A Terrible Temptation

A/N - Hope this makes up for the slight cliffhanger ending of the last chapter! Thanks to Kate for being a fly beta! You rock girl! Thanks to my reviewers (the ones that didn\'t expire from the suspense) for keeping me focused on what is most important (getting the next chapter out so you don\'t kill me).


Chapter 38 – The Final Moves

Hermione slowly woke with a slightly queasy feeling in her stomach. She pried her eyelids open to meet the fierce gaze of Salazar Slytherin. His handsome face was frowning though as he registered her awareness a flicker of relief passed across his countenance.

“Silly girl, the resonance could have killed you. I am not ready to share my eternity with another ghost.” His bitter commentary reminded her strongly of Severus and she smiled at him groggily.

“Thank you.” She murmured and then memory hit her. “The battle!” She tried to jerk herself upright but a wave of dizziness made her freeze in place.

“Stay still! Your entire spirit has been disarrayed!” She looked at him blankly and he sighed. “The crystals affect spirit.” He tried to explain and illumination dawned.

“Oh you mean that my electromagnetic field has been disrupted.” She responded and it was the ghost’s turn to look blankly at her. \"It\'ll realign.\" She added absently.

“As you say.” He looked at her with the thousand-year gap in their educations showing plainly in his eyes. “The battle progresses, the defenders are outnumbered but they fight with great fervor and cunning.” Thundeunder assured her with a light pat on her shoulder. His hand passed through her shoulder slightly and he smiled at her look of surprise. “I am only solid in the Chamber of Protection.” He explained.

“You do know that I am Muggleborn, don’t you?” She raised an eyebrow at him and he sighed.

“I am not prejudiced against Muggleborns in general, I just believe that they posed a direct threat to the school at that time and may yet again, child. Thensisnsistence on living in both worlds endangers this one.” He explained wearily. “But this is a discussion for another time. The Dissonance Cubes will keep adjusting to try to bring down the wards and I must re-adjust the crystals accordingly.” Hermione nodded at him and struggled to her feet despite the ghost’s protests.

“I have to help my friends.” She insisted but her mind was more on Severus than Harry. She felt vaguely guilty for that but Harry had the Order and most of the school fighting on his side; Severus had only her. Well, he had Ron too, she supposed.

“Very well, kill yourself if you wish; I will tend the crystals.” His snarky comments did remind her strongly of Severus but that might just be the function of being Head of Slytherin. She smiled to herself as she nodded to the ghost and headed for the stairs. Perhaps the job came with a pin and a manual entitled “Snark Through the Ages, a Slytherin’s Guide” written by Salazar himself.

Once out of the Headmaster’s office she could hear the sounds of combat echoing in the halls and all her mirth left her. She had a moment of frozen terror at the idea of going back out there but thoughts of Harry and Ron steadied her. Severus was taking care of the Dissonance Cubes, as the ghost called them, and she needed to get out there and help her friends. She wished she knew where Severus was -- she wanted to hold him, kiss him again, just in case. She shivered and ran down the steps headed for the front door.

Ron was back to back with Hagrid, firing off hexes. Lavender was curled on the ground beneath his feet, clutching her wand and trying to do the counter curse to the burning hex through the fog of pain she was in. Ron had no time to cast it on her himself, he had his hands full driving back a group of Slytherin students who were circling the trio like sharks. He knew that they were all in huge trouble, but couldn’t spare any thought except to counter each curse and hex as it came and to toss off a few of his own.

The Slytherins went down and Ron saw Justin Finch-Fletchley and a bunch of fierce-looking Hufflepuffs come charging to his rescue. The looks of steely resolve should have appeared ludicrous with the Hufflepuff House colors below them but Ron realized that there was little in the world as dangerous as an angry badger and the Hufflepuffs were very, very angry.

“Thanks, Justin.” Ron shouted, exp expression one of shock and awe, and received a nod as the group continued on, blasting everything in their path.

“Was that the Hufflepuffs?” Lavender asked softly, her own expression rather befuddled as she knelt beside him. Ron nodded and dropped down to check her wounds. Her counter curse had been successful and she was casting healing spells on herself, though she was certainly not at her best. Hagrid stood over them, guarding them during the temporary reprieve that the furious Hufflepuffs had bought them.

“They seem to be doing well.” Ron was finding that time with Snape made him better able to master the art of understatement. Lavender’s snort made him smile a little at her.

“Do you think we could be friends again, Ron?” She asked in small voice. He looked into her eyes and nodded slowly. Her eyes were bright but the lines of her recent pain were still etched into her face.

“We always were, Lav.” He answered her and then they rose and together with Hagrid went to fight again.

A dragon winged by overhead, ridden by one of Charlie Weasley’s fellow trainers and flamed a group of Death Eaters with a gleeful screech. Harry wanted to cheer, but his voice was raw from yelling spells and breathing in the charred reek of the battlefield. As useful as the dragons were, they left the place smelling of burning flesh and ash. It was a stench that Harry knew he never wanted toerieerience again.

The whole battle was that way. Even as he moved to defend and attack, his body responding without much reference to his conscious mind, his brain was keeping up a slightly hysterical running commentary that mostly consisted of “Oh bugger, oh bugger, oh bugger, oh bugger, oh bugger, oh bugger, oh bugger,” interspersed with “Watch out there, Harry!” and “I really don’t want to die”. The last part was almost a whisper and Harry tried to ignore it as he moved forwards. He had to find Voldemort.

Tonks took out a Death Eater who was trying to blindside Harry and he had no time to thank her as a mixed group of students and Death Eaters appeared from the smoke and attacked. They weard ard pressed and Tonks was sweating now, though Moody still looked like a granite statue as he hexed the opposition. Ron, Lavender and Hagrid burst through the smoke and joined Harry, Moody and Tonks and together they brought down the last of the group.

“Ron! Hagrid! Lavender!” Harry was jubilant, he hadn’t seen any of his friends in nearly two hours and he had begun to fear the worst. Rrinnrinned at him from a blood and soot covered face, and Harry wondered what he must look like himself. Lavender had a grim expression and looked, covered as she was in mud, blood and ash, like some Pictish warrior queen, her eyes flashing dangerously.

“Glad you could join us.” Moody growled out with a contented expression. It occurred to Harry that in his own strange way, Moody was enjoying the battle. It must be nice to actually face your enemies rather than waiting for them to attack you, Harry mused, but he would still never understand the old Auror.
Covered in filth and with the blood of friends and enemies alike on them, they marched together to face Voldemort.

Severus knelt before the small box and he could feel the wrongness that emanated from it. He pulled out his wand.

“Perdere!” It was technically a dark spell, but only due to its irreversible nature. The box imploded and then cracked into a thousand tiny fragments. Miss Mintage smiled at him fiercely.

“We’re going to win this one.” She smiled at him and he gave her a rather feral grin in return.

“We damn well better or goi going to be very angry.” He retorted and she giggled at him, looking her age for the first time in years he suspected. Hand in hand they went through the school, destroying boxes as they went.

Hermione was hampered in her progress by the need to stop and cast healing spells on the fallen as she moved across the battlefield. Huge charred areas too hot and too horrifying to go near to detoured her. The corpse of a giant had to be bypassed as well. She was making her way across the field, one eye on the ground looking for survivors and one eye out for attackers when Draco stepped out of a swirl of smoke, wand upraised and lips twisted into a cruel smirk.

“Hello Mudblood.” He sneered. “Imperio!” She felt the spell hit her but Severus had taught the DA well. She concentrated on her resistance to the Unforgivable and then sneered right back at him.

“Oh please.” She snorted and as his eyes went wide in shock she wrapped him in ropes and left him bound and gagged on the field behind her. “You aren’t even competent enough to cast that correctly.” She tossed off her parting shot as she marched away across the battlefield.

Rounding a pile of roasting corpses with her cloak across her mouth to filter out the stench, Hermione came across Ginny; she was tending to the fallen Neville who was stirring groggily.

“Ginny! Neville!” She cried out in relief and kneeling beside her friends, hugged Ginny tightly. Ginny made a muffled sobbing sound against her shoulder.

“Hermione, thank Merlin, I thought we were the last Gryffindors left.” Ginny clutched her hard and Hermione patted the younger girl.

“I left Dean, Seamus and Colin with Madam Pomfrey about ten minutes ago, they’re still alive.” Hermione assured her and some of the horror left the girl’s face. Neville winced and Ginny went back to obsessively working on him. Hermione watched for a moment and realized that the ss ofs of combat had sent Ginny into her own little world. She patted the redhead’s shoulder and moved on still seeking Harry.

There was a huge flash of light that raced across the field blowing Hermione off of her feet. She lay on the ground dazed and confused and then faintly she heard it; cheering and screaming. From somewhere up ahead she heard Harry shouting and Dumbledore’s energetic reply and she knew.

It was over. Voldemort was dead.