"Quick! Gryffindors, keep up!"

"Why are you still grabbing books? Catch up with the students in front!"

"This way! Turn the corner and you're there!"

"Don't run back! Are you trying to get yourselves killed?!"

"..."

The four heads of house herded the students into the secret passageway like frantic sheepdogs, kicking out anyone whose mind was still on retrieving belongings, too consumed with the chaos to notice several figures quietly peeling away from the group.

By the time Steve and the others reached the Hog's Head, the inn was already in full uproar, students shrieked and scrambled about with arms shielding their heads, while the proprietor, Aberforth Dumbledore, stood rooted to the spot and furious enough to stomp.

"I feel like there are hundreds of students marching through my pub!"

Everyone:...

Albus Dumbledore caught the subtle glances drifting around and sighed, stepping forward, hands clasped behind the back, though those hands quietly signaled the group.

The moment Aberforth caught sight of Albus Dumbledore, the noise stopped. A long pause passed before a cold sneer broke the silence.

"I really didn't expect you to still be alive."

"In fact, I really did die once."

Albus Dumbledore waved a hand, the same genial smile still settled across that face.

Aberforth stared a moment longer, then rolled eyes at the crowd slipping into the passage behind Albus Dumbledore, turned, settled back behind the bar, and uncorked another bottle.

"Let's hope your luck holds next time."

Albus Dumbledore led Sirius Black and the few others who'd stayed behind to the opposite side of the table, and with perfect ease lifted a glass from beside Aberforth's hand and drank from it.

"From your lips to God's ears, Aberforth."

Aberforth glared daggers at the elder sibling.

...

They made their way through the long tunnel, and as the first glimmer of light appeared ahead, familiar voices reached them.

"You lot, she is still a minor! What were you thinking, bringing her here—"

"I'm sorry, Mum."

"I'm part of Dumbledore's Army, "

"But you're only sixteen!"

Stepping out of the passageway, the Avengers spotted a cluster of redheads locked in heated argument.

Molly Weasley was breathing hard, the Weasley brothers had shrunk off to one side and didn't dare say a word, and Ginny Weasley, standing directly across from Molly Weasley, wore a face full of defiance, though not saying anything more either.

The Avengers had no idea what was going on and didn't dare wade in. They quietly sidled over to Remus Lupin, who stood a little way off, and asked with their eyes.

Remus Lupin shook the head and gave them a rough account of the situation, a worried look settling across that face as well.

Everyone nodded. It made sense, Remus Lupin was an expectant parent now. Nymphadora Tonks had been diagnosed as pregnant just days earlier, so putting oneself in those shoes, Remus Lupin understood Molly Weasley's feelings completely.

"You, right now, "

Molly Weasley had barely started when a figure came tumbling out of the passageway in a rolling heap. The newcomer, Percy Weasley, clambered up from the floor, looked up, and froze. Seeing this many family members was clearly the last thing Percy Weasley had expected, and the expression went instantly awkward.

Kingsley Shacklebolt, Oliver Wood, Katie Bell, and the others had been watching long enough. They finally made their way over, and since none of them had ever met the Avengers before, they couldn't help sizing the newcomers up with plainly suspicious eyes.

"Excuse me, but who exactly are, " Kingsley Shacklebolt began, tone pleasant enough, though the wariness underneath was plain to anyone.

Terrified that their own side would start fighting before the real battle had even begun, Remus Lupin jumped in quickly to explain, though cleverly leaving out anything related to resurrection, saying only that these were powerful allies brought in to help.

Midway through the explanation, Percy's sudden wail of tearful repentance nearly made Remus Lupin jump out of the skin.

Time was short and trust in Remus Lupin ran deep; Kingsley Shacklebolt and the others accepted the Avengers' party, at least for now.

Several small silver cats came trotting over. When their mouths opened, Professor Minerva McGonagall's voice came out, calling everyone to the Hogwarts Great Hall to discuss what came next.

The group set off for the Great Hall. Ginny Weasley flatly refused to leave, so Molly Weasley had no choice but to keep Ginny Weasley close and keep a careful eye, which suited Ginny Weasley just fine.

...

"Harry, are you sure the Horcrux is actually in here?" Ron Weasley stood perched on a mountain of junk, face scrunched in distaste, pawing through the debris.

"That's what Yang Luoluo said, and you have to admit they know a lot more than we do." Harry was similarly buried in a heap, searching left and right, and occasionally slapping the dust off both hands with a grimace.

Ron Weasley nodded vigorously.

When Yang Luoluo had said Ravenclaw's Diadem was in the Room of Requirement, they'd assumed it would be easy enough to find. Opening the door had shattered that assumption on the spot.

The room was the size of a cathedral. Every inch of it was buried under the accumulated secret stashes of students going back generations, bottles, bludgers, books, you name it.

All three of them nearly lost it the moment the door swung open.

"Ugh, "

Ron Weasley kicked a pair of socks out of the way in disgust and moved to try a different spot.

"Where could it be..."

Picking through everything at random was just burning time. Harry jumped down from the top of the junk pile and headed deeper into the room, muttering under breath.

Then the scar burned.

Scenes both strange and familiar strobed across Harry's vision, a battered cabinet, its surface warped and blistering. A pockmarked bust of a warlock sitting on top of it. And resting on the statue's head... Harry stopped.

Found it.

"Don't move, Potter."

The voice was loaded with menace. Harry turned around. Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle stood there sneering, wands leveled, and sandwiched between those two unpleasant faces, Draco Malfoy, reportedly having already switched sides, stood with barely concealed reluctance.

Harry:...

Ten-odd minutes earlier.

"Come on, Draco, didn't you hear? Potter's back at the school!"

"If we capture Potter, that's a massive achievement! The Master will definitely reward our families handsomely!"

Lost in their own daydream, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle had hauled Draco Malfoy clean out of the evacuating crowd. A quick look around confirmed no professors had noticed. The two of them bolted off into the school, moving with exaggerated caution.

Draco Malfoy wasn't happy about any of it. But raising these two idiots' suspicions wasn't an option either, so Draco Malfoy followed.

The whole way there, Draco Malfoy was seething inwardly,

Since when did these two grow brains?!

Of all the times to pull something like this, couldn't they just obediently evacuate like everyone else?!

Do you have any idea how hard you're making this for someone running an undercover operation?!

And so they'd arrived at this exact moment.

Seven years of being bitter enemies gave Harry a decent read on Draco Malfoy's nerve. After witnessing what the Avengers were capable of, there was no chance Draco Malfoy would actually turn traitor again.

Harry: [What... is going on with you?]

Draco Malfoy: [These two idiots dragged me here. I'd have been out of the school long ago if not for them!]

Ron Weasley: [Ha! Didn't think you'd ever end up in a spot like this!]

Draco Malfoy: [Shut your mouth, you filthy mole!]

"Why isn't anyone saying anything?" The long silence made Vincent Crabbe suspicious. Gregory Goyle cut in impatiently.

"Forget it, just take Potter down and bring him to the Master!"

Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were absolutely confident this was a fair three-on-three. It hadn't occurred to either of them that the other four had already closed a circle around them.

The grins spread wider. Light flickered to life at the tips of two wands.

"Wait!" Draco Malfoy grabbed both of their arms. "Maybe we should figure out what they're actually here for first! That could be even more important than catching Potter!"

Draco Malfoy was racking brains, doing everything possible to keep Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle from acting, terrified that one careless moment would get Harry's group killed right here.

"So what," Vincent Crabbe wrenched free of Draco Malfoy's grip, face twisted with raw spite. "Once I've got Potter, who needs your orders? Draco, I'll tell you something — you and your whole family are finished—"

The speech never made it to the end. Vincent Crabbe dropped like a stone.

Harry was already moving, and Gregory Goyle went down a second later.

Neither threat remained.

"...Didn't think you'd move that fast, Malfoy." Ron Weasley swallowed and stuck a thumb up at Draco Malfoy's clean, unsparing takedown of the former henchman.

Draco Malfoy looked down at the unconscious Vincent Crabbe with imperious contempt.

"Fool."

Then, hearing Ron Weasley's comment, Draco Malfoy rolled eyes with zero grace. "Whatever you're here for, be quick about it. I can't guarantee no one else shows up."

Harry caught Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger by the arms, both of them had already turned to keep searching, and looked up toward the heights.

"No need. I already found it."

The four exchanged a look and ran for the Great Hall.

➤ Next: Destroying the Horcruxes

Chapter 76 - Destroying the Horcruxes

Harry ran hard toward the Great Hall. Minerva McGonagall had said she'd regroup there with the other Heads of Houses, and Ron Weasley had already tipped off the Avengers, they'd almost certainly head straight there once they arrived.

Draco Malfoy had fully intended to leave the school, but the students had already been evacuated and Draco had no idea where any of the passages were, so there was nothing to do but sprint along behind Harry and the others.

Even at a dead run, Draco kept up a nonstop stream of complaints. Ron Weasley was starting to seriously consider throwing a couple of punches.

As for Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, they had betrayed Draco at the last moment, but they'd been loyal lackeys for years. More or less friends, in their way.

So Draco had simply tied them up and left them in the Room of Requirement. Once the battle was over, someone would deal with them properly.

The four of them ran the whole way to the Great Hall, and what they saw along the route made their hearts seize.

The castle that was normally loud and full of life stood completely deserted. Countless statues and suits of armor, large and small, seemed to have come alive, moving in tight patrols along the boundaries of Hogwarts.

The sky shimmered with a faint silver-white light. A protective barrier, drawn together from raw magical force, held Hogwarts sealed inside.

Harry could even make out the distant grounds, where dense tangles of thrashing, clawing magical plants had taken over, Professor Pomona Sprout's work, without question. Anyone who stepped into their territory would be seized on the spot, pinned completely still.

The fortifications made the professors' readiness unmistakable. Draco's already pale face went paler still, and for the first time, the reality of Lord Voldemort's imminent arrival hit with genuine terror.

Draco hardly dared think about what the Malfoy family would face if they lost, having bet everything on Harry's side.

A shiver ran through Draco. Then Draco jogged a few quick steps and caught back up.

...

Harry shoved the Great Hall's heavy doors open, and all four of them pushed inside.

The hall was far from empty. Students from all four houses had clustered in groups, and those who'd found the courage to stay and face the battle clutched their wands tight, fear plain on every face.

Minerva McGonagall, Professor Pomona Sprout, and Flitwick were nowhere to be seen, word was they'd already led their squads to the three highest towers of Hogwarts, where the open view made it easier to cast.

The Avengers were harder to spot. Harry swept the room and came up empty, and only found them when Peter Parker called out, every last one of them was crammed around the Gryffindor table.

"What are you all... doing?" Harry gave them a strange look.

The Avengers had somehow gotten hold of several sets of house robes. Pulled over their gear, the robes blended them into the student crowd almost perfectly, which was exactly why Harry hadn't spotted them the first time around.

Peter Parker was busy admiring the Gryffindor robe, and answered without looking up.

"Easier to blend in, isn't it? And besides... heh heh." A sheepish grin.

Anyone who'd read Harry Potter had dreamed of being a wizard. Young Peter Parker had once worked out the whole thing, Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, back and forth, and had waited at seventeen years old for an owl that never came.

Now there was a perfectly legitimate chance to live that dream out in real life. Of course Peter Parker was seizing it with both hands.

"Your backup — are they maybe a little..." Draco lowered his voice and tapped the side of his own head.

Harry: ...

Before there was even time to respond, Draco was already pressing on with a deeply worried expression.

"Are you actually sure they can help you win this?"

"I genuinely cannot believe I fell for your lot's nonsense. I should have just—"

Harry wasn't interested in the rest of that sentence and looked straight past Peter Parker toward the other Avengers.

Steve Rogers and Tony Stark were in Gryffindor robes, as expected. Natasha Romanoff was in Slytherin. Bruce Banner was in Ravenclaw. The Maximoff siblings split the middle, Pietro in Gryffindor, Wanda in Hufflepuff. And Yang Luoluo and Loki were...

Both in Slytherin.

Loki in Slytherin, Harry could have predicted that. But Yang Luoluo...

The corner of Harry's mouth pulled sideways.

No matter how you looked at her, she was a Gryffindor. Obviously.

Yang Luoluo caught the very obvious skepticism in Harry's eyes and felt completely wronged.

She had always assumed she was a dead cert for Gryffindor. Then she'd taken the quiz on the official site and come back a pureblooded Slytherin. She was baffled by it too, all right?

When the Heads of Houses had brought out the robes, Yang Luoluo had fully planned to follow her gut and take Gryffindor. But Loki had kept materializing at her elbow, apparently by accident, gently nudging her hand away and slipping the Slytherin robe into it instead, and every time she looked over at him, he was wearing the most perfectly innocent expression imaginable.

Yang Luoluo: ...

Fine.

Slytherin it was.

"Oh, right, we found Ravenclaw's Diadem—"

"I know you are preparing to resist."

A cold, high-pitched voice cut Harry off. It seemed to come from everywhere at once, somehow both far away and right beside their ears. The hissing quality of it crawled up the spine, and students screamed.

Harry's hands clenched into fists.

"I do not wish to harm you. Nor do I wish to harm Hogwarts."

The Great Hall went silent all at once. Harry could hear their own heartbeat.

"I want only Harry Potter."

"Hand over Harry Potter, and I shall grant you glory beyond measure."

"I shall wait until midnight."

The hissing faded. The hall erupted again in noise.

Harry pressed their lips together. They had half-expected someone to stand up and demand the handover, students from Death Eater families, maybe, or the ones who'd never liked them to begin with.

But no one did. The students just gripped their wands again in fear and nerves, and not a single one looked Harry's way. Not even half a glance.

They just headed, frightened but moving, toward wherever they'd been assigned.

What Harry didn't know was that anyone who might have caused trouble had already been dealt with, sent out of the school, or dropped straight into the dungeons.

With the enemy at the gates, keeping the Savior safe came first.

"Quick question," Tony Stark spoke up into the silence, one eyebrow arching dramatically. "Did Lord Voldemort get a megaphone? The reception was surprisingly good."

No one laughed. Tony Stark sighed and waved a hand.

"All right, bad joke."

But it worked anyway, Harry felt the knot in their chest loosen slightly, and finally finished what had been cut off before.

"We found Ravenclaw's Diadem."

Harry set it on the table. Loki reached into a pocket and placed Hufflepuff's Cup beside it without a word.

They'd agreed on this beforehand: hit as many of Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes as possible before the final battle began.

Right now was the window.

Loki and Wanda Maximoff raised their hands at the same time. Crimson and dark green magic poured out together, and just before it reached the Horcruxes, a translucent, pale figure snapped into existence directly in front of them.

Both pulled their magic back hard. Loki fixed the newcomer with a cold look.

"Ah!" Hermione Granger recognized the figure immediately, letting out a sharp gasp. "She's the Grey Lady — she's the ghost of Ravenclaw!"

The Grey Lady wore none of her usual arrogance. She only stood there with trembling lips, her form so agitated it seemed to have gone several shades more transparent.

"Do not harm the diadem... please don't..."

"That's hardly a diadem anymore. It's a chunk of the lunatic who was just shouting at everyone through his megaphone," Ron Weasley said, curling his lip, then went quiet when Hermione Granger elbowed sharply.

The words seemed to land like a blow. The Grey Lady's form shuddered twice. Her expression twisted, resentment, regret, and anguish all tangled up together, pulling her face into something deeply conflicted.

After a long moment, the storm in her seemed to quiet. When she finally spoke, her voice was barely there.

"That is my mother's diadem."

"Many years ago, I stole it from her..."

As she spoke, the full weight of that old, terrible history came out into the open. And everyone who heard it finally understood why the Grey Lady had fought so hard to protect the diadem.

It was the only thing left of her mother. And it carried everything she had never been able to say, the longing, and the guilt that had followed her across centuries.

"This..."

Harry looked at Loki and Wanda Maximoff with an uncomfortable expression.

They had only agreed to help destroy the Horcrux as a favor. Asking them now to spare the diadem itself on top of that, wasn't that pushing it a bit far?

"I'm sorry," Wanda Maximoff said, tone genuinely apologetic. Wanda glanced at Harry, then over at Loki.

Chaos Magic was Wanda Maximoff's strongest suit for control and destruction. Extracting a soul fragment from an object without damaging the object itself, that was something the greatest sorcerer of the Nine Realms would handle far better.

Harry pressed their lips together and looked tentatively toward Yang Luoluo.

Yang Luoluo somehow understood exactly what that look meant.

Yang Luoluo: ...

"Ahem." She cleared her throat with completely unconvincing casualness. "Loki? Can you... do it?"

The corner of Loki's mouth twitched. He looked at her once, and his entire face read: Do you genuinely think the greatest sorcerer of the Nine Realms is just standing here for decoration?

Apparently deciding that Yang Luoluo needed a proper demonstration, Loki raised his hand with a perfectly flat expression. Dark green magic swept over both Horcruxes. Within moments, two dense clusters of black energy lifted free.

Loki then casually, almost accidentally, let them drift past Yang Luoluo's face.

Yang Luoluo: ...

Yang Luoluo: "Wow. That's amazing."

➤ Next: The Forbidden Forest Challenge