Chapter 242: A Cruel Grin

Disclaimer: 

Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K Rowling.

I own nothing but the original characters I make.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 242: A Cruel Grin

A cruel grin appeared on the boy's face. "D-Death… m-my comrades must have… hav… g-got them b-by… now…"

Lily's face went through many changes at that moment but eventually went back to anger.

"I don't think so," Daphne said with conviction. "Harry is here, he will—"

His eyes moved to Daphne and his smile disappeared. "Y-You… traitor… w-will die too… t-the Dark Lord… w-will… will… oh…" He tried his best to keep his eyes open a bit longer but was unable to continue. His body gave up.

"He's dead…" Daphne realized. She had mixed feelings about this. She may not have liked this guy but this was the first time someone died in front of her.

'Although Harry had been very close...'

"Let's go. We can't waste time here," Lily gave the boy a look of disgust. She felt no pity for him at this moment. Even if his family influenced him, he still had to make many bad choices to get to this point.

After all, her old friend Sirius had been not much different. Growing up in the Black House. But he chose to not become like them and leave that family behind to become a better person.

'There is always a choice...'

After giving the dead young man a last glance, she turned around.

"We need to find those girls." She did not believe his words even for a moment. Lily was sure her daughter was alive.

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"I-It's looking at us…" Neville pointed at the golem with his shaking finger.

"He is not going to attack us… right?" Ginny asked.

"No… it just spoke with Harry's voice. I think my brother sent it here to save us," Lyra said.

The golem turned to them and advanced a few steps. Its eyes seemed to move to Lyra and then to her wounded legs.

[Protect the students…]

A voice came out of the construct again but it was also Harry's voice.

"See? He is here to protect us," Lyra said.

All of a sudden, they heard a loud 'pop' sound that startled them.

"Missus!" A house elf was now in front of them.

"Dobby?" Lyra recognized the little creature.

"Missus is hurt! Dobby failed! Dobby is a bad elf!" Tonight, he had been tasked to protect Lyra, since Harry knew she was the most likely to do something stupid. But Dobby had lost track of her while they were in the maze and had just now been able to find her after they entered the castle. The poor elf started to panic while trying to pull something out of the small bag tied to his shoulders.

"Dobby, calm down! This is not your fault," Lyra said.

"That's your house-elf? What is he doing at the school?" Neville asked.

"I have no idea. Although, he is more like my brother's personal elf rather than my family house elf," Lyra understood that much at least.

"Here, Missus!" Dobby brought her a potion with some green liquid inside.

"Healing potion, high grade," Astoria commented. Potions were an important part of her family business, so she had been learning a lot about them and the ingredients used to create them for quite a while.

"Great! You are the best, Dobby!" Lyra smiled and took the potion before applying some over the several cuts on her legs. The effect was immediately visible.

She made sure to leave some and hand it over to Ginny. "Here, put some on your shoulder."

Ginny had been badly burned by that flame explosion from before. Lyra knew she was in a lot of pain even if she didn't complain.

"Thanks…" Ginny accepted the vial with a smile and poured the remnants of the potion over her burned shoulder.

"Where do we go now?" Luna asked.

"Should we stay here or try to go back to the Great Hall?" Neville added.

Lyra stood up. She felt much better now. "If we stay here, there may be more of them coming through here."

"But if we go to the Hall now, we could run into them," Ginny said.

"But no one knows we are here. If we stay, the only ones who will find us are the bad guys," Neville pointed out.

"We have him," Luna signaled at the golem.

"But is it actually going to protect us?" Ginny wondered.

"Dobby, do you know anything about it? Did Harry really make it?" Lyra asked the elf.

Dobby shook his head. "Dobby doesn't know…"

"Fine… let's go to the Hall then. Staying here in the entrance just seems more dangerous," Lyra decided.

They all agreed to that, so they ventured up the stairs and went further into the castle.

"Tap… tap…"

The group kept glancing back as they walked.

"It really is following us…" Neville said.

"How else is he going to protect us?" Luna asked.

"It is following us… but I would still feel safer if I had my wand," said Lyra.

"Dobby will also protect the Missus!" The elf declared with confidence.

Lyra chuckled. "Thank you, Dobby. I feel safer now."

"I-I will also… you know…" Neville stammered the words.

"Oh?...." Ginny gave Neville a side glance.

"There are a lot of Blibbering Humdingers flying over Neville's head," Luna pointed out.

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Just a few minutes after the group departed from the entrance, three large individuals came through the hole left behind by the broken door.

"I can smell a lot of blood here…"

"The door has been completely destroyed."

"Yes… something happened here."

The three large men wore simple pieces of wool clothing that barely covered their muscular torsos. Their bodies had copious amounts of hair, including their faces. This all combined gave the men a very feral and dangerous look.

"Sniff sniff… oh? What do we have here?" One of them moved his eyes towards the two dead men on the floor.

"Bloody hell, what a mess!"

A.N 1: Quick update, I have increased the number of P@treon advanced chapters from 10 to 15.

A.N 2: - Remember to comment, vote, and/or leave a review if you have the time. Those things help me a lot and I would really appreciate it.

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