Chapter forty two: The Battle of Hogwarts, Part Two

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The daze going on in Olivia's mind distracted her somewhat from what room the Room of Requirements had brought her to. Even though she could clearly see the mountains of junk there was no brain space for her to even register it properly. She was consumed with grief and her whole body shook as she walked.

Her mother was dead and her best friend was dead, only the first of casualties that night. There was no way of telling if anyone else hadn't made it until the war was done with. The sheer thought of anyone else dying caused bile to run up the back of Olivia's throat and her knees collapsed underneath her.

She stumbled into a table next to her, hands smacking hard on the wood to steady herself. Along with it, she knocked a relatively small pile of unused clutter on to the floor, creating a clattering sound as it all went down.

She was sure now, if Harry was in here he'd certainly know that she was.

She was beyond frustrated and aimed her wand at another pile of clutter whilst yelling incoherent words. With the amount of shite everywhere the Horcrux would be like finding a needle in a haystack, and that was something they really didn't have time for.

What Olivia didn't know was that there was six other people dotted about in the same room as her. All trying to meet in the middle to find one another.

She could've been blind and would've struggled just as much then as what she was now trying to find Harry in the depths of The Room of Hidden Things. Flicking her wrist again and listening as more clutter crashed to the floor Olivia collapsed onto a table and cried. The pent up frustration and grief consumed her and she unleashed a scream whilst aiming blindly.

There was another chorus of things clattering to the floor and Olivia rounded a corner to face the person she had been looking for. Her body slumped in relief as she walked quickly to Harry, throwing her arms around his shoulders and collapsing against him.

The three who Olivia hadn't seen, stood behind her, watched Harry with their wands still raised. Although two of the three of them lowered theirs when she stepped in between the potential cross fire.

Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini turned their heads to look worriedly at each other. What an earth had happened for Olivia to be such an emotional wreck, sobbing into Harry Potters arms?

They both looked to Harry, who looked to be in shock as he hugged Olivia. He tried to pull away but she only tightened her grip, "Olivia?" Harry spoke, "What happened?"

"I-it was a-ll so—so quick." She stuttered, "Harry—"

"Shhh." He said, rubbing her back while meeting Draco's intense glare of concern and jealousy, "Take your time, it's okay—"

"—It's not okay!" She yelled suddenly, pushing away from Harry, "She's dead! They're both dead!"

Harry's eyes widened suddenly and he held his arms up in surrender, "Who's dead Olivia?"

Her face contorted into agony and she turned back on herself while forcing a hand through her knotted hair, "My mum." Her voice was strained and it came out as if she was being strangled, "Bellatrix, she-she killed my mum and—"

Just then, she stopped and red seeped into her vision. Her face was void of anything as she latched eyes with a boy she was looking for.

Blaise Zabini gulped under Olivia's harsh glare and while he wanted to say he knew what he had done to anger her, he honestly didn't have a clue. All he knew was that he felt quite threatened by Olivia and her ability to suddenly flip from a crying wreck to someone who looked like they wanted to kill you.

Blaise had made a promise to Olivia to protect Alexis and wether he remembered it or not, a promise was still a promise. So in her eyes a part of Alexis' death was not only on her hands, but Blaise's also. She swallowed harshly whilst taking a step forwards, "You."

Blaise slowly stepped back, lifting his hands in surrender, "What did I—?"

"—It's your fault!" Olivia's voice rose, "You promised me you'd protect her Blaise!"

"Olivia what—"

"Alexis is dead." She snapped hotly, "And you broke your promise."

Blaise's face fell slack as his heart crumbled in his body. His girlfriend, the love of his life, had died and he hadn't even been there to protect her. He had been roped up into helping his friend, aiding the wrong side, instead of being their for his girlfriend.

No one knew what to say and a thick silence filled the room. Between the four boys stood one broken girl and she looked a tear away from passing out.

But Olivia couldn't hold herself, her emotions and the facade of being angry and her face twisted in agony as she looked up to the ceiling wordlessly.

It was foreign for Draco to stand there and watch Olivia cry. She never really gave into her emotions. Since her father died he'd seen her cry four times, perhaps, in that long span of time. It was at times, unhealthy for her to bottle it up the way she did but now she was vulnerable it was all flooding out.

Olivia felt as if time was running with her, it was going incredibly quick although she felt stuck in the past ten minutes of her life. All she wanted to do was sit down in a corner and cry but she couldn't, and she was stuck staring at the ceiling as tears rolled down her dirty face.

With her hands on her hips she turned to Harry before turning to Blaise and then went back to Harry. She was just turning back and forth, pulling her hands through her hair and mumbling to herself. It was like she'd gone mad for a split second but eventually she snapped out of it when she was facing Blaise again.

There was no red anymore and she didn't feel as much anger towards him, which admittedly allowed her to see clearer. So it wasn't until then when she realised Blaise hadn't been stood there alone, in fact he was stood with two other people.

One was Vincent Crabbe, a boy she had disliked since they first met in their first year. The second was a blond she certainly didn't expect to see stood opposite her in The Room of Lost Things. Technically fighting for the opposing side, Olivia almost lost it. Almost.

Although instead of crying or throwing a fit or blowing everything out of proportion, she laughed. It was a laugh of disbelief and quite a sarcastic one. Again, it was like a switch had flipped in her mind and her eyes lit up a fire as she looked up and laughed while shaking her head.

"Your joking." She choked out, "Your actually fucking kidding me." She pushed a hand through her hair and looked to Draco Malfoy with a raised brow.

He gulped. The look in Olivia's eyes didn't make him feel good. It intimidated him, scared him, angered him and it made him feel disappointed in himself. After all the time she had spent fighting for what was good and all the opportunities she had given him to make the right choice, he was there once again making the wrong one.

Although he didn't have much of a choice, he certainly had more of one now than in the past few months. At least in Hogwarts he could fight against Voldemort and not see a punishment. He only faced a potential punishment if Harry couldn't end the war.

Seeing his girlfriend stare at him and express both disappointment and anger made Draco realise where we wanted to stand. He didn't want to chose out of fear anymore and do the thing that was easy, he wanted to stand up for himself and fight for what he wanted.

A world free of Voldemort where he could always be with Olivia.

Although he didn't get a chance to actually say that as Olivia snapped him out of whatever thinking train he was on.

"What an earth are you doing here?"

A light bulb flipped in Draco's head and he remembered that he was retrieving his wand from Harry, or at least attempting to.

"I need my wand off Potter." He forced out after swallowing.

"And the one in your hand isn't good enough, I suppose?" Olivia said, "I think Harry needs your wand more than you do at the minute."

Harry was stood in silence, looking up to a big pile of rubbish constantly, he could feel the Draco's wand in his pocket.

"It's my mothers." Draco told Olivia, looking at the wood in his hand, "It's powerful but it doesn't quite understand me."

Olivia wanted to roll her eyes, she really did but Crabbe interrupted her from doing anything, "Come on Draco, don't be a prat." He told him, leaning closer to his ear while raising his own wand, "The Dark Lord wants them both. Imagine our reward when we take them back with us.
Come on Draco, do it!"

Olivia laughed again in disbelief and crossed her arms over her chest as Crabbe stepped forwards one tiny little inch, "Think of the reward."

Olivia rolled her eyes and turned her back for a split second while challenging him, "I'd like to see you try Crabbe." She snapped while looking at his extended wand.

"Expelliarmus—"

"Avada Ked—"

Draco had listened as Crabbe cast the killing curse, aimed directly at Olivia but he didn't have enough time to do anything. With the amount of adrenaline flooding his veins all he could do was shout as a warning, "—Olivia move!"

Luckily for Olivia, who was frozen in time, Ron and Hermione has been standing on the side while listening. So when Crabbe cast that spell towards Olivia, Hermione jumped in front of her out of nowhere to deflect it.

Olivia's mouth fell open out of shock and her chest began to feel tight. She hadn't actually thought Crabbe would cast something so extreme, especially when aiming at her. She could barely fathom the small duel going on around her but Ron jumping in out of nowhere and charging in front of her really pulled her out of it.

"That's my girlfriend you numptie!" The youngest Weasley son shouted, charging towards Crabbe with his wand raised.

Crabbe, Draco and Blaise has took off running and Olivia turned to Hermione while knitting her brows together, "Girlfriend?"

Hermione went red in the face and turned around to Harry who had started to climb the furniture manically.

"Harry?" Olivia questioned, "What are you doing?"

"The Horcrux!" He called down, "It's up here."

Next to her, Hermione began to climb as Olivia watched from below. Quickly, the both of them got to the top and Harry retrieved the Horcrux, "Got it."

"Great!" Olivia called up to them, "Now get down so we can destroy it!"

The two began their decent to the ground where Harry helped Hermione down safely. When they were on the ground Olivia held her hand out curiously, "Let me see."

As Harry went to hand Olivia the Horcrux shouting from somewhere close echoed around them. It grew closer and closer and Olivia looked quizzically to Hermione, "It's that—?"

"—Ron?" Hermione finished while nodding, "No doubt about it."

"Why an earth is he—"

Ron came into view, running round the corner he had chased Crabbe down. He shouted manically and his face almost caused Olivia to laugh until he shouted again, "Crabbe set the bloody place on fire!"

He grabbed Hermione's hand in a quick panic and continued to run, leaving Harry and Olivia to look at each other in confusion. The sound of something sweeping along brought the both of them to look from where Ron had come from.

Olivia could feel the heat first, it engulfed the area around her and the fire in the form of a serpent appeared a second or two later. Her mouth dropped open in shock and her eyes widened, "Right." She muttered, "Fire."

Olivia pulled her wand out and aimed towards the wildfire, "Aguamenti!" Without a second thought, she and Harry then followed in the direction of Ron. They ran together through the twisted lanes, casting spells to try and deter the fire that was chasing them at an inhumane speed. Just as she flicked her wrist to knock down a tower of rubbish into the fire, Olivia screamed out, "Crabbe, I swear to Merlin if we ever get out of this alive I'm going to fucking murder you!"

To engrossed in saving herself and threatening Crabbe, Olivia found herself no longer following Ron and Hermione. Instead she had taken a different direction and was running directly towards the fire. The fire was made of different animals, a dragon flying towards Olivia and she stopped dead in her tracks to watch.

"Fiendfyre."

She recognised the chaos and the name of the spell as the heat of the flames licked her bare skin. All she could do was watch wide-eyed until her mind kick started again. Almost as if she was pulled out of it, a large jet of water shot out of her wand and towards the fire.

From there she turned on herself and began to run back in the direction she had came from, taking a sharp left when she saw a chimera in the shape of fire charging down. She was running almost blindly through the fire, the smoke sitting on her lungs and the burning intoxication filtering through her nose.

She stopped once more when she reached a fork in the path and circled herself, "Draco!"

Not knowing what to do, she shouted out for Draco once more but the lack of response caused her heart to beat quicker in her chest.

With the fire enclosing around her and nowhere to go Olivia could only shout once more. With one smooth movement, she was being pulled along by her left wrist however not missing a burning sensation ripple through her right bicep as heat swept impossibly close over her.

Harry had pulled her along at the very last second as she yelled in agony, the both of them running at the fastest speed possible to find cover. They joined Ron and Hermione once more as they were cornered from all angles by fire. Still gripping onto Olivia's hand, Harry turned to cast the aquimenti charm as the fire enclosed on them.

The water created a shield between them and the fire and Olivia looked to her newest point of pain. The sleeve and shoulder of her clothes had been singed off and smoke rose from her arm, the area was incredibly red from the burn and she swore loudly.

Hermione ran over quickly to Olivia, "What's wrong?"

"The flames caught my arm." She seethed, "We can't beat this!"

"Maybe not." Ron called over to them, "But we can escape it."

Olivia looked from her arm to Ron to find him folding three broomsticks up. Her eyes lit up as he tossed one over to Harry and one to her. She caught it in her left hand but handed it over to Hermione, "I can't fly it with my arm."

Hermione took the broom and mounted it, waiting for Olivia to climb on the back of it before she kicked off. With a saving grace, the four of them took off and out of the manic fire as it continued to build.

"Come on! This way!" Ron shouted back to them as they flew higher up to escape the growing flames.

Olivia noticed two figures as they flew past, stood on a tower of mess and looked back for a better view. Draco and Blaise were stood watching them as they flew away and Olivia turned back to the group, "We can't leave them!"

"You joking right?" Ron shouted back.

"No, she's right!" Harry shouted, turning on his broom to go back.

Olivia watched from over Hermione's shoulder as the wood underneath Draco and Blaise's feet gave out and the two fell. She screamed in horror, fetching a hand to cover her mouth while watching as they held on to the clutter for dear life.  As Harry reached them, he bent down to grab Draco's hand. They missed the meet and Olivia sucked in an anxious breath, "Harry!"

"I know!" He called back, turning around to try again.

"If we die for them, I'm gonna kill you two." Ron shouted from in front of her.

"Harry c'mon!" Olivia screamed desperately, watching as Draco and Blaise hung on for their life.

With a second attempt, Harry and Ron managed to get Draco and Blaise onto the back of their brooms and she and Hermione took the lead in guiding them out quickly. Olivia could only hold onto her arm as it stung while making sure not to fall off. Hermione created a gap in the fire for them to pass through and continued flying directly towards the exit that was visible.

The doors pooled open and it was Olivia and Hermione who were out first, catching a bump that sent them to the floor. Olivia came down on her burnt arm, groaning loudly as she rolled onto the floor outside of the Room of Requirement.

Once the others were out safely the diadem was thrown onto the floor in front of Olivia.

"Liv!" Hermione called over, throwing something sharp in her direction.

Still on the floor, she rolled onto her back to catch it and eyed it once it was in her hands. It was a sharp tooth, belonging to an animal or creature that had been quite big in size. Her eyes widened as she looked to Hermione, "Where the hell did you get this from?"

"It doesn't bloody matter!" Ron yelled, "Destroy the Horcrux before it's too late!"

Olivia's eyes snapped to the diadem on the floor a few feet in front of her. While hesitant, she pulled herself forwards and onto her knees in front of the Horcrux before lifting the makeshift dagger into the air and bringing it down in one quick motion.

Instantly there was a searing pain in her left forearm and she gripped to it tightly while falling back as a black cloud of smoke began to emerge from out of the Horcrux. Ron appeared in front of her and kicked the diadem away, into the flames taking over the Room of Requirement where it created a further explosion. The fire had expanded into three of Voldemort's faces and charged towards them until at the very last minute, the doors separating the them and the fire slammed shut.

With a deep breath and an overwhelming dizziness, Olivia collapsed onto her back and stared up towards the swirling ceiling.

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I'm incredibly sorry for how long this chapter has taken! The last two weeks have been unbelievably hectic and I really wanted to finish this book right, meaning I don't want to have to rush the last few chapters.

Regardless, I hope this chapter was alright for you all!