Sirius paced the headmasters office and tugged on his hair while he used Minnie as a sounding board.
"If Ron gets the students hidden away then I could borrow James' old cloak from Harry, smuggle them out through Hogsmeade?"
"Dementors will not be fooled by the cloak, Sirius."
"Right… maybe just get them in the basement of Honeydukes and apparate them out?"
"Fifteen at once or will you make multiple suspicious trips?"
"Damn…" Sirius threw his hands in the air as he continued to make laps around the office. "If I just keep all the kids in that room and say I lost them, what's the worst that can happen?"
Minnie looked sternly down at Sirius from the portrait on the wall. She looked just as she always had when Sirius was a student- firm, but just a little more fond than most. It hurt so much to only have her as a portrait, but Sirius would take what he could get when it came to the woman who had meant so much to him.
"You could be arrested or killed," she said. "Where will the students be then?"
"Merlin, I hate this," Sirius sighed. "Is there no way to just… lock the school down?"
"You cannot prevent the Minister of Magic from entering the grounds without completely redoing the wards on the school."
Sirius scowled up at Albus. "Then maybe that's what I should do."
"You won't have time before he arrives today," Minnie stressed. "Your best option is to keep the students in hiding and pretend to assist him in searching for them."
"That best option makes me want to rip my skin off," Sirius said bluntly. Playing nice with the 'Minister' was sickening. Allowing Voldemort inside the school full of children?
It made Sirius feel the same way he had when he'd been arrested after Pettigrew blew up all those muggles—
That he failed.
Sirius failed Harry then and he would fail all these students because Voldemort himself had Sirius pinned against a wall and Sirius couldn't see any way to get unstuck.
Being Headmaster wasn't a gift from Harry, it was a bloody curse. Sirius could only help the students within the rules from the Ministry and the Ministry was the one hurting the students.
It was a shock to have been offered the position to start with, but Sirius reckoned old Timmy didn't have a lot of choices when the prior Headmasters kept getting assassinated in the office. Sirius wrote a very carefully worded letter to Severus, asking if he would maybe keep Harry from being arrested.
Severus sent back a howler telling him to control his godson himself 'if he thought it were possible'.
"Okay, here's what I'll do, I'll go tell the other teachers about our guest and then see if I can get a message to Ron to stay put," Sirius finally decided. He glanced up at a Minnie. "Yeah?"
"Yes," she agreed. "Do it quickly, Sirius."
Emboldened by Minnie's agreement with Sirius' half-arsed plan, Sirius pulled his mirror out to call Ron. He got Ron's name out, but his damned great-uncle Phineas interrupted him.
"Headmaster Black!" Phineas rushed through the portraits and knocked over old Headmaster Cragg and caused him to topple over in Albus' portrait. Sirius ignored Ron for just a moment to take note of Phineas' uncharacteristic solemnity.
He forgot to even emphasize that a Black was once again a Headmaster of Hogwarts, and usually he never said more than three words before mentioning it.
Phineas stared at Sirius from beside Minerva while Ron said Sirius' name in the mirror, confused by Sirius ignoring him.
"The Minister is here, Headmaster," Phineas said solemnly. "And he's killed a child."
Sirius' blood ran cold and he stared in Phineas' grey eyes, identical to his own, in absolute horror.
When the clock ticked - when the world continued moving - Sirius was able to croak out a single word.
"Who?"
*****
"The Malfoy boy."
Somewhere behind Ron, there were students gasping and someone even cried out, but it was a distant buzz in Ron's ears.
"The Malfoy boy."
"No," Ron said, his voice little more than a whisper. "Sirius- no. He's wrong. It's- it's not Draco. It's not."
Sirius looked down and seemed to finally take note of Ron's pale face in his mirror.
"Ron, do nothing," Sirius hissed. "Stay where you are, keep the others safe. I have to go. Stay put."
Ron stared sightlessly at his own reflection when Sirius hung up on him. There was a soft hand on Ron's shoulder, he shook it off.
The buzzing increased and there were questions, shouts, and cries.
"The Malfoy boy."
Draco was so much more than 'the Malfoy boy', but that was what someone just called him.
"He's killed a child. The Malfoy boy."
Ron couldn't breathe. The air in his lungs was gone—
"The Malfoy boy."
"He killed him," Ron whispered. His eyes welled up with hot tears and Ron didn't give a damn to wipe them away. "HE KILLED HIM!"
Ron hurled the mirror across the room and watched it knock a lamp off a desk. The mirror was fine, but the lamp shattered. The room they were in, the room full of junk where Harry hid his guns, was suddenly full of things that Ron could break.
And Ron wanted to break everything, he did, but he had to find Ginny, get Draco's… find Draco.
All the buzzing in the background became loud and sharp noises—
"You'll get killed!"
"I DON'T CARE! HE KILLED DRACO!"
Ron turned around and saw Neville's face was red, swollen, furious. Their eyes locked and Ron nodded as they seemed to share the same thought.
"For Draco," Neville said as he pulled his wand.
"For Trent," Ron agreed as he silently summoned a gun.
Blaise let out a shaking breath when they turned to look at him in tangent.
"We can't kill him," Blaise pointed out. As if logic was going to work when all Ron wanted to do was burn the earth to ashes.
"No, but we can make him wish he was dead," Ron said in a hard voice that he'd never heard come from his mouth before.
Room looked around at the other students that were all on a list with the Malfoy boy and he had a sudden, very Harry-like, thought…
They weren't students or kids anymore, they were soldiers.
And Ron needed to gear them up for a battle.
*****
Sirius ran through the castle as Padfoot. It was quicker that way, safer too because he could crawl through little tunnels he and Peter created a lifetime ago.
What Sirius needed were some of the charmed coins that Ron and the students shared. Or, almost as good, would be his Merlin damned map. The map he spent five years creating.
The one that Harry wouldn't let him use, even as Headmaster. Remus should have guarded it better… Sirius needed it more than Harry did.
Instead, Sirius was damned to run around the castle as Padfoot while he tried to gather up the teachers who could be trusted. Phineas would get Aurora, Septima, and Sybill. Minerva would fetch Pomona, since she had a portrait of Minerva in her office. Sirius needed to get Filius, Poppy, Horace, and Hagrid.
Filius would be Sirius' best ally, so it was his classroom where he ran first. It took a fraction of the time on four paws as it would have on two with the added bonus of enhanced hearing alerting Sirius of the eerily silent halls. The halls shouldn't be silent, they should have been noisy with students switching classes, but as far as Sirius could hear there were no trainers slapping the stone floors, no laughter or whispers bouncing off the walls… nothing.
Merlin, don't let more students be dead… Sirius prayed vehemently. One student - Draco, his cousin's only child - was bad enough, more would be unthinkable.
In fact, Sirius couldn't think about it. Sirius couldn't think about the pain that exploded on Ron's face when he heard Phineas say 'Malfoy'. Sirius couldn't think about little Luna and her big silvery eyes when she inevitably found out. Sirius couldn't think about Cissa complaining to him over the summer that Draco looked like him—
"Why does my son resemble you?" Cissa murmured. She and Sirius were reclining out in the back garden of Moon Lodge and watched Draco, Luna, Neville, and Sky try and plant a garden.
Sirius hummed while he looked over his little cousin. Draco did have the Black eyes, almond shaped with a constant sparkle in the dark grey. His soft features resembled Narcissa, though the pointed chin was all Lucius.
"There's worse people he could look like," Sirius said smugly. "Remember Uncle Al? He had that crossed eye and crooked nose?"
Cissa scoffed and shook her head.
"That was because his parents were half-siblings," she said drily. "I remain eternally grateful that I was never forced to wed either you or Regulus."
Sirius grinned over at his cousin and raised an eyebrow at her.
"If you were though, which would be better? Me or Reg?"
"Regulus," Cissa said without hesitation. She smirked when Sirius made an affronted face at her. "He was marginally less blatantly gay than you are."
Sirius raised the scotch and water he had been sipping on.
"Cheers to that."
Sirius couldn't think of any of that, not when he had to protect hundreds of children from the same fate as the one.
When Sirius reached Filius' classroom, he shifted back to human in one easy stride. With another fluid movement, he tried to open the door.
Nothing.
Sirius tried to peer inside and the small glass window was blackened out and impenetrable. Sirius was wasting time trying to unlock the door with magic- if Filius locked it, Sirius wouldn't undo it.
Instead, Sirius sent a quick patronus to his colleague with a simple message:
"Let me in."
There was only a shimmer to the doorknob to alert Sirius that the lock was lifted and Sirius stuck his head in immediately. It was a two-for-one deal as Poppy stood in the classroom along with Filius and nearly two dozen students.
Sirius ran his eyes over the students quickly, noticing Ginny Weasley and Daphne Greengrass in the mix, and then locked eyes with Filius.
"He's here and he's killed a student," Sirius said gravely. Filius' face became stone aside from the fire that ignited in his dark eyes.
"What do we do?" Filius asked.
Sirius raised a brow at him. "We get him the hell out and then we fix the wards. Are you in or out?"
Filius and Poppy both had their wands out.
"If I die protecting my students, then today is the day I die," Filius said with his chest puffed out.
Sirius only didn't roll his eyes because of the gravity of the situation they were in.
"Don't be dramatic," Sirius told him, only mocking him a little. "Poppy, can you stay here with the students? Filius, make the door accessible by the children? I'll send anyone I find here."
"I will," Filius agreed immediately. He twirled his wand and Sirius felt the doorknob warm under his hand. "Where did you see him last, Sirius?"
"Seventh floor. Be safe."
And then Sirius shifted to Padfoot and began making quick strides to the castle door to fetch Hagrid.
Between the two time worldwide dueling champion, the half-giant that kept mad beasts in the forest, and Sirius' intimate knowledge of the castle- Sirius almost liked their chances.
Almost.
*****
Ron looked around at the students that were armed with guns, wands, and terrified looks on their faces.
Blaise nudged Ron, "Say something," he murmured. "Before they piss themselves."
Ron wasn't a leader, not really. He had fallen in the role with their group, but it was necessity more than it being a good fit. Harry was a leader, even Theo was a leader, Ron was…
Ron was Ron.
Ron was the youngest Weasley boy. He was the only one of the gang to struggle to find a date to the Yule Ball. Ron wasn't considered for prefect or quidditch captain. Ron was the only one to ever get Harry pissed enough to fist fight.
But Blaise wasn't wrong, the students looked ready to piss themselves and Ron needed to say something.
Ron drew himself up tall and pushed his grief down and let his pure anger drive him instead.
"We're not hiding like bloody cowards," Ron said. The students all had their eyes locked on him and Ron could feel their eyes like pressure on his back.
"This is our school, our home." Ron began picking up speed as he got more angry at the sheer audacity of Timmy. "I'm so damned sick of kids dying."
There were a few angry calls of agreement. Sapphire Herron's blue eyes were blazing with her grief and Ron knew Astoria's would be as well. Astoria didn't know where her sister was any more than Ron did. They only had hope that they were alive and devastation that Draco - the Malfoy boy - wasn't.
"I am SICK OF IT!" Ron yelled. "I AM SICK OF STANDING AROUND AND WAITING FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO DO SOMETHING! I AM SICK OF SEEING PEOPLE DIE BECAUSE ONE MAD BLOKE THINKS HE CAN DO WHATEVER HE WANTS! GUESS WHAT? WE'RE ALL ON THE SAME LIST DRACO WAS!
"IS THAT HOW YOU WANT TO END?" Ron demanded. He pointed his wand at Dennis Creevey. "You want to be 'the Creevey boy' that was killed like a fly with a swatter?"
"No," Dennis said.
"No?" Ron repeated. "You don't sound very confident? DO YOU WANT TO BE 'THE CREEVEY BOY'?"
"NO!" Dennis shouted then.
"DO YOU WANT TO BE STRUCK DOWN AND REMEMBERED WITH A BLOODY TOMBSTONE?!"
"NO!!"
"SO WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?!" Ron screamed at them all.
"Die in a group," Blaise said under his breath.
"FIGHT!" Neville yelled, spurring the others to echo him.
"WHAT- ARE- WE- GOING- TO- DO?!" Ron repeated with fury boiling his blood.
The students raised a mixture of muggle guns and wands up at the ceiling and they screamed back as one.
"FIGHT!"
*****
Sirius had moved as many students to the Charms Classroom as he could, but when he heard what sounded like giant footsteps approaching the castle, he knew it was time to swap from defense to offense.
Horace was with Poppy, protecting the students that weren't walking around cursing their classmates. Filius, Aurora, Septima, and Pomona were waiting in the entrance hall. And Sybill was…
"Where's Sybill?" Sirius asked after shifting from dog to man. Sirius didn't expect Sybill to be much of an asset in a duel, but he did expect some loyalty to be shown by one of the professors that lived there nearly as long as Septima.
Filius sounded surprised when he answered Sirius.
"I woke her and she said she would take care of Pyrites," he said. Sirius raised both brows, surprised but too frantically busy to comment on it.
"We stay together," Sirius told them in a rush. "Whatever you can do to protect the castle from anyone else joining, do it now. You can't kill him, we just need him out."
"He's a man and men can be killed," Aurora said in a harsh sneer.
"Men can, he can't, so we stay together," Sirius said… seriously. "Seventh floor, let's—"
There was a scream so high-pitched and pained that bounced down the staircase and Sirius felt it like a knife through his chest.
The students inside the castle were Sirius' responsibility. If another one had…
No.
Sirius looked up the staircase and felt his blood freezing in his veins while he prayed the scream wasn't from a student.
"Go," Filius told the others. He waved his wand above his head in a circle that slowly grew outward and Sirius felt the wave of magic that rushed from it. Filius shouted something that had to be Gobbledegook because Sirius couldn't make a word out of it.
"Done," Filius said. He may have been the smallest one in the group, but Sirius would never have wanted to be on the other end of his wand. It wasn't often that Sirius remembered that kindly and brilliant Professor Flitwick who was so fair and thoughtful was a direct descendent of Dinos the Deadly - one of the most feared goblins in history - but he saw it then.
Sirius nodded and counted on Filius to pair with him just before he phased back to Padfoot and began sprinting up the staircase. The stairs had frozen at Sirius' prior command, one of the extremely few perks of being Headmaster, and Sirius tried to move as quickly as he could.
Which would be when - bang, bang, bang, bang - the stairs filled with smoke and Sirius could smell blood through his snout.
Do not let another student die today…
*****
Ron, Neville, and Parvati led the charge out of the Hidden Room while Blaise, Padma, and Saphhire took the back and made sure the door was closed behind their group so the room was inaccessible again.
The youngest of their group, Blue's niece, Blakely, was sandwiched between the Creevey brothers and Ron could hear her teeth chattering in fear.
Ron couldn't let his fear for the others stop him. He already lost Draco - the Malfoy boy - losing anyone else was unthinkable. Ron would protect them, he would find Ginny, he would find Draco's… Draco's body.
And then Ron could give in to the pain that he was ignoring.
The students stepped out in the corridor and the very first thing Ron saw was a body that looked too small, too peaceful. Ron's lungs quit working and the strangled sound of horrible pain had to come from him, but he couldn't even think clearly.
Ron's face was frozen in a silent scream when the cold words he heard in the mirror became true to his eyes.
Draco's dead body laid on the floor like a discarded piece of rubbish. Ron's best mate just laid on the floor as if he wasn't important, as if he wasn't the most important person in the world.
Ron couldn't look away from Draco's face that was slack with peace and he missed what triggered someone to fire a bullet, but he finally reminded himself of what he had to do when a second and third gunshot followed the first.
It was as if everything had been silenced and then abruptly unsilenced—
"COWARD!"
"THIS IS FOR TRENT!!"
"DRACO WAS TWICE THE MAN YOU'LL EVER BE!"
The students were screaming and standing in a tight group as they fired spells and bullets alike toward a lone figure at the end of the corridor. Blaise had his face twisted in agony while a steady stream of red and green spells flew from his wand without a single word being spoken. Neville stood in front of Blakely and had her body entirely shielded while he worked to keep shimmering purple shields in between their group and the figure.
"Nev!" Ron caught Neville's attention for a brief moment and he saw the sweat pooling on Neville's forehead already from the effort to keep everyone shielded. "Ginny," he said as a simple one-worded explanation.
Neville nodded jerkily. "Take Draco," he said. "Find Sirius, call for Harry."
Ron ducked out from the group when Neville turned back toward the figure advancing on them. Before he took off down the corridor to find his sister, get reinforcements, Ron had to make sure Draco wasn't trampled.
"Accio Draco."
Draco would never forgive Ron if Ron let his body be dirtied and degraded.
*****
Sirius passed Ron as the poor boy ran down the corridor with Draco's body thrown over his shoulder. It had to be a heavy burden - physically and emotionally - but Ron ran with his jaw set and his eyes forward.
Ron Weasley would have made an excellent Gryffindor, in Sirius' opinion.
"Ginny's in the charms classroom," Sirius yelled at Ron's back when the boy didn't so much as slow down. Sirius had to assume he was looking for his sister with that kind of intensity. "Take Draco to my office, call for reinforcements."
Ron didn't say anything so Sirius had to hope he heard him. Sirius didn't have time to send so much as a patronus to Severus or Tonks, not when a full blown battle was happening in his halls.
There was thick smoke filling the corridor that made Sirius' nose curl and his mind to struggle and place the scent. It was acidic and foul, but just familiar enough for Sirius to attribute the scent to something Harry occasionally had on him.
Gunpowder, probably.
Through the smoke that filled the corridor, Sirius could see flashes of colored spells that bounced off walls and sent dust from bricks flying through the air. The screams that accompanied the sound of gunfire weren't spells, but calls for blood.
"YOU'RE NOT FOOLING ANYONE! WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE!"
"YOUR DAD WAS A MUGGLE, JUST LIKE MINE!"
"TRENT DESERVED TO LIVE!"
Sirius felt his chest swelling with pride when he saw a group of a dozen students from all different houses standing against Voldemort himself. They weren't cowed, they were pissed.
It was a beautiful moment, truly. Those students didn't care about blood or houses. There were two girls holding hands and firing spells and bullets alike toward Voldemort, one with a Gryffindor scarf and another with a Slytherin headband.
Sirius had never seen a show of camaraderie, support, and power before in his life.
He also had no time to truly admire the moment because the Minister was returning their spells and curses as easily as he dodged them and Sirius would not let another student die under his watch.
Neville and Blaise stood in the front of the group - between those students lives and their deaths - and Sirius put himself between them and the Minister.
Sirius Black had been called a lot of things in his life, but he had never been accused of being a shoddy duelist. What Sirius lacked in raw power, he made up for with a creativity that few bothered to use.
"You made a mistake coming here," Sirius laughed madly as he duplicated one bullet to become seven and curved them all directly toward the Minister's chest. When the bullets were dissolved to ash and a green curse flew toward Sirius, Sirius summoned a piece of broken brick and stretched it to become a wall to take the curse.
The wall exploded in a spray of red brick and Sirius heard a grunt of pain from one of the boys behind him, but he couldn't spare a look for their safety.
Better to be hit by a brick than the killing curse that the Minister used freely.
"You make the mistake in opposing me," Voldemort said with a calm that only served to enrage Sirius more. "It's not too late to join me, you would hardly be the first Black to be in my service."
Sirius knew he was mocking him, referring to all the Black's that had taken his mark. But Sirius knew what Voldemort didn't- Reggie died to take him down. Bellatrix was killed by Harry. Narcissa defected.
The Black legacy wasn't in serving a mad man but in doing right thing in the end. Of course, the right thing for Bella had absolutely been to die.
Crazy bitch.
"I'd rather be dead," Sirius snarled. He sent water that was frozen as knives at Voldemort's face and smirked to himself when the mad bastard was unable to curse Sirius as he had to block his attack.
Sirius pushed toward Voldemort in a delicate dance to lead him further from the children that were still fighting. That was all dueling was, really, a complicated dance that Sirius had long since perfected. When Sirius had pushed him nearly toward the back staircase, he finally saw from the corner of his eyes what Filius had done.
A storm of suits of armor charged up the staircase and half of them began striking out at Voldemort with spiked maces and swords while the other half made up a line behind Sirius to protect the students.
While Voldemort struck out at the suits of armor that refused to fall even without heads or limbs, Filius threw himself in the fight. Filius moved his wand with feral slashes that guided the knights like puppets on a string to close in on Voldemort and continue their attacks.
"Hagrid has acromantula guarding the grounds from incomers," Filius told Sirius quickly, never pausing in his movements. "Aurora and Pomona are destroying the wards."
"If we're alive in the next ten minutes, we'll rebuild," Sirius said. He hissed when the Minister sent all the swords toward them and one managed to slice directly through Sirius' shoulder. It was an explosion white hot pain that caused stars to explode in Sirius' eyes.
Sirius stumbled backward and reached up to grasp the handle of the sword. He pulled it out in a quick yank and immediately felt someone cauterizing the wound with a spell aimed between the suits of armor.
When Sirius planned to drive the Minister from the castle, he didn't plan on one of his best assets being the students that Voldemort listed for death. He should have known better, most of them had been trained by Harry himself.
*****
Ron was gentle when he laid Draco on a bed he transfigured from the purple cushioned chair behind Sirius' desk. Ron gave himself just a few seconds to stare at the shell of the best friend he'd ever had before he forced himself to get to work.
Draco looked so young and peaceful. Ron had to hope that he was happy wherever he was. Maybe if the afterlife was real then Draco would be with Ron's dad and Trent.
And one day Ron would join them and they'd fly through the skies together again.
Most of the portraits on the wall were empty, more interested in the fight than the previously empty office. There was only one old white haired witch that watched Ron with sad eyes when he finally turned away from Draco's body.
"You are too young to carry this weight," she said in a raspy and weak voice. "Why do you do it?"
"Someone has to," Ron said firmly. That was the one thing he knew.
If people with the ability to help did nothing then there would be no stopping Timmy from killing anyone he wanted. He took Trent, he took Draco. His snake took Ron's dad. His laws took Hermione. He tried to take Blaise and Harry. He wanted to take Ginny and Neville.
Ron wouldn't be someone that stood to the side while the rest of his friends and family were killed. It was a war and Ron had to be a soldier.
For Dad. For Trent. For Hermione. For Draco.
For himself.
Ron grabbed a handful of floo powder and tossed it in Sirius' fireplace.
"Invisibility Way, Sevvie!" Ron cried after stepping in it. There was a familiar spinning sensation and Ron kept his eyes squinted while he waited to be granted access to Harry's sitting room. Instead of stepping out in the familiar home, Ron was ejected on his arse right back in Headmaster's office.
Ron felt panic fluttering in his stomach at the unprecedented inability to get through Harry's floo.
Did something happen? Were the others safe? Why was Harry's floo blocked?
Ron didn't know the password to Moon Lodge, only Invisibility Way and Grimmauld Place. Ron tried to calm himself and conjure his patronus to send a message to Snape or Harry instead.
Ron thought of flying with his friends, back when it had been fun and their team had been together. Ron thought of playing poker and laughing when Neville had to strip. He thought of Fred's wedding and the dance battle that Ron and the other Slytherin boys had tipsily initiated.
Except Draco was in every memory. Draco was there with his laughter and his sarcastic quips. For the last six and a half years of Ron's life, Draco had been there.
Ron wasn't surprised when he barely conjured a wisp of white instead of his patronus. It needed happiness and optimism to appear and Ron was standing in a room with the Malfoy boy.
"Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, Antares!" Ron said after throwing in another handful of floo powder. Ron had to hope that someone would be at the house his mum stayed at that could get a message to anyone in the gang.
Ron was able to get through that fireplace. He stepped out and immediately found himself at the wrong end of a familiar wand.
"Ron?" Susan lowered her wand just an inch and stared at Ron in shock. "What's happening?"
Ron looked around and saw most of the gang was present, aside from Harry and Theo. Ron couldn't look at Luna, not without wanting to breakdown then and there, though he felt her eyes burning as they stared unblinkingly at Ron.
"We're taking over Hogwarts," Ron told them all. "C'mon."
*****
Sirius could feel the castle shaking while he mostly covered Filius during their duel. He sent a panicked look around the corridor and saw the ceiling was shaking so hard it was beginning to drop dust and stone debris to the ground.
"It's the wards," Filius said as he slashed his wand side-to-side and bared his teeth at Voldemort. Sirius was continuously having to summon various items to block the killing curse that Voldemort was seemingly determined to hit Filius with.
"What will the children do when I've killed you both?" Voldemort laughed and it was frankly horrifying, just a cold and huffy laugh that sent chills down Sirius' spine.
"YOU'RE NOT KILLING ANYONE!"
Sirius couldn't take his eyes off the duel or he'd risk Filius being killed, but he took an opening when Voldemort turned to see Ron rushing at him from up the back staircase. Filius sliced his wand downward, Sirius swiped his to the side, and they both sent spells powerful enough to knock Voldemort to the side and hit the wall.
Sirius rather hoped someone survived the day, he'd like it to be public knowledge that he actually hit the Dark Lord with a spell and nearly made him fall.
Ron had flames pouring from his wand that he flung toward Voldemort, but Voldemort raised a shield against them before they could so much as singe his Minister robes.
Voldemort raised his wand and Sirius could see the exact opening he had to kill Ron and Sirius sent a Sectumsempra to his back before he could. The curse hit, it slashed the robes open and Sirius smugly saw the blood begin to pour on the floor.
"I will burn this entire castle to the damned ground before you hurt another of my students," Sirius snarled when the Minister whipped around to face him. Sirius knew his eyes were burning with a touch of absolute madness, but he didn't care.
There would be no more dead students as long as Sirius was Headmaster of Hogwarts.
*****
Ron was ready to die.
He wasn't mad, he wasn't suicidal, he didn't want to die (did he?), but he was ready to.
Ron planned on attacking Timmy with Flitwick and Sirius and he planned on going down fighting, just like Draco and Trent.
What Ron didn't plan was for Sirius to get a single curse to land on the Minister and then to be blasted upward where he struck his head on the ceiling and hit the floor at the same time as Timmy just disappeared.
"What the fuck?" Ron breathed. He'd landed in a crumpled heap on the floor and thought he might have broken his ankle.
When Ron tried to stand up, Flitwick ran to his side and kept him down.
"Sirius, alert the elves and portraits to search the castle. Also, perhaps it's time to sack Pyrites," Flitwick said. "Mister Weasley, don't move. Let me just…"
Ron didn't even scream when Flitwick tapped his ankle and Ron felt the bone snap together and burning heat to climb clear to his waist. Sirius took off quickly after phasing to his dog animagus and Ron finally saw Neville and Blaise at the other end of the corridor when the suits of armor took off at Flitwick's demand.
Neville reached Ron first and he grabbed his shoulder to help Ron get to his feet.
"He left?" Blaise asked. He looked around at the students that still stood with them and at the destruction the duel had caused. "What? Why?"
Ron shook his head, "No idea."
It didn't make any sense.
"I'll go assist the others in replacing the wards," Flitwick said. "Weasley, take your students to my classroom. The door will allow you entry."
"Have you seen Ginny yet?" Neville asked Ron kindly after Flitwick left. He shrugged when Ron and Blaise both stared at him. "If he's gone, at least for now, we might as well gather everyone up."
"Yeah, alright," Ron agreed absently, still confused by the way Timmy just fled. "The gang is in Sirius' office. Nev, why don't you go up there? Blaise and I will take this lot to the charms classroom and check on the others."
"Or you should go to the charms classroom and check on the others and I will go remove the other threats from the castle," Blaise said. He twirled his wand between his fingers and glanced behind him at the others that stayed to try and help fight. "Padma, Parvati, come with me. Let's go make sure Crabbe knows that he's been formally expelled."
"Is Luna in Sirius' office?" Neville asked Ron. When Ron nodded, Neville's face crumpled.
"I'll go with her, you go check on everyone else," Neville said. He squeezed Ron's shoulder and then took off in the opposite direction of Blaise and the Patil twins.
Ron could feel the adrenaline from the fight beginning to leave him. Everything happened so quickly that he didn't have to think about Draco, but now…
"We'll go with you," Colin offered. The others - Blakely and Dennis, Sapphire and Astoria - all nodded in agreement and Ron felt a swell of affection for them.
They didn't run when the fight started, they stayed with their weapons drawn and fought.
"Let's go then," Ron said. As soon as he saw that Ginny was safe, the castle was secure, then he could go curl up somewhere and scream until his lungs collapsed and his body ached as much as his heart did.
*****
Sirius left Pyrites' office a little bloodied and mostly satisfied. Sybill had already beaten the bloke half to death, Sirius merely finished the job.
Pomona was leading the charge around the grounds as the professors destroyed the prior wards and began applying new ones. Sirius could see Remus, Severus, Tonks, Bill, and Molly all out on the grounds assisting them. Hagrid had his creatures all lined up on the outside of the school, protecting the castle with acromantula, centaurs, and a giant, it seemed like.
Where Hagrid found a giant to help guard the castle, Sirius would never know and he wasn't certain that he even wanted to know.
Voldemort had vanished, as far as Sirius could tell. None of the portraits or elves could find him and Sirius had ran laps up and down all the floors trying to find him without any results. If they could reapply the wards quickly, perhaps Sirius had a chance to keep Hogwarts safe as an outside entity from the war.
"Quit looking smug, Sirius, it doesn't suit you."
Sirius looked over and saw Minnie in a portrait with a drunk old wizard snoozing on the back of a horse. Minnie had a smirk of her own though, so Sirius figured he wasn't the only one feeling satisfied.
"He's gone, they're putting down new wards, and all those kids he planned to kill are fine," Sirius said cheerily. "I think I've got plenty to be smug about."
"Mm, your cousin is in your office with her son's body," Minnie reminded Sirius. It felt like a bucket of icy water being dumped on Sirius' head, how could he have forgotten? In the rush of the duel and the need to secure the castle afterward, Sirius forgot about his little cousin and Cissa's heartbreak.
"Fuck," Sirius breathed. He needed to get his spy out of the Ministry and he needed to be with his family.
"You are the Headmaster, Sirius, as absurd as the notion is, watch your language," Minnie scolded him. "Go now, quickly. I'll meet you up there."
Sirius nodded and shifted to Padfoot so he could move more quickly through the castle.
As quiet as it had been earlier, the castle was alive with noise once again. It wasn't laughter or light-hearted banter, but stammered questions and quiet cries from the children huddled around the corridors that tried to make sense of what had happened.
There would be a time that Sirius would need to address all the students and encourage them to stay strong as they reinforced the castle as a safe place during the war, but there were other things he had to take care of first.
Sirius heard Cissa's cries before he even entered his office. They were heartbreaking and agonizing wails of a woman who lost her only child. They brought Sirius back to the summer before, when he mourned the child he thought would be his son.
It was unfair for a war to take so many children, but Sirius supposed war wasn't meant to be fair.
Sirius felt as if he'd aged twenty years as he slowly walked up the spiral stairs to his office. He could feel the weight of every student's life on his back and the hole in his chest from the student he failed.
And as horrible as Sirius expected the scene within his office to be, it was twice as bad.
Cissa was on her knees with Lucius wrapped around her, sobbing and screaming Draco's name. Lucius looked shell shocked, probably wondering how his only child came to be an empty husk on the floor. The Malfoy's were terrible to look at, but little Luna Lovegood was worse.
Luna sat on the floor beside Draco's head and stroked his soft blonde hair repeatedly while she whispered pleas and promises.
"Please wake up, Draco," Luna whispered. "Please. Please. I need you and you need me. Draco, please. Just wake up. If you wake up, we'll leave. I promise, we can go."
Susan stood behind Luna with Charlie Weasley holding her. The two of them watched Luna with silent tears dripping down their faces.
As Sirius couldn't bear the sight of so much pain in one room, he moved to his fireplace and threw a handful of floo powder in before stepping inside of it.
"Percy Weasley's flat, password Curium."
Sirius couldn't protect Draco, he was gone. But Sirius needed to get Percy and drag him back to the castle. It was the least he could do after Percy informed him of the list of students in time to save almost all of them.
All but the one.
*****
"RON!"
As soon as Ron stepped in the charms classroom, he was attacked by a streak of red-hair that seemed intent on squeezing the air from his lungs. Ron immediately buried his nose in Ginny's hair and just inhaled the floral scented proof that his mum wouldn't have to bury one of her kids.
"I'm sorry!" Ginny wailed while she hugged Ron. "It's- I know you love him- Malfoy. I'm so sorry! I couldn't- there wasn't anything I could do- he- he told me to run!"
Ron closed his eyes tightly and tried to picture what happened.
"Draco told you to run?" Ron asked hoarsely. He could see Draco in his mind, standing tall and acting like the Gryffindor he always accused Ron of being. They probably ran in the corridor, saw Timmy, and Draco tried to hold him off so Ginny could escape.
Draco probably did it for Ron, that rat bastard.
"He did." Ginny looked up at Ron with teary brown eyes that looked so much like their mum's. "I'm sorry, Ron. I'm so sorry."
Ron never could have chosen between his sister and Draco, never. Ginny was a twit, but she was also the little girl that made mud pies in the garden with Ron while their siblings were gone. Ginny was the one Ron used to play catch with and hide-and-seek in the woods.
Ginny was the little red-headed baby that used to hold Ron's pinky finger when he tried to teach her to walk. She was the little brown eyed girl that ran to Ron with a scraped knee that she needed him to kiss the pain away for her.
Ginny was a piece of Ron, but so was Draco.
"It's okay." Ron pressed a firm kiss to the top of Ginny's head and felt his eyes watering up. "I'm glad you're safe."
Ginny held Ron and the two of them stood there like that for a long moment, just relieved to still have the other one around. Ginny would never understand why Ron stayed in the gang, she didn't understand him at all, but he didn't understand her either. They didn't need to understand each other to love the other.
"I need to go," Ron eventually said. He could feel the loss of Draco like a hole in his chest and Ron wasn't going to breakdown in front of twenty some odd students.
"You-Know-Who is gone," Ron told them all as he gently removed Ginny from himself. "Go to your common rooms until someone fetches you. If you need food, call for the elves."
"Where are you going?" Daphne asked. She had been quietly standing behind Ginny with her arm around her sister while they watched Ron and Ginny reunite.
"There's something I need to do," Ron lied. He scrubbed his face with his palms and then tried to force himself to look like someone on a mission. "I'll catch up with you all later."
When Ron turned to leave - just to find a single quiet place to himself - Daphne fell in step beside him.
"I'd like to be alone," Ron said coolly without looking at her.
"I know." Daphne's voice was gentle and soft as her hand that she easily linked with Ron's. Ron could have pushed her away, but as much as he wanted to be alone, he also didn't.
The two of them walked like that through the corridors. Ron didn't have a specific destination in mind, but he wasn't surprised to find himself in the seventh floor corridor either.
The corridor still bore all the destruction from the fight, but Ron was as only interested in staring at one spot. There was nothing to indicate anything special about it, but Ron stared at the patch of stone floor and doubted if he'd ever forget who had been covering that spot just an hour or so ago.
"He was just laying there," Ron said in a hushed tone. He stared unblinkingly at the patch of floor and felt all the hurt he'd pushed down for the sake of the others crawling back up. "'The Malfoy boy', that's what someone called him… they left his body on the floor like rubbish and called him the Malfoy boy."
Draco had been so much more than his last name. Draco had been funny in a dry way, and clever. He was a dab at potions and obsessed with creatures. Draco was Ron's best friend and Timmy just killed him and then left him on the floor like rubbish.
"HE KILLED HIM!" Ron yelled. Ron let go of Daphne's hand and spun around to strike at the wall and vent all his fury at the way they reduced Draco to a causality of war.
"HE LEFT HIM LIKE RUBBISH!" Ron slammed his hand on the wall and then leaned in to it, resting his forehead there while his shoulders shook with sobs. "Draco… he's gone."
When Ron began to slide to the floor, lost in all his best memories of his best mate, Daphne caught him and kept Ron standing with a surprising amount of strength.
"Not here," she murmured. "You don't want to do this here."
Ron hardly heard her when he remembered how Draco had been by his side through Christmas break in fifth year after Dad died… Draco made Ron eat and drink, he let Ron use him like a pillow, and he listened when Ron wanted to talk about his dad and all the things he should have said to him.
And now Ron had a million things he should have said to Draco, a million things he should have done differently. Ron should have went after Ginny and let Draco stay behind… Ron never could have chosen between his best friend and his sister, but Ron would have sacrificed himself for either of them.
Daphne practically dragged Ron up and down the corridor a few times before the door for the Hidden Room appeared and she pulled him inside of it.
Ron peered around blearily and tried to make sense of the hazy room they were in. He swiped his eyes with his hand to push away the tears so he could see more clearly. It was the room of storage, where Ron had been when he heard about Draco.
"When my father died, I wanted to destroy the world because it hurt so bad," Daphne told Ron solemnly. She gestured around to all the junk and clutter that filled the room. "So that's what I asked for for you. Go on," Daphne waved her hand out to all the junk, "scream and cry and destroy things. Don't bottle it up, Ron. You'll feel better."
Ron looked at Daphne for a long moment, just appreciating her. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward him, impulsively kissing her just in absolute appreciation.
"Thank you," Ron breathed. "Can you- can you just wait in the corridor?"
Not only did Ron not want the tears that were fighting to make themselves known be seen by her, but he also didn't want to risk hurting her.
There were enough hurt people inside the castle.
"Of course," Daphne agreed. "I'll guard the door so you can have privacy."
Ron waited until the door closed behind Daphne to let out the scream that had been trapped in his chest for hours.
The Malfoy boy.
Draco Malfoy was so much more than that and Ron swore that he would dedicate the rest of his life to making sure everyone knew it.
*****
When night began to fall on the castle, Sirius had called for all the students, staff, and guests from Harry's gang to meet in the Great Hall.
Sirius stood at the head of the hall and looked around at everyone solemnly. Ron stood with his family and Sirius had never seen him so broken, so utterly devastated. Luna was being held by Cissa, the two witches clutched each other like their only remaining link to the love they lost.
There were others too - Severus and Tonks, Remus and his pack. Bill Weasley had his brother Percy attached to his side, a welcomed prodigal Weasley once Sirius told them who it was that saved so many lives. Blue Ritters and his sister were sandwiched on either side of Blakely and Blue didn't have enough words of gratitude to give Percy for the warning, Ron for protecting Blakely, and Sirius for calling for him.
The professors stood behind Sirius in a solemn line. They had worked their arses off to safe guard the castle and the students that day and Sirius was proud to be one of them.
"Until the end of this war, I want it to be known that Hogwarts is no longer under any outside ruling," Sirius said. His voice was heard clearly through the hall as quiet as the others were. "As long as I'm Headmaster of these halls, anyone inside this castle will be given safety."
Sirius wasn't planning a grand speech, he just needed to say something to assure everyone that Hogwarts was a place where they could be safe. Nobody would be arrested, the Minister couldn't bring his Death Eaters on the grounds. Between Severus, Filius, and Minnie shouting instructions from a portrait, the wards had been reconfigured to do the one thing that they should have always done-
Keep the students safe.
There was a single person clapping, Minnie from her portrait that Pomona had propped against her legs, and then the clapping slowly spread through the hall until Sirius was tearing up at the ovation from the others.
Remus caught Sirius' eye in the crowd and he smiled warmly at him while he clapped.
'You're amazing,' Remus mouthed.
Sirius shook his head in denial. If he had been amazing, Draco wouldn't have died. But… Sirius looked around at the hundreds of people that filled the hall and felt for the first time as if he could see a tiny silver lining.
Draco's death was unfair, uncalled for, and a terrible loss to so many people. But it had also brought all the people in the castle together as a single group against Voldemort.
There had been no silver lining for Sirius when he lost the boy who was meant to be his son, he just hoped his cousin could see what Draco did for the others one day.