A War at the End of the World

“Go! Warn them! They’re coming to kill them!”



Ron woke with a fright and stayed that way even as he came more awake. There were little birds in the room flying through the falls like ghosts. They glowed blue and kept saying over and over, “Go! Warn them! The Aurors are coming to kill them!”



“Blaise! What the hell is going on?”



Ron looked at the space of bed next to him, but found it empty. Blaise was already up and digging through the Wardrobe looking for something. After making a small “Aha,” Blaise stood up and threw a pair of jeans and a sweater at his mate.



“Put those on Ron. It’s show time!”





Harry shot upright in bed.



“Amelia!”



He took a gasping breath and for some reason began to cry. Who was Amelia? And why was he crying for her? Harry tried several times to control his emotions but found that he couldn’t keep a sharp hurt from touching his chest while a sense of loss seemed to hover just out of reach as if it were nothing more than a dream.



Draco walked into the bedroom. “You’re up. That’s good.” Draco took in the sight of his mate’s blood shot eyes and haggard face and frowned. “You’re crying. That’s not good.”



Harry wanted to laugh. He was coming to realize that Draco had a tendency to state the obvious whenever he wasn’t unsure of what to do. It would have been endearing if at that moment it didn’t make Harry want to Hex him until the bottom on his soles turned blue. Draco read the annoyed look on Harry’s face easily and slipped onto the bed behind the smaller wizard.

“Hey now. None of that now. You’ll be okay. You’re just a bit off kilter right now.” Draco’s voice was soothing as he moved his hand in his small circles on Harry’s back. “It’s just because of the bonding. I didn’t think we’d have this problem, but then again I wasn’t expecting a sodding attack in the middle of the night either.”



Harry struggled to calm himself once more, rubbing harshly at his eyes. “What are you talking about Draco? What’s happened? What are you talking about?”



Draco made a strange cooing noise that calmed Harry at the same time as slightly weirding him out. “The bond. Our bond. Completing it tonight left you a open and emotionally unstable. It will pass and you’ll be you’re right old self again.”



Harry snorted.



“Yeah. Okay. Knew it was something you’d done,” Harry said grumpily. “But why am I crying? How come I’m not mad at you or something else? And who the bloody hell is Amelia?”



Draco was quiet behind Harry. The soothing hand was moving a little slower, hesitant, as if unsure it should do more.



Draco sighed. “Amelia is the girl that Aurors killed. It was too close and with our bonding and you being so vulnerable…”



The blonde shrugged.



“You got caught in the psychic backlash. I should probably be grateful that all you did was feel bad for her and cry a bit.” Harry could feel the bed shake as Draco shuddered. “It could have been much worse, Harry. Much worse.”



“Oh,” Harry said. “Is that all?”



“That’s bloody well enough, I’d say?”



“I agree. So let’s go back to bed?”



The hand rubbing Harry’s back faltered.



“Do what?”



“Let’s go back to bed,” Harry said turning around to look Draco in the eye and speaking very slowly. Sometimes Draco could be just a bit slow.



“Go back to bed? You can’t be serious.” Draco wasn’t sure what was worse. The fact the he had just told Harry that a student had been killed by the Aurors or that he was tempted by the idea of getting back into bed with Harry.



Harry licked his lips to moisten them.



Appallingly tempted.



“Harry, we can’t go back to bed,” Draco said as he shook his head to break the spell Harry’s lips had cast over Draco. “The castle is under attack. Didn’t you hear me?”



“Oh I heard you. I just don’t care. Why should I? We’ll be fine as long as we stay in here. Plus there are more than enough students out there to keep the Aurors busy if they’re really intent on killing more people. By the time they get around to searching for us in this room we can slip out of the castle and be on out merry way. Mind you I’m not quite sure that it’s aurors since I only have you’re word on the matter, but either way I think it’s time to go back to bed.”



Draco stared at Harry dumbstruck. He had never thought he would hear something so Slytherin out of his mate. It was a good plan. Stay hidden. Let the other students take the heat. At the height of the confusion, make the escape. It was clever. It was sneaky. And it wasn’t his Harry at all.



Draco grabbed Harry, who had been turning away from his mate to lay back down on the bed, and spun him around, earning himself a startled noise and glare. The blonde stared into Harry’s eyes and saw a world of complexities. Cleverness and calculation. Cruelty and a desire to win. A lack of empathy for others and a willingness to make the kind of sacrifices that cost other people their lives and left him untouched. Draco saw all of that and more in Harry’s eyes, but the one thing he didn’t see was Harry.

“Something’s wrong,” Draco said.



“I’ll say some things wrong. Why are you pulling at me?”



“Something not right with you Harry. Something’s going on and I don’t know what it is.”



“Nothing is wrong with me Draco,” Harry said as he shrugged off Draco’s hold on him. “But it is becoming increasingly obvious that there might be something wrong with you. Maybe we should rethink this whole bond thing. We could have been wrong.”



The last was what cinched it for Draco. “You’re being affected by something. Picking something up because your still so vulnerable, like you did with Amelia’s death.”



“Whatever Draco. I’m going back to bed.”



“We’re leaving Harry and we’re going to put as much distance between you and whatever is influencing you as we can. Got to say that I’m not really a fan of Darklord Potter.”



“It does sound rather nice though doesn’t it.”



Draco rolled his eyes and pinched Harry on the back of the neck. There was an inaudible pop and where Harry used to be was the black wolf puppy from earlier.



“I’m sure you’ll forgive me for this when you’re feeling better.” Draco picked up the black furred puppy in his arms. Harry for his part refused to stop moving, and kept trying to fight his way out of Draco’s grasp. After almost dropping his mate twice Draco took out his wand and tapped Harry once on the head, whispering a sleeping charm, dropping Harry into a deep slumber immediately.”



“One problem down.”



Draco looked around the room for anything he might want to take with him and thought about what his next move should be. He didn’t think the castle was swarming with Aurors yet, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be soon. He needed to get Harry out of the castle and then get to some place safe. That meant that Draco needed help. Help he could trust. That meant he only had a few options left to him, three actually if he were going to be exact. Blaise. Weasely. And the mudblood. Blaise was the obvious first choice, but the other two were Harry’s friends and, he knew, loyal. Draco knew how to get in contact with Blaise in a hurry, and if what he saw earlier was any indication, Weasely as well. That just left the mudblood as the missing link.



Draco looked down at his mate and let a resigned sigh.



“Oh why the hell not!” Draco pushed out of the room and into the hallway. “I’m sleeping with bloody Harry Potter and my best friend is buggering a red head in for sickle they say.” Draco adjusted his hold on Harry and gripped his wand tighter in his free hand.



“Let’s go find us the clever mudblood, Harry. Maybe she can help me figure out what got you acting like such a prat.”









Sena stood outside the great doors that were the main entrance to the castle with Jarvis and Sean watching as a group of Aurors tried to break down the ward that had gone up over the entrances.



“This will surely drive great terror into their hearts. Look our attackers are locked out of the castle. Flee in fear and terror,” Sena mocked as she rolled her eyes.



“Probably are scared out of their minds right now. They’re just kids after all,” Jarvis commented.



“Not kids, Jarivs. ‘em’s Dumbledore’s lot. They’re an army. They’re not quite about it. War’s messy and they picked the wrong side.”



“Well right now they’re on the right side since we can’t even get in. If they call for help this entire mission is awash.”



Sena let out a frustrated snarl as another spell failed to break the barrier down.



“This is getting ridiculous,” she said hotly. “They’re inside and we should be to. We need to bring the barrier down now!”



A witch that had been helping try and break the door down turned, hearing Sena’s complaint, and fixed the tall woman with a poisoned glare.



“If you think you can bring that ward down any faster then by all means don’t let us silly people stop you.”



“Finally,” Sena said as she began to push her way in front of the doors. “Get back and be ready. We can’t let any of them escape.”



The witch that had spoken and the other Aurors looked at one another, but stepped back. Jarvis had known that it would come down to this. It seemed that everyone hadn’t believed him when he had said Sena wasn’t a witch, but something else. Oh she looked like a witch and she sounded like a witch, she even used some magic like a witch, but that didn’t mean she was. Even if he hadn’t overheard Scrimgeour talking about Sena and her people helping in the coming war he would have known something was off about her. For all that her appearance of being a very beautiful, if completely obnoxious witch was nearly flawless, to Jarvis, there was always something about Sena that said that her humanity was a guise, a veil, a costume she was wearing for the benefit of those around her.



One she found quite inadequate.



Sena pushed the sleeves of her robe up past her elbows and started to cast a spell and then seemed to remember something. She pulled her hand out of its side holster, took a deep breath, and cast a series of charms that he had never heard before, but could tell were being effective. The great doors to the castle were beginning to singe and creak and Jarvis could see the barrier begin to waver.



No other witch could have kept firing off the kid of spells in rapid succession that Sena did. In fact Jarvis didn’t think any witch could. It was just another note in his record for peculiarities about Sena. Not that he had time to spare for that now.



The door splintered and with a few more hexes it would crack. Soon it would come down and they would have a job to do. Unraveling Sena’s mystery could wait for now.









Draco wasn’t sure what to do. He had made it to the Gryffindor dorm, but the portrait had informed him that everyone had already left. She hadn’t known where to but she did know that they all had left and there was not a single person in the entire dorm now.



So much for Gryffindor bravery Draco thought acidly. First sign of trouble and what do they do? Run. Pathetic. Not even a booby trap left behind them. At least a Slytherin would have done that.



And where were the Slytherins. Draco had expected to come across at least one or two as he was traversing the halls. Someone to carry a message back to Blaise for him, but there hadn’t been a single one. As for the other two houses there had been almost no one there since he had returned for the winter term. Interesting, but not something he could pay a lot of attention to at the moment. What he needed to do was find Blaise and Granger.



Draco headed towards the Great Hall hoping to find the Bloody baron and enlist his aid in finding the other students. Instead of finding a ghost he found two armies, Gryffindors and the Slytherins, standing at opposite sides of the hall staring at one another with barely suppressed hostility. Leading the Gryffindors was none other than Granger while Pansy looked to be in charge of the Slytherins.



“What in the bleeding hell is going on?” Draco demanded.



“Draco,” both girls said as they turned to the outburst.



“What in the hell’s do you two think you are doing? The castle is under attack, this is no time to play my side of the mountain!”



“We know we’re under attack Draco,” Pansy shouted. “The Aurors are coming to take us out. We’re not going without a fight or at least without taking some Gryffin-dorks along with us.”



Hermione snorted. “This is all just some ruse by Voldemort to catch us unawares. We are not stupid Parkinson! We may go, but we won’t go quietly!”



The Gryffindors shouted behind Hermione and Draco had to be somewhat impressed. He didn’t think he had ever met a bunch of bigger idiots in his entire life, but they were brave idiots at least.



“Look,” Draco began before the shouting could escalate into full on fighting. “We do not have time for this right now. The castle is under attack and we need to get out of here. Get to safety. That means we need to leave.”



Draco paused looking back and forth between both groups.



“NOW!”



“Where do you suggest we go?” Hermione questioned Draco with a critical look.



Draco gulped. He didn’t remember Granger being scary, but then again she had never been at the head of an army before.



“We need to go through the dungeons. There is an exit that leads into the Dark forest. We can make it past the boundaries and apparate away. Anyone who can’t apparate can be buddy jumped.”



Of all the reactions he had been expecting, the ones that he received from the rest of the students had not even been slightly on his list. Granger and the other Gryffindors look shocked and mildly appalled, while Pansy and the Slytherins seemed distraught. And mildly appalled.



“There’s an entrance to the castle through from the Dark forest in the dungeons?” Granger’s voice was elevated. Severely. “Why so you can let death eaters in and kill us all?”



Draco rolled his eyes. “If we wanted to do that we would have. Since none of you have died from a Death eater attack in the castle I would say it safe to say we had no intention of ever doing that. Now since we need to be running away from the Aurors I suggest we stop quibbling and get a move on!”



Granger seemed about to tell Draco what she thought of him in long drawn out words that would probably not be suitable for first year ears when Neville Longbottom tapped her on the shoulder and dragged her into a conference with other members of her house. The group huddled together and began discussing something vehemently while the other Gryffindors stood around looking at the Slytherins menacingly.



Draco shook his head and ran his hand through his hair impatiently. They didn’t have time for this.



A throat was cleared to his side and Draco looked over into Pansy’s normal and very unimpressive eyes. We felt bad for her really. She was a clever witch and knew how to turn any situation in her favor, but she wasn’t very pretty. She wasn’t anything awful as far as Draco was concerned, but she would never be mistakenly called a great beauty. Or a beauty for that matter. She was just another plain jane pureblood.



Which in some ways was probably for the best. If she had been any prettier she might have been able to rule the world.



“Since when do we go around telling Gryffindors our secrets?”



Draco gave her a sidelong look that said he thought she was stupid and being petty. “You do realize that we are being attacked here. That we need to escape and that if we don’t go we will all die?”



“How do we know that? Because some girl cast an echoing? That doesn’t tell us anything. There is no proof!”



“It was a warning,” Draco said flabbergasted. “Do you usually ignore warnings?”



Pansy opened her mouth to speak, but there was an explosion that shook the castle so hard dust fell down from the ceiling. Both sides let out terrified screams and Pansy’s face proceeded to lose what little color it had. That was proof enough



Draco raised an eyebrow at Pansy.



“I concede the point,” Pansy said flatly.



Draco smirked and then looked toward the Gryffindors who were still milling about as if in a daze. “I do believe that I said we were under attack and needed to get out here now. So can we do that now or do we need to wait around for a few mudbloods to die?”



Granger stepped to the front of the group again and with as much dignity as she could muster said, “I think it’s time we made a tactical retreat and go with your escape plan.”



Draco normally would have gloated, but there wasn’t time. “Alright then let’s get—”



The doors to the great hall slammed open and shut again so fast that they sent a breeze billowing through the hall. Blaise and Ron Weasely stood against it leaning against the door with their heads hanging down and swallowing great gobs of air as if they had just run a marathon.



Ron was the first to look up.



“Oye Blaise. Look,” he gestured. “People!”



Blaise looked up and smiled at his mate and then looked past him to the Slytherins and Gryffindors.



“Thank bloody goodness. We’ve been running all over the bloody building looking for you lot. Nearly ran into a nasty spot of trouble out there and what are you all up to? Tea? For fuck’s sake!”



Draco had questions for Blaise, but now was not the time.



“Good glad you’re here. We need to go and we need to go now. Don’t want to get caught by the Aurors.” Draco began walking toward the great hall doors, both Slytherins and Gryffindors moving with him.



Blaise held up a hand. “Oh no you don’t. We just came from that way and it’s not clear. We’d be dead before we ever made it a foot out the door.”



Draco felt the calm he had built seep away. They were trapped.



The rest of the students began to argue. Some cried. And one just started screaming in absolute terror. Everyone tried to avoid eye contact with him.



Blaise waited for a moment (if Draco didn’t know him better he would have said the man was waiting for dramatic effect) before he putting two fingers in his mouth and letting out an earsplitting whistle.



“Look. I know this looks bad right now, but its not. Dumbledore knew something was up and has left us a way out of here.” Blaise held up an amulet. “He said it was like a portkey and too activate it all we have to do is get it in contact with Harry Potter.”



Blaise looked around the hall.



“So where is he?”



It was always going to be like this, Draco realized. Harry was going to be the hero and Draco was going to be the one who turned Harry into some sort of animal and knocked him out cold. Life was not fair.



“Give me the ruddy thing Blaise,” Draco said with his hand outstretched.



“You can’t use it Draco. It needs to be Harry. Where is he Draco?” Blaise wasn’t so much worried as he was suspicious of the look his best friend was giving him.



“Just give the amulet here so we can get the hell out of here in one piece.”



Blaise hesitated and then tossed the amulet to Draco.



“Alright so all it has to do is touch Harry?”



Blaise nodded.



“Do we all need to be touching to go with him?”



“No Voldemort said you we didn’t need to.”



Ron elbowed his mate in the side at the mention of the Darklord and gave him a baleful glare.



“Voldemort!!!!” The Gryffindors began to shout amongst themselves again with the exception of the one that started screaming once more.



Blaise could have kicked himself for that one. There was a thud at the door and a crack. The wood began to warp and the castle shook causing more dust to fly down from the rafters. The Zabini heir turned back to Draco and fixed him with his best glare. .



“Now would be a good time to call Potter out of hiding so he can rescue us



“Why would Draco know where Harry is?” Seamus asked demandingly as he moved to stand beside Hermione.



“Oh bugger this,” Draco said. The blonde took the amulet and touched it to the forehead of the sleeping wolf puppy in his arms. “The one until just that moment no one had noticed.”



The amulet didn’t do anything at first and then suddenly it began to shine with a radiant light the filled the room with a strong glow. The light from the amulet steadily grew brighter and brighter until nothing but the outlines of the students could be seen. There was another boom at the door that shook the castle and knocked even more dust from the roof, but still the amulet continued to shine on.



“Holy shit! Harry’s a bloody dog,” Draco heard Neville Longbottom exclaim.



“I’ve been saying that all along.” That was Pansy, Draco knew.



“Blaise, how do you know Voldemort wasn’t setting us a trap.” That was Ron.



The room exploded with a deafening roar of white light and silence. And when it finally began to fade away there was nothing left of the great hall or the students within it.