Air wheezed in and out of his lungs as his feet pounded the ground. Bright light, duck and cover, keep running. Keep running. An explosion of rubble fell around him and he stumbled, a rock hitting him hard in the shoulder. Keep running. His legs ached and burned, his vision was slightly blinded and now his shoulder was throbbing painfully. Keep running. He was almost there. He turned a corner sharply and ran through the heavy wards, feeling them press against him for a moment before he pushed through. The red and white flag came into view and he ran faster despite his aching legs. He burst through the tent flaps and staggered to a halt.

"Harry!" Hermione rushed over and grabbed onto his arm as he bent double, breathing hard. "Harry, what is it?"

"Reinforcements," he wheezed, clutching a stitch in his side.

"For us?" Hermione asked, looking hopeful. Harry grimaced and shook his head.

"For them. Tons. I don't know how many. A hundred maybe," Harry said and let Hermione guide him over to a chair. All the beds in the makeshift infirmary were full and the tent smelled of blood and rot. "If Ron and Ginny don't –"

"They'll be here," Hermione said, clearly trying very hard to be optimistic but tears were welling up in her eyes and Harry struggled to look at his best friend.

"If they don't get here soon, we're finished. Death Eaters as good as won."

"Don't say that! He won't win, not ever. Ron and Ginny will be here."

"You don't know that," Harry said, his eyes following a few green clad healers as they carried in another grotesquely deformed body. Harry couldn't even tell if the person was alive. "They're already two days late. We have no way of contacting them and for all we know they could be…" he choked slightly, not wanting to speak what had been on his mind for the past week.

"Harry, listen to me. We're in the middle of a war. For them to be late – it's normal. They're not…"

"Normal? Hermione, nothing about this is normal."

"I know, Harry, it's just… I don't want… They can't be dead. They just can't."

Harry stared at Hermione before standing up. "I have to get back out there. I have to try."

"Wait, here," Hermione handed him a few vials and Harry tucked them into the holding belt he had been wearing for past few days. He never took it off. It held a great variety of different colored vials and it was important that all of the soldiers wore them. Harry nodded at Hermione, before leaving the tent and breathing in. He could never stand being in the infirmary tent for very long. The sights, sounds and smells made him feel sick to his stomach.

There was an explosion somewhere on the other side of the castle and Harry watched in horror as a whole tower collapsed, shaking the ground. In the last few days, Hogwarts had turned into nothing but a pile of rubble. A casualty of war.

"Harry!" Seamus Finnigan darted through the wards and stood very much like Harry had a few moments ago. Bent over and panting. "The Death Eaters are advancing. The frontline is –"

"Advancing? Why would they be advancing? There's nothing to advance on!"

"I think they're looking for something."

"Me," Harry sighed and rubbed his neck. This wasn't good. And yet… "Get Jones working on a new ward. I want all the soldiers we can out there. The Death Eaters have given us an opportunity to take as many of them out as possible and we're taking it." Seamus nodded and dashed off again. Harry jogged through the ward and around the side of the castle.

Indeed the Death Eaters were advancing. There were four or five lines of them pressing forward, fighting and killing. Harry assessed the situation before running out into the field.

"Take out the one's on the ends! Get them to huddle!"

"But, Sir, that's –"

"Just do it!" Harry yelled, before pausing and looking up at the castle. He turned and spotted a few stragglers. "You two! I want you up in the castle. Get to the highest point you can, got that? I'm going out and I need some cover fire! And don't get spotted!" The two boys – as they could hardly be called men – Harry had spoken to nodded and took off into the rubble of the castle.

Harry sighed. "Let's hope this buys us some time," he muttered to himself.

Harry had only been actively involved in the war for a week. He was hardly a trained soldier and was simply running on instincts. Luckily, it seemed to have worked so far. Harry had never been much of a planner but in the last few days his leadership skills had outshone others by far and everyone listened to him without questioning him for the most part.

Harry ducked behind a large stone that had fallen from the castle as a curse was sent his way. He looked up at the castle and spotted the boys he'd sent up there looking down at him. He nodded and pointed towards himself and then the battlefield. He looked out from behind the stone and saw that his orders were being followed and the Death Eaters on the edges of their lines were dropping and the Death Eaters were huddling in the center.

Harry darted out from behind his rock and grabbed a hold of one of the higher ups. "Get everyone in lines! Offense, not defense!" he yelled over the battle, not waiting for the man to respond before he weaved in and out of dead bodies and soldiers. The soldiers were forming the lines he'd ordered quickly and fighting hard.

Standing still a moment, Harry took a deep breath. He glanced up at the castle before he broke through the recently formed line and stood in front of his soldiers. He made sure that the Death Eaters got a clear view of him and had to pull some quick moves to duck a burst of spells that came flying in his direction. The boys in the castle ruins picked off the Death Eaters that got too close.

Once Harry had a clean break, he took it and darted past the Death Eaters, taking out as many as he could while he ran into the forest. It had worked as he had planned. The Death Eaters weren't intent on killing the dwindling number of wizards working against them, they were aiming for Harry and he'd drawn their attention away from the soldiers. Which wasn't very smart on their part, because with their backs turned a good number of them fell.

Harry was looking over his shoulder and weaving through tree's when he ran hard into someone. He drew his wand before recognizing the bright red hair and his face broke out in a grin. He breathed a sigh of relief. Ron looked tired and exhausted, while Ginny looked a bit jumpy.

"What're you doing out here?" Ron asked, steadying himself from his and Harry's collision.

"Improvising," Harry said with a slight grin. "We were being slaughtered. We needed a distraction."

"And you're the distraction?"

"Who else?" Harry ignored the looks he was getting from Ginny. "Did you get it?"

Ron nodded and dug in his pocket for a moment before pulling out a small dagger with the crest of Ravenclaw on it. "Sorry it took so long, mate. There were more Death Eaters guarding it than I expected and Ginny got hit in the shoulder with a degenerative."

Harry turned his attention to the red haired girl who was looking into the forest, her wand raised. It was then Harry noticed she was holding it with her left hand instead of her right, as she usually did. "She's alright though? You got it off…"

"Mostly. I managed to slow it down until we got to the infirmary. I'm no healer," Ron said, sending a concerned look in Ginny's direction. "Can barely use that arm, though. Anyway, what're we waiting for? Let's get out of here."

Harry nodded but they found themselves in quite a predicament. The Death Eaters had followed him all right. Ginny backed up and took out as many as she could until she was standing beside Harry.

"Got a plan, genius?" she asked, her eyes darting here and there as the Death Eaters advanced. Something was definitely wrong, however. They weren't attacking at all. Even if they wanted Harry alive, their first instinct should have been to take out Ron and Ginny whom stood on either side of him. Then the Death Eaters shifted and a place in the middle broke. A tall Death Eater, obviously a woman, was pushing a smaller Death Eater forward.

"Prove your loyalties," the woman snapped before shoving the Death Eater. Harry raised an eyebrow and glanced at Ron, who was looking slightly bemused. Especially when the Death Eater tore off their mask and Harry found himself looking at Draco Malfoy.

"Fantastic," Harry muttered. He stood staring at Malfoy for quite a while. He was hesitating. Just like he had with Dumbledore. Well, at least this gave him some time to think. They couldn't apparate and there were too many Death Eaters to simply run. Harry bit his lip and his eyes followed the line of Death Eaters before landing on Malfoy.

Malfoy stepped forward and raised a shaky wand, his eyes wide. Harry had never dropped his and stood, staring hard at whom once had been a simple rival to him. It was obvious who had the upper hand, and surprisingly it wasn't Malfoy. He seemed jittery and afraid, while Harry was calm and stone cold. This wouldn't help him any, but at least he could anticipate Malfoy's movements.

"Tempus Embolium!"

"Tractus Amitto!"

Harry was startled at the reaction the colliding spells had. Harry didn't know what Malfoy had cast, but his spell was to send away the Death Eaters. He'd been concentrating on some remote, tiny island far, far away from Hogwarts. It was an extremely complicated spell, one Harry had suggested to Hermione once before and she nearly had his head for simply suggesting it. Too many things could go wrong with it. But being cornered, he was desperate to get rid of at least Malfoy.

A golden light engulfed both Harry and Malfoy, singling them out from the other Death Eaters and Ron and Ginny. They seemed just as startled by the spell and were stepping away, as though afraid the two boys might explode sometime soon. A wave of energy from the center of the connecting spells sent everyone with a five-meter vicinity flying backwards. Harry hit a tree hard, cracking his skull against it.

Suddenly there was a bang and an immensely bright light blinded Harry. He blinked but couldn't see and eventually the light became so white and so intense that he had to close his eyes tightly. He felt as though he was being torn apart piece by piece and there was wind whistling through his ears.

"Ugh," Malfoy grunted nearby. There was a rustling, and Harry opened his eyes but found his vision blurry and spotty. He was sore and stiff, as though he'd been lying on the ground for much longer than he had. He pushed himself up and went to use the tree to steady himself from ended up toppling over because the tree was no longer there.

"I think I'm dead," Harry moaned.

"I think if we'd have died, it wouldn't hurt so bloody much."

"What the hell happened?" Harry asked, rubbing at his eyes and heard his glasses splinter as he moved them. He groaned. He knew he should've learned that vision correcting charm, but no, he had been too stubborn, going on about how he liked his glasses. Hermione had told him it might come in handy, and so he had only half-heartedly listened to what she was saying about it. Even as he struggled, he couldn't remember the charm. Bugger.

"Holy mother of Merlin!" Malfoy said from a few feet away from Harry. He peered blearily in the direction of the voice, but could only see a shadow of a figure that he assumed was the Death Eater. Strangely, Harry knew he should've been on his guard around Malfoy, especially now that he couldn't see, but he felt unusually unthreatened by the other boy's presence.

"What? I can't bloody see!" Harry went to move towards Malfoy, wand gripped tightly in hand, when his foot sunk in what felt like sand. Sand in the forest? Suddenly, Harry was aware of the faint calming sound of water lapping at a shoreline. Maybe they were closer to the lake than he'd thought. Without warning, his vision cleared and he was aware of Malfoy standing only a few feet in front of him with a wand pointed at his head.

Jumping back, Harry pointed his wand at Malfoy, but Malfoy only rolled his eyes and slipped his wand up his sleeve.

"I just fixed your vision, you moron," he snapped irritably. Harry warily lowered his wand. His vision was better, after all. And now with his vision corrected, he could properly look around and see what damage their mixed spells had done.

Harry nearly fainted.

The jungle that loomed before them wasn't so frightening. A little difference in foliage from the Forbidden Forest, but it wasn't anything completely strange and foreign. It was the fact that, when Harry turned around, a beach lay in front of him, running as far as the eye could see both left and right. And before them, water lapped at the edge. They had some how ended up on an ocean-side beach.

Harry realized then that his moving spell must have transported them somewhere when it'd connected with Malfoy's spell. He'd been thinking of an island when he'd cast it. A remote island as far from Hogwarts as possible.

"Oh, bugger."