Call me crazy, but Voldemort really needed an upgrade security-wise. None of the Death Eaters who came across my way were immediately down with one Expelliarmus charm. I was proud of myself for doing something such as this. It felt like breaking rules, however, for the greater good. The 'Order', which I later found out was a resistance force against you know who, collectively agreed to meet at the entrance of the Great Hall. We ought to have entered the hall any time now, so I was tipsy. What if something goes wrong? What if Snape escapes? What if something bad happens? What if the Dark Lord shows up?

Multiple questions like this questioning the ingenious plan were circling around in my brain. I was exhausted from just thinking. However, my thread of thought was finally cut off by a ginger woman with the nicest smile tapping on my shoulder implying to stay concentrated. I nodded trying to keep my fast-beating heart in check. There is no denying I was yet again very scared of what might happen and was overthinking madly. However, it was life or death. Go big or go home.

"It's show time," Professor Lupin whispered under his breath and opened the heavy door of the hall with one swift move of his wand.

All of us entered the Great Hall in a group in front of which I saw Harry standing his wand out pointing at Snape. A beautiful sight indeed; a few more moments in and he soon would taste Harry's revenge for Dumbledore's death. Harry was yelling something at top of his lungs trying to intimidate Snape, however, my mind was too out of it to concentrate. I noticed Snape take out his wand immediately after and point it back at Harry, but fortunately enough, McGonagall stepped into battle herself.

After a few moments of silence standing in a fighting stance, the duel started between the two professors. McGonagall lightly but confidently threw spell after spell making Snape almost lose his balance. The grim man started blocking the attacks taking a few steps back to avoid getting hurt. However, it cost him losing his two oh-so-beloved subordinates: the Carrows. Seeing that there was no way out and that he was cornered, Snape Apparated out of the Great Hall through the window.

"Coward!" I heard McGonagall yell which was surely then followed by a howl of applause and cheers, which soon enough were momentarily silenced by a horrid scream of a first-year.

My ears started ringing and my head felt like it would explode any second. The headache got even worse when I heard a slithery and cold voice speak inside my head.

"I know that many of you will want to fight," I heard the same disgusting voice ring in my ears, and I knew exactly who it belonged to, "Some of you may even think that fight is wise. But this is folly. Give me Harry Potter. Do this and none shall be harmed. Give me Potter and I shall leave Hogwarts untouched. Give me Harry Potter and you will be rewarded."

I looked back and forth to see any movement which was supporting this idea. A few Slytherins were looking at Harry hungrily waiting for him to step out and hand himself in.

"You have one hour," Voldemort finally whispered in a snake-like voice and my ears stopped ringing.

All of this trouble just for a four-eyed geek, huh?

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Long story short, I was sent to look after the Slytherin house since Pansy decided it would be a marvelous idea to step out and tell everyone to grab Harry and hand him into the Dark Lord. Obviously, McGonagall didn't quite fancy this idea and thought it would be best to send the whole house back to where they came from; the dungeon. And now, like a trusty chaperone, I was going after the whole crowd of the Slytherins to secure their safety in the dungeons and keep them out of the fight.

As we arrived at the wished destination McGonagall planned for the whole house, I started to hear voices of complaints and whispering everywhere. The group was divided into three categories: the ones who were joking about the whole attack, the ones who were shivering from the fear and the ones too were yelling at Filch, the other chaperone, to let them out of the dungeon so they could fight. And one of them was Leila.

"This is pathetic, we'll be dead by morning," I heard one voice say.

"They better do something about all of this, I'm getting antsy," I heard a deeper voice say.

"Why did they send us here? We can fight for the love of Merlin!" I heard Leila yell at some of the Slytherins who also shared the same opinion as her.

"Don't you understand? They need Potter," I heard Pansy say cowardly, "If we give them the goddamn boy, we will be free to live a few more years."

"As if living a few extra years would help your pathetic self," Leila snapped back stepping closer to the jet-black-haired girl.

"You better shut your tra-"Pansy tried to reply back but was interrupted by yours truly.

"All of you shut the hell up!" I shouted as loud as I could to grab everyone's attention, "Panicking, laughing, cowering in fear or fighting in this situation will all have us dead in less than an hour."

"As if, L/N," I saw Crabbe say with a snicker in the crowd full of silence, "Go back to Draco, will you? You might be spared like some of us too."

There was a minute of silence trying not to fry this dimwitted pig alive. All eyes were on me looking for a response I'd give to the remark, but I couldn't. I didn't want to seem immature, yet I wanted to punch the guy so badly. Running back to Draco wasn't a part of my plans I certainly didn't wish to be underestimated by some Death Eater wannabe.

The last thing I wanted was to seem immature to the rest of the crowd. I needed as many people as possible for the upcoming battle. Good wizards with a skill level of at least mine would be essential to the outcome of the battle. I took a deep breath trying to collect my thoughts back together.

"Everyone who thinks of themselves worthy of fighting against Death Eaters, step out," I commanded sternly looking at the crowd hoping someone would come out in aid.

There were only five to seven people who stepped out, even so, it was enough. Leila was in those seven, however, I didn't want to face her at the moment. Resolving arguments and clearing out any misunderstandings would be the last thing on my bucket list in this situation.

I was more than happy to see a few more faces get out of the crowd. Heck, even a third-year stepped like a champion. I finally felt like we'd have a chance at overpowering Voldemort's army.

"Let's kick some Death Eater ass, shall we?" I smirked taking my wand out and leading the way out of the dungeons into the battlefield. At the moment, I felt responsible for so much. I was responsible for these people's lives and safety. But I was too confident.

As we got out of the cold dungeon, I led the group into a hallway where all of us split into pairs or groups of three. I was with Leila. The two of us ran toward the third floor where the room of requirements was located. On the way, we felt a huge wave of sound wash over us. It definitely was a sign of the battle commencing. My heart rate surprisingly was steady. I wasn't terrified. Must have been the adrenaline.

I stopped halfway in the corridor where the room was located and took a minute to look out the window to estimate the situation. The bridge blew up with hundreds of Death Eaters taking a free fall to their deaths, statue-like soldiers which I didn't know where were from, were holding out enemies, and students were all over the place trying to defend the castle as much as they could. The sky was darker than usual. Hogwarts was a battlefield. It was chaos.

"Where were you?" Leila whispered looking out the same window and admiring how the protection layer was slowly decaying revealing the enemy's army situated on a mountain nearby.

"Took a break," I replied casually looking in the direction of where Leila was looking, "This is the end, huh?"

"Not necessarily," Leila responded nonchalantly now looking down at her wand, "You know, I was worried sick about you when you left. I wondered where you were, or even if you were alive and breathing okay."

"Am flattered, but as you can see, I am more than fine," I replied looking at her trying to bring out my smile, "Even if I wasn't okay, no one would know. Sorry to burden you by worrying about me so much."

To say there wasn't a hint of sarcasm in my voice, I'd be lying. I was still moody about the whole situation about my friends not talking to me. When I needed most comfort or reassurance, all of them single-handedly left me with no hesitation. All of them left, and even Leila did. That's why I didn't believe a word she said.

"You know I know that tone of yours," Leila responded with a chuckle looking back at me, "I'm sorry for not speaking up or checking up on you. You never deserved it."

I didn't want to talk to her anymore. All of this was too overwhelming at a moment such as this one. Any moment and a Death Eater might have appeared right in front of us and fought like a beast. There simply wasn't enough time to talk or settle things down.

"We'll talk later," I replied harshly staring into the horizon through the window of the castle where I once felt safe, "So, I'll ask you to try not to die for the time being."

"Whatever you say, L/N," Leila replied with the same carefree tone she always had, "Not like I'm planning on doing so."

And the ground below us started shaking. 

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