The budgie had raced across the kitchen island, wings flapping, as soon as Jessamine had dared disturb the pot of herbs that lived in the center. She’d gone for a pot of violets, but apparently this was his pot. And he pecked at the terra cotta side until she backed up with her hands in the air.
“You win. Your violets.” And happily, he flapped up and nestled himself within the midst of them.
Word spread quickly once it got out. Voldemort and his Death Eaters were, most likely, converging on Hogwarts. In search of Harry Potter. In a last-ditch effort to end it once and for all.
They’d run out of time.
Leon had left his cat at the clinic with Joe. There was a will, left with his parents, that passed ownership of the property on to his family, as well as of his cat, though Leon suspected Apollo would go to whomever he chose. With that taken care of, there was one more place he had to go.
He let himself into her flat without knocking -- there was no time, he kept telling himself, there was no time. She had to know, first. Her sister would be joining her friends at the school, too, and Leon didn’t want to go without at least saying goodbye. “Jess?”
As soon as Leon passed through the ward, the little charm on her bracelet had warmed, alerting her to another presence. And instead of feigning surprise, she felt the icy slick of anxiety clink down her spine when she heard the tone of his voice. The bird -- her plans -- forgotten. She turned to Leon with a furrowed brow.
“In the kitchen.”
The first thing he did when he got to the kitchen was take her face in his hands and kiss her. Toot had come over to say hello, but Leon ignored the bird, ignored his chirp. He knew he’d feel bad when Toot started chirping his unhappiness at them, but he couldn’t stay long.
“I came to…” Say goodbye. “Something's happened. They’re going to attack the school.”
This was what she dreaded. Leon and Alicia both, throwing themselves at sociopaths and murderers, because they couldn’t keep their heads down. Because they believed in fighting. And losing either one of them wasn’t an option. She wrapped a strong grip about his wrists.
“When?”
“I don’t know exactly,” he answered, his voice trembling a little. “Soon. I have to try to help. I just wanted to see you first.”
“ … obviously I’m coming too,” she said after a moment, in which she buried her face in the broad span of his chest. She wasn’t going to fight. But she could barricade herself somewhere and dole out potions.
“You can’t fight and heal people.”
“What?” Leon blinked a few times, surprised. Had she really just said she wanted to go with him? He grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back gently so he could look at her. “You really want to? This is - this might not end well, Jess.”
“I’m not letting you and my sister die,” was a quiet and firm declaration as she disengaged from him and walked around the island of her kitchen, kneeling to utter an incantation. A cabinet of potions and other Healing supplies revealed itself and she began to pack them in a sack.
“Go. I’ll figure out how to get there …”
Selfishly, he didn’t want Jess there because he didn’t want her to die, either, but he knew he couldn’t stop her. He had to go; he couldn’t really expect her to stay behind.
A part of him was glad, too. They wouldn’t be entirely alone. Alicia would have her sister nearby, no matter what happened.
He stepped over to help her. “I’ll take you. I have everything I need,” he explained, nodding towards the bag he’d left sitting on the floor. “I know how we can get in.”
“That works.” She stuffed several more ingredients into her bag along with gauze, tape and scissors. Then, standing, she considered the little budgie in his pot of violets and walked over to open the window.
“ … I understand if you’re not here,” she told him. Then, back to Leon. “Let’s go.”
“I know that you are preparing to fight.
Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood.
Give me Harry Potter and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded.
You have until midnight.”
Katie Bell & Aberforth Dumbledore
“Albus wouldn’t bloody take hostages,” Aberforth spat bitterly, recalling the words Harry Potter had told him a few moments earlier as he trudged through the Entrance Hall towards the front doors. He was going to man the front line and help set up. That was his place in this fight, against the toughest of the tough in the Death Eaters’ ranks so that others didn’t have to cross wands with them.
As himself, now, sans glamour. He’d had more than enough of pretending he wasn’t actively fighting them, and this seemed to be it one way or another.
Katie had stolen away from the others, briefly, just needing a moment to gather her thoughts before whatever fight was going to happen. She was sat perched on some stairs at one end of the Entrance Hall, quickly regretting her choice to stray away from her friends. She was much better around people than being by herself, especially in moments of stress. She looked up as she spotted Aberforth walking towards the doors. Maybe she could join him instead.
She took the stairs two at a time in an effort to catch up with him. “Hey! Hey, Abe!” Katie called out to get his attention.
The aged wizard flicked his wand at the giant oak door, and it groaned open just as Katie called him. He turned, glaring, but then softened when he saw who it was. Fine. She’d wormed her way into his heart. “Bell,” he greeted gruffly despite that moment of sentimentality, “You ready?”
Katie shrugged, which seemed more like a nervous twitch of her shoulders that betrayed her feelings on the matter a little more than she would've liked. Was she supposed to be ready? This kind of fear didn't feel like anything else she'd experienced before. “Should I feel ready?”
Giving her a scrutinizing once-over, Aberforth’s demeanor changed some. “Yeah, somewhat,” said Aberforth because that was the truth. “Ain’t exactly a thing you can feel completely ready for. You just gotta get yourself in a determined mindset.”
Determination was something that she could do. “Then I'm ready,” Katie answered him. “You? Are you going outside?”
“Remember what’s at stake and use that to drive you,” he reminded her, not buying how ready she professed to be. This was very likely to be it; Potter seemed to want to dig in here for whatever reason. “I’m gonna go outside, yeah, and I’ll be wherever they try to attack en masse. I’m going to be at the front.”
She was good at being single-minded, and the thought of her friends and family needing her was often just the impetus she needed. Katie’s nod was a little surer than she felt, but it was some kind of move in the right direction. “Can I come with you?”
Aberforth clasped an aged hand on her shoulder and give her the smallest of smiles. “Course. Come help me mess them up, yeah?”
Katie smiled in response to his own smile, and almost forgot where she was and what was coming. “Gosh, old man, don’t get all emotional on me,” Katie joked lightly, rolling her eyes and grinning at him.
“Oh shut up,” Aberforth retorted at the mention of getting emotional, and used that hand to give her a light shove out towards the courtyard.
Angelina Johnson & Fred Weasley
It was getting closer to midnight and Fred needed to make his way from the Great Hall to help guard the castle. He was still all confidence, smiles and jokes, trying to keep everyone’s mood up before shit started going down, but even he couldn’t ignore the nervous knot starting to form in his stomach as the reality of the situation began to sink in. There was someone who always made him feel better though.
“Hey,” he sidled up to Angelina, hand finding hers immediately. “Ready to kick some Death Eater ass?”
“As I’ll ever be,” Angelina said, shifting closer to Fred, giving his hand a squeeze. She felt about the same as he did and was doing mostly an okay job at ignoring her own nervous knot, but a glance at her lockscreen told her just how close to midnight it really was.
After a deep breath and roughly stowing her mobile away in her pocket, she turned a grin on him. “Bet I can kick more Death Eater ass.”
“You’re on,” Fred grinned back. “Loser has to do the laundry for the next month.”
“Laundry?” she asked, wrinkling her nose at him.
“Yep,” Fred replied, still not over his mum making him do the laundry. “I’ll bring all my laundry over to yours and Al’s new place since we won’t have to be in hiding anymore.”
The thought of not being in hiding anymore brought an easier smile to Angelina’s face. “That sounds fair. So I’ll just bring all of my laundry to you and George’s new shop?”
“Are you trying to scare away our customers?”
Angelina laughed and nudged Fred in the side with her elbow. “My laundry’s not that scary!” She paused, though. “Although, wait, I’ll be playing quidditch again…”
Fred’s eyes brightened, the reality that they could have the shop and quidditch career back soon suddenly sinking in. “Finally,” he teased, his smile falling into his more natural, fond lopsided grin instead of the more forced smile he’d put on for everyone else, “I can go back to being your kept man and you can just buy us all new clothes.”
“Sounds brilliant,” she said with a grin of her own, sliding her hand out of his so she could fling her arms around his neck. She thought about leaning in and kissing him, but she was thinking about something else, too. “And what if we went ahead and made the Johnsleys official?”
Fred raised his eyebrows, hands settling on her waist, the rest of the Great Hall and the looming battle forgotten. “Are you proposing, Mrs Johnsley?”
“Yeah,” Angelina said, nodding. “What do you think, Mr Johnsley?”
Fred’s grin widened. “I think yes,” he replied, leaning in to kiss her.
And suddenly the Great Hall and the looming battle didn’t exist for Angelina either. She had to wipe the smile from her face long enough to kiss him back, excitement drawing her back prematurely to say, “Not it, by the way.” She gave him a quick kiss. “You have to tell your mum it’s not because I’m pregnant, it’s just because we really love each other.”
Fred groaned and made a face, telling his mum suddenly sounding like the worst thing he was going to have to face in the near future. “Maybe we should just elope.”
“Not a chance!” Angelina said, laughing. “We’re having the hugest wedding and everyone’s going to be there or else.”
“You’re lucky I really love you,” he teased, though he was pretty sure his mother would be thrilled at the news. Too thrilled, if anything, and that was the problem.
With another laugh, she ruffled his hair. “At least I’m not making you tell her the real reason,” she said, her tone going teasing now, “which is that we really love cake. I think it would break her heart.”
“But we’re still definitely getting an engagement cake, a wedding cake and the unusual but brilliant new idea honeymoon cake out of this, right?”
Matter-of-factly, she answered, “Obviously. I love honeymoon cake.” Then, Angelina kissed him because of course Fred Weasley could make her happy when they were about to march off to battle, when she’d only just been fixating on trying not to be scared.
Fred kissed his new fiancé(!) back, lost in the moment until a sound from the hall unfortunately brought him back to the present. “Guess we have a battle to fight before we can get married,” he said when when he reluctantly broke away. “The bet still stands.”
“I’ll try not to gloat too much when I win,” she said, throwing him a grin that was a little brittle now that reality had sunk back in. But before either of them could go their separate ways, she caught his hand again, her expression gone serious. “Hey, I —” She swallowed and felt a little stupid, but. “I love you.”
“I love you,” Fred replied, with a rare seriousness. “I'll see you soon.”
“I’ll see you soon,” Angelina echoed, giving his hand one last squeeze before letting go and letting the night take them where it wanted.