Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and Whatnot

The four of us stood outside the Room of Requirement, pacing, watching, waiting. It took about an hour before anything happened. One minute, I was staring at the wall, the next, Malfoy was coming out of a door in it, carrying that stupid severed hand of his.

He saw us, and threw a handful of powder into the air. Suddenly, it was pitch black.

“Dammit Fred and George” I muttered.

Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder. No known spell can undo the enchantment. I’d have to talk to them about who they sell their products to.

I heard the others shouting, trying to find each other, and muttering spells to try and get rid of the darkness. Then, I heard more footsteps going past us. Malfoy had brought friends. I realized why he had the hand then, it gives light only to the person carrying it. He was leading what were probably Death Eaters into the castle. None of us dared fire hexes in case we hit each other.

I held my hand out, finding the wall on my one side, and walked in the direction I thought Ginny and Ron had been. Then, I was slapped in the face.

“Ouch! Ginny, don’t wave around so spastically”

“Sorry Caroline, I didn’t know you were there”

“Hey guys, where are you?” I heard Ron’s voice not far off.

“Ron, hold out your hand, we just need to walk out of it, the powder will only affect this corridor”

“Neville!” Ginny called. “Neville can you hear us?”

“Yeah, hold on, I’m – oof” he walked into me.

“Oh, there you are Neville. Alright, just go forward, and quickly, we need to keep track of them” I said.

The four of us went forward until we reached the corner of the corridor, then we turned and we could suddenly see again.

“Thank God” muttered Ron.

We ran down the corridor to the stairs, leaping down them two at a time. Or at least, Ron and I were. Being the tallest, we were ahead, so I was only hoping Ginny and Neville could keep up. Down another flight of stairs and around a corner, suddenly I skidded to a stop in front of… Remus Lupin?

“What are you kids doing out right now?” he asked.

“Well,” Ron panted. “Harry’s with Dumbledore”

“And he wanted us to keep an eye on Malfoy” Neville said.

“Who just came out of the ROR with Death Eaters” I finished.

“Death Eaters?” Tonks said, showing up behind Lupin. “In the school?”

We nodded.

“We don’t know what they’re up to, but we have to find them” I said urgently.

“Absolutely” Bill Weasley said, suddenly appearing behind us. “Do you know where they went?”

“No, we couldn’t see which way they’d gone, Malfoy used Fred and George’s Instant Darkness Powder” Ron said bitterly.

We kept running in search of the Death Eaters, along with the Order members, and Professors McGonagall and Flitwick who were also patrolling.

It was mere minutes later that we found them, heading in the direction of the Astronomy Tower. They turned as they heard our footsteps.

“Stupefy!” Ginny yelled.

It missed and richocheted off the wall. They held their wands up, ready to fight us off, as we came nearer. Once we were in range, both sides started firing curses and hexes at each other. The Death Eaters scattered and we chased after them.

Bright lights were shooting off in every direction, blasting the walls. Soon we were surrounded by clouds of dust and yells from all directions. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a person make a dash for the Astronomy Tower stairs, but I couldn’t tell who it was and was in the midst of a duel with a stout Death Eater.

“Petrificus totalus” I muttered, and only missed by about a centimeter.

We had to keep ducking stray spells as well as ones being aimed directly at us. There was a large, blonde Death Eater dueling Lupin and just throwing out random Killing Curses.

Whoever had ran to the stairs now came back, but I saw them crumple at the foot, apparently hit by a stray spell. We weren’t doing too well, even though most of the spells were missing us. They were much more powerful, than us students at least, and they had no problem using curses that we would never dare. I heard a voice, it sounded like McGonagall, yell something about finding Snape. If it was to help us, that would be great because right now, we needed all the help we could get.

I stunned the Death Eater I was fighting and whirled around, looking for another target. I gasped as I saw Neville thrown back by the force of a spell thrown at him. I ran forward, ducking under a beam of light that came from a growling Death Eater with long, hairy fingers. Wait, that’s not right. As I kneeled by Neville, blocking another curse from hitting him, I saw the growly one throw off his hood and lunge at Bill. I recognized him immediately, how could you not? Greyback was one of the ugliest werewolves/wizard-ish things I’d ever seen. I didn’t see what happened next though because, as I had been slightly distracted by it, the Death Eater that’d been dueling Neville took the chance to fire at us again while we were on the ground.

“Caroline!” Neville said, pushing me flat on the ground, “Protego!”

The curse rebounded off the shield charm Neville put up.

“Thanks Neville” I breathed, “That was close. Are you okay?”

I sat up again and looked down, trying to see if he was wounded.

He was clutching his side, but he said, “Yeah, I’m fine”

He stood back up and faced the Death Eater again. However, I realized now that we had all been inching closer and closer to the stairs to the Astronomy Tower, and the Death Eaters fled up them, the last one creating some sort of barrier.

“I’ll try to get through” Neville said.

“Wait, Neville, you’re already injured” I said.

“Then it doesn’t really matter does it?” he said, and ran at the barrier, only to be thrown back again.

I winced and Hermione knelt next to him, as he sat up, holding his head.

“It must be cursed” Lupin said.

“Bill!” Ginny suddenly cried.

We all turned to see a body on the floor, a little ways back.

“Oh my God” I whispered, running over to where Ginny had dropped beside her brother.

Bill’s face was all bloody and mangled.

“Is he breathing? What happened to him?” Tonks asked.

Lupin leaned down and checked his pulse, “He’s just unconscious, but he's barely breathing. It looks like Greyback got to him.”

The bastard.

"We have to get him to the hospital quick"

Ginny and McGonagall took him off, leaving me with Ron, Neville, Lupin, and Tonks to fight off the Death Eaters if they came back down.

Professor Snape came running down the corridor then, merely glancing at us as he passed. He ran straight through the barrier, and Lupin tried to follow, but was thrown back like Neville.

We tried all the spells we knew that might get rid of the barrier, but nothing happened. It had to have been not even five minutes after Snape ran through that he and Malfoy came running back down. I hadn't even noticed Malfoy go up there, although I also hadn't seen him in the fight. They were being followed by the Death Eaters, so we let them through and continued our duels with the others. I thought I saw Harry run past at one point, but I couldn't be sure because my view was blocked by that giant blonde one. Most of them were able to push their way past us and ran the direction Snape and Malfoy had gone, heading for the entrance most likely.

We chased after them, but when we got to the doors, they were halfway to the gates and we would never catch them in time.