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  ridor, ignorg the bangs issug fro behd hi, the yells of the others to e back, and the ute call of the figures on the ground whose fate he did not yet know
  he skidded around the rner, his traers slippery with blood snape had an inse head start was it possible that he had already entered the cabet the roo of reirent, or had the order ade steps to secure it, to prevent the death eaters retreatg that way? he uld hear nothg but his own poundg feet, his own harg heart as he sprted along the next epty rridor, but then spotted a bloody footprt that showed at least one of the fleeg death eaters was headg toward the front doors - perhaps the roo of reirent was deed blocked -
  he skidded around another rner and a curse flew past hi he dived behd a suit of aror that exploded he saw the
  other and sister runng down the arble staircase ahead and aid jxes at the, but rely hit several ed witches a portrait on the ndg, who ran screechg to neighborg patgs as he leapt the wrecka of aror, harry heard ore shouts and screas other people with the castle seed to have awoken
  he pelted toward a shortcut, hopg to overtake the
  other and sister and close on snape and alfoy, who t surely have reached the grounds by now reberg to leap the vanishg step halfway down the ncealed staircase, he burst through a tapestry at the botto and out to a rridor where a nuber of bewildered and pajaa-cd hufflepuffs stood
  ”harry! we heard a noise, and one said thg aboui the dark ark -” began ernie ailn
  ”out of the way!” yelled harry, knockg o boys aside as he sprted toward the ndg and down the reader of the arble staircase the oak front doors had been bsted open, there were sars of blood on the fgstones, and several terrified students stood huddled agast the walls, one or o still werg with their ars over their faces the giant gryffdor hourgss had been hit by a curse, and the rubies with were still fallg, with a loud rattle, onto the fgstones below
  harry flew across the entrance hall and out to the dark grounds: he uld jt ake out three figures racg across the wn, headg for the gates beyond which they uld disapparate - by the looks of the, the hu blond death eater and, way ahead of hi, snape and alfoy
  the ld night air ripped at harry39s ngs as he tore after the he saw a fsh of light the distance that ontarily silhouetted his arry he did not know what it was but ntued to run, not yet near enough to t a good ai with a curse -
  another fsh, shouts, retaliatory jets of light, and harry understood: hagrid had erd fro his cab and was tryg to s the death eaters escapg, and though every
  eath seed to shred his ngs and the stitch his chest was like fire, harry sped up as an unbidden voice his head said: not hagrid  not hagrid too
  thg caught harry hard the sall of the back and he fell forward, his face sackg the ground, blood pourg out of both nostrils: he knew, even as he rolled over, his wand ready, that the
  other and sister he had overtaken g his shortcut were closg behd hi
  ”ipedinta!” he yelled as he rolled over aga, crouchg close to the dark ground, and iraculoly his jx hit one of the, who stubled and fell, trippg up the other harry leapt to his feet and sprted on after snape
  and now he saw the vast outle of hagrid, ilated by the light of the crescent oon revealed suddenly behd clouds the blond death eater was aig curse after curse at the gakeeper but hagrids inse strength and the toughened sk he had herited fro his giantess other seed to be protectg hi snape and alfoy, however, were still runng they would on be beyond the gates, able to disapparate -
  harry tore past hagrid and his opponent, took ai at snape39s back, and yelled, ”stupefy!”
  he issed the jet of red light ared past snape39s head snape shouted, ”run, dra!”and turned enty yards apart, he and harry looked at each other before raisg their wands siultaneoly
  ”cruc - ”
  but snape parried the curse, knockg harry backward off his feet before he uld plete it harry rolled over and scrabled back up aga as the hu death eater behd hi yelled, ”cendio!” harry heard an explosive bang and a dancg oran light spilled over all of the: hagrid39s hoe was on fire
  ”fang39s there, yer evil - !” hagrid bellowed
  ”cruc -” yelled harry for the send ti, aig for the figure ahead ilated the dancg firelight, but snape blocked the spell aga harry uld see hi sneerg