56 Chapter 53: Giants
Sirius, James, Lily, Marlene, and Alice were in much better condition now, when they arrived at the station the 5 of them had taken some potions and the teachers had healed most of their wounds.
Only James, Sirius, and Marlene were still pretty painful and could barely move, so they were among the first to be taken in the carriages to the castle.
While Alice and Lily stayed with the rest of the 6th-year students waiting their turn to get into the carriages.
On the other hand, Remus, Peter, and the 7th-year Ravenclaw student were now getting some rest after their continued use of their Patronus to reach the station.
It was a great relief for them to see Dumbledore's Patronus intervene and drive away all the fog along with all the Dementors at Hogsmeade and Hogwarts station.
The magnificent silver phoenix gave everyone quite a sense of security.
By the time the fifth-year students boarded the carriages and set off for the castle.
Lily, Alice, Peter, and Remus felt a little more relaxed as it wasn't long before it would be the turn of the sixth year to return to the castle.
But that's when the trouble started to grow...
Suddenly, several people appeared near the station wearing very peculiar clothes.
They just stood and looked around.
As everyone present turned to look at these people, Lily noticed that they were about 15 wizards wearing long black robes or cloaks of the same colour, along with black masks with slits through which their eyes could be seen.
"Death Eaters!" muttered Lily with her eyes wide and her body tense, she knew the situation was now very dangerous.
"Students, stay behind us, the Aurors shouldn't take long to arrive" all the teachers stepped forward after saying that.
But Lily, Alice, Peter, and Remus knew that something must be holding the Aurors back, the Order of the Phoenix had told them that The Dark Lord had followers inside the ministry and that it was unreliable to rely on them.
Lily watched as the teachers and adult wizards conversed with the death eaters, their wands in hand and standing tensely.
But she didn't get to hear what they were talking about.
The only thing she did get to hear was what the 15 death eaters said before a duel began between the teachers and some other adult wizards in Hogsmeade against the death eaters.
"For Lord Voldemort!"
That was all she heard before she watched as they began to brutally cast spells.
A few minutes passed and currently, and all the 6th and 7th-year students had gathered by their Houses, there were 4 groups at Hogsmeade station watching the duel that spread throughout Hogsmeade.
Even the seventh-year Ravenclaw boy who had been with Lily decided to go and join the students from his house.
On the other hand Lily, Alice, and Remus thought about helping, but for now, they knew it wasn't the best option, although they saw that there were a few students who dared to intervene in the duel, but most of them were very nervous and chose to stay away from the conflict.
Lily and her group did their best to try to help the students who were panicking, to keep them calm as long as possible until they could return to Hogwarts.
But luck was not on their side as at that moment giants began to appear from behind Hogsmeade station, dragging their big sticks as they approached them.
Lily, Alice, Peter, and Remus along with a few other students reacted quickly and waved their wands to attack the giants and keep them away from the station.
Many students raised their wands and waved them with different incantations at the giants but they only bounced off them.
Panic finally caused many students to jump into the remaining carriages and rush towards the castle.
Peter and Remus regretted not thinking to ask James and Sirius for their flying brooms...
If he had they would now be able to fly to the castle along with Alice and Lily like several of the other students were doing.
The 9 adult Giants were getting closer and closer to the station and the spells that were being cast at them seemed to have no effect on them...
They were barely managing to slow them down, but they would soon reach the station, and taking on a single adult Giant was difficult even for the Aurors.
There were only 37 students left from the 7th and 6th years of each house, and only a few students from Slytherin were left since most of them had been able to fly away on their brooms...
Yes... It was as if most of the Slytherin 6th and 7th years already knew what was going to happen.
Now there were approximately 127 students in total at the station.
After a few moments, Lily and her group noticed that one of the 9 giants seemed to be moving away from the station and towards a more secluded part of the village.
'I just hope there's no one there' thought Lily while the rest could only smile a little as at least now there were 8 giants and not 9...
Still, if they made it to the station whether they were 8 or 9 didn't make much difference.
Moments later, the 8 giants finally arrived at the station and almost everyone panicked but among the remaining students, they joined in and slowly backed away as they tried to stay away from the giants' attacks.
Lily, Alice, Remus, and Peter joined Dorcas Meadowes, Edgar Bones, Benjy Fenwick, and Emmeline Vance who like them were young members of the Order of the Phoenix, in order to keep all the students from the 4 houses organised.
The giants swung their clubs hitting everything around them, as they got closer and closer, while Lily along with the other students kept backing away and casting spells to hold them back as much as possible.
"Bloody hell, how long until the Aurors arrive?" shouted several of the students present in frustration.
Lily shook her head and decided not to answer, she didn't want them to give up hope that the Aurors would arrive, though she was more confident that the Order members would arrive, but she couldn't say that.
Besides she was sure something serious must have happened for no one to come to help them.
" Be quiet and draw your wands! Or stand back quietly and let the rest of us concentrate!" shouted Emmeline Vance as she rapidly waved her wand with spell after spell against the 8 giants.
'Yeah..., Ravenclaw's are definitely different' thought Lily as she looked at the young 7th-year girl who was also part of the Order, despite her nerves Vance acted confidently and everything she did was calculated.
Lily herself cast several transformation spells on the ground, turning it into a smooth glide so that the giants momentarily lost their balance.
As they tried to control their balance, trying not to fall, the rest of the students shouted, "Flippendo!"
And some of the 8 giants stepped back a little, hitting the ground hard with their clubs, creating a great tremor.
Perhaps they would not do substantial damage to the giants, but by doing this the students could hold them off for a while.
But even though the giants were slow, their blows were very strong and every time they struck their clubs against the ground they generated loud, rumbling explosions that knocked the students off balance.
"Um-do you happen to know any useful spells against giants, Evans?" asked Peter nervously.
" I wish I could say yes, but I don't remember seeing a spell against giants at all" replied Lily honestly.
Peter swallowed tensely.
As the giants continued to move towards them.
"And do you know?" asked Peter to Remus, but Remus just shook his head.
"W-what shall we do then? w-we can't go back much further!" shouted Peter nervously.
"I don't know!" shouted Remus letting his friend's nervousness carry him away.
Peter looked at him dumbfounded.
" Don't- don't know? don't know?...we'll die if this keep going like this!" complained Peter.
"Quiet, we're all doing everything we can!" Lily shouted and cast several explosive spells in succession in the faces of the giants in front of them.
But these only bounced off them or inflicted barely any damage, like a scratch...
The advance of the giants forced Lily and the rest to retreat again.
The giants were already irritated and very angry to feel the students' annoying incantations and the giants turned angrily towards them.
Lily along with several others organised to stop the giants again.
They first recited:
"Arrest momentum".
And with this, they managed to slow down the speed of the approaching angry giants by just a few seconds.
But it was not enough so they quickly conjured:
"Aguamenti".
All together they managed to create a huge puddle of water over the feet of the giants...
This made them slip and some of them even dropped their big sticks momentarily.
Without wasting any time they cast another spell on the sticks:
"Alarte ascendare".
This raised all the sticks they dropped and then made them fall on their heads...
Of course, it wasn't enough to knock the giants unconscious, but it did make some of the giants fall straight to the ground, which bought them more time.
They had succeeded, but there was still more to go...
Quickly they all turned back to the giants that didn't fall but had at least managed to destabilise enough.
"Bombarda Maxima" they all recited in unison over these giants, they caused a big explosion that didn't hurt the giants too much but the force of the explosion made them finally fall to the ground.
The giants who fell were even more furious and tried to get up but when they saw this they all recited:
"Aqua eructo" over the giants' feet, generating a powerful jet of pressurised water from the tips of their wands, causing them to not manage to get up from the ground so easily.
"Incarcerous" they all quickly summoned with their wands and countless ropes appeared over the bodies of the fallen giants.
The ropes stretched and stretched over the giants' limbs, restricting them from moving for a while.
Some students even tried to choke the giants to make them collapse with the ropes, but the giants were too muscular to be choked by the ropes, so they only managed to hold them back momentarily, making it difficult for them to move on the ground.
For a few moments, they were all able to breathe a little and move away...
"Now what do we do?"
"How do giants usually get defeated or killed?"
"How do Aurors deal with Giants?"
The students began to ask each other impatiently.
But they didn't have time to continue talking because the giants quickly recovered and broke the ropes.
They all kept trying to hold them back but it was getting harder and harder and they were all quite tired.
It was then that one of the giants started to use the pieces of ground debris that he had broken with his club to throw them heavily at the students.
Luckily several of them responded quickly and managed to use a protego to avoid damage.
But some of the giants copied the actions of this giant and began to throw things with great force, while the others continued to advance.
This caused everyone to have to protect themselves from the attacks and at the same time try to hold off the giants...
Of course, they didn't succeed, before they could only hold them back by sticking together, but now the panic returned and most of them just wanted to stay safe and protect themselves from the attacks.
So the other giants managed to get close to them and with their sticks, they began to try to crush them all.
But when all seemed lost a figure in all black appeared...
It was similar to the death eaters that appeared earlier with their masks, but this figure did not wear tunics but instead wore black clothes that showed off his athletic body.
Everyone watched in amazement and shock as this figure moved swiftly and easily through the giants while cutting off parts of them with a sword.
Lily raised an eyebrow at the unexpected appearance of this figure, she felt it was someone she knew from somewhere, but it was hard to identify with that mask and she didn't remember someone with a body build like this figure.
Not pure muscle, but you could tell that his whole body was extremely toned and well-balanced.
Lily couldn't help but think that this figure looked exactly like one of those perfect-bodied protagonists in action movies.
But she couldn't think about it much longer as one of the giants had decided to make a move on her.
Lily raised her wand quickly but before she could do anything, the figure jumped with his sword at the giant in front of her and incredibly managed to cut off the arm with which the giant was holding the huge club.
'Merlin... How can someone jump like that?
'And the bloody strength he must have to be able to cut through a giant's arm with a sword...'
These were the thoughts not only of Lily but of everyone who saw this figure.
" Back off," said the figure simply in a cold, robotic voice.
Everyone flinched at the sound of his voice, but they obeyed and quickly backed away as the figure faced the 8 giants alone...
It was incredible to see a 6 feet tall figure take on 8 other figures over 24 feet tall.
Everyone saw how fast this person was, he seemed to fly over the giants as he moved jumping, attacking, and cutting them down one by one.
Severus was this figure, though no one else could know it..., he danced through the wild blows of the giants as if they were nothing.
He, of course, had held back, testing the giants, if he had done all he could, the fight would have lasted no more than mere moments.
Indeed Severus could admit that they were strong and that every move and blow they made was very powerful, but the giants were slow and their movements were basic and very easy to read, just a little help from the Force and they were quite simple to deal with.
Naturally, the students were a nuisance and so he made them back off, he first cut down all the giants to anger them and draw their attention to him...
To those watching the fight from outside, he looked like an annoying insect biting several people at the same time as they unsuccessfully tried to kill him.
But the reality was that the ones who were nothing more than insects were the giants to Severus.
"Well, now there are only 5 left" Severus muttered after killing 3 of the giants while continuing to dance between the blows of the 5 remaining giants...
And in a matter of minutes, he had reduced the number of giants so that there was only one giant left who already had several cuts all over his body.
The giant who saw how he slaughtered all his fellows seemed to hesitate, Severus had already noticed that he was also the biggest of the 8, this one even had a helmet and an iron-spiked club.
"Come on, come at me big guy, or are you afraid of me?" sneered Severus, wondering if the giant would take the bait.
Predictably, the giant took the bait.
He raised his massive club and swung it furiously at Severus.
He struck blow after blow in a swift, violent and agitated manner, but all of them were dodged by Severus, he didn't even get a scratch.
A few moments later the giant paused for a moments in exhaustion.
"As I thought..., that's the best you can do," Severus shook his head as he saw the giant standing still and catching his breath.
Severus moved quickly and cut off part of the giant's legs causing him to fall to his knees.
He stood in front of the huge humanoid, kneeling and defeated...
He looked him in the eyes for a few moments, making his black eyes and the giant's yellow eyes meet.
" Let your existence rest in the Force," Severus said simply before finally cutting off the giant's head and putting an end to his life.
After he finished with this he wiped his sword clean and turning on his heel he looked at the group of students who were watching him with different emotions on their faces.
He just smiled in amusement and just as some of these students seemed to have recovered from the shock and wanted to thank him, he walked to a secluded spot and disappeared from their sight.
And so they all fell to the ground exhausted and began to talk to each other about this figure...
While Lily was still trying to figure out why she felt she knew this person.
After a few more minutes the teachers returned and it seemed that the 15 death eaters had finally left.
Even the Dementors had stopped surrounding Hogsmeade.
