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yatorihell · 3 months

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In The Darkness Chapter 87 - The Battle of Hogwarts Part Three

Noragami x Harry Potter au

Word count: 11,931

Summary: The battle rages on, Yato Hiyori and Yukine work on destroying Horcruxes, and a twist of fate changes the course of the battle.

Read on AO3

The West Towers Coridoor was deserted, near silent if not for the distant sounds of discord stirring in the bowels of the castle beneath the flagstone. Hiyori stood at the bottom of the spiral staircase, standing guard but also giving Yato the privacy to speak to Rowena alone - they say she was shy. It was best not to overwhelm her.

Yato stepped carefully. He had heard of the Grey Lady - the most elusive ghost Hogwarts had to offer -, and he knew that she hid herself high up in the castle. Opalescent light filtered through the latticed windows and dappled his face as he made his way forward. The profile of a woman, forlorn and young and beautiful, watching over the Forbidden Forest greeted him.

She turned, and Yato’s heart flipped unexpectedly. A flash of recognition seemed to cross her face before it was covered with apprehension as if she herself had seen a ghost.

“You're the Grey Lady. The ghost of Ravenclaw Tower,” Yato said softly.

Helena’s face shifted, anger and hurt mixing in a grimace as she turned and floated away. “I do not answer to that name!”

“I’m sorry!” Yato lurched forward, a hand futilely reaching out though he could never touch her. “I’m – I need help, there is something in this castle. A dia –.”

“You seek my mother's diadem?” the ghost cut him off, dress swirling in the air as she stopped and turned back to him. The hurt hadn’t left her face, but the anger was replaced by suspicion.

Yato paused, staring at the Grey Lady’s questioning expression. The familiarity of the shell of the woman before him clicked into place, each feature near identical to the portraits of her mother that watched the halls. Hiyori was right – the only person who would know where the diadem was had been long dead –, it was Rowena’s own daughter.

“You’re Helena Ravenclaw.” It came out as a statement rather than a question.

“Yes.”

Yato shook himself from his stupor. “Hiyori – my friend – said that you can help, that you know where the diadem is,” Yato began, but he was abruptly cut off.

“I cannot help you!” Helena turned once more, retreating into the dark shadows of the abandoned turret in a gauze of ashen crinoline.

“Wait, please! I want to destroy it!” Yato lurched forward again, feeling more and more encroaching on Helena’s ancient territory but unable to stop himself in his desperation. “I thought you wanted to do it. Isn't it, Helena? You want it destroyed?”

Once again Helena paused, wavering in consciousness and appearance.

“Another promised to destroy it many years ago,” she said softly. “But he lied.”

“I know, I know what he has done, what he can do-,” Yato started.

“I know what he's done! I know who he is! He defiled it, with dark magic!” Helena screamed. Her face had contorted supernaturally for the briefest of seconds, reminding Yato that this was a woman who had lived and loved and died with a broken heart centuries before he was even born.

“I can destroy it, once and for all! But only if you tell me where he hid it! You do know where he hid it? Don't you, Helena?” Yato pleaded. “You just have to tell me.”

“You remind me of him a bit,” Helena said softly, head tilted to the side.

Yato inwardly flinched.

“It's here, in the castle. In the place where everything is hidden. If you have to ask, you will never know. If you know… you need only ask.” Rowena drifted away, and the implications of her words lit the lightbulb within Yato’s head.

“Thank you!”

Out in the dark night, Yato saw bursts of light in the distance and heard the first scream. He looked down at his watch. It was midnight. The battle had begun.

He hurried along the corridor. Yato could hear movement through the corridors all around: running footsteps, and shouts, and through the windows he could see more flashes of light in the dark grounds.

The first casualties of the battle were already strewn across the passage ahead. He skidded around a final corner and with a yell of mingled relief he saw Hiyori and Yukine.

“I know where to go,” Yato said.

There was an explosion from overhead; all three of them ducked, then looked up as dust fell from the ceiling.

"I know what the diadem looks like, and I know where it is,” said Yato, talking fast. "It's where I hid my old Potions book, where everyone's been hiding stuff for centuries. He thought he was the only one to find it. Come on.”

As the walls trembled again, Yato led the way back through the concealed entrance and down the staircase into the Room of Requirement. It was empty except for one person. Kofuku turned, wand raised in defense before she realised who had entered.

"Tell us what's going on! Is everyone okay?" Kofuku asked.

"I don't know. Are there still people in the passage to the Hog’s Head?" Yato asked. He knew that the room would not be able to transform while there were still users inside it.

"I was the last to come through," said Kofuku. "I sealed it, I think it unwise to leave it open now Amaterasu is here.”

Yato looked at Kofuku. "I thought you were supposed to be with Daigo?”

'I couldn't stand not knowing…," Kofuku looked anguished. “Have you seen Daikoku?”

“He was planning to lead a group of fighters into the grounds.”

Without another word, Kofuku sped off through the Room of Requirement towards the doors on the opposite side.

It was clear, as the three of them stepped back into the corridor upstairs that the castle had deteriorated severely. The walls and ceiling were shaking worse than ever; dust filled the air, and through the nearest window, Yato saw bursts of green and red light so close to the foot of the castle that he knew the Death Eaters must be very near to entering the castle.

They saw Professor Tsuyu and Professor Takemikazuchi, both with their wands drawn at the next shattered window. Even as they watched, Professor Tsuyu sent a well-aimed jinx into a crowd of fighters below.

"Good shot!" roared a figure running through the dust toward them, and Yato saw Daikoku, storming headfirst into the fray with a small group of students past. "They're breaching the north battlements, they've brought giants!”

Yato briefly thought of Kofuku searching for Daikoku, but shook the thought away. They had to find the diadem. They ran back to the stretch of wall beyond which the Room of Requirement was waiting to do the bidding of the next entrant.

I need the place where everything is hidden, Yato begged of it inside his head, and the door materialized on their third run past.

The furor of the battle died the moment they crossed the threshold and closed the door behind them. All was silent. They were in a place the size of a cathedral with the appearance of a city, its towering walls built of objects hidden by thousands of long-gone students.

"And he never realized anyone could get in?" said Yukine, his voice echoing in the silence.

"He thought he was the only one," said Yato. "Unfortunately for him, Hiyori found it in the first place. And I've had to hide stuff in my time. This way."

Yato gestured down an aisle ahead. "I think it's down here.”

They passed the stuffed troll and the Vanishing Cabinet, then hesitated, looking up and down aisles of junk; he could not remember where to go next…

"Accio Diadem!" cried Hiyori in desperation, but nothing stirred. It seemed that, like the vault at Gringotts, the room would not yield its hidden objects that easily.

"Let's split up," Yato suggested. "Look for a stone bust of an old man wearing a tiara! It's standing on a cupboard somewhere near here…”

They sped off up adjacent aisles; Yato could hear the others' footsteps echoing through the towering piles of junk. Bottles, crates, broken chairs, thick tomes, rusting weapons, outdated broomsticks, and Quidditch bats all littered his field of vision.

"Somewhere near here," Yato muttered to himself.

Deeper and deeper into the labyrinth he went, looking for objects he recognized from his prior trip into the room. His breath was loud in his ears, and then his very soul seemed to shiver: There it was, right ahead, the blistered old cupboard in which he had hidden his old Potions book, and on top of it, the pockmarked stone warlock wearing what looked like an ancient, bejeweled tiara.

Yato stretched out his hand when a voice behind him spoke.

"Hold it.”

Yato turned abruptly, wand drawn. Two Deatheaters were standing behind him - unmasked yet unrecognisable -, shoulder to shoulder, wands pointing right at Yato. Through the small space between their bodies he saw Nora.

"That's my wand, Yato," said Nora, pointing her own through the gap.

“Not anymore," Yato replied, tightening his grip on the hawthorn wand. " Winners, keepers, Nora. Who's lent you theirs?"

"Father,'" said Nora.

Yato laughed, though there nothing very humorous about was the situation. He could not hear Yukine or Hiyori anymore. They seemed to have run out of earshot, searching for the diadem.

"So how come you aren't with the Sorcerer? Or Father?" asked Yato.

“We're gonna be rewarded," a Deatheater interrupted. "We bring back Yaboku and he will reward us."

'Good plan,'" said Yato in mock admiration.

He could not believe that he was this close, and was going to be thwarted by Nora and these idiots. He began edging slowly backward toward the place where the Horcrux sat lopsided upon the bust. If he could just get his hands on it before the fight broke out…

"So how did you get in here?" Yato asked, trying to distract them.

"I lived in the Room of Hidden Things all last year,” said Nora, her voice brittle. "I know how to get in.”

"Yato?" Yukine's voice echoed suddenly from the other side of the wall to Yato's right. "Are you talking to someone?"

The speaking Deatheater whirled around, pointed his wand at the fìfty-foot mountain of old furniture, broken trunks, old books, and unidentifiable junk, and shouted, "Descendio!"

The wall began to totter, and then the top third crumbled into the aisle next door where Yukine stood.

"Yukine!" Yato bellowed, as somewhere out of sight Hiyori screamed, and Yato heard innumerable objects crashing to the floor on the other side of the destabilized wall. He pointed his wand at the rampart, and cried, "Finite!" and it steadied.

"No!" shouted Nora, grabbing the Deatheaters arm. "If you wreck the room, you might bury the diadem!"

“What's that matter?" He growled, tugging himself free. "It's Yaboku the Sorcerer wants, who cares about a diadem?"

"Yato came in here to get it," said Nora with impatience at the slow-wittedness of her colleagues, "so that must mean-”

"Must mean?" He turned on Nora with undisguised ferocity. “Who cares what you think? You're just a filthy -.”

"Yato?" shouted Yukine again from the other side of the junk wall. "What's going on?"

In the split second the Deatheater had turned to sneer at the wall, Yato had lunged for the tiara. A curse missed him but hit the stone bust, which flew into the air; the diadem soared upward and then dropped out of sight in the mountain of objects on which the mass bust had rested.

"STOP!" Nora shouted, her voice echoing through the enormous room. "Father wants him alive-!”

"So? I'm not killing him, am I?" yelled the Deatheater, throwing off Nora's restraining arm. "But if I can, I will. The Sorcerer wants him dead anyway, what's the diff-?”

A jet of scarlet light shot past Yato by inches: Hiyori had run around the corner behind him and sent a Stunning Spell straight at the Deatheater's head. It only missed because Nora pulled him out of the way.

"It's that Mudblood! Avada Kedavra!"

Yato saw Hiyori dive aside, and his fury that he had aimed to kill wiped all else from his mind. He shot a Stunning Spell back at the Deatheater, who lurched out of the way, knocking Nora's wand out of her hand. It rolled out of sight beneath a mountain of broken furniture and boxes.

"Don't kill him! DON'T KILL HIM!" Nora yelled at the two Deatheaters who were both aiming at Yato.

Their split-second's hesitation was all Yato needed.

"Expelliarmus!"

The first Deatheater's wand flew out of his hand and disappeared into the litany of objects beside him. Nora jumped out of range of Hiyori's second Stunning Spell, and Yukine, appearing suddenly at the end of the aisle shot a full Body-Bind Curse at the remaining Deatheater, which narrowly missed him. He wheeled around and screamed, "Avada Kedavra!"

Yukine leaped out of sight to avoid the jet of green light. The wandless Nora cowered behind a three-legged wardrobe as Hiyori charged toward them, hitting the offending Deatheater with a Stunning Spell as she came.

"It's somewhere here!" Yato yelled at her, pointing at the pile of junk into which the old tiara had fallen. "Look for it while I go and help Yukine!”

"Yato!" she screamed. A roaring, billowing noise behind him gave him a moment's warning. He turned and saw both Yukine and the Deatheater running as hard as they could up the aisle toward them.

A wall of fire had engulfed the room behind them, licking up the sides of the junk, which were crumbling to soot at their touch.

"Aguamenti!" Yato cried, but the jet of water that soared from the tip of his wand evaporated in the air.

"RUN!"

Nora grabbed the Deatheater closest to her and dragged him along. Yato, Yukine, and Hiyori pelted along in their wake, and the fire pursued them.

It was not normal fire; whatever curse it was Yato did not know. As they turned a corner the flames chased them as though they were alive; sentient, intent upon killing them. Now the fire was mutating, forming a gigantic pack of fiery beasts: Flaming serpents, chimeras, and dragons rose and fell and rose again, and the detritus of centuries on which they were feeding was thrown up in the air into their fanged mouths, tossed high on clawed feet, before being consumed by the inferno. Nora, and the Deatheaters had vanished from view. Yato, Yukine, and Hiyori stopped dead; the fiery monsters were circling them, drawing closer and closer, claws and horns and tails lashed, and the heat was as solid as a wall around them.

“What can we do?" Hiyori screamed over the deafening roars of the fire. "What do we do?"

"Here!"

Yato seized a pair of heavy-looking broomsticks from the nearest pile of junk and threw one to Hiyori, who pulled Yukine onto it behind her. Yato swung his leg over the second broom and, with hard kicks to the ground, they soared up into the air, missing by the horned beak of a flaming beast that snapped its jaws at them. The smoke and heat were becoming overwhelming. Below them the cursed fire was consuming the secrets of the past, lost treasures, and guilty pleasures that had been squirreled away. Yato couldn't see a trace of Nora anywhere.

He swooped as low as he dared over the marauding monsters of flame to try to find them, but there was nothing but fire

What a terrible way to die… He had never wanted this…

“Yato, let's get out, let's get out!" bellowed Yukine, though it was impossible to see where the door was through the black smoke.

And then Yato heard a thin, piteous human scream from amidst the terrible commotion the thunder of devouring flame.

"It's too dangerous-!" Hiyori yelled, but Yato wheeled in the air. He raked the firestorm below, seeking a sign of life, a limb, or a face that was not yet burnt to ash.

And he saw her: Nora with an arm shielding her face, perched on a fragile tower of charred desks. Yat threw a desperate look at Hiyori and Yukine, and despite the evident understanding of his intention, Yukine bellowed, "IF WE DIE FOR HER, I'LL KILL YOU!"

Yato dived. Nora saw him coming and raised one arm, and as a great flaming chimera bore down upon them, Yato's hand grasped Nora's and heaved her into the air. The broom rocked and pitched dangerously as Yato hauled Nora up behind him, the flames rising higher than he could climb.

"The door, get to the door, the door!" screamed Nora in Yato's ear, and Yato sped up, following Yukine and Hiyori through the billowing black smoke, hardly able to breathe. All around them, the last few objects unburned by the devouring flames were flung into the air, as the creatures of the cursed fire cast them high: cups and shields, a sparkling necklace, and an old, discolored tiara.

“There!” Hiyori cried, her finger eagerly directed ahead. “The door!”

Then, through the smoke, Yato saw a rectangular patch on the wall and steered the broom at it. Nora was screaming and holding Yato so tightly it hurt, and he cast a final look back into the rushing flames. The diadem seemed to fall in slow motion, turning and glittering as it dropped toward the maw of a yawning serpent, and then it vanished, and Yato's vision whited out.

My Lord…

The Sorcerer stood in a strangely familiar room. The sounds of the assault on the castle were muffled and distant. The single unblocked window revealed distant bursts of light where the castle stood. He was rolling his wand between his fingers.

"Aren't - aren't you afraid, my Lord, that Yaboku might die at another hand but yours?" asked Oshi, her voice shaking. "Wouldn't it be… forgive me, more prudent to seek him y-yourself?"

“I do not need to seek Yaboku. Before the night is out he will have come to find me.” The Sorcerer dropped his gaze once more to the wand in his fingers.

"Go and fetch Kuguha.��

""Kuguha, m-my Lord?"

"Kuguha. Now. I need him. Go."

Frightened, stumbling a little through the gloom, Oshi left the room. The Sorcerer continued to stand there, twirling the wand between his fingers, staring at it.

"It is the only way," he whispered.

And then it hit - the Horcrux, consumed by cursed flame, rendering another part of the Sorcerer's soul incinerated. He doubled over with a sharp gasp, and the splintering of wood filled the air.

Yato saw flashes before his eyes and the Sorcerer's figure doubled and collapsed to the floor; the glitter of black scales shifting and transforming to flesh. Black hair…

Blue eyes.

Yato heaved a wheezy breath as he came too, soot blurring his sight. Clean air filled his lungs and he rolled to his side. The door to the Room of Requirement had vanished, and Yukine and Hiyori sat panting on the floor. Nora was nowhere to be seen.

“What the hell was that?” Yukine demanded, more so at the blank walls than anyone else.

"It must have been Fiendfyre…” Hiyori coughed. Yato and Yukine looked at her, and she elaborated. "Cursed fire - it's one of the substances that destroy. No one dares use it, it's so dangerous…”

“At least that's another Horcrux destroyed,” Yato murmured.

There was silence, apart from panting and coughing. Then a number of huge bangs shook the castle. The battle was still going on all around them. They could hear more screams. Panic flared within Yato.

"But don't you realize?" whispered Hiyori. “This means if we can just get the snake-.”

But she broke off as yells and shouts and the unmistakable noises of dueling filled the corridor. Yato looked around and his heart faltered; Death Eaters had penetrated Hogwarts.

Yato, Yukine, and Hiyori scrambled forward to help, leaving Nora on the floor coughing. Jets of light flew in every direction, teachers and students dueling masked and hooded men in the corridor ahead. Bodies littered the floor, the injured being protected and half-dragged into the cover of alcoves. Yato raised his wand, the beginnings of a curse on his lips, and the air exploded. Yato felt himself flying through the air, and all he could do was hold as tightly as possible to his wand and shield his head in his arms. He heard the screams and yells of his friends without a hope of knowing what had happened to them.

And then the world shuttered itself into darkness.

He was half buried in the wreckage of a corridor that had been subjected to a violent attack. The cold air blowing over his face told him that the side of the castle had been blown away, and hot stickiness on his cheek told him that he was bleeding. Then he heard a terrible cry that pulled at his insides, and he stood up, swaying.

Hiyori was struggling to her feet in the wreckage. Yato grabbed her hand as they staggered and stumbled over stone and wood. Yukine's filthy blond hair rose from a shattered frame, and Yato gripped him bodily and hauled him up, holding him tightly, vision blurred but mind functioning as he tried to piece together what had happened. A body fell past the hole blown into the side of the school, and curses flew in at them from the darkness, hitting the wall behind their heads.

"Get down!" Yato shouted, as more curses flew through the night. He and Yukine had both grabbed Hiyori and pulled her to the floor.

Hiyori screamed, and Yato, turning, did not need to ask why. A monstrous spider the size of a small car was trying to climb through the huge hole in the wall; one of the Sorcerer’s disciples. Yukine and Yato shouted together; their spells collided and the monster was blown backward, its legs jerking horribly, and vanished into the darkness.

"There's more!" Yato called to the others, glancing over the edge of the castle through the hole in the wall the curses had blasted.

More giant spiders were climbing the side of the building, liberated from the Forbidden Forest, which the Death Eaters must have into penetrated. Yato fired Stunning Spells down upon them, knocking the lead monster into its fellows so that they rolled back down. Curses came soaring over the building and out of sight. Then more over Yato's head, so close he felt the force of them blow his hair.

"Move, NOW!"

Pushing Hiyori ahead of him with Yukine, Yato shot Stunning spells behind at the end of the corridor, which was now full of dust and falling masonry, glass long gone from the windows, he saw many people running backward and forward, whether friends or foes he could not tell.

"Yato, in here!" Hiyori screamed. She had pulled Yukine behind a tapestry and into an abandoned room that had been overlooked. Yato slammed the door shut behind him, the cries of battle barely muffled through the thick wood.

“We need the snake, we've got to kill the snake!" said Hiyori. She turned to Yato. “Where Yato? Where do we go?”

Yato hadn't a second to consider what his latest vision had meant, but one thing was for certain:

"He's in the Shrieking Shack. He's just sent Oshi to find Kuguha.”

Hiyori recoiled. "The Sorcerer is in the Shrieking Shack?" said Hiyori. "He's not even fighting?"

“He doesn't think he needs to fight," said Yato. "He thinks I'm going to go to him.”

"But why?"

'He knows I'm after Horcruxes - he should be keeping Nagini close beside him - obviously, I'm going to have to go to him to get near it.”

“Right," said Yukine, squaring his shoulders. "So you can't go, that's what he wants, that he's expecting. You stay here and look after Hiyori, and I'll go and get it -.”

Yato cut over Yukine. "You two stay here, I'll go under the Cloak and I'll be back as soon as I-.”

"No," said Hiyori, "it makes much more sense if I take the Cloak and-.”

The door behind Yato was ripped open.

"HERE!!"

Two masked Deatheaters stood there, but even before their wands were fully raised, Yukine shouted, “EXPULSO!”

Yato threw himself to the ground with Hiyori, the curse just missing his head. Both Deatheaters let out yells and were sent soaring back across the corridor, hitting the wall with a sickening crunch before falling in a heap on the floor.

Yukine flung himself towards the door, wand raised as he checked for reinforcements. There was a clatter of wood scraping on flagstone as a herd of galloping desks, chairs, and wardrobes thundered past, shepherded by a sprinting Professor Tsuyu. She appeared not to notice them; her hair flew behind her and there was a gash on her cheek. As she turned the corner, they heard her scream, "CHARGE!"

"Yato, put the Cloak on," said Hiyori. "Leave us and just-.”

But Yato threw it over all three of them; large though they were, he doubted anyone would notice their disembodied feet through the shattered stone, broken glass, and ongoing chaos.

They ran down the next staircase and found themselves in a corridor full of duelers. The portraits on either side of the fighters were crammed with figures screaming warnings and encouragement, while Deatheaters, both masked and unmasked, dueled students and teachers. Yato, Yukine, and Hiyori raised their wands at once, ready to protect each other, but the duelers had paid their cumbersome entrance and out-of-place body parts no mind.

'LET'S GO!" Yato yelled, and he, Yukine, and Hiyori gathered the cloak tightly around themselves and pelted, heads down, through the midst of the fighters, toward the top of the marble staircase into the entrance hall.

There were more duelers all over the stairs and in the hall; Deatheaters everywhere Yato looked, students in every direction, some carrying or running and dragging injured friends.

Yato directed a Stunning Spell toward a masked Deatheater; it missed but nearly hit BLANK, who had emerged from nowhere brandishing armfuls of Venomous Tentacula, which looped itself happily around the nearest Deatheater and began reeling him in.

Yato, Yukine, and Hiyori sped down the marble staircase. Two bodies fell from the balcony overhead as they reached the ground, and a gray blur that Yato took for an animal sped four-legged across the hall to sink its teeth into one of the fallen.

"NO! shrieked Hiyori, and with a deafening blast from her wand, the creature was thrown backward from the feebly stirring body of Touma. It hit the marble banisters and struggled to return to its feet. Then, with a bright white flash and crack, a crystal ball fell on top of its head, and crumpled to the ground and did not move.

"I have more!" shrieked Kofuku from over the banisters. "More for any who want them! Here!”

And with a movement like a tennis serve, she heaved another enormous crystal sphere from her bag, waved her wand through the hall and smashed through air, and caused the ball to speed across the window. At the same moment, the heavy wooden front doors burst open, and more of the gigantic spiders forced their way into the entrance hall.

Screams of terror split the air: The fighters scattered, Deatheaters and Hogwartians alike, and red and green jets of light flew into the midst of the oncoming monsters, which shuddered and reared, more terrifying than ever.

"How do we get out?" yelled Yukine over all the screaming, but before either Yato or Hiyori could answer they were bowled aside by one of the spiders scuttering past into the fray.

“RUN!" Yato roared. The night was full of hideous yells, and he seized Hiyori's hand and tore down the steps into the grounds, Yukine bringing up the rear. He ran so fast that they were halfway toward the forest before they were skidded to a halt.

The air around them had frozen. Yato's breath caught in his chest. Shapes moved out in the darkness, swirling figures of rags and decay, moving in a great wave toward the castle, their faces hooded and their breath rattling.

Yukine and Hiyori closed in beside him as the sounds of fighting behind them grew suddenly muted, deadened because a silence only Dementors could bring was falling thickly through the night.

"Come on, Yato!" said Hiyori's voice from a very long way away. “Patronuses, Yato!"

He raised his wand, but a dull hopelessness was spreading through him. How many more lay dead that he did not yet know about? How many more? He felt as though his soul had already half left his body.

'Yato, COME ON!" screamed Hiyori.

A hundred dementors were advancing, gliding toward them, sucking their way closer to Yato's despair, like blood to a shark.

He saw Yukine's silver hare burst into the air, flicker feebly, and expire; he saw Hiyori's wolf twist in midair and fade, the begins of a howl dying on its snout, and his own wand trembled in his hand, and he almost welcomed the oncoming oblivion, the promise of nothing…

And then a silver lion leaped overhead, followed closely by a bounding labrador. The Dementors fell back before the creatures approached. Yato's vision blurred back, and the thundering of hooves beside him brought him back to reality; help had arrived. Astride a snapping Hippogriff, their wands outstretched and tethered to their patronuses.

Bishamon and Kazuma.

"That's right," Bishamon encouraged. "That's right… come on, think of something happy.”

Something happy? Yato thought. It seemed impossible right now.

“We're going to win this," Kazuma whispered.

There was a silver spark, then a wavering light, and then, Yato's Patronus burst from the end of his wand. It cantered forward, and now the dementors scattered in earnest, and immediately the night was mild again, but the sounds of the battle were loud in his ears.

“Thank you," said Yukine shakily, turning to Bishamon and Kazuma. "You saved us.”

With a roar and an earth-quaking tremor, a troll came lurching out of the darkness from the direction of the forest, brandishing a club taller than any of them.

“RUN! Yato shouted again. They all scattered, and in the next moment, the creature's vast foot had fallen exactly where they had been standing.

Yato looked around - Yukine and Hiyori were following him, but the Bishamon and Kazuma had vanished back into the battle aside Buckbeak.

“Move out the way!" yelled Yukine as the troll swung its club again and its bellows echoed through the night, across the grounds where bursts of red and green light continued to illuminate the darkness.

"The Whomping Willow," said Yato, "Go!"

Somehow he walled it all up in his mind - its secret tunnel, and the memories of the Shrieking Shack where he has finally met Sakura.

He could not think of it now. They must reach the snake and the Sorcerer, because that was, as Hiyori said, the only way to end it.

He sprinted, half believing he could out-distance death itself, ignoring the jets of light flying in the darkness all around him, through grounds that seemed themselves to have risen in rebellion. He ran faster than he had ever moved in his life, and it was he who saw the great tree, its roots with whiplike, first, the Willow that protected the secret with slashing branches.

Panting and gasping, Yato slowed down, skirting the Willow's swiping branches, peering through the darkness toward its thick trunk and its entrance.

Yukine and Hiyori caught up, Hiyori so out of breath she could not speak.

Yato raised his wand and free hand and the Whomping Willow stilled, its branches floating into the air as if it had broken the laws of gravity.

“Perfect!" panted Yukine, taking a step forward.

"Wait."

For one faltering second, while the crashes and booms of the battle filled the air, Yato hesitated. The Sorcerer wanted him to do this, wanted him to come… Was he leading Yukine and Hiyori into a trap?

But then the reality seemed to hit: The only way forward was to kill the snake, and the snake was where the Sorcerer was, and he was at the end of this tunnel…

"Yato, we're coming, just get in there!" said Yukine, pushing him forward. Yato wriggled into the earthy passage hidden in the tree's roots.

It was a much tighter squeeze than it had been the last time they had entered it.

Yato went first, his wand illuminated, expecting at any moment to meet a threat, but none came. They moved in silence, Yato's gaze fixed upon the path ahead.

At last, the tunnel began to slope upward and Yato saw a sliver of light ahead. Hiyori tugged at his ankle.

“The Cloak!" she whispered. "Put the Cloak on!"

He groped behind him and she forced the cloth into his free hand. With difficulty he dragged it over himself, murmured, "Nox,'" extinguishing his wand light, and continued on his hands and knees, as silently as possible, all his senses straining, expecting every second to be discovered, to hear a cold clear voice, see a flash of green light.

Then he heard voices coming from the room directly ahead of them, only slightly muffled by the fact that the opening at the end of the tunnel had been blocked up by what looked like an old crate.

Hardly daring to breathe, Yato edged right up to the opening and peered through a tiny gap left between the crate and the wall.

The room beyond was dimly lit, but he could see Nagini, swirling and coiling midair. He could see the edge of a table, and a long-fingered hand toying with a wand. Then Kuguha spoke, and Yato's heart lurched.

“My Lord, their resistance is crumbling,” Kuguha said appeasingly. “Let me find the boy. Let me bring you Yato. I know I can find him, my Lord.”

Kuguha strode past the gap, and Yato drew back a little, keeping his eyes fixed upon Nagini, wondering whether there was any spell that might penetrate the protection surrounding her, but he could not think of anything. One failed attempt, and he would give away his position.

The Sorcerer stood up. Yato could see him now, black robes swinging. "I have a problem.”

"My Lord?"

The Sorcerer raised the Elder Wand. "Why doesn't it work for me?"

In the silence, Yato imagined he could hear the snake hissing slightly as it coiled and uncoiled.

"My Lord?" said Kuguha blankly. "I do not understand. You… you have performed extraordinary magic with that wand.”

"No," said the Sorcerer. "I have performed my usual magic. I am extraordinary, but this wand… It has not revealed the wonder it has promised. I feel no difference.”

The Sorcerer's tone was musing, calm, but Yato's head had begun to throb and pulse. Pain was building in his forehead, and he could feel that controlled sense of fury building inside the Sorcerer.

"None at all," said the Sorcerer again.

Yato could not see his face. He wondered not whether Kuguha sensed danger.

The Sorcerer started to move around the room. Yato lost sight of him for a few seconds as he prowled, speaking in that same measured voice, while the pain and fury mounted in Yato. "I have thought long and hard. Do you know why I have called you back from the battle?"

And for a moment Yato saw Kuguha’s profile; his eyes were fixed upon the coiling snake in its enchanted cage.

"No, my Lord. But please allow me to find Yaboku."

"You sound like Oshi. Neither of you understands him as I do. He does not need to be found; Yaboku will come home to me. I know his weakness. He will hate watching the others struck down around him, knowing that it's his fault. He will want to stop it at any cost. He will come.”

"But my Lord, he might be killed accidentally by one other than yourself-.”

“My instructions have been perfectly clear: Capture Yaboku. Kill his friends, but do no more, do not kill him. But you," the Sorcerer ceased pacing. "You have been very valuable to me. Very valuable. It's you that I wished to speak, not Yaboku.”

Kuguha shuffled his feet. "I seek only to serve you. But - let me go and find the boy, my Lord. Let me bring him to you. I know I can -.”

“I have told you, no!" said the Sorcerer, and Yato caught the glint in his eyes as he turned again, and the swishing of his cloak was like the slithering of a snake and he felt his impatience in his head.

“Why did the wands I have used fail when directed at Yaboku?"

"I cannot answer that, my Lord."

"Can't you?"

The stab of rage felt like a spike driven through Yato's head. He forced his fist into his mouth to stop himself from crying out in pain. He closed his eyes, and suddenly he was there, looking into Kuguha’s pale face.

"I-I have no explanation, my Lord.” His dark eyes were still. Kuguha was not looking at Voldemort now. Fixed upon the coiling serpent in its protective sphere.

"I sought a third wand. The Elder Wand, the Wand of Destiny, the Deathstick. I took it from its previous master. I took it from the grave of Tenjin.'

And now Kuguha looked at his master. There was panic in his eyes. "My Lord - let me go-.”

"All this long night, when I am on the brink of victory, I have sat here,'" said the Sorcerer, his voice barely louder than a whisper, “Wondering, wondering, why the Elder Wand refuses to be what it ought to be, refuses to perform as legend says it must perform for its rightful owner… and I think I have the answer.'

Kuguha did not speak.

"Perhaps you already know it? You are a clever man, after all. You have been a good and faithful servant, and I regret what must happen.”

"My Lord…”

"The Elder Wand cannot serve me properly, Kuguha, because I am not its true master. The Elder Wand belongs to the wizard who killed its last owner. You killed Tenjin. While you live, the Elder Wand cannot be truly mine.”

"My Lord!" Kuguha protested, raising his wand.

"It cannot be any other way," said the Sorcerer. "I must master the wand. Master the wand, and I master Yaboku at last."

He swiped the air with the Elder Wand. It did nothing to Kuguha, who for a split second seemed to think he had been reprieved: But then the Sorcerer's intention became clear. The snake's cage was rolling through the air, and before Kuguha could do anything more than yell, it had encased him, head and shoulders, and Voldemort spoke in Parseltongue.

"Kill.”

There was a terrible scream. Yato saw Kuguha’s face losing the little color it had left; it whitened as his black eyes widened, as the snake's fangs pierced his neck, as he failed to push the enchanted cage off himself, as his knees gave way and he fell to the floor.

“I regret it," said the Sorcerer coldly.

He turned away; there was no sadness in him, no remorse. It was time to leave this shack and take charge, with a wand that would now do his full bidding. He pointed it at the starry cage holding the snake, which drifted upward, off Kuguha, who fell sideways onto the floor, blood gushing from the wounds in his neck. The Sorcerer swept from the room without a backward glance, and the great serpent floated after him in its huge protective sphere.

Back in the tunnel and his own mind, Yato opened his eyes: He had drawn blood biting down on his knuckles in an effort not to shout out. Now he was looking through the tiny crack between crate and wall, watching a foot in a black boot trembling on the floor.

"Yato!" Breathed Hiyori behind him, but he had already pointed his wand at the crate blocking his view. It lifted an inch into the air and drifted sideways silently. As quietly as he could, he pulled himself up into the room.

Yato did not know why he was doing it, why he was forcing his way into the dimly lit room. He did not know what to feel as he approached Kuguha, whose breath rattled and neck was bloody.

Yato took off the Invisibility Cloak and looked down upon the dying man, whose widening eyes found him and Hiyori and Yukine as they clambered out of the gap behind.

Yato grimly drew his wand.

“Yato…” Yukine said hesitantly, almost with a warning tone.

“I'm not,” Yato said softly. “He has information. I need to know what comes next.”

Yato knelt in the growing pool of blood and drew in close. His wand hovered at Kuguha’s head, and a silvery hue, neither gas nor liquid, pulled from his temple, meeting the tip of Yato's wand.

A flask, conjured from thin air, was thrust into his shaking hands by Hiyori. Yato lifted the silvery substance into it with his wand. When the flask was full to the brim, a terrible rasping, gurgling noise wheezed from Kuguha’s throat, and his grip on Yato's robes slackened.

There was a pregnant pause before Hiyori whispered, “Is he dead?”

Yato opened his mouth to reply.

A low, cold voice spoke so close that Yato jumped to his feet, the vial clutched in his fist as he cast his eyes frantically around the room.

The Sorcerer's voice reverberated around the room, and Yato realised the disembodied words were addressing everyone within the castle and the surrounding areas, reaching down into the homes of families in Hogsmeade like a breath down their necks.

“You have fought valiantly," said the cold voice. “The Lord knows how to value bravery. Yet you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist, you will all die, one by one.”

Yato’s heart pounded in his chest, thumping against the fragile glass in his hand.

“I do not wish this to happen.” The voice continued. “Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste. Our Lord is merciful. command my forces to retreat immediately. You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured.”

The voice shifted as if stepping around Yato, moving to speak to him directly, faceless.

"I speak to you now, Yaboku. You have allowed your friends to die rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, then battle recommences.”

Yato missed the panicked looks Hiyori and Yukine exchanged, the Sorcerer's terms unfathomable. “This time, I will come myself, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour.”

The voice rang in Yato’s ears.

Both Hiyori and Yukine shook their heads frantically, looking at Yato.

"Don't listen to him," said Yukine.

“It'll be all right," said Hiyori wildly. "Let's get back to the castle, if he's gone to the forest we'll need to think of a new plan”

She glanced at the body, then hurried back to the tunnel entrance. Yukine followed her. Yato gathered up the Invisibility Cloak, and then looked down at Kuguha. He did not know what to feel, except shock at the method of his execution, and the reason for which it had been done.

They crawled back through the tunnel, none of them talking and Yato wondered whether Yukine and Hiyori could still hear the Sorcerer ringing in their heads, as he could.

You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest… One hour.

The three of them hurried toward the stone steps. The forecourt yard was littered with debris and the fallen, Deatheaters and comrades alike. It must've been the small hours of the morning, but the sun had not yet broken over the crest of the mountains.

The castle was unnaturally silent as they hurried across the grass, wands drawn and alert despite the abandoned battlefield. There were no flashes of light now, no cries or screams. The flagstones of the desolate entrance hall were stained with blood, chips of marble, piles of stone, and splintered wood from the banisters creating a carpet that they trod over gently.

“Where is everyone?" whispered Hiyori.

Yukine led the way to the Great Hal, followed closely by Hiyori. Yato stopped in the doorway and took in the ruin before him.

The survivors stood in groups, their arms around each other, or lay on the floor eerily silent. The House tables were pushed to the sides of the Great Hall or acting as medic tables, haphazardly arranged and littered with medical supplies. The injured were being treated by Professor Tsuyu and an assortment of helpers.

Yato’s eyes raked over the devastation. A litany of bodies lay uncovered beneath the enchanted ceiling, some of which he could recognise. Tsuguha, pale and unmoving, with Aiha weeping beside her - her own legs were wrapped in bandages that were already bleeding through. A small girl with black hair and blue lining of her jumper hems; Touma.

Further away he could see more figures. Whether or not they were alive he could not tell, and the fact that there was a medic kneeling between the two forms did not comfort him. His eyes had nearly flicked away when the medic moved, leaning over to the next patient, and Yato caught a glimpse of pink hair and a large hand nearly touching theirs.

The Great Hall seemed to shrink, all the oxygen sucked away as Yato reeled backward from the doorway. He could not breathe. No. He could not stand to watch, to see who else had died for him. He could not bear to join his friends. He could not look into their eyes when if he had given himself up in the first place, this might never have happened.

He turned away and ran up the marble staircase. He wished his heart would stop so that this testing pain would cease, that each screaming heartbeat would still into a peaceful oblivion. His feet instinctively took him to the one place where he would find answers.

The castle was completely empty; even the portraits and ghosts seemed to have joined the mass mourning in the Great Hall.

Yato ran without stopping, clutching the crystal flask of Kuguha’s last thoughts, and he did not slow down until he reached the stone gargoyle guarding the headmaster's office.

"Password?" The door groaned, unfeeling of the chaos around it.

“Tenjin!" said Yato bellowed, fiat slamming against the door. The gargoyle slid aside, revealing the spiral staircase behind.

But when Yato burst into the circular office he found no one. The portraits were empty; not a single headmaster or headmistress remained to see him. They had left to see the ruination of their school, and their beloved students and peers.

Yato glanced hopelessly at Tenjin's deserted frame, the largest which hung directly behind the headmaster's chair, then turned his back on it. His eyes fell on the cabinet to the side of the room. Tenjins pensieve. It had been left open, carelessly, as if its user was abruptly taken from it by some unfolding disaster downstairs.

If Tenjin were not here, then his memories were. And maybe someone else's.

Yato poured Kuguha’s memories and dunked his head to drown out the world.

Yato emerged in a dark room with few plush items. Three people stood before him, bathed in firelight. Yato stepped forward, a sense of dread pulling him closer. He knew this place. He knew these people.

“If it's true, should we not keep an eye on the boy? To kill -,” a male figure spoke. He was dressed in white and had grey dreads that reached down his back. Kuguha. He was addressing another man, polarized by his black robes and short dark hair. He was turned away from his guests and Yato, staring into the fire with an arm resting on the mantlepiece.

“No,” the dark-haired man said with the slightest shake of his head, and Yato’s blood ran cold. He knew that voice. “My son will never cease this mission.”

“My Lord,” Kuguha murmured with the slightest inclination of his head. “If you were to destroy the Horcrux yourself -.”

“It is necessary,” the dark-haired man said. “Given the circumstances.”

Yato stepped forward again, wary of his presence being detected though he knew in the back of his head it shouldn't be possible.

"I don't understand, your soul - fractured as it is - cannot bear close contact with a soul like Yato's. We were talking of minds!” A female voice shrilled and Ytao’s head snapped to the carrier - Oshi.

This must have been before recent events after Oshi was installed as Headmistress, Yato thought to himself.

The fire crackled and cast shadows over their faces. Yato moved closer. He knew who he was looking at - he’d been looking at him for half of his life, hiding for the rest. So why was he talking about his soul and Horcruxes?

“I knew what burden I would bear if I chose to do this to my children,” the dark-haired man said softly. “Because I knew that I would do anything to protect them. I am them. They are me. Now neither can live whilst I survive .”

Yato could feel the memory starting to blur at the edges, the voice becoming watery.

"In the case of Yato and I, to speak of one is to speak of the other.” The dark-haired man said. The vision went black, and the last words barely reached Yato’s ears.

“Our fates are intertwined.”

A whirl of color, and now everything darkened. Yato stood in the headmaster's office, unchanged. It was nighttime and the portraits were full once again of headteachers past and present. Yet the main difference was its most recently departed was sitting in the high-backed chair.

Yato stepped around the room carefully. Why was he seeing Tenjin’s memories? Surely the Pensieve would have been rinsed of all prior recollections - but then again, it would have proved a valuable source of intel for Oshi and the Sorcerer.

He had arrived mid-conversation but Tenjin hadn't noticed the interruption of course, nor had Madame Kofuku who sat adjacent, glaring at Tenjin with her green eyes.

"The Sorcerer does not expect Nora to succeed,” Tenjin said, fingers steepled in front of his face. “This is merely punishment for her recent failures… slow torture until my murder is committed.”

This must be before Nora's attempts on Tenjin’s life happened, Yato thought to himself. Everything was rewinding, going back in time. He knew from the beginning?

“Do you believe the Sorcerer foresees a moment in the near future when he will not need Nora's eyes in the castle?" Madame Kofuku asked, eyes narrowed.

'He believes the school will soon be in his grasp, yes.' Tenjin agreed.

There was a beat of silence.

"And if it does fall into his grasp," said Tenjin, “Do I have your word that you will do all in your power to protect the students of Hogwarts?"

Madame Kofuku gave a stiff nod.

"Good. Now then. Your first priority will be to discover what Nora is up to; a frightened teenage girl is a danger to others as well as to herself. Nora blames me - thinks I have enabled Yato to stay away from their father for so long. And I do not deny it.”

Tenjin stood from his desk and Yato took an unnecessary step back to allow him to walk past, circling the desk.

"All the same, I am concerned less for myself than for accidental victims of whatever schemes Nora may attempt. Ultimately, of course, there is only one thing to be done if we are to save her from the Sorcerer's wrath.

Tenjin came to a stop beside Madame Kofuku’s chair, hands behind his back as he stared at the door.

Kofuku raised her eyebrows as she asked, "Are you intending to let her kill you?"

"Certainly not.” Tenjin chuckled, and both Yato and Madame Kofuku both failed to see what was so funny. "That girl's soul is not yet so damaged. I would not have it ripped apart on my account.”

The world spun away and came back a moment later. Yato was at Grimmauld Place, in the dining room. All the paperwork and books had been cleared away neatly, indicating that this memory had come later on during his sixth year at Hogwarts. He heard muffled voices from the living room and followed them, taking a moment to soak in the nostalgia of his once home.

“- is the key to the Sorcerer’s undoing, no matter if the prophecy is destroyed.”

Yato gently pushed open the living room door. Tenjin sat in an armchair right before him holding a cup of tea to his lips. Sunlight painted his lined face, the curtains pulled back to let in a gentle breeze that rocked the curtains and the view of the budding cherry blossoms. His eyes flitted to the sofa and his heart lurched.

Sakura sat with her hands folded on her lap, her cup of tea placed on the table in front of her with the delicate porcelain teapot still steaming hot. She hasn't changed at all, Yato thought for the briefest of moments, before he realised that all occupants of the room except himself were currently deceased.

Sakura’s face was painted with a mixture of heartbreak, confusion, and anger. “What are you implying, Tenjin?”

The air shifted and stilled. Tenjin lowered his teacup with a small clatter.

"Yato must not know until the last moment. Not until it gives him the strength to do what is necessary, otherwise how it must be done-.”

“And what must be done?"

“That is between Yato and me. Now listen closely, Sakura. There will come a time after my death when the Sorcerer will seem to fear for the life of his snake -.”

“For his snake?" Sakura interrupted, looking astonished. “The one Yato has seen?”

"Precisely. If there comes a time when the Sorcerer stops sending that snake forth to do his bidding, but keeps it safe beside him under magical protection, then, I think, it will be safe to tell Yato.”

"Tell him what?"

Tenjin took a deep breath and closed his eyes, the teacup balanced delicately in his fragile hand.

"Tell him that on the night the Sorcerer created the snake, so he too created Yato.”

Yato stared at Tenjin.

“The Sorcerer used his own children to create Horcruxes. To ensure that they would always live beside him, under his protection. To take the life of the Sorcerer is one thing, but to take the lives of his children? Innocent souls? It would take a heartless person to do such a thing, even have a chance to do so.”

Yato's face mirrored Sakura's; confusion yielding to sickening disbelief.

“Part of the Sorcerer lives inside Yato, and it is that which gives him the power of speech with snakes, and a connection with the Sorcerer's mind that he has never understood. And while that fragment of the soul remains attached to and protected by Yato, the Sorcerer cannot die.”

Yato seemed to be watching from one end of a long tunnel; they were so far away from him, their voices echoing strangely in his ears.

“I will not lead him to his death. I will not kill him,” Sakura shook her head. “There must be another way!”

“You cannot kill him. The Sorcerer himself must do it, Sakura. That is essential.”

Another long silence. Then Sakura said, "I thought that we were protecting him for me. For years.”

"We have protected him because it has been essential to teach him, to raise him, to let him try try his strength," said Tenjin his eyes still tight shut. "Meanwhile, the connection between them grows ever stronger, a parasitic growth. Sometimes I have thought he suspects it himself. If I know him, Yato will have arranged matters so that when he does set out to meet his death, it will truly mean the end of the Sorcerer.”

Tenjin opened his eyes. Sakura looked horrified.

"You have kept him alive, sheltered him, so that he can die at the right moment?"

"Don't be shocked, Sakura,” Tenjin said, and Yato disliked the tone he used. “How many men and women have you watched die?"

“Only those whom I could not save,” said Sakura. She stood up. "You have used me. I have spied for you and lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to be to keep Yato safe. Now you tell me you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter. I will not allow it!”

Sakura crossed the room in a blur of robes and dark hair, and Yato caught the faintest smell of her perfume as the world faded away with the creak of a door.

“I think it's best you leave, Headmaster.”

Yato rose up out of the Pensieve, and moments later he lay on the carpeted floor of Tenjin's office.

Finally, the truth of his upbringing. All his life in his Father's house, kept safe from the world as the Sorcerer grew in power.

His job all along was to walk calmly into Death's welcoming arms. Along the way, he would break the Sorcerer's remaining link to life.

The Sorcerer determined he would destroy Yato - his own Horcrux - to stop him from destroying him altogether. Nagini would be the last Horcrux remaining. At least that's what the Sorcerer would believe for a brief time.

Yato lay on the floor, arms splayed and heart pounding. His mortality struck him; this heart has to stop regardless of how many Horcruxes he destroyed.

How many heartbeats do I have left?

Yato swallowed a lump in his throat, aware of the hot tears dripping down his temples and into his hair.

Would it hurt to die?

It did not matter. It had to happen.

Slowly Yato sat up. His breath came slow and deep, and his mouth and throat were completely dry. He felt his fingers trembling slightly.

The betrayal was nothing; he should have seen this coming. A final twist of fate that ensured that he would never be free. The task of destroying Horcruxes had been passed to him, and as he slowly severed each tie the Sorcerer had to the mortal realm, he was sealing his own fate; the ultimate sacrifice he would have to make to save everyone. How tidy that the Sorcerer’s demise would come from his own hand.

They knew Yato would keep going until the end, after seeing the devastation that stopping would entail. He thought of the bodies in the Great Hall, the injured and the maimed and the dying. But they had overestimated him.

He had failed: The snake survived. One Horcrux would remain to bind the Sorcerer to the earth, even after Yato had been killed. True, that would mean an easier job for somebody. He wondered who would do it; Hiyori and Yukine would know what needed to be done, of course.

That would have been why Tenjin wanted him to confide in two others… so that if he fulfilled his true destiny a little early, they could finish the job.

I must die. It must end.

Yato's thoughts drifted to Hiyori and Yukine. They seemed so far away now - they were probably wondering where he was. But this was a journey they could not take together.

Nearly half of the hour allotted by the Sorcerer for his surrender had passed. Yato stood up, his heart fluttering what short about of beats remained. He did not look back as he closed the office door.

The castle was empty. He felt as if he had already become one of the ghosts - would his soul remain? Or had it been corrupted so that it would disappear with the Sorcerers? The portrait frames hung desolate, all flocking to the Great Hall which had become the pulsating heart of the battleground.

Yato descended through the floors, at last walking down the marble staircase into the entrance hall. He moved down the steps and out into the darkness. It was nearly four in the morning, and the deathly stillness of the grounds felt as though they were holding their breath, waiting to see whether he could do what he must.

“Where've you been?”

Yato turned. Yukine and Hiyori were stood to his left, paused in the corridor.

“I thought you went to the forest…” Yukine sighed as if relieved.

“I'm going there now,” Yato said quietly.

He avoided looking at them - he couldn't bear to look them in the eye, to see the devastation and protest on their faces. He should've gone a different way, and avoided this interaction. It would've hurt less, though Yato didn't know if he was thinking about their feelings or his own.

There was a brief pause before Yukine replied. “Are you mad?”

“No…”

“You can't give yourself up,” Hiyori said. There was a wobble to her voice, and Yato felt a lump rise in his throat.

“What is it, Yato? What is it you know?” Yukine pressed.

“There is a reason I can hear them. The Horcruxes. I think I've known for a while…” Yato said, eyes flitting between the two. “And I think you have, too.”

“You can't-!” Yukine began, but Yato interrupted.

“No. Kill the snake. Kill the snake, and it's just him!”

There was a moment where there was complete silence; the noise of the Great Hall had subsided, along with their breaths and heartbeats. In that moment it was just Yato and the two people he loved most in the world.

And then it shattered.

Yukine hugged Yato firmly, squeezing him slightly.

Yato noticed how much Yukine had grown. He was nearly as tall as he was now, and not as scrawny. After all these years of dealing with his own problems, he’d never noticed Yukine had grown up helping him. Yukine pulled back, his upper lip stiff and eyes unblinking so the tears wouldn’t fall.

“You better come back,” Yukine said in a hard voice, expression betraying his true feelings. Yato nodded dully, promising something that couldn’t be. Deep down Yukine knew it too.

Hiyori stepped up to Yato next, head tilted to look him right in the eyes. Her eyes watered threateningly as she began to speak.

“I’ll go with you,” Hiyori said in a shaky voice.

Yato smiled sadly. Stubborn until the end, as always.

“It’s me they want. You’re safer here.” Yato said softly. He outstretched his arm to her, inviting her into a final hug.

Hiyori’s features broke, her face twisting into one of pain as she launched herself into his arms. She buried her face in his chest, fingernails digging into the back of his shirt as she held him in a tight embrace. He returned the embrace, not as tightly for fear that if he held her he would never let go.

“Don’t go,” Hiyori whispered.

Gradual shuddering sobs shook their bodies as Hiyori clung to him as if it was the last time she would see him.

I suppose it is, Yato thought dejectedly.

He bowed his head so he rested against the top of Hiyori’s head. Taking a deep breath, he could smell her scent of earth and fire smoke that was oh so familiar. He gently put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back slightly to look at her tear-stained face. A lump rose in his throat as he kissed her forehead.

“I’ll come back, I promise.”

Yato took one last glance back at the entrance of the Great Hall. People were moving around, trying to comfort each other, drinking, and kneeling beside the dead.

It would be the last lie he told.

Yato kept himself together as he left Hiyori in Yukine's arms, walking out of the castle and into the bleak night.

This was crucial, he must be like Tenjin: stay calm, make sure there were backups, and others to carry on. Tenjin had died knowing that people still knew about the Horcruxes; now Yukine or Hiyori would take Yato's place.

He wanted to be stopped, to be dragged back, to be sent back home…

But he was home. Hogwarts was the first and best home he had known. He and Yukine - the abandoned boys - had both found a home here. Perhaps Hiyori too now considered that castle her home with her own family gone…

With a huge effort, Yato forced himself on. Yato moved on, past Kuraha’s lightless hut, and now he reached the edge of the forest, and he stopped.

He could no longer control his own trembling. It was not so easy to face death. Every second he breathed, the smell of the grass, the cool air on his face, was so precious. To think that people had years and years, of time to waste, so much time it dragged, and he was clinging to catch second. The long game was ended. The Snitch had been caught; it was time to leave the air.

The Snitch. Yato fumbled for a moment and he pulled out Tenjin's final gift.

I open at the close.

Yato stared down at it. Now that he wanted time to move as slowly as possible, it seemed to have sped up.

This was the close. He pressed the golden metal to his lips and whispered, "I am about to die.”

The metal shell broke open. He lowered his shaking hand, raised Nora's wand, and murmured, “Lumos.”

A black stone with its jagged crack running down the center sat in the two halves of the Snitch. The Resurrection Stone had cracked down the vertical line representing the Elder Wand. The triangle and circle representing the Cloak and the stone were still discernible.

And again Yato understood without having to think. It did not matter about bringing her back, for he was about to join her. He closed his eyes and turned the stone over in his hand three times.

He knew it had happened because he heard slight movements around him that suggested shifting footing on the outer edge of the earthy, twig-strewn ground. He opened his eyes and looked, he could see that. Less substantial than the living, but much more than a ghost, she moved toward him, and on her face, there was the same loving smile.

“Sakura…” Yato whispered.

She was wearing the clothes in which she had died. She pushed her long hair back as she drew close to him, and her eyes searched his face.

“You've been so brave."

Yato could not speak. His eyes feasted on her, and he thought that he would like to stand and look at her forever, and that would be enough.

"You are nearly there," said Sakura. "Very close. I'm so proud of you.”

"Does it hurt?" The childish question had fallen from Yato's lips before he could stop it.

"Dying? Not at all," said Sakura. "Quicker than falling asleep."

Sakura's hand reached out as if wishing to brush the hair from his eyes, to caress his cheek. “He will want it to be quick. He wants it to be over."

"I didn't want you to die," Yato said. These words came without his volition.

A chilly breeze that seemed to emanate from the heart of the forest lifted the hair at Yato's brow. He knew that she would not tell him to go, that it would have to be his decision.

“You'll stay with me?"

"Until the very end," said Sakura.

“They won't be able to see you?" asked Yato.

“I am a part of you," said Sakura.

Yato looked at his sister. He was going home.

“Stay close to me," he said quietly.

And he set off.

Together they walked through the old trees that grew closely together, their branches tangled, their roots a gnarled and twisted carpet. Traveling deeper and deeper into the forest, with no idea where exactly the Sorcerer was, but sure that he would find him. Beside him, making scarcely a sound, walked Sakura's presence. She seemed much more real to him now than the living back at the castle: Hiyori, Yukine and all the others were the ones who felt like ghosts as he stumbled toward the end of his life, toward the Sorcerer.

They had traveled mere minutes when Yato saw light ahead.

A fire burned in the middle of the clearing, and its flickering light fell over a crowd of completely silent, watchful Death Eaters. Some of them were still masked and hooded; others showed their faces. Two giants sat on the outskirts of the group, casting massive shadows over the scene. Yato saw Oshi, skulking like a tattered ghost between trees.

Every eye was fixed upon the Sorcerer, who stood with his head bowed, and his hands folded over the Elder Wand in front of him. He might have been praying, or counting silently in his mind, and Yato thought absurdly of a child counting in a game of hide-and-seek. Behind him at his feet lay Nagini coiled, tongue flickering.

The Resurrection Stone slipped from between his numb fingers, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sakura vanish as he stepped forward into the firelight. At that moment he felt that nobody mattered but the Sorcerer. It was just the two of them.

The illusion was gone as soon as it had come. The giants roared as the Death Eaters rose together, and there were many cries, gasps, and laughter. The Sorcerer had frozen where he stood, but his eyes had found Yato, and he stared as Yato moved toward him, with nothing but the fire between them.

Then a voice yelled: "Yato! NO!”

He turned: Kuraha was bound, tied to a tree nearby. His body shook as he struggled, desperate.

"NO! NO! Leave here!”

“QUIET!" shouted a voice, and with a flick of a wand Kuruha was silenced.

Oshi, who had leaped to her feet, was looking eagerly from the Sorcerer to Yato, her chest heaving. The only things that moved were the flames and the snake, coiling and uncoiling behind the Sorcerer.

Yato could feel his wand against his chest, but he made no attempt to draw it. He knew that the snake was too well protected. Knew that if he managed to point the wand at Nagini, fifty curses would hit him first. And still, the Sorcerer and Yato looked at each other.

The Sorcerer tilted his head a little to the side, considering the boy standing before him.

'Yaboku," he said very softly. His voice might have been part of the spitting fire. "My son."

None of the Death Eaters moved. They were waiting: Everything was waiting. Kuraha was struggling, and Oshi was panting, and Yato thought inexplicably of Hiyori, her heartbroken look, and the feel of her hand in his.

The Sorcerer had raised his wand. Yato looked back into his eyes and wanted it to happen now, quickly, while he could still stand before he betrayed fear.

He saw the mouth move and a flash of green light, and everything was gone.

#noragami #yato #noragami aragoto #yatori #yukine #bishamon #hiyori #kazubisha #kazuma #hp au #harry potter au #in the darkness

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