyone had believed him about that before they definitely didn't now - that was the tone of a liar, "Killed while trying to save himself-"
There's a shout of anger, the silencing spell shattered again, and Gabe spins to see Neville fighting his way forward, wand up and clearly ready to fling himself at Voldemort. However, the Dark Lord flicks his wand and Neville is disarmed with a bang.
Gabe starts to lunge forward, but a hand on his bicep holds him back. He spins, furious, and then stops when he sees the person attached to the hand.
Michael Corner holds a finger to his lips and tugs Gabe to the back of the gathering, away from where Neville and Voldemort and the Deatheaters are talking and over to a small group of other DA members.
Gabe glances at Michael questioningly, but he just grins and gestures at the group, and Gabe suddenly picks up what's going on when he scans them again.
In the early days of the DA they'd often talked and planned what they would do when the Deatheaters inevitably showed up. Gabe of course had still be the only plan maker at that time so he'd offered several suggestions and possibilities, most which were either shot down entirely or placed aside to be "reworked". Eventually they stopped worrying about the future possible battle and focused in more on the definite now one, but that doesn't mean Gabe's forgotten the plan that they'd thought had the best chance of succeeding.
And this is the exact team he'd suggested for it.
Seamus shoots him a grin, though it wavers slightly when he glances past Gabe, obviously looking for Nate who isn't there. Michael follows the gaze as well but is keeping his expression carefully blank.
"He's fine, we got separated in the rush out here." Gabe says lowly, and both of the other boys nod in relief. From there there's no more talking - they need to get into position and fast. Neville's distraction will only work for so long.
He's good though, better than Gabe would have predicted back when they'd first thought this up.
"Dumbledore's Army!" Neville calls, and Gabe eagerly joins the chorus that replies, even if they all get silenced again for their trouble (and that is getting annoying, he's never going to silence someone ever again).
Then things go a little sideways when the Sorting Hat shows up and Neville is rooted to the spot, but they can't change their course, and besides, they've already gotten around the Deatheater lines. A little closer to the forest and they can signal the secret weapon.
There are screams coming from the gathering behind them, but Gabe forces himself to tune them out as their small group finally gets close enough and raise their wands in unison.
For a long moment it seems to not have worked, but then a roar comes from the forest, and Gabe whoops in victory before scattering out of the way.
"HAGGER!"
Ginny had known about the young giant in the forest, and she'd spent some time early on in the year making friends with him, and promising that if Hagrid - who he was quite fond of - was ever in trouble that the DA would call for him.
That ploy had worked out beautifully.
And because the gods seems to be on their side the centaurs ride out of the forest only moments later, firing into the Deatheater ranks and scattering them like ants.
Gabe loses sight of the others, and he doesn't have time to try and relocate them because the battle seems to be starting up again in earnest, spells flying left and right and it's all he can do to not be caught in the crossfire.
They're being pushed back - he can feel that even as he struggles to hold ground. He finds himself locked in a duel with a lanky Deatheater who's relentless in his spell casting, and a small stumble sends his wand clattering out of his hand.
The entrance to the Great Hall is maybe a dozen feet behind him, but it's too far for him to run to it for safety as the Deatheater raises his wand triumphantly.
Yeah, gloat over beating a teenager, very classy. He thinks venomously, but there's nothing else he can do but glare fiercely at the face of his killer.
But the blow never comes. Instead, a blast of red light flings the man away and then there's a shield charm shimmering around him and a hand on his arm tugging him backwards towards the doors.
"Got your back, Snob." A familiar voice says, breathless but making an attempt at teasing. Romilda grins at him when he flips her off, but he quickly drops the annoyance when he sees the blood soaking her hands up to her elbows.
"Not hers." Nathan says quietly beside him, and Gabe finally registers that it's him doing the pulling and Romilda maintaining the shield. "She was helping the Healers. Don't mention it." He adds warningly, and Gabe nods. He doesn't know who's dead, but no one could survive with that much of their blood outside of their body, he's pretty sure.
They back up carefully, and Gabe is feeling annoyingly useless without his wand, hunkered down between his two friends.
However, his position means that he can watch the rest of the battle unfolding around them without having to divide his focus, and he's thrilled when he realizes that despite all of the Dark Lord's boasting about numbers and strength, the Deateaters are losing.
The defenders of Hogwarts are mostly paired off (Flitwick is handling things solo though, and that's impressive enough that Gabe thinks maybe he should continue Charms into the NEWT level and also be a little more terrified of the former dueler than he previously was) as they steadily take down the attackers. He spots Seamus and Hannah working together, and several of Ginny's brothers holding their own as well (he assumes they must be her brothers at least - they all have that tell-tale red hair). A few of the Deatheaters don't even seem to be trying to fight, racing around and flinching at the spells from both sides.
Great crew there Voldy, so scary. Gabe snickers to himself and wonders how he'd ever found these idiots intimidating.
The fighting is thinning out now as more and more people are knocked out or frozen stiff, and Romilda finally drops the shield when they reach the edge of the room, dangerously close to the Great Hall and its makeshift morgue.
"You're okay?" She checks, and Gabe nods stiffly. Despite his near miss only moments prior he is actually feeling fine - giddy even. But he still doesn't have a wand, and the fighting is winding down around them. Now the focus is on the two duels going on in the center of the room, the rest of the fighters stepping back in an unspoken agreement not to interfere.
Ginny and Luna are fighting next to a frizzy-haired young woman who Gabe takes a moment to remember is Hermione Granger, Muggleborn and friend to Potter. The three of them are being fought to a stand-still by a single woman in the Deatheater's black robes. Her hair drifts wildly from her head and the look on her face could be described as something like manic glee, though with a distinct undercurrent of cruelty. The girls are putting up a good fight, but it's clear they're going to eventually lose the upper hand.
The other fight is with Voldemort himself. McGonagall and Slughorn fight side-by-side with a slightly younger black man, and while this fight is a bit more evenly balanced that the other, it's obvious the three aren't gaining any ground either.
Gabe's focus is torn back over to the first fight when a slightly plump woman explodes from the crowd of watchers towards it.
"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU !"
"Holy Mum." Someone mutters from nearby, and Gabe glances over to see one of the Weasleys looking red-eyed and stunned.
The woman - Mrs. Weasley, Gabe supposes - dives straight into the fight, shoving the three girls away and taking on their opponent single-handedly.
Gabe realizes quickly that this fight is also uneven - but this time the odds aren't in crazy's favor. Some students don't realize that and try to rush forward, but Mrs. Weasley shouts them back.
Crazy figures out what the students hadn't rather quickly, as her smirk transforms into a snarl and her dueling amps up - an edge of panic flickering into her style.
It's over rather quickly despite her obvious increase in focus - the fighting between the two is intense enough to crack the stone floor surrounding them, and anything that pressurized never lasts long.
Crazy starts ranting, and that's when Gabe knows that she's figured out what the end result of the fight is inevitably going to be. This is a last-ditch attempt to knock Mrs. Weasley off-center.
"What will happen to your children when I've killed you?" She taunts, eyes wild and panicked even as she pushes on a final veneer of control. She wants to leave a final impression, so even if - when - she loses she'll still haunt the nightmares of ever person present. "When Mummy's gone the same way as Freddie?"
Even seeing what she's doing, Gabe thinks she'll be haunting his nights all the same. Someone that in control, even of her own death? That's terrifying.
Mrs. Weasley's spellwork, if possible, becomes even more focused. "You - will - never - touch - our - children - again!" She's screaming, and Gabe realizes in that moment that Crazy has won.
The Weasley matriarch fires off the killing curse - silent, but obvious if you're looking - as Crazy gives a breathless, victorious laugh. The spell connects and Crazy freezes, her expression flat and slightly crazed (appropriately enough) before she topples to the ground.
The crowd around him goes nuts, cheering and shouting happily. Gabe doesn't join them - instead he watches as Mrs. Weasley lowers her wand and stares at the corpse in front of her, her brain finally catching up with her actions.
"Protego!" A voice cries, and Gabe's focus snaps back to the other key player left.
Voldemort has thrown his opponents aside in a clear show of pure, raw rage and had fired the killing curse at Mrs. Weasley. Someone had obviously stopped it, but looking around no one seems to have their wands up.
Then Harry Potter suddenly appears out of thin air and for a moment everyone is screaming again - but that quickly cuts off. This time Gabe knows Voldemort didn't use a silencing charm. This is the kind of quiet that's laced with anticipation, with fear and uncertainty. This is the kind of quiet that comes before a storm.
Or in this case, a final showdown.
"I don't want anyone else to try and help." Harry says, and okay, wow, isn't he seventeen? No seventeen year old should know how to use a tone like that. Still, it gets the job done - no one so much as twitches. "It's got to be like this. It's got to be me."
"Potter doesn't mean that." Voldemort hisses, almost overlapping Harry's words with how quickly he flings his own out. "That isn't how he works, is it? Who are you going to use as a shield today, Potter?"
It's faint, but Gabe realizes that the Dark Lord has been thrown by the Boy Who Lived's sudden reappearance. He hadn't planned for it, and now everything is crumbling around him and he doesn't know how to handle it.
The continuing conversation only confirms Gabe's suspicions - Voldemort is officially losing his mind, and his grip on the fear he'd commanded for so long. It's almost sad - even Crazy had kept her dignity, in the end. People will remember her as a terror. Voldemort? He'll be defined by how pathetic he was in his final moments, screaming about accidents and denying the obvious equality that exists between himself and Potter.
For his part, Harry Potter is holding ground well, even if Gabe thinks he ought to stop talking soon and just be done with the whole thing.
"You don't learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you?" Harry says after a short speech about apparently dying for them? That Gabe kind of wants to dissect more, but the conversation quickly moves past it and now probably isn't the time to raise the question.
He's distantly aware of how odd it is that he's so calm and unbothered when his wand is lost somewhere in the courtyard so he's entirely unarmed. He's dead if Harry doesn't win - and yet he's quite confident in the outcome. Just as he'd seen Mrs. Weasley's superiority to Crazy, he can see now that Voldemort is coming unhinged - and it's going to be his final mistake.
It's a rather fitting ending, when it finally does happen (good lord these two talk a lot. He didn't even understand a majority of it - what even is the Elder Wand?). Hit by his own rebounding killing curse. The body slumps to the ground, and the long-time terror of the wizarding world is reduced to nothing more than lifeless skin and bone.
There's a moment when they all take it in - and then the world erupts into celebration and the people who are still alive are clinging to each other in joy if they were with Hogwarts, in fear if they weren't. Everyone is pushing forward, surging to reach Harry, to shout their congratulations and pat him on the back.
Gabe stays by the wall, just watching, and for once content with that. Romilda and Nate stay beside him and they sit in silence, watching the claustrophobic mob following Harry to one of the tables, insatiable until a familiar voice shouts, "Look, a Blibbering Humdinger!"
Gabe outright laughs at Luna's voice, and finally pushes himself up off the wall. "I'm going to go say hi to Lovegood." He says by way of explanation. "Meet back here in a few?"
Romilda tilts her head slightly in acknowledgement, and Gabe only now realizes how oddly quiet she's being - she's barely said a word since she and Nate found him in the courtyard during the battle. He frowns at her but she waves him off. Nate has already scampered off, probably to find Seamus.
Gabe hesitates, then decides he can talk to Luna later and sits back down next to Romilda. "You alright?"
"Lavender is dead." She says after a moment, scrubbing at her hands in what seems to be a subconscious gesture. The blood there has dried, and while some flakes off most is stubbornly clinging to her skin. "We tried but..." She shrugs, biting her lip, blinking hard even as her expression remains blankly neutral. "We won, at least. In the end."
The light comfort that had been settled around Gabe ever since his friends showed up finally starts to wear away as he watches Romilda.
"At least." He echoes softly. "...Stupid question, but are you alright?"
Romilda laughs slightly, hollow and forced. "Probably will be. They say that, right?" She huffs, and then pulls her feet up so she can rest her chin on top of her knees. "We'll move on eventually."
"Not right now though." Gabe sighs, tired and suddenly realizing he has no idea who's still alive. He only cared about Nate and Romilda, but now he wonders about the rest of the DA. Lavender is gone - who else is among the bodies laid out in the Great Hall?
They don't talk after that, just sit and wait for Nathan to come back. Gabe tracks the sun as it eases its way up the sky - the literal and metaphorical dawn of a new day. He snorts to himself at the thought and reminds himself to never mention it to his friends - it's way too sappy a notion.
Peeves is racing about overhead, singing off-key and off-color songs about the victory that directly contrast with the melancholy exhaustion that's slowly beginning to settle over the room. Gabe supposes that ghosts - or poltergeists, in Peeves' case - probably can't read a room very well after so much time dead.
The Order members are starting to recruit people to help with the initial cleanup, while others are starting to arrest the Deatheaters still standing (or lying, as is the case with the unconscious ones). Gabe spots a few stray DA members helping where they can, but he's honestly too tired to want to move.
Nathan eventually returns, looking more awake than Gabe is feeling (they've been up all night, that makes sense, everyone is probably exhausted to at least some degree), though he subdues quicky when he sees them.
"Healers are doing the rounds again." He says after a moment. "About fifty casualties estimated, all from before the hour break."
Romilda makes a noise that's probably supposed to mean something but for the life of him Gabe can't tell what. Nathan looks equally baffled, and concerned. "Should I direct someone over here?" He asks after a moment.
Gabe waves him off. "Go make out with your boyfriend, Corner." He grumbles. "And tell your brother you're not dead before he hunts me down and bugs me about it."
Nathan goes beet red at that, but it's worth it because Romilda gives a slight snort.
"You finally found out?" She asks after a moment, and Gabe shoots Nate a wounded look.
"You told Romilda before you told me?" He accuses, though it's more tease than anything else. Gabe knows exactly why Romilda learned first - he was kind of in hiding when everything had gone down after all.
"They didn't have to tell me, I figured it out. They were never exactly subtle about the flirting." Romilda smirks, then outright giggles at the look Gabe gives her. "What? You're smart Gabe, but you're not always the most observant."
They bicker and laugh as the sun slowly fills the room with light and warmth, and things are far from okay but Gabe thinks that one day, they will be again. As long as he has his friends with him, thing will surely turn out just fine.
Author's Note: And this is what I like to consider the "official" ending of CtF. There are two more chapters, but they're more Codas than anything. Either way, we're heading into our final week of double updates, after which we'll have weekly ones for the three-part epilogue. We're nearly at the end of this story, and I've been so honored to have all of you joining me on this little adventure of mine <3
Next Time: What to do when your world caves in
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