Oops, this chapter is a bit late. I forgot to post it before I left to go on a week long school trip to Wales, where there was no computer… '0' …oh the horror!
But here it is now, your weekly-recommended dosage of Harry Potter. Hope you didn't all have withdrawal symptoms…
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Chapter 9
"Get behind me!" Lupin shouted at the rest of the group.
Harry only briefly saw the familiar glittering emerald stars forming together to create a gigantic skull with a snake protruding from it's mouth like a tongue, before he was roughly pushed backwards by Lupin.
Harry withdrew his wand at the same time as Ron and they both prepared to fight whatever was about to happen. Ron's angry expression had vanished and was now replaced by the look of grim determination.
Fred and George had also drawn their wands and were standing in defensive stance on either side of Harry to protect him.
A chorus of loud cracks echoed around the small and dingy alleyway as a circle of Deatheaters apparated around them.
Harry could see that they were hopelessly outnumbered because there were at least ten Deatheaters and only four of them, so the situation did not look favourable.
The Darkmark dissolved in the sky, plunging them once more into shadow.
One Deatheater took a step forwards towards them so Lupin focused his attention on the figure and pointed his wand at the person's chest as a threat.
"There is no point in being foolish, Remus" the man spoke in a raspy voice as he pulled his mask away to reveal a pale face with sharp blue eyes, short blonde hair with a tint of grey, and a scar slashed across his cheek. "Simply give us Potter, and no one will get hurt"
"Ah, but Avery, you underestimate us" Lupin replied showing his familiarity to this particular DeathEater, his eyes flaring in anger "and do you really think that I would hand over Harry without a fight?"
"So be it! Stupefy!" Avery hissed sending a stunning spell speeding at Lupin.
Due to quick reactions, the spell missed him by inches.
But instead of hitting Lupin, the jet of red light whizzed past and slammed directly into Fred's chest.
Fred staggered backwards slightly because of the impact, but apart from that he seemed unaffected.
He smiled gleefully before sending a stunner back at the Deatheater, who was standing still out of confusion and failed to react in time to the spell, so he fell to the floor unconscious.
"So glad we bought these" Fred sighed in relief as he gestured to his and George's Dragon hide jackets.
The surrounding Deatheaters quickly recovered from their surprise and all hell broke lose as a volley of spells was sent in the groups direction.
"PROTEGO!" Harry shouted, creating an invisible shield that reflected the many curses aimed at him and causing them to ricochet off at all angles.
Everything became unreal disorientated as Deatheaters darted across his vision and colourful lights flashed past like fireworks.
He could hear nothing but indistinguishable shouts, bangs, and the breaking of glass from the surrounding shop windows.
Harry had been separated from Lupin and the twins, who were managing to holding off many of the Deatheaters single handily, but he briefly caught a glimpse of Ron through the many swishing black cloaks, quite a distance away at the other end of the alley.
Using his wand, as well as his body parts, he fought his way through the confusing assembly of black towards him at a full run, knocking many of the enemy over in surprise as they tried to attack.
A deadly looking silver arrow shot at Harry and he dodged sideways. It only just missed and he felt the extreme heat emanating from it as it passed.
Unluckily it grazed his face and created a deep slash that instantly started to sting.
Blood splattered onto his T-shirt and he realised that he was wearing bright red, which was not a very smart colour to be wearing at the moment as it made him seem fluorescent among the mass of black, and an open target.
Finally breaking away from the main battle, into the open alley and fresh air, he stopped short as he spotted Ron again.
Harry could now see that Ron was fighting two Deatheaters by himself under a street lamp and was about to be cornered against the wall of one of the shops.
He appeared to be losing badly as he was backing warily away and looked hurt as he had a trickle of blood seeping slowly down his head, matting his hair and oozing down the side of his face.
"Impedimenta!" one of the Deatheaters shouted, and Ron was thrown backward off his feet, into the solid brick wall with such force that he was winded, and dropped onto his hands and knees.
His wand clattered to the cobble stone floor and rolled until it was a few metres away and out of reach in the shadows.
Harry just stood frozen to the spot, not being able to react due to his brain being numb and his wand hand lying limp at his side.
It felt as though he were watching a film, where he could only watch from the sidelines with baited breath and popcorn, not able to do anything to change the main characters predicament.
The Deatheaters were closing in on Ron now, and he had a look of utter helplessness on his face.
"Avada-"
Ron closed his eyes and screwed his face up bracing himself to die.
"Kada-"
"EXPELLIARMUS! Harry roared, finally regaining control and disarming the Deatheater with its wand pointed at Ron's heart.
"STUPEFY!" he bellowed quickly afterwards, making the man crumple to the floor.
The second Deatheater whirled around to face Harry with his wand raised, but Ron tackled him around the legs from behind and brought him crashing to the floor.
Harry just stared in amazement, as he had never seen Ron this determined before and he had never guessed that Ron was so strong, since he was easily pinning the man to the floor with one hand.
"Harry – what are you waiting for? Stun him!"
"Oh right – Stupefy!"
The Deatheater stopped moving and became silent, so Ron got to his feet and retrieved his wand.
Turning to Harry, Ron flashed him a quick grin as he wiped the blood off his face.
"Thanks"
"Er - no problem…" Harry said back feeling dazed.
"CRUCIO!" someone shouted from behind.
"Watch out!" Ron bellowed pointing over Harry's shoulder.
Momentarily off guard, Harry had no time to move and felt the unforgivable curse slam into him.
Harry screamed as pain ripped through his body and it felt as if he were being stabbed repeatedly and his skin was on fire.
Falling to his knees and dropping his wand, he could no longer differentiate between the sky and ground so he curled tightly up into a ball, willing to black out.
The curse lifted, leaving Harry panting on the floor with the sound of blood pounding in his ears.
"NO! Leave him alone!" Ron shouted, somewhere above Harry.
"Foolish boy! Out of my way! Stupefy!"
Harry was briefly aware of Ron's limp form falling to the floor next to him.
Dimly, as though from far away, he heard a loud bang and then suddenly felt ropes wind their way around his mouth, wrists and ankles.
Harry struggled for a few seconds, but then gave up because he knew that it was no use, and every single muscle in his body was aching due to the after-effects of the Cruciatus curse making him feel physically and mentally exhausted.
"Mobilicorpus" the unknown person hissed just out of Harry's line of vision, so he still couldn't see his captor.
Harry felt as if he were attached to invisible strings, which were pulling him upright into a standing potion, but his feet weren't able to touch the floor because he was being levitated. He had seen Snape being controlled in exactly the same way three years ago by Lupin.
"You're lucky enough to have the honour of meeting my Master…yet again" the person whispered in his ear.
It finally dawned on Harry that if Voldermort managed to acquire him, he would most certainly die, but not before being tortured for information and just for the fun of it.
Too many innocent people would get hurt, or worse, if Voldermort learnt everything that Harry knew about the Order of the Phoenix and the prophecy.
He started to frantically thrash against his bonds again in attempt to break free.
The Deatheater let out a harsh laugh at his efforts - but suddenly broke off to gasp in surprise and a soft thud followed.
Harry couldn't turn to see what was happening, so he continued to float on the spot waiting with anticipation while holding his breath.
"This is no place to hang around Harry!" George joked as he walked around Harry to face him.
The rope gagging Harry prevented him from swearing at George for joking at such a bad time, so he just gave an angry muffled yell.
"Your welcome" said George sarcastically "Diffindo! Finite!"
Waving his wand the ropes binding Harry cut away and the counter curse ended the spell holding him upright, so he collapsed forwards onto his hands and knees.
Harry shakily got to his feet and picked up his wand.
George let out a choked gasp as he saw Ron's still form on the floor and quickly bent down over to him to check if he was still alive.
"What happened to him?"
"Just stunned, I think" Harry said, walking gingerly over to them.
"Enervate" George muttered pointing his wand at Ron's chest.
Ron's eyes snapped open and he sat bolt upright.
"Harry!" he shouted.
"It's all right Ron, I'm here"
Ron looked round at Harry in surprise.
"Wh-What? Are you OK?"
"Fine" Harry lied just to make Ron relax.
George looked around cautiously and got to his feet.
"I've got to get back to the fight, I have no clue where Lupin is, but I left Fred alone with three Deatheaters to come find you"
"Then why are we wasting time" Ron exclaimed standing up hastily.
"Wait a second, where do you think you're going" George said placing a hand on Rons chest to keep him from going any further "You and Harry need to stay here where it's safer and"
"NO" Ron shouted "I'm not staying here while you and Fred are off fighting for your lives! Just cause i'm your little brother, it doesn't mean that you have to protect me"
George looked at Ron's determined expression in surprise for a few seconds, but then relaxed and let out a small sigh.
"Ok, you can come...but if you get hurt...i'll kill you...because Mum will want to kill me...and it'll turn into a vicious cycle of killing" George said making strangling gestures in the air.
Harry and Ron let out a small laugh, but they both sounded hollow.
Taking a deep calming breath, Harry turned back towards the battle, and what could be all of their deaths, in the disatnce.
The occasional coloured flash of light penertrated the darkness, like a lightening storm on the horizon.
No one in their right mind would go into the heart of a lightening storm.
That proved that they were all slightly crazy.
"Ok, lets go" George shouted and gave the best battle cry he could, as a last minute joke to lighten their spirits.
All three of them broke into a run, heading into the darkness towards the fight at the other end of the alley, with wands raised.
The closer they came, the more light became available from the dim street lamps that shed their pale glow on the scene in front of them.
Deatheaters could be spotted littering the floor, unmoving and harmless.
There were only five Deatheaters still standing and Harry could see Lupin in the distance duelling with three Deatheaters at once.
While Fred was fighting two, with another one unconscious at his feet.
"Petrificus Totalus!" George yelled at one of the Deatheaters, making his arms and legs snap together and causing him to fall over backwards.
"Tarantallegra!" Harry shouted at the remaining Deatheater as he tried to run away in fear.
He started a sort of frenzied tap dance on the spot and ended up tripping over his own long robes and falling flat on his face.
Ron, Fred and George all burst out laughing and Harry quickly shot a shunning spell at the Deatheater on the floor, whose legs were jerking wildly around, but then fell still.
"Did you learn that from Malfoy, when he used it on you during the Duelling Club in the second year?" Ron asked once he had finished laughing.
"Yeah, and I saw a Deatheater use it on Neville in the Department of M-" Harry stopped short, not wanting to discuss the events that happened the night of Sirius' death.
Sensing an awkward moment, Fred tried to lighten it.
"About time you got here, I didn't think that you were coming back!" he said smiling at George "Sadly, they seem to have discovered the weakness of our dragon scale jackets bro, they now know that we're vulnerable in other places, I got hit with an Impedimenta jinx just before you got back, and man, am I going to have bruises tomor–"
Fred never had the chance to finish his sentence as he was unexpectedly struck with a stunner in the face and keeled over sideways.
Whirling around in surprise, Harry discovered that one of the Deatheaters that Lupin had previously been fighting with, had broken away and successfully revived most of his fellows.
There were now seven very angry Deatheaters standing together and leering menacingly at Harry. All of them had their wands aimed at him.
On Harry's right George raised his wand and was about to utter a spell, but one of the Deatheaters beat him to it, and Harry could tell by the raspy voice that it was Avery.
"Flamma Sagitto!"
A shining silver arrow that lit up the whole alley flew at George's head, and Harry knew that if it hit him, it would be fatal, as he had seen how much damage it could do before.
All George could do was stare in alarm at the arrow flying directly at his face, he seemed to be paralysed with fear.
Harry and Ron just stood still watching the deadly arrows progress through the air.
Everything was in slow motion and Harry was reminded of the moment of Sirius' death in the Department of Mysteries.
He couldn't watch anyone else that he cared about die, as it would shatter the world around him.
He made his mind up in a split second and stepped sideways in front of George and into the path of the arrow.
"NO!" Four different people cried simultaneously, as the spell was about to make contact.
One of the voices was Ron, who looked terrified.
Another was George's as he tried in vain to push Harry out of the way.
The third one was a cry of dismay from Avery, since it was obvious that Voldermort wanted Harry captured alive.
The final voice was Lupin's, who lunged out of nowhere, between Harry and the lethal spell.
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I'm really evil to you guys aren't I?
I just love using cliffies, they are so much fun to write. Hehehe…
Anyway, it's time forme to passmy knowledge to you.
I'll start of with the name of the arrow spell.
'Flamma Sagitto'- I used Latin for this spell (and a few others in future chapters)
I'll explain the meanings of each word to prove I did some intense research for my story.
flamma -ae f. a flame , blazing fire; Transf.a source of light, torch, star, lightning; luster, glitter; the fire or glow of passion; devouring flame, destruction.
sagitto -are to shoot arrows.
Sadly, I don't know any Latin myself so I had to look it all up, so it might be familiar because other people have done the exact same thing!
