Nathan ran to the window and peered through the crack in the curtains. Above his head, Harry couldn't see a whole lot but the flicker of spells, a bright mix of color that seemed to reflect off an invisible wall in the sky.

"They're trying to breach the wards," Nathan muttered. "I'd say five more minutes and they'll crash through them. Less if they're coming at us from more than one side but I can't tell."

He didn't have time to wonder how he would know that. Five minutes wasn't a lot and even less meant that they had to hurry if they wanted to have even the tiniest of chances. Yet, Nathan didn't move away from the window and Mrs Malfoy was suddenly gone from his side. Harry, wand in hand, hesitated for a moment, debating whether to follow her or not, before joining his brother at the window. He pulled the curtain open a bit more and almost recoiled at the sight before him. Dozens over dozens of masked, black-robed people stood maybe a hundred yards away from the Manor, their wands raised and shooting of a steady stream of spells. They didn't reach very far before they hit the wards, which seemed to stretch over the land owned by the Malfoys like a dome. It was cracking. Thin blue lines ran through the dome and the sky, clear for viewing just an hour ago, was blurred as though his old eyes were looking at it without his glasses on.

"There's too many."

He looked at Nathan. His brother, not yet fourteen, hadn't ever been involved in anything like this- Harry hadn't either, truth be told, but he had experience dealing with bothersome Death Eaters and Dark Lords at the very least. He knew what to expect, knew that every second counted in a situation that was life or death.

"I can't count them," he continued. "They're too far away. There's at least forty, though."

He clutched his wand tighter. "Don't worry. We'll get through this."

Nathan met his eyes. He was startled to see fear clouding the blue irises- the other boy hadn't exactly stroke him as fearless, no one was fearless, but somehow, he hadn't expected him to be frightened at the prospect of battle either. He had taken everything so far in stride and was calm even now- if Harry hadn't looked into his eyes, he'd never have guessed that his brother was afraid.

Mrs Malfoy came running into the room. "Draco isn't in his room!"

"What?" They spun around. "I saw him go in! Where'd he go?"

"I don't know but we have to find him! Nathan, you take this floor. Harry, ground floor. I'll go down to the dungeon. Whether you find him or not, come to the foyer once you're done, no detours!"

She didn't wait for them to answer. After giving each of them a long look, as though memorizing their faces, she dashed off, faster than he'd have thought she could run. He nodded at Nathan, absently noting that his knuckled had turned white from the pressure he was putting onto the wand.

Harry kicked his trunk open and stuffed his Invisibility Cloak into his pocket and debated over taking the photo album as well before giving up on that dream. He called Hedwig to him and held it out for her, followed by an order to take it to Ron if she could.

"Good luck," he said, turning to his brother.

Nathan nodded back at him. "Stay safe."

They parted their ways outside Harry's room. He watched as Nathan went left, past Draco's room and disappeared around a corner before running towards the stairs. The foyer was quiet and undisturbed, which seemed odd considering they were about to get involved in a battle. A sense of foreboding lay in the air, however. It felt similar to how he'd felt when he had arrived at the graveyard with Cedric, before that traitor Wormtail had set the mood in stone by killing the Hufflepuff.

By the time he returned to the foyer to cross to the left wing of the Manor, at least three minutes had passed, though Harry had no way of telling the time. It felt like just seconds and an eternity at the same time but the wards hadn't fully breached yet so it couldn't have been too long.

"Master Eoin!" Lorrie the House Elf popped up behind him, stopping him just as he was about to enter the Dining Room. "Master Finian has found Master Draco!"

"Where?"

"Master Lucius' study, sir! Master Eoin must go there, Master Draco is refusing to leave."

He nodded and made a beeline for the staircase. "Go get my mother, tell her to come as well."

He blinked as his words sank in- he had never before referred to Mrs Malfoy as his mother and had the situation been any less dire, he might've found the time to wonder about it further. For now, he decided to push it to the back of his head and took the stairs two at a time, reaching the study in only seconds.

Nathan stood beside the window, his wand hanging by his side unused, and Draco was opposite him. His wand was raised at Nathan but it shook with tremors. His face was screwed up and red, his eyes slightly puffy and his chest heaving. Both turned their heads at him at his entry and Harry was startled at the utter hatred he could see in Draco's eyes.

"This is all your fault!" He shouted. "Of all the people who could've been Eoin, it just had to be you! If you hadn't been, they wouldn't come after my family!"

He raised his hands in surrender and took a tentative step closer. "Malfoy- Draco, me being here only sped the process up. Do you think Voldemort wouldn't have one day come up with the idea of using Nathan against McGonagall?"

"Father never should've searched for you!"

"I agree," he said. "He shouldn't have. But he did and if we don't move now, we won't live long enough to tell him that."

Draco slowly lowered his wand and nodded but didn't move, not even as Mrs Malfoy stormed in and pulled him into a hug. They only broke apart when Nathan, in a shaking voice, announced that the wards have fallen. Almost immediately, Harry could hear the shouts and the jeers. The sound of spells being flung against the Manor, explosions that took it apart one by one and the quakes that shook them every time another spell hit accompanied them as they took off running. He didn't know where they were running. Mrs Malfoy led them, Draco right by her side. His wand was raised once more but this time, he was using it to shield them both from the debris that would occasionally get through to them. Nathan followed close behind, deathly pale and panting, his own shield wonky. It flickered when hit by the smallest brick and wouldn't hold against a full on explosion, Harry realized as he hurried to catch up with him to cast his own shield on top of Nathan's.

They hurried down the staircase- running straight into a whole bunch of Death Eaters.

They looked just like Harry remembered them. Dressed in black robes that covered their entire body and with golden masks that obscured their faces and made it impossible for him to tell who was trying to kill him.
There were eight Death Eaters. All of them had their wands raised against them- they were grossly outnumbered. Last time, Harry only fought Voldemort whilst the Death Eaters were ordered to stay back which at least meant they were evenly numbered.

"Narcissa," one of them said.

"Yaxley," Narcissa nodded, raising her wand. Draco, Nathan and Harry dropped their shields to take aim. "I'm not very surprised to find you here. Do me a favor and take off that mask. Look me in the eye."

He took it off and smirked at them toothily. Two of them were missing and some of the ones he did have were horribly misshapen. He gazed at them with dull brown eyes.

"I can only return that sentiment, my dearest Narcissa. Why, I've always assumed that you sympathized with blood traitors."

"You've assumed wrong."

"Have I? Well, then I must've gotten Nathan Longbottom's blood status wrong as well. I was told he was raised to be a Pureblood. A muggle-loving Pureblood. And my, oh my, Harry Potter. Now, he is even worse, isn't he? Raised by Muggles, fighting for Muggles, probably befriending Muggles as well-"

"Must I remind you that you are talking of my sons, Yaxley? Have you forgotten what happened last time you insulted one of my children?"

Yaxley blushed and one or two of his fellow Death Eaters sniggered. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way," he hissed. "Either you hand us Potter or we take both of them and torture them until they tell us which one is Potter and then we kill Longbottom."

Almost immediately, an urge to just step forward rose in him but that was squashed a second later by the man's malicious smirk. Even if he made it known that he was Harry Potter, they'd still at least kill the others.

"You won't touch them," Mrs Malfoy said, her voice strong and confident.

"Is that so? Who will stop me then? Not you, certainly."

"Don't underestimate me. Confringo!"

An orange spell erupted from her wand that swished down to point at the floor. The marble exploded noisily as flames cut off their view of the screaming Death Eaters. Harry vaguely heard Mrs Malfoy yell at them to run before she and Draco rounded the corner. He grabbed his unmoving brother's hand and tugged him along, blasting another curse behind him as a few of the Death Eaters got around the flames and started to follow them.

Nathan stumbled at the force of the explosion behind them, only just dodging the green light that had been sent his way and sped up. The shaking of his hand stopped.

"Where'd they go?" He yelled over the noise.

"This way!" He pulled Nathan towards the downstairs library.

"Potter! Come on, Potter!" Someone yelled behind them in a sing-song voice. "Or else we'll kill everyone!"

Another spell shot past them, followed by a third. Footsteps approached quickly and Harry sped up as much as he dared whilst still keeping a hold on Nathan's arm. The doors were slammed shut behind them in the very same instance as a bookshelf exploded in front of them as it was hit by a curse.

"Took you long enough," Draco sneered.

"We would've been long gone if you hadn't kept us back," Harry snapped.

Mrs Malfoy levitated another shelf in front of the door. "Now's not the time, you two. Are you all unharmed? Nathan, are you alright?"
Nathan was shaking, the adrenaline must've begun to wear off, but he wasn't injured besides a few odd cuts and bruises that they all had to deal with. One bit of debris had left an especially nasty cut on his cheek that Harry thought might scar if they didn't get it checked out soon. He himself had a cut or two that could leave him even more scarred than before.

"Fine," Nathan said. "I'm fine."

"Good, then gather around," Mrs Malfoy took a book off a nearby shelf and held it out for them. "Hold onto this and don't let go."

Nathan glanced at the book. "Have you taken down the Anti-Portkey wards?"

"We don't have Anti-Portkey wards. Not ones that work from the inside."

"Yes, you do. My dad's a curse breaker for Gringotts. He taught me how to recognize pretty much every basic ward you can think of. There's Anti-Portkey wards that'll make taking a portkey very difficult, if not impossible."

"Lucius was responsible for the warding, I never studied it," she ran a hand through her hair and paced the room as thuds sounded from the foyer. "I protected the Manor using runes instead. Do you know how we can dismantle the wards?"

"The beginnings, yes, but not much farther than that. Maybe- maybe I can do enough to get us out of here but I wouldn't be able to guarantee that we'll get far beyond the radius. If you could find a way for me to contact my dad, he'd know, he'd get it done if a few minutes."

"What about the House Elves?" Draco asked. "Could they apparate us out? The apparition wards were among the first to fall, I saw them crash just before Longbottom found me."

"That might be possible. We'd have to go one by one, though, Lorrie's barely more than a child, she's not powerful enough-"

"You enslaved a child?"

Nathan shook his head. "Now's really not the time, Harry."

"Right. Of course. I can call Dobby, he always wants to help me."

"He won't want to help us, he hates us-"

"He'll help if I ask him to. Dobby!"

The distinctive 'pop' that always announced the arrival of a House Elf was followed immediately by a screech and a thud. A cloud of grey, roughly the size of Dobby, appeared before Harry but when it disappeared, the elf was nowhere to be seen.

"They must've put up wards against House Elves," Nathan leaned back against a nearby table. "Maybe new apparition wards as well, there's no telling unless we try."

"Then let's try!"

He shook his head. "If they did put up wards, we could get killed. My dad warned me against that. If there's even a tiny chance that there's wards, you're not supposed to apparate."

"We can't apparate either way," Draco pointed out. "Mother's the only one who learnt how, she can't Side-Along us all."

The thuds outside the library got louder, harsher. They were trying to break down the door, though Harry couldn't tell what they were using. The bookshelf shook with every blow it was dealt and wouldn't hold for much longer. It was old, not very sturdy looking and the preservation charms that must've been used to keep it functional for so long would begin to wear thin sooner or later.

Stairs led up into the first floor and down into the dungeons, which Harry was strictly forbidden from entering. He'd tried, the day after he'd been told about this limitation, only to be refused entry by a rather stubborn door that had a mind of its own. Old magic, Mrs Malfoy had explained to him. The door had been around longer than the old Mr Malfoy, his grandfather.

"What about the floo?"

Mrs Malfoy shook her head. "Shut it down. Only Lucius can activate them."

"That's stupid," Harry said. "Bloody stupid."

The silence, only interrupted by the jeers and thuds from outside, was almost unbearable. They were trapped. Completely and utterly trapped in the house the Malfoys had wanted him to call home. Nathan, who'd had nothing to do with the war, who'd never seen a Death Eater face to face if his earlier reaction was anything to go by, was being pulled head first into battle, into war, without anything to prepare him. Draco had probably been firmly sided with the Death Eaters before today, although Harry doubted he'd still side with them after they attempted to kill his beloved mother.

"What about your owls?" Mrs Malfoy finally asked. "Have you sent them off already?"

"Yes," Nathan said, frowning. "I told mine to go back home, stay with my mum and dad."

Draco nodded. "Mine's back in the Owl Yard."

"Hedwig probably flew off sometime after we left her," Harry said. "She wouldn't have stuck around for battle."

"So we can't call for help that way," she paled. "We have to fight."

"Fight?" Draco grasped his wand tightly. "We can't fight! We're outnumbered!"

"Not to mention that three of us aren't even of age yet. They've got the advantage of experience."

"All of them were raised as Purebloods, they've received excellent training-"

"Other than anyone who went to Hogwarts since 1991. Incompetence is running high in the DADA department, my grandmum said so-"

"Aren't you two just wonderfully optimistic?" Mrs Malfoy interrupted. "Listen, I know the odds are very bad but what other choice do we have?"

"We could just hand him over, they'll leave us alone."

Harry stepped back and slid his wand into his hand. "We don't have time for this. We should attack while we still have the element of surprise."

"The element of surprise? Harry, we're trapped. There's not much surprise to that."

"They won't expect us to attack, though. For all they know, we're long gone."

He nodded. They only had to get past the wards to safely activate the portkey and from what little Harry could tell, the wards only extended as far as the front gate, which was perhaps thirty yards from the porch. He could run thirty yards in a few seconds and the others should be able to keep up, especially if they were driven by adrenaline. Before they could think of running, though, they had to take care of the Death Eaters that were still attempting to get through the door rather unsuccessfully- Voldemort hadn't sent his best, obviously.

"Right. Eoin, Draco, you stand next to the door," Mrs Malfoy said, slipping back into her old habit of using his real name. Normally, Harry would've protested but they really didn't have any time for that. "Finian, you will levitate the bookshelf out of the way on three. Stand there, next to the table. You and I will take out all those your brothers don't get. As soon as there's a bit of a clearance, Eoin and I will run first to clear the path further and you two will follow. Draco, can I trust you to stick to Finian's side?" He looked at Nathan and nodded. "Good, because you are better trained than him so I expect you to take care of your little brother."

Everyone got into position. Draco stood almost uncomfortably close to him, close enough that there was no way around touching, and kept turning his head slightly to glance at Nathan, who was standing just outside their line of sight. They all had their wands raised in anticipation. Harry's arm shook slightly, not from fear but from anxiety. It felt surreal. Normally, he didn't go rushing into fights, he didn't look for them. They came to him, almost always anyways, and it felt wrong to seek battle now. He felt tiny, too. Standing next to Draco at such close proximity served as a stark reminder that he'd turn fourteen in a few weeks and not fifteen. It was so easy to look at Nathan and see a kid that he just forgot that he was only minutes older than him.

"Ready?" Mrs Malfoy asked. "Finian, on three. One, two, three."

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

The bookshelf soared away from the door. The Death Eaters smashed through immediately, stumbling into the room and halting confused.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted, aiming for the closest masked person. Draco's spell hit the one that came through next, knocking him out cold as Mrs Malfoy took care of the one he had disarmed.
"I know you're against violence," Draco snapped between spells. "But now'd be a good time to have a change of heart!"

"Fine! Stupefy!" Yaxley collapsed on top of a fellow Death Eater before Nathan levitated them out of the way.

"Give up, Potter!" Someone yelled. "You can't win against us!"

He shot another spell. "Let's see it then!"

A new wave of Death Eaters streamed through the door. Harry readied himself and was about to pick up the pace once more when a black-robed figure flew through the room and crashed into the crowd, knocking them back into the hallway. Nathan grinned at him and levitated another unconscious person from the pile of lumps beside him and flung them through the door.

"Eoin! Now!"

He dashed past Draco and down the foyer. Hands grabbed at his ankles but couldn't get a grasp before they were removed one way or another. Behind him, he heard Nathan and Draco follow.

"Stupefy!" He yelled. "Expelliarmus!"

The doors sprang open before them.

"Cissy!" They stopped. Lucius Malfoy, looking rather worse for wear, stood on the porch and looked at her pleadingly. "Cissy, please, please, we can live. Just- Just give them the boy, please, we still have Draco and Finian, we can still be a family-"

"Do you really believe that, Lucius?" She snapped. "I wouldn't want to be married to someone who left his own son for dead and I know for certain that Finian would never accept you after today."

"Cissy, please-"

"I'm sorry, Lucius. I know you're only doing what you think is right to protect our family but your approach is wrong. If I gave you our son now, you would regret it forever. You wouldn't be able to live with yourself. I will do what needs to be done to protect all three of them and if it means cutting you out of our lives, then so be it. The boys are my priority, Lucius. I'm sorry. Come on, Eoin."

They continued running. Malfoy grabbed his robes but Harry pulled away and sent the man on his knees.

"Please, Cissy," he whimpered. "Please. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please."

Nathan and Draco stopped short at the sight before them. At Harry's quick nod, Nathan snapped out of it and forced Draco to keep moving just as the Death Eaters came running down the foyer.

"Come on, not far now!" He yelled. As soon as his brothers had caught up with him, Harry started running again.

They reached the gate in no time, long before the limping, numb Death Eaters could hope to and grabbed onto the book Mrs Malfoy pulled out of her robes. He looked back at the Manor. Fire licked at the old façade, reaching higher and farther by the second. He could see his bedroom window, up on the first floor, that had been smashed at some point. All his stuff was in there, all but the album and the Cloak and even though most of it was just rubbish anyway, it was disconcerting to know he'd never get any of it back. A bright green Dark Mark loomed over the flames, exactly as it had that day at the World Cup.

"Harry!" He swiveled his head around. A group of people, led by Professor Lupin was closing in on them but before Harry could answer, he was whisked away by the Portkey.

Writing a battle scene is actually quite hard. Not quite happy with how this turned out but y'know...Anyway, I think there's going to be at least three more chapters until September 1st although the next one might be a bit late since I'll be insanely busy this upcoming week.

In regards to the review posted by Guest: Please keep in mind that cowards rarely see themselves as cowards. Lucius really thought he'd be able to handle the situation, which is why he asked Harry and Nathan to give him a chance, but Narcissa knew that Lucius is a coward and would choose himself over Harry. He genuiely wants to protect his family but he can't. Sometimes, love just isn't enough to turn a coward into a hero. You should also consider that Harry, for the longest time, was Lucius' enemy. Getting that image out of his head and replacing it with that of his baby boy is quite difficult, thus making it easier for Lucius to choose himself over Harry. If Voldemort told him to hand over Draco, his reaction would definitely be different in one way or another. We will come back to this though. Lucius' betrayal is pretty much just the beginning of his story arc and it was sort of needed to kick off Draco's arc.

PLEASE leave a review if you enjoyed or if you didn't enjoy it at all. I put a lot of work into this, which is very difficult considering the amount of school work I have, and I'd really appreciate if you could just leave a couple of words before you move on.