He fell to the floor with a final cry. It all happened in the space between gasps: one minute the Auror was beneath a decaying black figure, and the next he was listlessly on his back, his eyes empty, his body eerily still. At least the fear in his eyes was gone.

Harry—like many others—had rushed forward as soon as the Auror had fallen back, but he—unlike the rest—didn't stop even after the dementor completed its kiss. He scrounged for a bit of happiness and energy, enough to shoot even a wisp from his wand, but he couldn't find it. He had known this Auror—Stein— since the young man was seventeen. He had watched him grow up. Watched him get married. He'd just had his first child in June. And now...

"No!" Harry cried. His fury was senseless. He shot a weak, non-corporeal Patronus at the retreating dementor; the effort it pulled from him made him stagger. He struggled to produce another Patronus, but the ongoing emotional trauma from the thousands of dementors had worn him down. He ran at the dementor like he might be able to chase it off like a dog, blind in his rage. He'd turned away for one moment. One moment. And now...

"Harry! He's gone!" the current Head of Magical Law Enforcement, Grey, quickly grasped Harry by the arm and yanked him back. "He's gone, it's over!"

Harry saw a flash of black from the corner of his eye; he snapped his head to the left and saw another group of dementors coming up from the opposite end of the hall, towards Ginny and Neville, and they both looked as exhausted as Harry felt. He felt terror creeping up his spine, and all at once, he realized that they were going to lose. They were outnumbered in the hundreds by creatures who didn't tire. They had all stopped producing corporeal Patronuses several minutes ago. They were all in a bad way. Harry produced a wisp and then a flicker. His core muscles were quivering; he was so magically exhausted that it was draining every ounce of his physical stamina, too. Around him, wisps surrounded the occasional meek animal form. The dementors weren't even close to retreating. Harry wanted to give up—he was tired, and all he could hear and see were the most terrible things (his parents dying, Sirius going through the veil, Fred's dying smile, Remus's body, Albus choking on blood). But he was able to dig up a brief flicker of James's first laugh, Albus's tiny hand in his, Lulu's first words. Ginny's smile on their wedding day. Laughing with Ron and Hermione at their kitchen table. It was enough to keep him moving forward. It was enough to produce a proper Patronus. But he didn't know if it'd be enough to get them out of this mess.

They wouldn't even last until the backup Aurors arrived at this rate. And if they couldn't hold them off...there would be nothing between the horde and their children. Unless...

He didn't give himself a chance to think it through, because from the moment the solution occurred to him, he knew it was their only chance. It would have to work. It would have to be okay. There was no other solution. He charged over towards Ginny and Neville. Luna got there before he did and shot off a wispy Patronus. It was only barely enough to hold the approaching group of dementors off. Harry could hear everybody yelling at him, frantically asking him what to do next, even Hermione and the current Head of Magical Law Enforcement. Around him was a cacophony of confusion, panic, and 'Harry! Harry!'.

"KEEP HOLDING THEM OFF! I HAVE A PLAN!" he shouted.

Hearing that he had a plan emboldened both Aurors and DA members alike, more than it probably should have. Harry desperately grasped onto Ginny's arm and pulled.

"Come with me, I need you," he said urgently, and without a moment's pause, she took off in the direction he was indicating.

"What are we doing?" she demanded. Harry led her through the Great Hall doors. She narrowed her eyes. "If you're trying to trick me into staying in here—"

"Do you remember who can produce a corporeal Patronus and who can't? Out of my students?" he asked her. He'd spoken at length to her about his students' progress. Every night before bed he bragged about who had mastered it, who had made progress, and who'd actually had the confidence to try the spell for the first time. He could only hope she'd been listening as intently as he felt she had been. After a confused moment of hesitation, Ginny nodded.

"Yeah, I remember. Why?"

He dropped his hand from her arm. "Grab as many as you can. I'll grab as many as I can remember, too. Meet me back outside the Great Hall doors."

"What?! Harry, McGonagall and Hermione specifically said the children aren't to—"

"We don't have another choice!" Harry yelled. It'd been louder than he intended. The groups of students around them fell silent. Harry saw James making his way towards them from the corner of his eye; his heart lurched, but he forced himself to take a deep breath and refocus his thoughts. "They're overtaking us. I need you to trust me and have my back no matter what Hermione or McGonagall say. My students—they're good. They're capable. Many of them can do this, they can help. Just a few more able-bodied wizards and witches and we can chase them far enough to give us time before the next Aurors arrive."

James reached them. Harry turned to him immediately.

"James, get all your Sevens members who can produce Patronuses."

"Did Nora—"

"No. She and Ben are still out there. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But I need you—no, James, listen, don't do that, don't shut down," Harry reached forward and grabbed James's shoulders. He gently shook him, because James was on brink of panic, his face paler than Harry had ever seen and his eyes wide with horror. "You have to help now or more people are going to die. Do you understand me?"

He'd known all along that his eldest child was strong, but watching him in that moment, as he slowly straightened his posture, rubbed the tears from his eyes, and grasped his wand, Harry felt another wave of pride and affection.

"Get your members who can do a Patronus. Meet Mum and me at the doors."

Harry took off in a sprint around the Great Hall, his eyes scanning for any student who'd even once produced a Patronus. His daughter matched his stride. Harry's heart sank.

"No," he told her, before she could even ask.

"Yes!" she countered hotly. "I can do a brilliant Patronus! I'm extremely powerful!"

"You're thirteen!"

"Who cares?! I'm helping! You can't stop me! You'll be too busy to keep an eye on me—I'll just sneak out anyway!"

He stopped walking abruptly. Lily crashed into his back. Harry turned around, reached down, and grasped her arms. He met her brown eyes seriously. As much as he wanted to yell at her, to make her sit guarded in the Great Hall until it was safe...he knew he couldn't. You have to breathe with them. She would only rebel harder if he tried to keep her in here. She'd end up putting herself at more risk. So Harry went against everything his brain and heart was telling him—and nodded.

"But Lily, you must stay behind me at all times. At all times! Understand?"

She nodded immediately. "Yes! Yes! Thank you, Dad! Thanks!"

As if he'd given her an amazing gift instead of permission to put her life at risk. Harry spared her a brief look of incredulous disbelief and then continued on, grabbing hands and tapping shoulders, until he'd amassed a group of ten students who could produce decent Patronuses. The only students missing were Albus and Scorpius, but Harry purposefully avoided them. Albus was still too weak and Draco would surely lose his mind if Scorpius joined.

They met Ginny and her group of eight at the Great Hall doors. James had gathered five more, not counting himself: Evvie, Louis, Bec Floyd, Clementine Clearwater, and Roxanne. Harry felt a brief stab of sadness to see James standing alone, without Nora. They could've used her, and not only because she could produce a strong Patronus, but also because Harry doubted that James would be much help with Nora gone. In that moment, everything was about surviving.

"Harry, no!" cried Hermione, as soon as they flooded into the Entrance Hall. She probably would've scolded him more severely had she not been struggling to maintain her Patronus.

"Lily, Harry? You brought Lily out here?!" Ron demanded. And then: "Rose?! No! No, Rose, you are not allowed! Hermione! Hermione, tell our daughter she is not allowed!"

"A—bit—busy—right now—Ron!" Hermione groaned. Ron did a double take and then rushed over to help her, momentarily forgetting his previous objections. Harry turned to face his students.

"On the count of three, I need you to do your best to produce a Patronus. Think about the happiest thing you can. Stay behind me at all times. If I say 'go!' you all have to go back into the Great Hall immediately, no matter what. Okay?"

The students' heads bobbed. Most of them looked terrified, but everybody stood their ground, even if their wand hands were quivering. Lily was peering forward intently; her eyes were locked on the dementors like predators lock in on prey. Roxanne had her arm around James. Rose was practicing the incantation underneath her breath; Ginny had stepped into the group and taken Rose's free hand protectively, most likely due to Ron's objections. Luna and Neville had quickly joined in with the students too—a particularly brilliant fourth year, who looked frightened out of her mind, grabbed onto Neville's hand. Harry halfway expected McGonagall to walk over and forcibly shove the students back into the Great Hall, but everybody was too burdened to pay them much mind at all. The rest of the professors, the Aurors, and the DA members were engaged with dozens of dementors, shooting off weak Patronuses, just barely managing to keep them at bay. They didn't have any time left.

"Okay...ready?" Harry said. The students nodded again. Harry faced forward and gripped his own wand tighter. He narrowed his eyes in concentration and pulled forth the memory of Ginny telling him that she was pregnant with James. He locked onto the joy he'd felt, that breathless wonder at the idea that he was going to have a family, a family of his own, a home full of love, a home of Potters..."One...two...three, now! Expecto Patronum!"

The same incantation was cried in dozens of different voices. In a rush of bright light, corporeal Patronuses bounded towards the dementors, in a display so strong it left Harry a bit stunned. Childish cries of 'I did it!' and 'Yes! Did you see that?!' punctuated the successful charms. The Entrance Hall was full of cheers as the Patronuses chased after the dementors, who were quickly overwhelmed by the brilliant figures. The Aurors, professors, and DA members sagged against the walls in relief as the additional Patronuses pushed the dementors from the Entrance Hall and out of the castle (finally).

"Back into the Great Hall! Hurry!" Harry ordered. He felt the first flash of warmth inside his chest since the dementors had invaded, and he beamed at his students. "Great job! Really great job!"

The majority of the students were chattering as they hurried back into the Great Hall. McGonagall and Grey—the new Head of Magical Law Enforcement—hurried over to Harry. Hermione and Ron were off to the side, their arms around Rose, who looked pleased as could be, and Hermione shot Harry a weak smile from above Rose's head.

"The additional Aurors should be here at any moment," Grey said. "It looks like the dementors were chased all the way down to the Forest edge."

"Will they return?" McGonagall asked.

"Ordinarily, I'd say there's not a chance. But I've never seen them act the way they have tonight, so anything is possible. Either way—another group of Aurors will be here to take over by the time they regroup."

Harry let out an audible sigh of relief. He allowed himself to feel that relief in full for a brief moment. And then he remembered that they were far from done.

"Okay. Everybody here—Aurors, professors, DA members, everybody—should go inside the Great Hall and rest," Harry said. The DA members hesitated. "Please," Harry pressed. "We need people in there watching over the students."

Grey nodded. "Right. Come on, you lot."

He shuffled tiredly towards the Great Hall. Harry didn't move to follow. Dean and Seamus hurried over to him immediately, as he'd known they would. James was not far behind them.

"Nora," Dean said tightly. "We have to find her. Please."

Harry was already withdrawing the Marauder's Map. His hand was shaking with exhaustion as he pointed his wand at it and uttered: "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good".

"Help me look," he told Dean, Seamus, and James. Others were joining their group. Ginny, Evvie, Roxanne, Louis, Lily, Rose—soon there was hardly any room to see the map. They examined it in tense silence.

"I don't see them," Ginny finally said. She shook her head. "Nora or Ben."

Dean made an odd sound—like the breath had been knocked from him. Harry's throat narrowed. He forced himself to remain calm.

"Okay. All right. James?"

He looked up at his eldest. James was staring at the map, his eyes wide and damp, his hands clenched so tightly into fists that his nails had broken the skin of his palms. He was still scanning every inch of the worn parchment desperately, as if he halfway expected Nora Thomas to appear in some obvious spot. Ginny reached over and gently wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"James," she whispered.

He slowly tore his eyes from the map and looked to his mum. He'd never looked more vulnerable. He'd never looked younger.

"I...I've got to..." his entire body was quivering now. "I have to go. I have to go find her. Let me—go, Mum, let me go!"

He struggled against Ginny's hold. She lowered her arm, but grabbed onto his hand, refusing to let him flee.

"James, you can't go out there alone, wait a moment and listen to us," Ginny tried to say. "We don't know where she is, there are dementors everywhere out there, you can't go alone, we don't even know if she's still—"

Harry's stomach churned. Ginny reached up and covered her mouth with her hand, but it was too late. The damage had been done. James wilted; he seemed to get smaller.

"I didn't mean..." she whispered.

"She's not," James said hoarsely. He looked from Ginny, to Harry, to Dean, and back to Ginny. "She's not. Okay? She's not. SHE'S NOT DEAD! Stop looking at me like that! She isn't dead!"

Ginny flinched. Her eyes were hazy behind a film of tears.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. James reached up and pulled at his face. His body twisted in frustration. When he began to tear at the already-bloody skin around his nails, Harry knew he'd have to do something immediately to keep James from acting out on his own.

"James, I need you to focus. You know her best. Where would she have gone?" Harry asked. James's lips quivered.

"I don't know," he choked.

Harry pressed on. "Think hard. She went out near Hagrid's Hut to get Ben right before the dementors came out of the Forest. Where would she have gone when she saw all those dementors heading towards Hogwarts?"

"She would've come here! To me," James said, pained. "She would've found me."

"Okay, well, maybe she...got lost," Harry pressed weakly. But his heart was steadily sinking, because James was right. Harry had known Nora since she was eleven. She'd never been far from James's side, and he'd never been far from hers. If she'd seen those dementors, the first place she would've gone would've been to James. Unless she couldn't.

Dean left their group and paced just outside of it, his breaths coming in panicked gasps, his posture tense. Seamus's nose was steadily running, probably from the pressure of withheld tears. A heavy silence shook the group to their cores.

"Is she? Is she...dead?" Lily suddenly whispered, as if the idea had only just seemed plausible to her. She looked up at all of them. Her brown eyes were widened with horror. "Daddy. Is Nora dead?"

That question did James in. Harry was surprised he'd made it this long without succumbing to tears, but then again, there had been no time to indulge their panic earlier. By the time they'd realized Nora and Ben hadn't made it back inside the castle before the siege, they were under attack, and there hadn't been an opportunity to even catch their breath, much less consider a rescue mission. And now it might've been too late.

James collapsed into Ginny's arms, shaking and weeping, his bloody hands gripping tightly to her cloak. He'd picked at his cuticles so much during the time he'd been guarding the doors inside the Great Hall that his fingertips were already coated with both dried and fresh blood. Harry saw tears spill over Ginny's eyelashes as she stroked their son's hair.

"We don't know that," she whispered. "James, we don't know that. If she'd been Kissed, her name would surely still be on the map, because her body would still be somewhere. Right, Harry?"

She said it in a tone that communicated clearly that there was only one answer he was supposed to give.

"Right," he echoed. He hoped it sounded halfway convincing, but the truth was that he had no idea. It was possible the map considered somebody Kissed to be dead. He thought about checking it to see if the Auror who'd been Kissed was still on it (he'd been brought into the Great Hall),but he was afraid to know.

"I should've gone to her!" James said. He pulled out of Ginny's arms and looked at Harry with haunted eyes. "I shouldn't have listened to you and Mum! She could be gone and it's my fault! I sent her out there to get Ben! I told her to go! I didn't know! I didn't know they would be out there! I killed her! It's my fault!"

James was rapidly unraveling. The time spent around so many dementors had surely not helped. Harry handed the map to Louis and walked over to James. He set his hands atop James's shoulders, his own eyes burning. He fought his tears back. He pulled James into a hug, one that James sank into immediately.

"It's not your fault," Harry said fiercely. "No matter what happened—or happens. It is not your fault. Do you understand me?"

"James," Evvie called, firmly and a bit impatiently. James leaned back and looked at her. "Assume she couldn't get inside—maybe the dementors cut them off before they could. Where would she have gone then? Concentrate. Where are some other places she'd think to go? Ben would try for here—" she pointed at a spot on the map "—but if the dementors were swarming the castle so much that they couldn't get back inside, they couldn't have gone there, either. Where else would Nora suggest?"

Evvie's calm tone somehow broke through to James. He took a step back, reached up, and rubbed over his soaked eyes. "I-If she couldn't get here...if they cut them off...she would've..." James lowered his hand and met Harry's eyes suddenly, his widening. "Hogsmeade. Dad, Hogsmeade doesn't show on the map! She could be in Hogsmeade and that's why we can't find her! Maybe even the Shrieking Shack, it'd be far enough away from the dementors but the passage keeps you close to Hogwarts, and we've made a room really nice because we go there all the time to—"

He broke off abruptly. His cheeks pinked slightly. He shot a cagey