While Briar was running to get to Neville, the barrier was broken, and battles were breaking out around her. She was sending curses and hexes as she ran, but her mind was focused solely on finding Neville. There were screams and grunts all around her, and Briar did her best to defend her classmates when she saw they needed some assistance, but everything was bearing down on her and frazzling her senses.

After she fended off a pair of death eaters to allow a scared pair of third years to run off to safety, she sprinted up to the bridge and saw part of it collapse. With her heart cracking, she screamed, "Neville!"

He appeared at the end of the bridge and sprinted towards her, crushing her into a huge hug. He breathed into her hair, "Malfoy said he would rescue you and convinced me to come help here. I'm so sorry I didn't come myself."

"It's okay. We need to hurry," Briar pulled away and panicked when she noticed all of the death eaters storming the grounds.

As they sprinted back towards the school to find their positions for battle, many Slytherins were fighting side by side to hold back the death eaters. With their assistance, Briar knew that the war would be tipped in their favor.

Slytherins weren't to be underestimated.

Briar screamed in triumph as she passed a group of Slytherins who were fighting viciously and consequently doing a brilliant job fighting back the death eaters who were failing to enter the school. Neville looked at all of this with a wonder as they ran and shot out curses. He yelled over the chaos, "Who convinced the Slytherins to help, even after the way they were treated back there?"

She smugly smiled and called, "Me!"

Neville gripped her hand and beamed down at her. His eyes shone with pure adoration for his fierce soulmate.

Briar and Neville continued racing through the school, and Neville grabbed the Sorting Hat, but Briar was too preoccupied to ask why. A group of death eaters had started to come upon them, and a couple recognized Briar from that night at the Davies Manor. One smiled sickeningly and purred, "Ah, you're the pretty little Davies girl, aren't you? Come over here, angel. We'd love to chat."

The man licked his teeth and stared down Briar like he was a lion stalking its prey. She let out a guttural growl and fired off a series of stunning spells to knock the men unconscious. In the past few months, she had gotten incredibly good at this. Neville had joined her in this fight against the group, and within a matter of minutes, all of the group was lying about the dark stone floor.

To be extra safe, Briar casted the incarcerous spell on each of them to bind their bodies and render them immobile, even if they woke up and sought to fight further.

The pair of them moved on. As they dashed about the school grounds, helping their classmates and professors while also leading attacks themselves, they remained close to one another. They had little awareness of what any of the others were doing, but Briar swore they passed Hermione and Ron at some point, but she couldn't be certain.

The two of them had paused in a corridor to catch their breaths from all of the running and fighting, but they were unaware of the death eater creeping up behind them with sinister plans. Briar noticed a green light starting from a wand behind her, so she whipped around and casted protego instantly, but she watched as her attacker was sent flying from a particularly powerful stupefy spell.

Sirius was breathing heavily from a few paces away from where the death eaters had just been standing, and Briar's eyes watered to see her dad again. It had been far too long without him. She rushed forward and threw her arms around his neck. Sirius held her tightly in an embrace as well.

When they drew apart, Sirius breathed, "I've been trying to find you and Harry for a while now, but you both disappeared as soon as I got here."

"I'm sorry. I didn't see you in the Great Hall, and they dragged all of Slytherin house into the dungeons," Briar explained with a sour expression.

Sirius' face pinched as he roared, "They did what?!"

Briar nodded. "I'll make sure they live to regret it for the rest of their lives, but for now, we have to find Harry. That boy is more reckless than a bull."

Neville barked out a laughter beside her but nodded seriously at her comments. Together the three of them made a move to go find Harry, but before they could, Voldemort's voice came into their minds once again, telling Harry to give himself up to stop the needless bloodshed.

At this, the three of them sprinted towards the Great Hall, and Sirius hoped he could find Harry before he did something he would regret. The three of them made it to the Great Hall, but instead of finding Harry, they found all of the bodies of those who lost their lives in the war.

The Weasley twins were both being coddled by their mother, and a group of Slytherins were watching the exchange awkwardly, especially once Molly Weasley began to place kisses on their cheeks and crying her thanks to them.

Briar was looking around with horror at all of her classmates who had lost their lives already, but she knew that this could have been so much worse if not for the Slytherins who were all standing about the room and slouching from their post-fighting exhaustion.

After she had scanned the room, Briar turned to look back at Sirius and Neville, but her eyebrows furrowed together at the look of pure devastation on Sirius' face. As the world switched into slow motion, her gaze followed his and settled on two new stretchers being brought into the Great Hall.

Neville wrapped his arms around Briar as her screams echoed throughout the Great Hall.

-

Everyone was gathered out in front of the school, and Briar and Sirius were both barely holding themselves together. Sirius was doing his best to comfort Briar, but neither could have predicted the most recent events, and they were shattered.

Briar had wanted Neville's arms around her to remind her that at least his embrace was a constant in her life, but she had to let him go. She could see that all of the tragedy was destroying him inside, and he needed to be the hero that he was made to be. So, Briar had accepted her place tucked into her dad's side as Neville stepped forward with the sorting hat still in hand. Her teary eyes watched his back stiffen when Hagrid carried Harry's limp body up to the school.

Briar gasped as the last of her breath was stolen by this next tragedy. With his death, the hope of many flickered out like the too weak flame of a newly lit candle.

Voldemort turned to Malfoy and prodded, "Now is the time to declare yourself."

Malfoy was not joining them, and Briar straightened at this. He was going to make the right decision, wasn't he?

Lucius Malfoy hissed, "Draco."

An unreadable expression passed over Malfoy's face as he looked at his mother and father with the other death eaters. His face was covered in dirt, and his features were sagging with exhaustion, but he didn't even make a move in their direction. He shook his head no, just as his eyes drifted over to the sound of someone else walking over to join the students. It was the Hufflepuff girl that Briar had seen slap Malfoy in the hallway years ago. Luna was trailing behind with blood coating the fresh cuts on her face and arms.

Malfoy looked at her, and his shoulders lifted with a newfound determination. This time, he verbally called out, "No. I'm staying here."

The shattered expression on Narcissa Malfoy's face made Malfoy flinch, but they had made their decision, and it was time for Draco to start making his own choices. In possibly one of the hardest decisions he would ever have to make on his own, he made the right choice.

Even if Briar hated his guts most of the time, she couldn't have felt more proud of him in that moment.

The Hufflepuff girl approached him and intertwined their fingers with Luna still drifting about behind her.

Voldemort sneered angrily at this choice, but he commanded, "Last chance to declare yourselves."

In response, Neville stepped forward, and Briar began to yank herself from Sirius' side with the new anxieties that had started to fill up every last space in her body. Voldemort laughed, "Well, I must say, I'd hoped for better. Is this truly the best Hogwarts has to offer?"

Briar growled and clenched her fists at her side, ready to pounce at the first sign of danger. As the death eaters laughed around him, Briar pushed forward with wand in hand.

Voldemort smiled knowingly but asked nonetheless, "Who might you be, young man?"

"Neville Longbottom."

When his cold, dead eyes flashed to look at Briar, she knew that he was completely aware of who he was. Her blood turned icy at his sickening smile. With a gaze flickering between Neville and Briar, Voldemort cackled, "Ah, has your soulmate convinced you to join my ranks? She's quite the fighter that girl, but she's rather foolish for a Slytherin."

Briar's knuckles turned white from gripping her wand so tightly. She pushed through the crowd angrily, but before she could make it to Neville, he declared, "I'd like to say something."

Voldemort had a sick smile on his face as he motioned for Neville to carry on with whatever he wanted to say.

Neville lifted his voice and yelled, "It doesn't matter that Harry is gone."

Anger rippled through the crowd, but Briar had to hold back her grin. She squared her shoulders and slowly smirked. They may have thought that Neville was abandoning the cause, but she knew that this was far from the truth.

It was time for Neville to be the hero he was destined to be.

With the grimy sorting hat still in hand, Neville continued, "People die every day. Friends. Family. Yes, we lost Harry tonight. But he's still with us, here." He poked his chest, but his glare on Voldemort was unrelenting. "And so is Remus and Tonks and Cedric and... all of them. They didn't die in vain."

Briar covered her mouth with her hand in horror at his words. Daphne had moved beside Briar and wrapped an arm around her to support her as her knees became weak under the weight of grief.

Neville's eyes were spitting fire as he pointed to Bellatrix, the death eaters, and Voldemort. He snarled, "But you will. And you and you and you will. And so will you. Because you're wrong. Harry's heart did beat for us. All of us... This isn't over."

Voldemort lifted his wand, and Briar pushed forward, right as Neville pulled the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat. Voldemort fired the killing curse at Neville, but he easily deflected it, and it struck four nearby death eaters. Bellatrix roared in anger as chaos erupted. Harry jumped from Hagrid's arms, and Malfoy tossed Harry his wand instinctually.

Harry began to chase after Voldemort while fighting broke out once more. Briar sprinted to keep up with Neville. She sent her curses and spells at every death eater she saw while he used the sword to deflect their killing curses with ease, as if he had been training for this moment for his entire life.

She figured he kind of was.

At one point, Briar screamed, "We need to find Nagini!"

He was breathless, but he nodded in agreement, and they ran about the castle grounds looking for Nagini, but Briar spotted the snake right as it was cornering Granger and Weasley. Briar pointed and yelled, "Oh God!"

Without another cue, Neville sprinted forward and slashed Nagini in half with one mighty swing, saving Granger and Weasley just in time. Potter and Voldemort were nearby at this point, and they both realized simultaneously that the last Horcrux was destroyed.

Everything happened quickly at this point, and everyone jumped back when Harry and Voldemort locked into priori incantatem with Voldemort having casted the killing curse while Harry had called out "expelliarmus." Briar and Neville each held their breath until the elder wand flipped from Voldemort's hand and landed in Harry's and struck Voldemort in the chest.

Voldemort crumpled to the ground with his breath leaving him, and the sound of cheers filled the early morning air.

A group of Slytherins approached them all with tired grins, and Briar's heart swelled with house pride.

After that day, no one would treat a Slytherin as a monster anymore. From then on, Slytherins would be regarded as the fiercest house that the other houses knew to not cross and to never underestimate, for Slytherin house had the most warriors in that battle of any house. Despite their mistreatment, Slytherin students became ruthless heroes and beloved friends that day, and no one looked at a student in green and silver the same way again in all of Hogwarts' history.

———