Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, the story would turn out very differently.
Tonks watched as the old woman sped off toward the Entrance Hall, no doubt looking for her grandson to assist him. In the back of her mind, she wondered if she would ever live long enough to be a grandmother. She quickly shook her head of those thoughts. There was a war going on and she couldn't afford to have anything distracting her.
"I thought you were supposed to be with Teddy at your mother's?" Harry said it with the unasked question of 'Then why are you here?' She looked at Harry. Yes, her baby. She was sure that little Teddy would be fine at her mother's house. With the fighting going on here, there weren't likely to be any extra Death Eaters to come after her son.
"I couldn't stand not knowing-" 'If Remus would still be alive to be a father, if any of my friends would be alive after this, if me not being here would save less lives.' "She'll look after him- have you seen Remus?"
"He was planning to lead a group of fighters into the grounds-" That was all she heard and needed to hear. She immediately took off toward the nearest shattered window to locate her husband. It wouldn't do her any good to go running around and get killed if he wasn't even down there.
Shortly after she arrived, Ginny had come up and started casting spells out of the window, aiming for the areas with the highest concentration of Death Eaters to reduce the chance of hitting an ally.
"So how's your man doing?" she asked Ginny, trying to make small talk.
"Don't know," she replied. "He came along with Ron and Hermione and kicked me out of the Room of Requirement. How's your's?"
"I'm not sure. I heard that he was going to lead a group into the grounds, but I can't see him anywhere."
The next few minutes were passed with them firing at the invading Death Eaters and scanning for Lupin. There were plenty of people that they probably saved. Ginny had managed to stun the Death Eater aiming for professor McGonagall's back. Tonks was barely able to cast Protego over Flitwick before a curse hit him. The watched in amusement as Grwap ran trough the fighting, forcing others to dive out of his way.
"Lets hope he steps on some of them!" said a familiar voice. They turned and saw Harry with Ron and Hermione, who were carrying, what looked like, giant snake teeth.
"As long as it's not any of our lot!" yelled Tonks. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ginny shoot a well aimed hex at a Death Eater in the middle of a group of students.
"Good girl!" roared Aberforth as he ran by, leading a group of students. "The look like they might be breaching the north battlements, they've brought giants of their own!"
"Have you seen Remus?" Tonks asked him as he passed. He had been gone for a long time, and she was starting to worry.
"He was dueling Dolohov," shouted the man, "haven't seen him since!"
Tonks was vaguely aware that Ginny had started talking to her, but whatever she had said was blocked out. Her sole focus was getting down to the grounds, finding her husband, and making sure that he survived this war. As she approached the doors of the entrance hall, she could see more and more wounded fighters. She guessed that they hadn't gotten inside yet, but were probably very close.
What she saw on the grounds amazed her. There were duels going one everywhere! Not just where the two forces had met. It seemed that some forces from both sides had broken through, and were doing what they could to help their side win. Whenever one duel would finish, the winner would quickly run off to find a new target or help a friend.
And there was Remus. Right in the middle. There was a wide circle around them that no one dared to enter. It had become clear to both sides that these two were among the elite, and trying to interrupt would quickly get one killed. The proof of that was the dead bodies lying around them. Curses, hexes, all kinds of enchantments were being fired off, one after the other. Every now and then, they would aim their spells at other targets, to help the battle around them and turn it in their favor.
"Remus!" she yelled in relief. He turned to look, and Dolohov took advantage of the opening.
"Crucio!" yelled the Death Eater. Immediately, Remus doubled over in pain, and Tonks rushed to his side to defend him. She took up his spot of dueling Dolohov, and although she wasn't as good as Remus, she was able to hold him off.
Wizard duels usually looked like the muggle sport, fencing, without the strange swords. As one wizard would advance, the other would retreat, to keep a distance between them. Tonks didn't have that option. With Remus lying there, she couldn't afford to back up. And as the distance between Dolohov and herself got shorter, so did the time that she had to react.
Suddenly, Dolohov aimed his wand directly at Remus, and Tonks, acting on instinct, immediately cast Protego over him. But the Death Eater had expected that and quickly aimed his wand back toward her. "Expelliarmus!"
Tonks could only watch as her wand was forced from her hand. It landed, maybe, twenty feet away, and Tonks was about to run after it but remembered why she couldn't move. If she went for her wand, Dolohov would surely kill her husband, and she couldn't bear the thought that his death was because of her. So she did the only thing that she could. She got in between Remus and Dolohov with her husbands head in her lap, just trying to cherish these last few moments she had with her husband.
"Look at me."
Tonks did her best to ignore the Death Eater. What was the worst he could do to her? He was already going to kill her and Remus. There was no reason to do what he said if the outcome would be the same.
"Look at me, or I'll kill the Half-Breed first. Then I'll make you live on without him."
Slowly, Tonks turned her head so she was looking directly at the tip of a wand. As she stared at it, she felt an odd sense of calm overcome her. She knew that she was about to die, but this was a war. She had arrived not expecting to live, and had accepted that she could die fighting. At least she and Remus could be together in the afterlife.
"Avada Keda-"
Dolohov was cut off in the middle of his curse. One of the suits of armor had sent itself straight toward him and had slammed into him before he could kill Tonks. This is when Tonks saw her chance. Even though she knew that the Death Eater could get the suit of armor off of him in a few seconds, it was all she needed to get to her wand and get back. Just as she and Dolohov were about to start their duel again, she heard Voldemort's voice as if it were coming from all directions.
"You have fought valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery. You have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste. Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately."
Dolohov cursed, but otherwise followed his order. He turned and fled immediately, not giving Tonks or Remus a second glance. As Tonks watched him leave, she heard Voldemort speak again.
"You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your wounded. I speak now, to Harry Potter, directly to you. You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that one hour, you have not come to me, then battle recommences. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, 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."
As the Death Eaters retreated, Tonks grabbed hold of Remus' unconscious but still alive body and started dragging him back to the castle. There was still a war to fight.
It's been a while since I posted one of these. I'm trying hard not to show who I'm going to put in, so if you already see who it is, I'm sorry.
You lost the game.
There was fighting everywhere. That didn't really bother the red haired teen, however. He just ran around waving the stick in his hand the way that he had seen others do it. With his other and, he was able to discreetly to produce blue threads of string and make them find their way to the defeated suits of armor, one for each string.
The suits of armor got back to their feet, to the astonishment of some onlookers, before they had to get back to fighting. The teen had to be careful to move the suits of armor the way he had observed them earlier. If he made them fly straight toward his target like he usually did, people would know something was wrong.
He wasn't actually on either side, but to be convincing, he was forced to target the ones in black robes and masks. He wasn't even sure why he was out here. It was an order from leader to scout out these 'wizards' and 'witches'. He found the battle a perfect excuse to get closer and was trying to simply observe what they could do.
His eyes scanned the battlefield and saw a woman with pink hair that resembled a puppet in his collection dueling a man with a black robes. Her fight caught his attention because the way she was fighting was very sloppy. No matter how close his attacks came to hitting her, she wouldn't back off to give herself more room. Then she saw the man that was lying behind her. He understood that she was trying to protect him and wouldn't back away for his sake.
He twitched his finger and one of the suits of armor near her began to move again and ran full speed at the man in black. However, it didn't look like it would make it in time to save her. The man in the black cloak disarmed the woman and pointed the stick directly at her. At first she was looking down at the ground, refusing to move, and refusing to give in. The man said something to her, and she slowly looked up.
The boy knew what was about to happen. She was about to be killed, and there was absolutely nothing that she could do about it. With another twitch of his finger, the suit of armor flung itself at the woman's aggressor, knocking his stick out of his hand and sending him flying. The woman quickly realized her opportunity and began scrambling toward her weapon. But the teenager wasn't paying attention to her anymore. He had given her one last chance to fight, if she couldn't survive that, she shouldn't have been on the battlefield.
A few seconds later, he heard a shrill voice seemingly coming from all directions. "You have fought valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery. You have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste. Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately."
With both sides retreating to safety, Sasori decided to end his control on the all of the suits of armor. The ones that were defeated simultaneously fell to the ground with a loud clang, startling the wizards around them. He used the distraction that they caused to slip away, leaping over one of the smaller towers. When he was out of sight from everybody, he made his way to the tallest tower and sat down, watching the field below.
They had better start fighting again soon. He didn't like being kept waiting.
