The world had ended, so why had the battle not ceased, the castle had fallen silent in horror, and every combatant laid down their arms? Johnny's mind was in free fall, spinning out of control, unable to grasp the impossibility, because Ronald Weasley couldn't be dead, the evidence of all his senses must be lying- And then a body fell past the hole blown into the side of the school and curses flew in at them from the darkness, hitting the wall behind their heads.

"Get down!" Harry shouted, as more curses flew through the night: Harry and Johnny had both grabbed Hermione and pulled her to the floor, but Percy and Fred both lay across Ron's body, shielding it from further harm, and when Harry shouted "Guys, come on, we've got to move!" they shook their heads.

"Guy, you can't do anything for him! We're going to-"

Hermione screamed, and Johnny, turning, didn't need to ask why. A monstrous spider the size of a small car was trying to climb through the huge hole in the wall. one of Aragog's descendants had joined the fight.

Johnny and Harry shouted together; their spells collided and the monster was blown backward, its legs jerking horribly, and vanished into the darkness.

"It brought friends!" Johnny called to the others, glancing over the edge of the castle through the hole in the wall the curses had blasted. More giant spiders were climbing the side of the building, liberated from the Forbidden Forest, into which the Death Eaters must have penetrated. Johnny fired Stunning Spells down upon them, knocking the lead monster into its fellows, so that they rolled back down the building and out of sight. Then more curses came soaring over Johnny's head, so close he felt the force of them blow his hair.

"Let's move, NOW!"

Pushing Hermione ahead of him with Harry, Johnny stooped to seize Ron's body under the armpit. Fred, realising what Johnny was trying to do, stopped clinging to the body and helped: together, crouching low to avoid the curses flying at them from the grounds, they hauled Ron out of the way, Percy mumbling words of disbelief as he followed them.

"Here," said Johnny, and they placed him in a niche where a suit of armor had stood earlier. He couldn't bear to look at Ron a second longer than he had to, and after making sure that the body was well-hidden, he took off after Harry and Hermione. Malfoy and Goyle had vanished but at the end of the corridor, which was now full of dust and falling masonry, glass long gone from windows, he saw many people running backward and forward, whether friends or foes he couldn't tell. Rounding the corner, Percy and Fred let out a bull-like roars: "ROOKWOOD!" and sprinted off in the direction of a tall man, who was pursuing a couple of students. "Johnny, in here!" Hermione screamed.

She had pulled Harry behind a tapestry.

"Go, I wanna help- I wanna kill Death Eaters-" said Johnny, a lone tear running down his cheek as he thought if his redheaded best friend. His face was contorted, smeared with dust and smoke, and he was shaking with rage and grief.

"Johnny, we're the only ones who can end it! Please- Johnny- we need the snake, we've got to kill the snake!" said Hermione.

But Harry knew how Johnny was feeling: Pursuing another Horcrux couldn't bring the satisfaction of revenge; he too wanted to fight, to punish them, the people who had killed his best friend, and he wanted to find the other Weasleys.

"We will fight!" Hermione said. "We'll have to, to reach the snake! But let's not lose sight now of what we're supposed to be d-doing! We're the only ones who can end it!"

She was crying too, and she wiped her face on her torn and singed sleeve as she spoke, but she took great heaving breaths to calm herself as, keeping a tight hold on Johnny's hand as she turned to Harry.

"You need to find out where Voldemort is, because he'll have the snake with him, won't he? Do it, Harry- look inside him!"

With a gasp, Harry opened his eyes at the same moment his ears were assaulted with the screeches and cries, the smashes and bangs of battle.

"He's in the Shrieking Shack. The snake's with him, it's got some sort of magical protection around it. He's just sent Lucius Malfoy to find Snape."

"Voldemort's sitting in the shrieking Shack?" said Hermione, outraged, her eyes turning a faint purple. "He's not- he's not even FIGHTING?"

"He doesn't think he needs to fight," said Harry. "He thinks Johnny and I are going to go to him."

"But why?"

"He knows we're after Horcruxes- he's keeping Nagini close beside him- obviously we're going to have to go to him to get near the thing-"

"Right," said Johnny, squaring his shoulders. "We're not splitting up."

"You two stay here, I'll go under the Cloak and I'll be back as soon as I-"

"No," said Hermione,, "it makes much more sense if I take the Cloak and-"

"Don't even think about it," Johnny said to her.

"Johnny, I'm just as capable-" The tapestry at the top of the staircase on which they stood was ripped open.

"THERE THEY ARE!"

Two masked Death Eaters stood there, but even before their wands were fully raised, Hermione shouted "Glisseo!"

The stairs beneath their feet flattened into a chute and she, Harry, and Johnny hurtled down it, unable to control their speed but so fast that the Death Eaters' Stunning Spells flew far over their heads. They shot through the concealing tapestry at the bottom and spun onto the floor, hitting the opposite wall.

"Duro!" cried Hermione, pointing her wand at the tapestry, and there were two loud, sickening crunches as the tapestry turned to stone and the Death Eaters pursuing them crumpled against it.

"Get back!" shouted Johnny, and he, Harry, and Hermione hurled themselves against a door as a herd of galloping desks thundered past, shepherded by a sprinting Professor McGonagall. She appeared not to notice them. Her hair had come down and there was a gash on her cheek. As she turned the corner, they heard her scream,

"CHARGE!"

Harry threw the cloak over all three of them. The portraits on either side of the fighters were crammed with figures screaming advice and encouragement, while Death Eaters, both masked and unmasked, dueled students and teachers. Dean had won himself a wand, for he was face-to-face with Dolohov, Parvati with Travers. Harry, Johnny and Hermione raised their wands at once, ready to strike, but the duelers were weaving and darting so much that there was a strong likelihood of hurting on of their own side if they cast curses. Even as they stood braced, looking for the opportunity to act, there came a great "Wheeeeee!" and looking up, Johnny saw Peeves zooming over them, dropping Snargaluff pods down onto the Death Eaters, whose heads were suddenly engulfed in wriggling green tubers like fat worms.

"ARGH!"

A fistful of tubers had hit the Cloak over Harry's head; the damp green roots were suspended improbably in midair as Harry tried to shake them loose.

"Someone's invisible there!" shouted a masked Death Eater, pointing.

Dean made the most of the Death Eater's momentary distraction, knocking him out with a stunning Spell; Dolohov attempted to retaliate, and Parvati shot a Body Bind Curse at him. "LET'S GO!" Johnny yelled, and he, Harry, and Hermione gathered the Cloak tightly around themselves and pelted, heads down, through the midst of the fighters, slipping a little in pools of Snargaluff juice, toward the top of the marble staircase into the entrance hall.

"I'm Draco Malfoy, I'm Draco, I'm on your side!" Draco was on the upper landing, pleading with another masked Death Eater. Johnny Stunned the Death Eater as they passed. Malfoy looked around, beaming, for his savior, and Johnny punched him from under the Cloak. Malfoy fell backward on top of the Death Eater, his mouth bleeding, utterly bemused.

"And that's the second time we've saved your life tonight, you two-faced bastard!" Harry yelled.

There were more duelers all over the stairs and in the hall. Death Eaters were everywhere Johnny looked: A Death Eater, close to the front doors, in combat with Flitwick, a masked Death Eater dueling Kingsley right beside them. Students ran in every direction; some carrying or dragging injured friends. Harry directed a Stunning Spell toward the masked Death Eater; it missed but nearly hit Neville, who had emerged from nowhere brandishing armfuls of Venomous Tentacula, which looped itself happily around the nearest Death Eater and began reeling him in.

Harry, Johnny, and Hermione sped won the marble staircase: glass shattered on the left, and the Slytherin hourglass that had recorded House points spilled its emeralds everywhere, so that people slipped and staggered as they ran. Two bodies fell from the balcony overhead as they reached the ground a gray blur that Johnny took for an animal sped four-legged across the hall to sink its teeth into one of the fallen.

"NO!" shrieked Hermione, and with a deafening blast from her wand, Fenrir Greyback was thrown backward from the feebly struggling body of Lavender Brown. He hit the marble banisters and struggled to return to his feet. Then, with a bright white flash and a crack, a crystal ball fell on top of his head, and he crumpled to the ground and did not move.

"I have more!" shrieked Professor Trelawney from over the banisters. "More for any who want them! Here-" And with a move like a tennis serve, she heaved another enormous crystal sphere from her bag, waved her wand through the air, and caused the ball to speed across the hall and smash through a window. At the same moment, the heavy wooden front doors burst open, and more of the gigantic spiders forced their way into the front hall.

Screams of terror rent the air: the fighters scattered, Death Eaters and Hogwartians alike, and red and green jets of light flew into the midst of the oncoming monsters, which shuddered and reared, more terrifying than ever.

"How do we get out?" yelled Johnny over all the screaming, but before either Harry or Hermione could answer they were bowled aside; Hagrid had come thundering down the stairs, brandishing his flowery pink umbrella.

"Don't hurt 'em, don't hurt 'em!" he yelled.

"HAGRID, NO!"

Harry forgot everything else: he sprinted out from under the cloak, running bent double to avoid the curses illuminating the whole hall.

"HAGRID, COME BACK!"

Hermione and Johnny followed under the cloak when they saw it: Hagrid vanished amongst the spiders, and with a great scurrying, a foul swarming movement, they retreated under the onslaught of spells, Hagrid buried in their midst.

"HAGRID!" Hermione screamed in terror, her left hand holding onto Johnny for dear life, her right hand clutched over her mouth. The two began to sprint after a Harry.

"Oh my-!" shrieked Hermione, as she and Johnny caught up with Harry and gazed upward at the giant now trying to seize people through the window above. The Invisibility Cloak long forgotten.

"DON'T!" Johnny yelled, grabbing Hermione's hand as she raised her wand. "Stun him and he'll crush half the castle-"

"HAGGER?"

Grawp came lurching around the corner of the castle; only now did Johnny realise that Grawp was, indeed, an undersized giant. The gargantuan monster trying to crush people on the upper floors turned around and let out a roar. The stone steps trembled as he stomped toward his smaller kin, and Grawp's lopsided mouth fell open, showing yellow, half brick-sized teeth; and then they launched themselves at each other with the savagery of lions.

"RUN!" Harry roared; the night was full of hideous yells and blows as the giants wrestled. They tore down the steps into the grounds, Johnny bringing up the rear. They wouldn't losse hope of finding and saving Hagrid; they ran so fast that they were halfway toward the forest before they were brought up short again.

The air around them had frozen: Johnny's breath caught and solidified in his chest. Shapes moved out in the darkness, swirling figures of concentrated blackness, moving in a great wave towards the castles, their faces hooded and their breath rattling...

The sounds of fighting behind them grew suddenly muted, deadened, because a silence only dementors could bring was falling thickly through the night, and Ron was gone, and Hagrid was surely dying or already dead...

"Come on, Johnny!" said Hermione's voice from a very long way away.

"Patronuses, Johnny, come on!"

He raised his wand, but a dull hopelessness was spreading throughout him: How many more lay dead that he didn't yet know about? He felt as though his soul had already half left his body....

"JOHNNY, COME ON!" yelled Harry.

A hundred dementors were advancing, gliding toward them, sucking their way closer to Johnny's despair, which was like a promise of a feast...

He saw Harry's silver stag burst into the air, flicker feebly, and expire; he saw Hermione's otter twist in midair and fade, and his own wand trembled in his hand, and he almost welcomed the oncoming oblivion, the promise of nothing, of no feeling...

And then a silver hare, a boar, and fox soared past Harry, Johnny, and Hermione's heads: the dementors fell back before the creatures' approach. Three more people had arrived out of the darkness to stand beside them, their wands outstretched, continuing to cast Patronuses: Luna, Ernie, and Seamus.

"That's right," said Luna encouragingly, as if they were back in the Room of Requirement and this was simply spell practice for the D.A. "That's right, Johnny... come on think of something happy..."

"Something happy?" Johnny said, his voice cracked. "Ron's fucking dead..."

"No he's not," Seamus grinned. "He's in the Great Hall, alive and well. Took a nasty bump to the head."

A sob of relief left Johnny's lips as Hermione hugged him tightly, a wide smile on her face.

"We're all still here," Hermione whispered, gazing up at Johnny, "we're still fighting. Come on, now..."

There was a silver spark, then a wavering light, and then, with the greatest effort it had ever cost him the wolf burst from the end of J0hnny's wand. It cantered forward, and now the dementors scattered in earnest, and immediately the night was mild again, but the sounds of the surrounding battle were loud in his ears.

"Can't thank you enough," said Harry shakily, turning to Luna, Ernie, and Seamus "you just saved-"

With a roar and an earth-quaking tremor, another giant came lurching out of the darkness from the direction of the forest, brandishing a club taller than any of them.

"RUN!" Harry shouted again, but the others needed no telling; They all scattered, and not a second too soon, for the next moment the creature's vast foot had fallen exactly where they had been standing. Johnny scooped Hermione and Harry into his arms and transformed into a full wolf. He let out a loud howl as he threw Harry and Hermione on his back and started sprinting away towards the Whomping Willow.

Johnny let the two get down off his back and let out a howl as the giant came thundering out of the forest. The werewolf jumped high in the air, its red eyes set only on his target, and Johnny clamped his snout around the giants neck, his claws scratching at the giants face. The giant let out loud wails of pain as it thrashed around, blue, gooey blood leaving its wounds as it ran down the werewolf's black, furry arm. When the giant fell forward, dead, Johnny shifted back to a human and froze the tree

"Im coming, just get in there!" said Johnny, pushing him forward.

It was a much tighter squeeze than it had been the last time they had entered it. The tunnel was low-ceilinged: they had had to double up to move through it nearly four years previously; now there was nothing for it but to crawl. Johnny went ahead, his wand illuminated, expecting at any moment to meet barriers, but none came. They moved in silence, Johnny's gaze fixed upon the swinging beam of the wand held in his fist. At last, the tunnel began to slope upward and Johnny saw a sliver of light ahead. Harry tugged at his ankle.

"The Cloak!" Harry whispered. "Get under!"

Johnny got under the cloak and whispered, "nox," so the light his wand produced went out. Then they heard voices coming from the room directly ahead of them, only slightly muffled by the fact that the opening at the end of the tunnel had been blocked up by what looked like an old crate. Hardly daring to breathe, Johnny edged right up tot he opening and peered through a tiny gap left between crate and wall.

The room beyond was dimly lit, but he could see Nagini, swirling and coiling like a serpent underwater, safe in her enchanted, starry sphere, which floated unsupported in midair. He could see the edge of a table, and a long-fingered white hand toying with a wand.

Then Snape spoke, and Johnny's heart lurched: Snape was inches away from where they were crouched, hidden.

"... my Lord, their resistance is crumbling-"

"-and it is doing so without your help," said Voldemort in his high, clear voice. "Skilled wizard though you are, Severus, I do not think you will make much difference now. We are almost there... almost."

"Let me find the boys. Let me bring you Potter and Grindelwald. I know I can find them, my Lord. Please."

Snape strode past the gap, and Johnny drew back a little, keeping his eyes fixed upon Nagini, wondering whether there was any spell that might penetrate the protection surrounding her, but he couldn't think of anything. One failed attempt, and he would give away his position...

Voldemort stood up. Johnny could see him now, see the red eyes, the flattened, serpentine face, the pallor of him gleaming slightly in the semidarkness.

"I have a problem, Severus," said Voldemort softly.

"My Lord?" said Snape.

Voldemort raised the Elder Wand, holding it as delicately and precisely as a conductor's baton.

"Why doesn't it work for me, Severus?"

In the silence Johnny imagined he could hear the snake hissing slightly as it coiled and uncoiled- or was it Voldemort's sibilant sigh lingering on the air?

"My- my lord?" said Snape blankly. "I do not understand. You- you have performed extraordinary magic with that wand."

"No," said Voldemort. "I have performed my usual magic. I am extraordinary, but this wand... no. It has not revealed the wonders it has promised. I feel no difference between this wand and the one I procured from Ollivander all those years ago."

Voldemort's tone was musing, calm,

"No difference," said Voldemort again.

Snape didn't speak. Johnny couldn't see his face. He wondered whether Snape sensed danger, was trying to find the right words to reassure his master.

Voldemort started to move around the room: Johnny lost sight of him for seconds as he prowled, speaking in that same measured voice, while the fear mounted in Johnny.

"I have thought long and hard, Severus... do you know why I have called you back from battle?"

And for a moment Johnny saw Snape's profile. His eyes were fixed upon the coiling snake in its enchanted cage.

"No, my Lord, but I beg you will let me return. Let me find Potter and Grindelwald."

"You sound like Lucius. Neither of you understands those two boys as I do. They do not need finding. Potter and Grindelwald will come to me. I know Johnathan's and Harry's weakness, their one great flaw. He will hate watching his friends be struck down, knowing that it is for them that it happens. They will want to stop it at any cost. They will come."

"But my Lord, they might be killed accidentally by someone other than yourself-"

"My instructions to the Death Eaters have been perfectly clear. Capture them. Kill their friends- the more, the better- but do not kill him," said Voldemort, standing by his pet once more. "Yes I granted Jakob to go kill his blood on Hogwarts soil, but he failed, so I must do his task for him. But at this very moment, it is of you that I wished to speak, Severus, not Harry Potter or Johnathan Grindelwald. You have been very valuable to me. Very valuable."

"My Lord knows I seek only to serve him. But- let me go and find the boys, my Lord. Let me bring them to you. I know I can-"

"I have told you, no!" said Voldemort, and Johnny caught the glint of red in his eyes as he turned again, and the swishing of his cloak was like the slithering of a snake. "My concern at the moment, Severus, is what will happen when I finally meet the boys!"

"My Lord, there can be no question, surely-?"

"Pbut there is a question, Severus. There is."

Voldemort halted, and Johnny could see him plainly again as he slid the Elder Wand through his white fingers, staring at Snape.

"Why did both the wands I have used fail when directed at Harry Potter and Johnathan Grindelwald?"

"I- I cannot answer that, my Lord."

"Can't you?"

"My wand of youth did everything of which I asked it, Severus, except to kill Harry Potter and Johnathan Grindelwald. Twice it failed. Ollivander told me under torture of the twin cores, told me to take another's wand. I did so, but Lucius's wand shattered upon meeting Potter's. Yet, my curse hit Johnathan that night in Godric's Hollow, yet he lived once more, and I have full confidence it had nothing to do with the inner wolf he possesses."

"I- I have no explanation, my Lord."

Snape wasn't looking at Voldemort now. His dark eyes were still fixed upon the coiling serpent in its protective sphere.

"I sought a third wand, Severus. the Elder Wand, the Wand of Destiny, the Deathstick. I took it from its previous master. I took it from the grave of Albus Dumbledore."

And now Snape looked at Voldemort, and Snape's face was like a death mask. it was marble white and so still that when he spoke, it was a shock to see that anyone lived behind the blank eyes.

"My Lord- let me go to the boys-"

"All this long night when I am on the brink of victory, I have sat here," said Voldemort, his voice barely louder than a whisper, "wondering, wondering, why the Elder Wand refuses to be what it ought to be, refuses to perform as legend says it must perform for its rightful owner... and I think I have the answer."

Snape didn't speak.

"Perhaps you already know it? You are a clever man, after all, Severus. You have been a good and faithful servant, and I regret what must happen."

"My Lord-"

"The Elder Wand cannot serve me properly, Severus, because I am not its true master. The Elder Wand belongs to the wizard who killed its last owner. You killed Albus Dumbledore. While you live, Severus, the Elder Wand cannot truly be mine."

"My Lord!" Snape protested, raising his wand.

"It cannot be any other way," said Voldemort. "I must master the wand, Severus. Master the wand, and I master Potter and Grindelwald at last."

And Voldemort swiped the air with the Elder Wand. It did nothing to Snape, who for a split second seemed to think he had been reprieved: but then Voldemort's intention became clear. The snake's cage was rolling through the air, and before Snape could do anything more than yell, it had encased him, head and shoulders, and Voldemort spoke in Parseltongue.

"Kill."

There was a terrible scream. Johnny saw Snape's face losing the little color it had left; it whitened as his black eyes widened, as the snake's fangs pierced his neck, as he failed to push the enchanted cage off himself, as his knees gave way and he fell to the floor.

"I regret it," said Voldemort coldly.

He turned away; there was no sadness in him, no remorse. It was time to leave this shack and take charge, with a wand that would now do his full bidding. He pointed it at the starry cage holding the snake, which drifted upward, off Snape, who fell sideways onto the floor, blood gushing from the wounds in his neck. Voldemort swept from the room without a backward glance, and the great serpent floated after him in its huge protective sphere.

"Guys!" breathed Hermione behind them, but Harry had already pointed his wand at the crate blocking his view. It lifted an inch into the air and drifted sideways silently.

Harry took off the invisibility cloak and looked down upon the man he hated, whose widening black eyes found Harry as he tried to speak. Harry and Johnny bent over him, and Snape seized the front of Harry's robes and pulled him close.

A terrible rasping, gurgling noise issued from Snape's throat.

"Take... it...Take... it..."

Something more than blood was leaking from Snape. Silvery blue, neither gas nor liquid, it gushed form his mouth and his ears and his eyes, and Johnny knew what it was. A flask, conjured from thin air, was thrusted into Harry's shaking hand by Hermione. Harry lifted the silvery substance into it with his wand. When the flask was full to the brim, and Snape looked as though there was no blood left in him, his grip on Harry's and Johnny's robes slackened.

"Look...at....me..." he whispered to Harry.

The green eyes found the black.

"Y-you have your m-mothers eyes," Snape cried, turning his eyes towards Johnny. "A-and y-you, J-Johnny, we're always m-my favourite s-student," something in the depths of the dark pari seemed to vanish, leaving them fixed, blank, and empty. The hand holding Johnny's thudded to the floor, and Snape moved no more.

Voldemort's voice reverberated from the walls and floor, and Johnny realised that he was talking to Hogwarts and to all the surrounding area, that the residents of Hogsmeade and all those still fighting in the castle would hear him as clearly as if he stood beside them, his breath on the back of their necks, a deathblow away.

"You have fought," said the high, cold voice, "valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery."

"Yet you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste."

"Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately."

"You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured."

"I speak now, Harry Potter and Johnathan Grindelwald, directly to you both. You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourselves. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommences. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, and I shall find you both, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you both from me. One hour."

"It'll be all right," said Hermione wildly. "Let's- let's get back to the castle, if he's gone to the forest we'll need to think of a new plan-"

They crawled back through the tunnel, none of them talking, and Johnny wondered whether Harry and Hermione could still hear Voldemort ringing in their heads as he could.

You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest... One hour...

"I got to do something before we go in," said Harry, patting the substance he got from Snape as they stood beneath the Whomping Willow, Hermione just a few feet away, her lip already quivering as she realised what Harry and Johnny were going to do.

"Go do it," Johnny nodded towards the castle, "but walk with Hermione, alright? I'll wait in the forest for you," Harry nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat as he and Johnny hugged one another. Harry stood where Hermione stood previously.

Hermione's lip quivered as she cupped Johnny's face in her hand, her diamond engagement ring shining brightly in the moonlight.

"Baby," Hermione said weakly, feeling her heart shattering in her chest as she gazed into Johnny's blue eyes for what could be the last time. "P-please, don't go. I-I need you, W-Winona needs her father! Please!"

"I'm doing this, so you and Winona can get out of here," said Johnny, taking her face in his hands and wiping his fiancé's tears with the pads of his thumbs. "Take Winona and my mother, and move to Australia, find your parents, live the life you wanted."

"But you already did give me the life I wanted," Hermione cried harder, gripping his face tightly. "I wanted you, I wanted to be Mrs. Grindelwald, I wanted to have your child, I wanted to live in a house with you," Hermione collapsed to the ground, sobs racking her body as Johnny held her to his chest.

"Promise me you'll survive," said Johnny, his own tears running freely down his cheeks as they held onto one another. "That you won't give up, no matter what happens. No matter how hopeless."

"I promise," Hermione sobbed. "You'll always be in my heart, Johnny. I'll never let go, I promise."

"I love you, so much," Johnny cried, moving Hermione's hair behind her ear as he took in her features. "I love you, I love Winona, I love everything about the time we had together."

"I do too," said Hermione quietly. Johnny pushed himself forward and captured Hermione's lips in their softest, most passionate kiss yet. There was a mix of a salt and Natalia taste from the blood mixed with the tears, but none of it mattered in that moment as they tried to remember every bit of one another. Hermione and Johnny detangled themselves from one another, and Johnny watched, tears streaming down his face as Hermione and Harry walked back up towards the castle.

Johnny began the track down to the entrance of the forest, wiping his tears as he went.

Hagrid's hut loomed out of the darkness. There were no lights, no sound of Fang scrabbling at the door, his bark booming in welcome. All those visits to Hagrid, and the gleam of the copper kettle on the fire, and rock cakes and giant grubs, and Hagrid's great bearded face, Ron vomiting slugs, Harry helping him save Norbert, him comforting Hermione when she cried about getting called that horrid name...

Johnny moved on, and now he reached the edge of the forest, and he stopped.

A swarm of dementors was gliding amongst the trees; he could feel their chill, and he wasn't sure he would be able to pass safely through it. He hadn't got the strength left for a Patronus. He could no longer control his own trembling. It wasn't, after all, so easy to die. Every second he breathed, the smell of the grass, the cool air on his face, was so precious: To think that people had years and years, time to waste, so much time it dragged, and he was clinging to each second. At the same time he thought that he wouldn't be able to go on, and knew that he must. The long game was ended, the Snitch had been caught, it was time to leave the air...

As Johnny waited for Harry to join him, he pulled his wallet out of the breast pocket of his denim jacket, smiling slightly as he when through it. He had four twenties and three ten pound notes on him, as well as seven one pound coins and four two pence pieces. He had two receipts from his last date with Hermione. He paused to read them.

Reading Winter Carnival 1996

x2 tickets = £30
x2 fizzy drinks = £2.50
1 hotdog = £1.50
1 cheeseburger with extra cheese = £1.75
x2 large fries = 3.50

Johnny remembered that Christmas Carnival well. He had gone to the Grangers for Christmas with his mother, it was just after a big fight with Ron on their sixth year, and Johnny was feeling extremely sad about the whole ordeal, so Hermione dragged him to the local carnival that was in town, and they had such a great time playing all the winter games. Johnny even one Hermione a stuffed grey wolf, which if his memory served him correctly, Evelyn received and gave to Winona.

Johnny pulled the the receipt out and smiled again.

Apollo Victoria Theatre

x2 tickets = £700
Luxury dinner for two = £200
Backstage passes =£300

That was the day Hermione wanted to go the theatre, the day before they picked Harry up from the Dursley's in 1994. Les Misérables was in London for a week, and Hermione desperately wanted to see it, so Johnny paid that little bit extra for private box seating, food and backstage passes to meet the cast. Johnny would never forget the look on Hermione's face when he told.

Johnny put the receipts back in next to the money, and removed two moving pictures from a pocket in his wallet. The first picture was the one he had been showing a lot of people recently. It was the picture of Hermione cradling Winona in her arms just after she gave birth. Her hair was down as she placed her lips to her daughters forehead, and that's when the moving picture restarted.

The last picture was of Evelyn, Johnny and Gellert, sat around the table on Gellert's birthday. His grandfather looked so surprised when Evelyn and Johnny burst through his front door, carrying a stack of presents and a rather large cake. Johnny remembered that day well too. The Weasley's and Dumbledore had came around to celebrate too, Fred and George were pulling birthday pranks on Gellert, who laughed so hard he almost coughed up a lung.

Johnny laughed through his tears, and stood up when he saw Harry approaching him.

"You alright?" Johnny asked, wiping his eyes on his sleeve. Harry nodded and pressed the golden metal to his lips and whispered, "Johnny and I are about to die."

The metal shell broke open. Harry lowered his shaking hand, raised his wand beneath the Cloak, and murmured, "Lumos."

The black stone with is jagged crack running down the center sat in the two halves of the Snitch. The Resurrection Stone had cracked down the vertical line representing the Elder Wand. The triangle and circle representing the Cloak and the stone were still discernible.

"Holy fuck," Johnny said in amazement, lowering his head so he was eye level with the stone. He watched as Harry closed his eyes and turned the stone over in his hand three times.

Johnny heard slight movements around him that suggested frail bodies shifting their footing on the earthy, twig-strewn ground that marked the outer edge of the forest. He turned and looked around, standing right beside Harry.

They were neither ghost nor truly flesh, they could see that. Less substantial than living bodies, but much more than ghosts, they moved toward them, and on each face, there was the same loving smile.

James was exactly the same height as Harry. He was wearing the clothes in which he had died, and his hair was untidy and ruffled, and his glasses were a little lopsided, like Mr. Weasley's.

Sirius was tall and handsome, and younger by far than Harry and Johnny had seen him in life. He loped with an easy grace, his hands in his pockets and a grin on his face.

Lupin was younger too, and much less shabby, and his hair was thicker and darker. He looked happy to be back in this familiar place, scene of so many adolescent wanderings.

Evan looked the same as he did, his radiant smile on his face.

Lily's smile was widest of all. She pushed her long hair back as she drew closer to them, and her green eyes, so like Harry's, searched their faces hungrily, as though she would never be able to look at them enough.

"You've both been so brave."

Johnny nor Harry couldn't speak. Johnny's eyes feasted on her, and he thought that he would like to stand and look at her forever, and that would be enough.

"You are nearly there," said James. "Very close. We are... so proud of you."

"Does it hurt?" Johnny asked. He was aware it sounded childish from the laugh he had gotten from Harry, but it didn't matter.

"Dying? Not at all," said Sirius. "Quicker and easier than falling asleep."

"And he will want it to be quick. He wants it over," said Lupin.

"You could be like us," said Evan, moving the ring on his finger.

"We didn't want you to die,"  Harry said, noticing how Johnny had burst into tears once more. These words came without his volition. "Any of you. We're sorry-"

"- right after you'd had your son... Evan-" Johnny said, his lip quivering as he tried to hold in his hiccups.

"I'm sorry too," said Evan. "Sorry I will never know him... but he will know why we all died and I hope he will understand. I, like others, was trying to make a world in which he could live a happier life."

"Sorry I'm late!" Said a voice from the trees, and Johnny felt like bursting into tears once more. The woman he once called Momma was striding out of the trees, her favoured sundress and saddles on.

"Momma," said Johnny weakly. Adya Scaletta was clearer than the others that stood around Harry and Johnny.

A/n: Priyanka Chopra as Adya Scaletta

"It's me, Il mio ragazzo (my boy)," said Adya, standing next to Lily. "I'm so so proud of how far you come, and a nice choice on the girl," Adya grinned, punching Johnny's shoulder, but it went right through him.

A chilly breeze that seemed to emanate from the heart of the forest lifted the hair at Johnny's brow. He knew that they wouldn't tell them to go, that it would have to be their decision.

"You'll stay with us?" Asked Harry.

"Until the very end," said James.

"They won't be able to see you?" asked Johnny.

"We are part of you guys," said Sirius. "Invisible to anyone else."

Harry looked at his mother and Adya.

"Stay close to us," Harry said quietly. The two women nodded, and watched Harry and Johnny get under the invisibility cloak.

"I love you, Harry," said Johnny as they set off through the trees their companions, and they acted like Patronuses to them, and together they marched through the old trees that grew closely together, their branches tangled, their roots gnarled and twisted underfoot. Johnny and Harry marched through the darkness, traveling deeper and deeper into the forest, with no idea where exactly Voldemort was, but sure that he would find him.

"I love you too, John," said Harry patting Johnny's shoulder.

Beside them, making scarcely a sound, walked James, Sirius, Lupin, Evan, Adya, and Lily, and their presence was their courage, and the reason they was able to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Johnny's body and mind felt oddly disconnected now, his limbs working without conscious instruction, as if he were passenger, not driver, in the body he was about to leave.

A thud and a whisper: Some other living creature had stirred close by. Harry stopped under the Cloak, peering around, listening, and his mother and father, Lupin and Sirius stopped too.

"Someone there," came a rough whisper close at hand. "They've got an Invisibility Cloak. Could it be-?"

Two figures emerged from behind a nearby tree: Their wands flared, and Harry and Johnny saw Lucius and Dolohov peering into the darkness, directly at the place Harry, Johnny, Lily, Adya, James, Evan, Sirius and Lupin stood.

"Definitely heard something," said Malfoy. "Animal, maybe?"

"That head case Hagrid kept a whole bunch of stuff in here," said Dolohov, glancing over his shoulder.

Malfoy looked down at his watch.

"Time's nearly up. The boys had their hour. They're not coming."

"Better go back," said Dolohov. "Find out what the plan is now."

Malfoy and Dolohov turned and walked deeper into the forest. Harry and Johnny followed them, knowing that they would lead them exactly where they wanted to go. Johnny glanced sideways, and Adya smiled at him, and his uncle James nodded in encouragement.

They had traveled on mere minutes when they saw light ahead, and Malfoy and Dolohov stepped out into a clearing that Harry and Johnny knew had been the place where the monstrous Aragog had once lived. The remnants of his vast web were there still, but the swarms of descendants he had spawned had been driven out by the Death Eaters, to fight for their cause.

A fire burned in the middle of the clearing, and its flickering light fell over a crowd of completely silent, watchful Death Eaters. Some of them were still masked and hooded; others showed their faces. Two giants sat on the outskirts of the group, casting massive shadows over the scene, their faces cruel, rough-hewn like a rock. Johnny saw Fenrir, skulking, chewing his long nails; the great blond Rowle was dabbing at his bleeding lip. He saw Lucius Malfoy properly, who looked defeated and terrified, and Narcissa, whose eyes were sunken and full of apprehension.

Every eye was fixed upon Voldemort, who stood with his head bowed, and his white hands folded over the Elder Wand in front of him. He might have been praying, or else counting silently in his mind, like Johnny and Harry were children playing hide-and-seek, and he was about to come find them. Behind his head, still swirling and coiling, the great snake Nagini floated in her glittering, charmed cage, like a monstrous halo.

"No sign of him, my Lord," said Dolohov.

Voldemort's expression didn't change. The red eyes seemed to burn in the firelight. Slowly he drew the Elder Wand between his long fingers.

"My Lord-"

Rodolphus Lestrange had spoken: He sat closest to Voldemort, disheveled, his face a little bloody but otherwise unharmed.

Voldemort raised his hand to silence him, and he didn't speak another word, but eyed him in worshipful fascination.

"I thought they would come," said Voldemort in his high, clear voice, his eyes on the leaping flames. "I expected them to come."

Nobody spoke. They seemed as scared as the two boys, whose hearts were now throwing themselves against their ribs as though determined to escape the body. Johnny's hands were sweating as he pulled off the Invisibility Cloak and dropped it to the floor.

"I was, it seems... mistaken," said Voldemort.

"You weren't."

Harry said it as loudly as he could, with all the force he could muster: He didn't want to sound afraid. Johnny saw Harry drop The Resurrection Stone in the corner of his eyes, and then felt the people he love disappear. At that moment he felt that nobody mattered but Voldemort. It was just Voldemort, Harry and him.

The illusion was gone as soon as it had come. The giants roared as the Death Eaters rose together, and there were many cries, gasps, even laughter. Voldemort had frozen where he stood, but his red eyes had found Harry and Johnny, and he stared as Harry and Johnny moved toward him, with nothing but the fire between them.

Then a voice yelled: "BOYS! NO!"

They turned, their hearts in their throats: Hagrid was bound and trussed, tied to a tree nearby. His massive body shook the branches overhead as he struggled, desperate.

"NO! NO! BOYS, WHAT'RE YEH-?"

"QUIET!" shouted Rowle, and with a flick of his wand, Hagrid was silenced.

Rodolphus, who had leapt to his feet, was looking eagerly from Voldemort to Harry, to Johnny, his chest heaving. The only things that moved were the flames and the snake, coiling and uncoiling in the glittering cage behind Voldemort's head.

Johnny could feel his wand against his chest, but he made no attempt to draw it. He knew that the snake was too well protected, knew that if he managed to point the wand at Nagini, fifty curses would hit him first. And still, Voldemort and Harry and Johnny looked at each other, and now Voldemort tilted his head a little to the side, considering the two boys standing before him, and a singularly mirthless smile curled the lipless mouth.

"Harry Potter and Johnathan Grindelwald," he said very softly. His voice might have been part of the spitting fire. "The Chosen Ones, come to die."

None of the Death Eaters moved. They were waiting: Everything was waiting. Hagrid was struggling, and Rodolphus was panting, and Johnny thought inexplicably of Hermione and Winona, and Hermione's blazing look, and the feel of her lips on his- Voldemort had raised his wand. His head was still tilted to one side, like a curious child, wondering what would happen if he proceeded. Johnny didn't wince as Voldemort yelled the Killing Curse, and he heard Harry crumple to the ground.

"Any last words, Johnathan?" Voldemort asked softly, walking around the fire so he was face to face with the Grindelwald boy.

"You made me a Death Eater against my Will," said Johnny, raising his head as he felt the Elder Wand under his chin. "I survived your torture, your Killing Curses, I became a fiancé and a father, I'm not afraid to die," said Johnny, looking around at all the Death Eaters. "My fiancé has probably escaped the country by now with my child and mother, and if you win here tonight, Tom, then I can guarantee you my child will kick your ass I'm the years to come."

"How funny," said Voldemort. "You are a very brave man, Johnathan, being able to threaten me and call me by my real name, even when greeting Death," Voldemort stepped back three steps. "Avada Kedavra!"

And Johnny crumpled to the floor besides Harry.