Harry wasn't much help the next day at the DA lesson as he was still learning reverse shields himself, but by the end of the lesson he felt he had the basic concept down. Neville, who was proud that he'd been able to teach students something they could actually learn, promised to practice with Harry later in the dorms and make sure he was squared away with the technique. It wasn't just Neville and Harry later in the dorms however. Several Boden students had shown up to Gryffindor wanting to practice, and so had a handful of Hufflepuffs. Harry also learned later that other groups had formed around the castle later that day and the next to continue practicing what they'd been learning in the DA.

Seamus had an idea for the next lesson, and the Gryffindor boys and Axle, taught a DA lesson the next weekend on how to make the most mundane of objects explode. Seamus had had plenty of practice over the years, and knew exactly the wrong way to say spells and wave your wand to make a pillow explode instead of levitate, a cup or jar of liquid explode instead of turning into wine, and the wrong potions to mix together to make a really big bang when dropped or thrown. They'd had to do this lesson outside, and though many professors weren't pleased at the chaos they thought they might face in the future with the new ‘skillset' students had learned, Dumbledore thought it was a wonderful idea, and Peeves was having a jolly time zipping around overhead on the front lawns and giving suggestions to students about how to light dung on fire and how to aim for the face when throwing it.

Not every student came to the DA to learn. Harry had heard a variety of reasons why, but he wasn't perturbed because he knew the kids who were coming were teaching what they'd learned to their housemates. Some said they didn't think they had anything to learn from Harry because he was just a kid. Others didn't come simply because they didn't like Harry or his friends, and others still because they were focused on studying and practicing what was being taught in after school classes or just trying to keep up with their normal schoolwork and studies. Harry was certain most everyone was learning though, and that made him feel like they would be safer than they would be without these skills.

The professors who were teaching after school classes seemed to feel the need to ramp up the information they were teaching as well, and although Harry tried to ignore it, there was a rising tension all of the adults around the castle were displaying over the next week.

Madam Pomfrey was dragging random students out of regular daily classes like Charms and Transfiguration to take them to the Hospital Wing to cover more about medi-magic. She also dragged Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Neville out of bed at five one morning on a Sunday and took them to the Hospital Wing. She had breakfast waiting for them, and wouldn't let them leave until they could each identify what every healing potion she had in a certain cabinet was. They each had to tell her what it was used for and how to administer it. It was twenty five potions in all, and if Harry hadn't learned half of them at Gemini he would have struggled that morning as Ron did to memorize them.

It annoyed Hermione to some extent that she was missing regular classes, because going to class was what made her happy. But she along with Harry, Ron, Ginny, and sometimes others now seemed to be excused from regular classes. They were still required to show up to after school lessons, but on some mornings Snape would come get them to teach them a new defense technique or just to practice duelling. Remus would also sometimes find them and teach them something new, or go over things they'd already learned but he wanted to be sure they had down. Even Dumbledore seemed to have some amount of anxiety as the days wore on, and called Harry to his office after dinner to speak to him about Voldemort's mindset, his goals, and the way he might organize his death eaters during any future battles.

"I think it's going to be soon," Harry told Ron and the other boys in his dorm when he returned from his meeting with Dumbledore late one evening.

"Did Dumbledore say something about it?" Ron asked.

"No," Harry said. "But the teachers are nervous, I can tell. Look how they've been pulling us from regular classes and making us cram information."

Dean moaned. "Yeah, I think I've studied enough to pass my NEWTs and then some and we still have a year left for that. I'm practically ready to enter auror training now and I don't wanna be an auror. That's always been yours and Ron's thing."

Ron shrugged. "I dunno, maybe after I play Quidditch for a few years." They looked at Harry but he only shook his head. He didn't know if he wanted to be an auror or not.

"Madam Pomfrey keeps pulling me into the Hospital Wing," Seamus said. "She said if I was gonna teach people how to cause explosions and catch things on fire I'd better know how to heal all the wounds that would cause. I can tell you every potion in every cabinet now. I haven't been to Potions or Divination for almost two weeks." He grew quiet in thought then for a moment and said, "I think I quite like healing. I might like to do that after school."

Finally they turned to Neville, who had been listening quietly. They wanted to hear what he wanted to do after school.

"I'd like to be an auror," he said, and he seemed so sure of his answer.

"Good for you Neville," Dean said. "You'll make Gryffindor proud."

Harry only hoped they would all get a chance to.

* * *

Harry thought the battle he was going to face would start with an attack on the school. He wasn't expecting Voldemort to send a messenger up to the door to knock and ask politely to come in and have a chat about a treaty. That's what happened though. A new recruit who also happened to be a barrister for several old pureblood families was able to make it past the wards that wouldn't let Death Eaters in because he hadn't been branded, and had approached without ill intentions. Dumbledore was as surprised as Harry, and Harry was even more surprised he was being let in on the meeting with this man, the Headmaster, McGonagall, and Professor Snape. Lupin was absent, but only because last night had been the last night of the full moon, and he was recovering in the Hospital Wing.

"What do you mean a treaty?" McGonagall asked the barrister, and the man pulled out a stack of parchments and set them on the table in the Great Hall in front of them.

"A cease fire before it starts," he said. "If you will agree to the terms and conditions laid out here, there will be no bloodshed. The dark lord knows you have dozens of refugees, and hundreds of students and staff quartered here. He does not wish to see magical blood unnecessarily spilled, especially the blood of the very young."

"And what are the terms?" McGonagall asked, but Dumbledore was already sitting at the table and reading over the papers, Snape doing the same behind his back.

After a few minutes, Dumbledore looked up, "He must know we would never agree to such terms."

Snape was handing Harry the papers Dumbledore had finished with now to read over, and he and McGonagall were sharing a page as they read quietly.

"It is our greatest hope that you would set aside your pride and sign for the safety of all involved," the Barrister said stiffly.

"Not of all involved," Dumbledore said, never taking his eyes from the man.

"The criminals will have to be turned over as the first condition of the treaty."

"Five students, three staff, myself, and Florean Fortescue," Dumbledore deadpanned. "Not criminals, and that is not to mention what you plan on doing to the Muggleborns."

"They will be removed from school, that is all. The treaty assures that no harm will come to them. They will be given a chance to leave the country with their families."

Snape looked up and said to the Headmaster, "Voldemort believes he is being reasonable. He also likely believes that when we turn down the opportunity to sign the treaty, and he wins, which he believes he will, that our not signing will bring all survivors over to his side without a fight." Snape didn't even try to hide which side he was on, but given that Harry had just read his name from the list of criminals that was to be turned over, he guessed Voldemort had finally figured out that he was a spy. Harry was surprised to find Luna's name on the list of students found guilty of being criminals against Voldemort's reign, and felt bad then that her starting the newsletter had put this target on her back.

"The choice is not yours alone," the barrister said. "It may be signed by either you or the boy." He turned to Harry, who was still scanning down the ridiculous list of demands, including that the new Ministry Voldemort would set up would be allowed to dictate who married who.

His Professors must have expected him to object right away, because they all gave him a startled look when he began asking questions instead. The barrister seemed surprised as well.

"Is any part of this open to negotiation?"

"No."

"A treaty is negotiated by both sides, not dictated by one side," Harry said, "or it's not a true treaty. Even in the Goblin Wars of 1702 and the Werewolf Rebellion of 1906 the Ministry negotiated a treaty until both parties were satisfied. I'd like to have a treaty with you, but I can't sign it in good conscience without a negotiation, and possibly a mediator who's impartial. Would Voldemort be willing to negotiate so we can stop this bloodshed?"

"I will... ask him," the barrister said, suddenly looking nervous. He gathered the papers and was escorted out of the castle.

"You cannot possibly be serious about negotiating," Severus said, but Dumbledore was smiling at Harry, even if the smile was tired and drawn.

"Very clever Harry. If Voldemort refuses, then the bloodshed is on him."

"Given your average grades in History of Magic," McGonagall said, "I'm surprised you remembered the dates of the Goblin Wars and Werewolf Rebellion."

Harry laughed nervously and told her, "Hermione would never forgive me if I messed something like this up just because I couldn't stay awake in class. Whenever a history test was coming up she'd repeat dates and details to us throughout the day while we were walking to class, or trying to eat, or getting ready for a Quidditch match. Even after school's out for the year, she quizzes us relentlessly on history dates and facts on the way home."

Severus cleared his throat and said seriously, "The castle needs to be alerted and people need to be in place. This is not going to end well."

Dumbledore nodded. "I already sent patronuses off when I saw him out." As if in answer to what the Headmaster had said, Flitwick and Remus came in, Remus looking knackered, and began reinforcing the wards on the tall glass windows in the Great Hall. Several seventh year Ravenclaws came in a moment later to help, and there was a flurry of noise in the Entrance Hall as younger students were being ushered out of the upper castle and into the dungeons.

An hour passed, and no attack came. Messages were sent off to the Ministry, and other far flung places via floo alerting them to an impending attack, and Harry wondered if anyone at all would come to help them. It didn't seem likely. After a second hour, meals were sent down to the dungeons where students were waiting impatiently, and also up to the towers where staff and older students were stationed in case they were needed to fire down on approaching enemies from the rooftops. Harry even had time to run up to the dorms to retrieve his stash of moonfruit from the night he'd come back to Hogwarts and stuff it into his pockets. Finally there was another knock on the great oak front doors. The barrister had returned.

"This is a revised treaty," he said, coming back into the Great Hall with Dumbledore. As they read it over the next few minutes, Harry found that several new demands had been added, including that complete authority of the school be handed over to Voldemort's new Ministry of Wizardkind.

"What about what we want from the treaty?" Harry asked.

"Do you have a list?" the man asked nervously.

Harry did have a list. They had spent the better part of an hour writing down everything the opposite of what was in Voldemort's treaty. He handed it to the Barrister and then Dumbledore said, "The beginnings of a true treaty, if Voldemort genuinely wants one."

"I will see to it that it is received," the man said. He was escorted out again, and Dumbledore called for Harry's main group of friends. A few minutes later Ron, Hermione, Neville, Draco, and Ginny came into the Great Hall and sat down. Minerva and Severus were still there as well.

"It is time that vital information is dispensed," Dumbledore told them all seriously when they were seated around the table. "I believe Voldemort does not believe he can be killed because he has created several Horcruxes."

Minerva gasped and Severus pursed his lips. Harry and his friends didn't know what that was so they remained quiet.

"When a wizard commits murder a piece of his soul is ripped away from himself, and if he wishes he may put that piece of soul into an object. If he is then killed, he is not truly dead, because part of his soul lives on. This is why he was able to return at the end of the TriWizard tournament. He would have had to break one of his horcruxes to use that portion of his soul in the ritual to regain his body. Our sources say it was a locket."

They all looked at Harry, and he said, "I think there was a locket they dropped into the cauldron. So what do we do then?" Harry asked.

"How many are there?" Severus asked after that, and they fell silent again to listen.

"I believe there are three left." Here Dumbledore pulled a ring from his pocket. It was wrapped in cloth and tucked into a cloth bag that was charmed closed. "Do not touch it, it is cursed."

They stared at it and Harry felt a cold chill run down his spine. The hairs on his arms stood on end, and his scar tingled and burned.

"I believe the second is his snake," Dumbledore said.

"And the last?" Severus asked. Harry noted something odd in his father's voice, and that too gave him chills.

"That is to be discussed in private," Dumbledore said, sounding sad.

"So, what do you need us to do then?" Neville asked.

"The horcruxes must be destroyed. Before he is killed, or after, it does not matter, though I believe the first two should be destroyed before."

"How do we do it?" Harry asked.

"You destroyed one with a basilisk fang. Tom Riddle's Diary." Dumbledore snapped his fingers then and the sword of Gryffindor appeared on the table in front of them. "The sword was imbued with basilisk venom during that incident."

"Should we wait to destroy the ring until they decline to make a treaty?" McGonagall asked, and Dumbledore nodded.

"Yes, I believe he will know right away when one of his horcruxes is destroyed, which is why I have yet to destroy this one. I did not want another attack on the castle before we were ready." He looked at Harry's friends then and said, "You have one job."

"Destroy the snake," Draco said, voice flat. Harry could see the fear in his eyes. That snake was big enough to eat a grown man and fast enough to do it without anyone being able to react. The fact that it rarely left Voldemort's side hadn't escaped any of them either.

There was a low rumbling then, and the windows rattled in their panes along the front wall of the Great Hall. "It appears we have our answer," Dumbledore said. There was another rumble, and Harry's gut clenched. This was it. There was no running this time. There was nowhere left to run to, and all the people Harry wanted to run to were right here in the castle.

Severus took the sword and motioned for everyone to back up. He lifted it over his head and swung it down with a force Harry didn't think was possible into the ring on the table. The table cracked under the ring and the ring began to bleed black ooze, just as the diary had bled ink. The rumbling stopped then, only for a moment, and then there was an explosion and the sound of shattering glass. Harry's scar seared.

Severus and the sword were thrown backwards. Harry dove for the sword, but Ron had reached it first. "That's our job," he said to Harry, face hard, and he took the sword from where it had clattered to the floor.

"But-"

"Harry," Ron said seriously, "We've got this one."

Harry nodded and wondered if this would be the last time he'd ever see his best friend. He wanted to stop him from taking the sword, but Draco was pulling Ron to his feet and away towards the Great Hall, the others following after him. Ginny came to Harry though and touched his cheek as McGonagall helped Severus up and the Headmaster hurried to put a shield up over the broken windows to keep Death Eaters from flying in on brooms.

Harry wanted to pay attention to what was going on around him, but Ginny's face was so close to his he could feel her warm breath, and he couldn't look away.

"I might not get another chance to do this," she said, and before Harry could wonder what she was talking about, she kissed him deeply, hands still on his cheeks. At screams from the Entrance Hall, she pulled away and took a few steps back, eyes still locked with Harry's, and then turned and ran after the others. Harry stared after her for only a moment, and then turned and found his father and McGonagall watching him.

"Well Mr. Potter," McGonagall said, flattening the front of her rumpled robes from where she'd also fallen a few moments before, "now you know what the rest of us have known since the day Ginny Weasley turned up at school."

Harry looked at his father, and he only laughed, which surprised Harry and McGonagall both. McGonagall moved to help the Headmaster and several others who had come in to barricade the tall broken windows, and Severus moved to Harry.

"I'm not letting you out of my sight," Severus said.

Harry shook his head. He didn't want to be separated from him; not again.

At more screams from the Entrance Hall, Harry and Severus hurried out to see what they could do to help. Two of the Chudley Cannons were in the stairwell leading to the Dungeons casting a reinforced shield to keep Death Eaters out since most of the students were down there, and Professor Sinistra was standing back to back with Professor Trelawney trying to fight off a ring of Death Eaters. August was on the floor struggling with a Death Eater who had a long sharp blade and Axle was using magery to try to cast the Death Eater aside.

"Aim away from our people!"

Harry looked up and found Seamus and a mixed group of older students throwing burning items at the Death Eaters from the first floor landing and stairwell. There were several small explosions at the Death Eater's feet that made them jump and turn away from the people they were fighting.

Harry ran to help Axle and August and Severus downed several Death Eaters from behind so he could get to Sinistra and Trelawney, who were holding their own. After every curse Trelawney sent off, she was yelling things like, "I forsee your face sprouting up with horrible boils!" and, "You shall meet an untimely demise at the wand of a lovely witch!"

Harry sent a dancing curse at the Death Eater on top of August, and his legs jerked so violently he toppled off of the teacher. Axle pulled the man's knife away from him with a summoning spell and August climbed on top of the Death Eater and began hitting him in the face.

Harry looked around again and couldn't see his friends. The front doors were open and he could hear fighting outside and wondered if they were out there. He remembered running away before and thinking he could lead Voldemort off. Perhaps getting the fighting out onto the grounds wouldn't be such a bad idea. Harry made for the front door but his father grabbed him roughly from behind before he got out.

"You're not doing this alone," he said. "Remember that."

"I was going to lead the fighting out of the castle."

"But not alone." He was given a quick stern look, but Harry nodded. "Not alone," his father reiterated, and Harry nodded again. They went out the front doors together and were greeted with more Professors fighting. Harry was confused at first though, because these weren't Hogwarts Professors. Some of them weren't Boden Professors either. Blaze was there, and so was Iva. There were three or four professors Harry thought he had seen at Beauxbatons, and someone he thought at first was Gan, but was a younger man.

"What are they all doing here?" Harry asked his father as Severus pushed him out of the way of a red cutting spell and ended up taking the brunt of it himself.

"The Headmaster sent word to the other schools that it was time."

"And they came?" Harry didn't understand, especially after his time away at Boden, where the people felt far removed from war and uninterested in it.

"They have reason to fight now." Harry thought that was certainly true after Khar had been destroyed, and both Boden and Beauxbatons attacked.

Harry and his father fought next to each other for several minutes, but despite their best efforts they got separated. Harry couldn't find him again once he lost sight of him. A Death Eater tackled Harry and tried to put his wand up to Harry's throat, but on his back on the ground Harry felt all the new magic being infused into the soil from the fight and willed the soil to liquify. Harry sank into it and the Death Eater on top of him rolled away, uncertain of what was happening. As soon as the man was on his hands and knees in the mud, Harry thought the solidifying charm and was pleased when it worked and the man's hands and knees were stuck in the rock hard mud. Harry got up, slipped twice and then moved off to continue fighting. For Harry, it suddenly became like the fight in the woods at Gemini. Time seemed to slow. He felt pulses of magic around him from explosions and spells zinging by. He saw people casting and falling and dying in slow motion, and as an angry green spell was sent towards his face, Harry stepped aside and let it pass as if he had until next Tuesday to do so.

Harry dogged several more spells and cast a few himself, and took the few spare moments he had in this state to look around himself. He still couldn't see his father, but he saw Ron and Draco fighting a pair of Death Eaters side by side. They no longer had the sword. He found Gan nearby dodging spells with Root and then turning to kick the legs out from under the person he was fighting. Harry swore that Gan made eye contact with him and gave him a nod as he knocked the man down, but in the next moment found himself struggling with a young wizard trying to take Harry's head off with a curved blade.

Harry struggled in real time for long moments with the Death Eater whose mask had fallen off, and then knocked him down and in the next moment had the man drowning in deep thick mud that hadn't been there a moment before. Harry saved him before his head went under and hardened the mud, but also bound him with ropes before he moved away.

Harry heard Ron shout and turned in time to see Draco pushing Ron down as something flaming came sailing overhead and slammed into a Death Eater's face, catching his mask on fire. Whatever it was was dripping down onto the man's robes, flames trailing behind and he was screaming as he fumbled to get them off.

Draco pulled Ron back to his feet and they moved away, not knowing Harry had been watching them. Since when had they become friends? It was then that Harry saw Voldemort, protected by a shield he'd put up around himself and watching the chaos. It was also then that Harry realized what they were really fighting over.

Voldemort wasn't attacking because he wanted them under his control, and Harry and his friends weren't fighting back because it was just. They were fighting because Voldemort had nothing to fight for, and Harry and his friends did. Harry and his friends had a reason to win... to live. They fought for each other. They fought because of the connections they'd made with people from other houses, and people from other schools. It was the friends they'd made and not wanting to lose each other. Harry certainly didn't want to lose his father and brother. He didn't want to lose Ron and Hermione and Ginny. Harry fought because he loved them, and he could stop them from dying at Voldemort's hands. He could give them more days to get to know each other. He could give Axle and his father and mother more time to be a family, and Draco and Ron more time to be friends. Maybe he could even give his father more time to try to make something of a relationship with Adeline. He knew they liked each other and wondered if she was here somewhere too.

Voldemort saw Harry coming. They locked eyes as Harry crossed through people scuffling with each other and struggling to stay alive or snuff the life out of their opponent. Voldemort didn't try to stop him. Harry heard his father shout from somewhere for him to stop, but Harry had one mission now: stop Voldemort from killing his friends. He trusted that his friends would take care of the snake. Voldemort was his job.

Voldemort let his shield down and Harry passed into the unblemished circle of grass that was inside. As soon as he'd crossed that boundary, he heard his father shout his name again and then there was silence as Voldemort raised his shield again, blocking out all other magic and the noise that went with it. Harry turned and found his father on the other side of the shield, eyes full of fear and anxiety.

"I'm surprised by how many have come to support you," Voldemort said, wand at his side. Harry put his wand in his pocket. He wouldn't need it for what he was about to do. "Far more supporters than I brought with me."

Harry remembered what his father had said about not doing this alone, and looking again out at the fighting, Harry realized that he wasn't. Voldemort was right. He also remembered Hermione once telling him, ‘If we don't go with you into battle, who will?'

Harry remembered his moonfruit then and pulled a glob out of his pocket and stuffed it in his mouth. Voldemort laughed.

"You think that will help. You think you have this battle won, because people came to support you." He laughed again.

Voldemort didn't give Harry warning as he ripped his way into Harry's mind and Harry fell to his knees, scar exploding in pain.

In moments Voldemort had listened to several remembered conversations and discovered the truth about Harry's father and brother. "Interesting twist Potter. I'll be sure to kill them publicly after you're dead. Narcissa too."

Then he was forcing his way into the dark calm spaces of Harry's mind and pulling out all the tumultuous memories Severus had helped him tuck away: being locked in the cupboard... not being able to breath under the water... being thrown against a wall so hard his ribs and arm broke on impact... being locked out of the house in the rain for the night.

Voldemort tugged memory after memory out, lingering on the physically painful ones, but Harry wasn't in his mind with Voldemort. Instead his hands were feeling the magic in the soil. The magic Voldemort's shield had been spilling into the soil for almost an hour. The magic of children learning to fly on a broom for the first time. The magic of a unicorn that had walked over this spot years before. The magic of a healing spell used on a scraped knee. Harry could feel it all and it was keeping him in the here and now, not in the painful past Voldemort was trying to drown him with.

Harry wanted vines, and vines sprung up and began to grow around Voldemort's feet and legs and then his torso and around his warms where he knelt before Harry, still invading his mind. The vines twisted and turned and knotted themselves around every inch of the man. Harry pulled the magic from the grass and the mud and stone and felt even deeper for magic that had been left behind long before scraped knees and flying lessons. He found thestrals grazing on the grass, centaurs roaming freely and a long forgotten anti-apparation ward that had since failed. There was an anti-Muggle charm that was pulsing under Harry's fingers as the vines began to tighten and beneath that a ward meant to do things Harry didn't understand. There was a spell to hold a foundation together, and a spell to lay that foundation in the first place. There were four friends making a magical pact to educate young people like them...

Voldemort ripped himself from Harry's mind, horrified that he'd been so entrenched in Harry's memories that he hadn't noticed what Harry was doing to him.

"What is this?" Voldemort said, unable to free himself from the vines, though he began encanting cutting spells that were cutting vines away from his wand arm.

"Magic," Harry said, and he reached up to Voldemort's face and cupped it with both his hands. Voldemort flinched back but couldn't move far enough to get out of Harry's grip. Then Harry thought of cement, and Voldemort struggled harder as his skin began to harden and turn gray. Harry didn't let go, and the gray cement radiated down from Harry's hands to the man's neck, then his shoulders and stomach. Harry didn't look at him. He was too busy pulling every ounce of magic he could from the grounds. Hagrid's hut wasn't nearby, but Harry could feel it, and the magic in the pumpkins and in the forest beyond that, and he pulled it towards him, towards the cement.

"Fool," Voldemort spat. "I can't die!"

Harry did look up at him then, and smiled. Every part of him was cement now but his eyes nose and mouth. Voldemort took one last breath as the cement encroached, and whispered, "Avada Kedavra." Then the man's face wasn't skin anymore. Harry also wasn't breathing anymore.

Severus couldn't catch Harry as he fell. The shield around them fell as the green light from Voldemort's last curse washed over Harry. Harry hit the grass and Severus slammed to his knees next to his son.

"No," he breathed.

Harry didn't respond, and Severus knew he wouldn't. Tears slid down his face. He put his hand up to his face and then to his mouth and choked on the sob trying to escape.

Someone touched his shoulder but he didn't know who, and then knelt next to Harry's body.

"We've got him sir," Ron said quietly. Severus choked again and opened his eyes. Ron and Axle were lifting Harry's body up and handing it to someone behind him. Severus turned and found two people he didn't know taking Harry's body and then handing it to two others. There was a line, and his son's limp body was making its way across the lawns to Dumbledore. Ron and Axle tugged on Severus' arms to get him standing, and began to walk him towards Dumbledore.

Harry was laid gently on the grass in front of Dumbledore, Hagrid, Gan, Adeline and August. Hagrid was crying and August had tears in his eyes as well. Adeline's eyes were glazed over as if she wasn't really there and this wasn't reality.

"What's that stuff?" Ron asked as they made it to them with their Potions Master. "In his pocket."

Dumbledore got to his knees and pulled a purple glob of something from Harry's pocket where it had partially fallen out and quickly shoved it into Harry's mouth as far as it would go. Severus watched, confused as Gan and Adeline dropped to their knees and began digging in Harry's pockets, pulling out blob after blob and stuffing it in his mouth. Adeline's eyes were far from glazed over. They were frantic now and there was a frenetic energy as they worked.

"What are you doing?" Severus asked, trying to get the words passed the knot in his throat and simultaneously trying not to burst into sobs.

"The moonfruit. I assume he has a tree at Gemini and that it grows moonfruit?"

"Yes, but-"

"That tree took up his energy and magic every time he sat there. It's time we give it back to him."

Severus lost count of how many pieces of moon fruit they'd found and given Harry, but after the last piece had been put in his mouth and a spell used to make him swallow, nothing happened. Severus couldn't breath. His chest hurt. This was worse than losing Lily.

Someone gasped for breath and Severus looked to see who it was. Perhaps Ginny or Hermione had finally come down and seen Harry's body. Everyone was staring at Harry though, and Severus looked down and found the boy gasping for breath and shaking uncontrollably.

Severus fell to his knees in the grass beside his son and pulled Harry's torso up to hug him. He held onto him and vowed never to let go again. Tears were still falling from his eyes. Snape didn't care that people were watching, only that Harry was breathing.

Behind him somewhere he heard Albus say quietly, "The last time I saw him cry was when Harry's mother died."

Harry weakly opened his eyes then and looked up into his father's face. "We beat him dad. Together." Then he fell unconscious, and Severus held onto him tighter than before.