Disclaimer: Don't own and never will

AN: Written for the Connections Challenge by GryffindorTom.

Lucy Weasley fidgeted uncomfortably under the gaze of the older woman in front of her. There was a tension in the air, a feeling of uncertainty that made her uncomfortable.

"You want to hear my story?" the woman finally asked and Lucy nodded. "My account of the Year of Hell and the Battle of Hogwarts?" Lucy nodded again and the woman raised an eyebrow. "But why? I would have thought that you would have wanted to interview the heroes who made a difference. I was just an ordinary footsoldier, a fighter for the light who should have died. Surely the New Wizarding Times has more important, more interesting people to write about."

"Well…" Lucy paused for a moment as she considered her words. The imposing woman in front of her reminded her of Professor McGonagol and was just as intimidating. She hoped that she wasn't about to make a fool of herself.

"It's just…well pretty much everyone remembers the really famous heroes of the war. Severus Snape, Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom and all the others. Every year, on the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, there's an article about one of them. Nobody seems to remember that the Battle of Hogwarts was fought by a lot of people who…" at this, she faltered slightly and the woman chuckled.

"People who weren't as important as the heroes everyone knows?" she asked and Lucy nodded. "Then why not someone who was injured in the battle? Lavender Brown was savaged by a werewolf. Dean Thomas still walks with a limp. Su Li is permanently blind in one eye and Micheal Corner lost an arm. Why not one of them?"

"Well…" Lucy hesitated as she tried to think of a reason that wouldn't appear childish, before deciding that honesty was the best policy.

"Well, I was a Hufflepuff just like you and when I saw your photograph, it was your name that jumped out at me," she said and she felt her face flush. "I'm sorry, that sounded wrong."

"Then what did you mean?" the woman asked, giving her a piercing look. Lucy flushed once more.

"When I was growing up, there was a picture of Dumbledore's Army on the wall of my Uncle Harry's house. I remember seeing it every time we went to visit. And in the corner, I could see this girl with a pensive smile and I wandered who she was, what her story was…" Lucy's voice trailed off and she blushed. "I'm sorry, it's a childish infatuation and-"

"There's nothing wrong with that," the woman said with a smile as her somewhat more intimidating demeanour gave way to a more welcoming one. "I wanted to know," she paused and her face became thoughtful.

"It was…a different time back then. By the time the Battle of Hogwarts happened, You-Know-Who had been back for just over three years and Dumbledore, the most powerful wizard any of us had ever known, was dead.

Dumbledore was an institution to most of us. The idea that he was dead…well suddenly it made victory seem that much further away. We all knew about Harry of course, but…he was just a normal teenager.

Then there was You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters. I lost a lot of family members to them in the first war and many of them were there for the second," she paused and gave a nervous giggle, an action so out of place that Lucy thought she was imagining it. The woman cleared her throat.

"I'm sorry…I remember being scared that they would come and finish off by killing me…it seems kind of silly looking back. I was just a teenager, a witch of no real importance. I doubt that they even gave me more than a passing thought," she paused and cleared her throat.

"Anyway, that year was…a particularly difficult year. You-Know-Who had taken over the Ministry in all but name and Hogwarts had become more of a prison than a school, especially for those of us who didn't buy into You-Know-Who's blood purity ideology."

Lucy found herself subconsciously nodding in agreement, eager to hear more. This was more than just a distant history text, words on a page that separated the person from the events. Even her family's stories were hardly typical. The Weasley's were on the frontline, leaders and exceptional people in their own right, but this on the other hand was not. This was the ordinary soldier, the small and unimportant.

"Anyway, we kept on going to Hogwarts, fighting back in little ways wherever we could. Graffiti on the walls, small pranks against the Carrows and the leading supporters of him at school," she paused and chuckled for a moment. "I remember seeing Pansy Parkinson singing her way through classes because of a particularly clever spell that left her unable to speak without singing," she paused and shook her head. "It wasn't me, I never had the ability to invent spells like that. No, my contribution was graffiti on the walls, a handful of messages insulting You-Know-Who and his supporters. I was a lookout, a messenger and occasional moral support for those who needed it.

Ever so occasionally, the Carrows would try interrogate us about our leaders and they were not gentle," she paused and shuddered. "They were extremely fond of using the Cruciatus curse and had professor Snape not intervened…well I suspect that St Mungos would be filled with incurable cases.

It was…just after Easter when I decided to go into hiding. The Death Eaters had taken Luna, one of those shining lights even in the darkest days. It didn't matter how bad Hogwarts got, you could count on her to make you smile. She was and still is one of the quirkiest people I've ever known. And then they came down hard on the leaders of Dumbledore's Army and we were leaderless outside the Room of Requirement. It was…a difficult time for those of us left behind and…

Well I was being followed.

The Carrows and their supporters began tailing people that they thought could lead them to the Room of Requirement. They weren't very good at it, but I…well I was scared. Terrified actually…the tension of every little thing happening at Hogwarts was starting to get to me. No, it was…overwhelming me. So my best friend Hannah Abbot and I slipped out of our dorms one night and disappeared into the Room of Requirement," she paused and sighed. "I hear that the Carrows made an example of those who lost us. Or at least, the ones who took the blame and…well I am torn between feelings of guilt for what happened to them and relief that I didn't have to live under the constant shadow of the Carrows and their like.

It was an illusion really I suppose. We were never going to be completely safe in the Room of Requirement, not forever and we were still in a war, training and preparing for a battle that half of us never expected to happen.

Oh we all wanted Harry to win, for the light to come out on top but…"

She paused to look out of the window. "It was more hope than reality. Heroes are always distant, unknowable characters with amazing powers and larger than life personalities. You never really think about them as people you know, people you see every day and see coming up with excuses as to why they haven't done their homework.

Anyway, when I went to bed on the first of May 1998, it was an ordinary night. Well, maybe not that ordinary. News of Harry, Ron and Hermione's break in at Gringotts had spread like wildfire through the school and we were all talking excitedly about it. We never expected something so drastic to happen that very night. Well, early hours of the following morning anyway.

I was shaken awake by my friend Hannah, who was excitedly telling me that Harry had come back to Hogwarts and there was a feeling of general excitement in the air, of hope and relief. After all this time, all this training and preparation, there was a glimmer of hope.

And then came the realisation that we were going to fight, that instead of an act of daring, a quick in and out raid, we needed to buy Harry and the others time. Time enough to search the castle, to find what they needed to find. We didn't know about the horcruxes then of course, You Know Who seemed almost unbeatable and his Death Eaters were terrifying enough on their own. Facing them, I felt inadequate, hopelessly outclassed, like a child playing with grown ups really," she paused and chuckled. "Well we were children I suppose, but there was nothing playful about what we were doing or our air."

"I'm not sure that I would have had the courage to stand up like that," Lucy murmured quietly and the older woman chuckled grimly.

"I think you would," she replied, before shaking her head. "It takes courage to admit the real reasons you found me of all people worth writing about. We should be grateful you never had to find out."

Lucy couldn't help but nod in agreement and the woman continued her story.

"I don't remember the journey to the Great Hall or the assembling of the rest of the school. It seemed almost normal, nothing to worry about.

Well at least until You-Know-Who made his ultimatum, calling for us to turn Harry over. I'm surprised I didn't wet myself. I was too terrified to even scream, as thought fear had stolen my voice," she paused and shuddered slightly before continuing. "And then Pansy Parkinson made her famous little declaration, calling for someone to grab Harry that my fear suddenly turned to red hot rage.

In all fairness, Pansy was a scared young woman, just like me and terrified of the consequences. She was not responsible for the Carrows or the fear and uncertainty that You-Know-Who had created, but at the time I think it all came to a head and as one, Hogwarts stood up and raised our wands against Slytherin house. It was unfair and looking back, I am ashamed that I was so judgemental and indiscriminate. Not all the Slytherin's were against us. Most of them were just trying to survive as best they could, just like the rest of us.

When the evacuation sounded, when we were given the chance to leave, I didn't take it. Other houses may look down on us badgers, but I felt a swell of pride in seeing my house almost universally stood together. Only one member of my house in my year ran. Even the Gryffindors had more leaving than us.

I found myself sitting in the Astronomy Tower, with a talkative Ravenclaw girl and a Gryffindor boy who was busy putting on an act of not being scared. We weren't fooled by his act, not really, but we pretended to be. Neither of us were any better really. The Ravenclaw girl who was with me talked and talked about anything and everything except the inevitable battle. The Gryffindor boy gritted his teeth, trying to look determined instead of constipated or terrified and me?" she paused and gave a mirthless chuckle. "I sat there and let the Ravenclaw girl's chatter wash over me. It gave us a nice, comforting illusion of normality.

The opening part was far away. We saw giants and Death Eaters and all manner of foul creatures throwing themselves at our walls and I threw spell after spell at the seething mass below. Mostly stunners, I didn't really try to go for something harder and to be honest, creativity is something better saved for when you're just fighting a duel. We were just firing into a mass, hoping to do some damage. And then we saw the first wave of mandrakes fly into them, their screams tearing into the enemy ranks. We were far enough away for the cry to not be fatal, but those below were not so lucky. Huge gaps tore amongst them and while some were able to protect themselves, many more were not.

Unfortunately, it wasn't long before the mandrakes ran out and our foes were on the move once more. I saw the bridges go down, at least most of them at least. I guess that they couldn't bring down the large central bridge.

We kept firing spells and the suits of armour fought well against the advancing hoard, but we couldn't stop them from breaching the castle doors. Then the giants attacked our position and…" she paused for a moment as she tried to compose herself. "I'm sorry…it's not an easy memory to talk about."

"Do you want to ski-" Lucy began, but the woman shook her head.

"No, no, I owe it to those who didn't make it," she said, before pulling herself together. "Just…give me a moment."

There was a momentary silence as Lucy waited patiently for the woman to start talking once more.

"A giant hand smashed the tower open and dragged off the two people who were with me and I only narrowly avoided being killed because the talkative Ravenclaw, the terrified girl who just kept talking pushed me aside.

She saved my life at the cost of her own and I never even knew her name.

I was able to escape the giant and fled downstairs, my fear lending me strength I didn't know I had. Even so, by the time I reached the bottom, the battle had moved into the castle itself and I was forced into a fight against an unpleasant looking thug I didn't recognise. I guess he was a snatcher, but I can't say for sure.

We exchanged spells, hexes and curses of every shade as we tried gaining an advantage. It was then that Hannah saved me by stepping in and hit him with a full body bind from behind.

We spent the next hour or so working together, our training kicking in without so much as a second thought. We were acting on instinct, with no time to be afraid. Or maybe it was the familiar tempo.

I don't know how effective we were. We took down another Death Eater between us and the rest is a bit of a blur," she paused to give a humourless chuckle. "We were too damn busy to be scared and lucky not to encounter someone more lethal. Bellatrix Lestrange would have finished us in less than a minute.

Then there was the truce. The one hour they gave us to retrieve our wounded and dead," she paused and shook her head as her eyes took on a distant look. "We gathered those that we could and regrouped in the Great Hall. I could see Ginny Weasley comforting some of the younger ones and Hannah and I set about trying to make some of the scared kids more comfortable.

Some people say that we were being kind, but honestly, I don't think it was really. I knew, I think we all did, that if we stopped, we'd never start again. The situation seemed utterly hopeless. We didn't know that You-Know-Who and his allies had suffered heavy losses as well, that we had reinforcements on the way, that his main reason for calling a truce was not because he wanted to spare us but because he was taking too many losses for his future plans.

At that point, it all seemed so hopeless. Rubble lay about the place and there was no shortage of dead, dying and wounded. It was a warzone and it showed. The photographs show what it looked like, but they never really captured what it felt like. The fear, the adrenaline, the heady mixture of pessimistic resignation to our fate and grim relief that all the waiting and tension had FINALLY ended. That after months of walking around on eggshells, waiting for the inevitable, that we were FINALLY doing something."

There was several moments of silence and Lucy wondered if maybe this was a good idea, before the older woman began to speak once more.

"I actually thought about running away during that time, you know?" she asked rhetorically, before continuing. "It would have been easy to slip away, to hide in a classroom, the dungeon or somewhere. But…" she shrugged her shoulders. "It wouldn't have made any difference. If I had run and You Know Who had won, they would have hunted me down either out of the country or until they killed me. And…well I don't think that I could live with myself having abandoned my friends like that.

Anyway, an hour later, You-Know-Who came out, parading Harry's supposedly dead body about and everything seemed to be lost. At that point, I was convinced we were all going to die. He was busy talking about how it was time to end this destructive battle, about how magical blood was too precious to be spilt any further, but…" she shook her head once more. "I didn't believe him. This…thing had murdered almost at will. He didn't care about preserving magical blood at all. And despite being terrified, my mind kept wandering back to all those innocent muggle born kids who would find themselves forever trapped outside the wizarding world, if not killed. Did their blood not count for anything?

Then Neville did his now famous speech where he stood up to him, so tall and so confident. The one where he rallied us together. When he told You-Know-Who that Hell would freeze over before he joined him. Most of us expected to die on that field, but we were determined to make sure they remembered us and maybe sometime in the future, someone else would finish the job. Maybe we'd inspire them or maybe they'd realise that resistance was not futile. Or maybe it was just pure bloody mindedness. I don't know, it was…more emotions than anything else.

At any rate, I think we all knew in our hearts that there was no real hope of surrender. No, we were too much of a threat to his power. We'd dared to stand up to him and the best we might hope for is a quick death.

And then there was something else. His spells weren't able to hold. We were cheering even as You-Know-Who tried to keep us silent.

Then You-Know-Who began talking in a silky, terrifying voice. He wasn't some screaming maniac from a cheesy novel, but rather…" she paused and shuddered once more. "He was like a teacher trying to teach a particularly difficult subject but…his was altogether more terrifying. I'm surprised I didn't wet myself when he placed the Sorting Hat on Neville's head and set him on fire.

Then Hagrid's brother came lumbering around the corner and roared out 'Hagger!' and as if it was planned, the next wave of defenders arrived. Slytherin's who had come back, wizards and witches who had come as fast as they could, centaurs and I am convinced that I saw vampires and goblins come to our aid," she paused and waved her hand. "I know that officially the goblins stayed neutral during the war and most vampires stayed out of the war and maybe it was just the chaos of war, but…I like to think that they were there for us. At least some of them."

Lucy bit her lip. While it was true that officially the goblins had stayed out of the war, there were reports of goblins who had fought You-Know-Who both in person and economically.

"What happened next…was a frantic frenzy of energy and motion. We were tired, exhausted after hours of battle but somehow we found reserves that we didn't know even existed.

Slowly the battle moved towards Hogwarts. It wasn't a conscious decision at this point, it was…instinct I suppose. It makes sense I suppose if you think about it. A kind of symbolic move in a way. Almost every witch or wizard involved on either side had attended Hogwarts. It was as much a part of our childhood as teething or our first uncontrolled bursts of magic.

Hannah was hit a curse, something nasty that left her gasping for air and I was hit by the Cruciatus curse for the first time that night," she gave another mirthless chuckle. "I was lucky. The Carrows were so fond of that particular curse that I was still standing. The look of shock on the Death Eater's face when I hit him with a Blasting curse…I don't think he expected me to even be upright, let alone able to cast magic.

I collapsed onto the floor after that, hurting my leg as I fell. It had taken almost everything I had left to cast that spell and I told Hannah to go ahead, that I would catch up with her.

Eventually I found the energy to stand. I was still weak and I was terrified, but I was determined to help my friends.

I hobbled my way towards the Great Hall when I heard the sounds of cheering and I grabbed my wand. I was convinced that the Death Eaters had won and we had lost, but I was determined to die fighting. It wasn't until I saw the cheering faces of my fellow students, my fellow soldiers from Dumbledore's Army that I realised that we had actually won.

It was up to my friend Hannah to fill me in on those final moments. The fall of Bellatrix Lestrange, the return of Harry Potter, everything. It seemed almost surreal really. Harry Potter, the boy I had sat in the same classroom as him, the boy who seemed so ordinary had defeated the most terrifying wizard I have ever known.

Hannah and Justin helped me to go to the Hospital wing, what was left of it anyway for treatment and I fell asleep on the floor waiting for treatment.

The next few days were…busy. The Hufflepuff Common room was probably one of the most intact parts of the castle and between us and the Slytherin Dungeons, we became the temporary home to most of the remaining students at Hogwarts. I was involved in the clean up operation clearing the damage. Rebuilding was to take longer.

I spent the rest of the school year working on the restoration of the castle. By choice you understand. Despite rumours to the contrary, everyone involved chose to be there.

Again, people talk about us as generous people who wanted to restore such a venerable institution, but…it was the nightmares that drove me back. Hours of hard work left me too tired to dream and it was better than the incessant insomnia and nightmares. I suspect that I wasn't the only one.

But I digress," she paused and leaned forwards to Lucy. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Lucy shook her head.

"You've been really helpful. Thank you."

And that year, the New Wizarding Times ran it's memorial article not on Harry Potter or Neville Longbottom, but on the often overlooked Susan Bones.