A/N: Wow, two back to back updates. I'm on a role. Or just finally taking advantage of this novel thing called a life. But hey, either way, you guys benefit. Enjoy!

Chapter 25

Attack in the Alley

x-X-x

Harry stopped dead in his tracks.

Ginny, oblivious to his unease, kept walking. When she finally noticed he was no longer next to her, she came to a halt and looked back at him.

"Harry? What is it?"

Harry didn't respond right away. He was too busy trying to figure out what was happening.

Now that he knew he was a praesagium, he knew he shouldn't ignore these feelings. And he certainly was feeling something.

The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up and he had a feeling similar to when someone was staring at the back of your head. He just couldn't figure out what these feelings meant. He needed more time to learn how to master his praesagium abilities but right now, he didn't have that time. Right now, there was something wrong.

Harry glanced at Ginny. "I don't know," Harry said, his eyes flicking back to scan the street, trying to figure out why he felt danger nearby. But as far as Harry could tell, everyone around him was just average shoppers, going about their business. "I don't know," he repeated. "Something is wrong. But I don't know what it is."

"Wrong how, Harry," Ginny asked, moving as quickly as she could back to his side.

"I don't know. I just have the feeling that danger is nearby. That something isn't right." He looked back to Ginny. "I don't really know how this praesagium stuff works yet. Heck, I don't even know how much of the last seven years was that and how much was my connection to Riddle. But however it works, its letting me know something is wrong now."

Ginny could see the worry in his eyes.

"Okay. Then let's get back to George's. We can deal with it there. It will be safer than trying to figure it out here, on the street." Harry nodded and they headed off again.

They hadn't gone more than a few steps before Harry stopped dead again.

This time, his sense of dread was overwhelming. Without any conscious thought, he pushed Ginny behind him and ducked.

A split second later, a red flash went over his head as a stunning spell just missed him.

Around him, the Alley erupted in chaos as shoppers screamed and began running, desperate to escape.

Keeping Ginny behind him, Harry yelled, "Protego!" erecting a shield charm around them, putting all his concentration and will into strengthening it to protect Ginny and the baby.

Red blasts were coming at them from all sides. In his peripheral vision, he saw a silvery mist pass through his shield and streak off down the street, which had quickly emptied out as the shoppers had taken refuge from the battle in whatever shop was closest.

As spells continued to bombard Harry's shield, he heard Ginny behind him, "Harry, we can't keep this up! Your shield won't last forever!"

"I know," he said through gritted teeth, the effort of maintaining the shield becoming painful as a particularly powerful curse rebounded off their protective barrier. The Death Eaters had them cornered up against a wall with nowhere to escape. "What do you suggest?" he questioned urgently, hoping that the redhead had seen a way out of this.

"We have to fight back Harry!"

"No!" Harry responded vehemently. He paused as the shield shuttered under the strain of a brutal hit. After ensuring that his Protego wasn't going to fail, he continued, "You can't move fast enough to fight them Ginny! And I can't let anything happen to you!"

The panic nearly tore through Harry's voice as she struggled to keep it under control. How could he let Ginny fight? How could he protect her and their baby if she was in the battle? The images of all the people who had died because he couldn't protect them flashed before his eyes, threatening to drag him under.

"Come out a fight like a man Potter. Stop cowering behind that shield!" one of the attackers yelled out, sending a blasting curse straight at the shield, causing it to flicker.

"Or better yet," another yelled as he tried to circle around to get a better angle but found the trap they had set for Harry protected him as much as trapped him, "send out your girlfriend. We might even let you go then."

"Yeah," a third masked attacker added, "you know that's what you're good at. Sacrifice your girlfriend and we'll let you live."

Forcing himself to ignore them and stay in the moment, Harry's mind searched for a better way out of this. He had found a way out so many times before. There had to be a way to defeat their enemies this time too. If only he could find it.

Just then, a violent battering curse broke through his shield in a blaze of red sparks.

Immediately switching to the offensive, and quashing his worries as his mind moved into battle mode, Harry fired off two stunning spells in rapid succession in the direction the curse had come from.

Behind him, he heard Ginny send an impedimenta jinx at an attacker before whipping up her own shield charm just in time to stop the cruciatus curse.

As Harry spun to face Ginny's attacker, he watched in bewilderment as their foe collapsed, ropes springing from the ground to bind him. Quickly glancing up, Harry saw George sprinting towards them, his wand out, firing spells at their enemies.

Spinning back around, Harry fired off a combination of stunning and disarming spells, followed quickly by a round of body-binds, taking down two attackers, whom he rapidly bound as George had done to the first seconds before.

By now, George had fought his way to Harry and Ginny. Catching his future brother-in-law's eye, Harry said, "Ginny!"

George nodded and immediately erected a shield charm around his sister as Harry continued to battle the Death Eaters on all sides.

Spell after spell was sent across battle lines. Harry kept himself between Ginny and the main force of the assault, knowing George had her other side. Harry had dodged a few cruciatus and imperius curses but he noticed that no one had fired off a killing curse.

The must want us alive, Harry realized quickly.

Jumping to the side, Harry narrowly avoided a blasting curse that instead took out a section of the wall nearest him but gasped as a piece of brick caught his side. Taking a deep, painful breath, Harry ignored the pain and continued firing off spell and curses, desperate to keep Ginny safe.

"Impedimenta!" Harry yelled, stopping an assault from his left. In the time it took him to spin back to his right, he realized he had moved too slowly, as ropes appeared out of the air, binding him tightly and causing him to collapse to the ground. Behind him, he heard Ginny scream as his head collided with the pavement below.

Shaking his head to clear the stars from his vision, he struggled against the thick cords around him. This could not be how it ended. He could not lose Ginny this way. The idea of losing Ginny caused him to fight even harder against the imprisoning ropes.

"Relashio!" a female voice Harry recognized yelled.

The ropes holding Harry sprung away and he bounded to his feet, quickly stuffing the Death Eater who had hit him. Too his right, he saw another Death Eater go down while yet a third had been distracted by another new arrival to the battle.

Harry glanced quickly in that direction and saw Hermione and Ron had joined the fight, Ron battling the third man, Hermione already binding the two she and Harry had just taken down.

Red streaks of light flew between Ron and his opponent as they battled, Ron moving around rapidly as he dodged curse after curse. Whipping around behind Ron's adversary, Harry stunned him from behind and Ron bound him.

Glancing back towards Ginny, Harry saw that Hermione had joined the battle from that side, maintaining an office barrage of spells while George continued to hold a shield charm around them.

Seeking to drive the remaining Death Eaters from their target, he and Ron sent spells at their opponents from opposite sides. Now outnumbered and receiving a challenge from three different sides, the remaining Death Eaters retreated backward. Harry heard the closest to him yell "It's over!" causing the masked attackers to fire off one more round of curses and apparate away, leaving their captured friends behind.

Harry and Ron spun around, searching their surroundings, ensuring that the Death Eaters were not sneaking up on them from another direction.

Once he was sure they were not returning, Harry lowered his wand.

"Round up the ones we captures," Harry directed Ron as he took a moment to survey their surroundings now that the threat was gone. Ron and Hermione began gathering the six bound Death Eaters while George was questioning Ginny, ensuring that she was alright.

Meanwhile, Harry was trying to understand what had happened. Reaching down to rip the mask off one of their attackers, he found the face of Prius Crabbe staring back at him. Well, that makes sense, Harry thought. Probably blames me for his son's death.

Leaning to face the man, Harry cringed at the pain in his side. Ignoring it, he questioned, "Why are you here? What were you trying to do?"

The round-faced man simply smiled up at him, his grin not quite sane. Accepting that there would be no answers from the man in front of him, nor likely any of his companions, Harry turned his back on them and moved back to Ginny.

"You okay, Gin?"

"I'm fine, Harry." Taking his hand and placing it on her swollen stomach, she added, "We are both fine."

He looked into her eyes, reassuring himself that they had really escaped. Only once he was sure she was completely fine did he finally relax. As the adrenaline cleared from his system, he collapsed against the wall, the pain in his side quickly becoming excruciating.

"Harry!" Ginny exclaimed, voice full of worry, as he slide to the ground, barely able to breath.

Beside her, George leaned down. Pulling Harry's shirt up to get a better look, he said from experience, "Looks like a couple of broken ribs." Quickly assessing Harry's other injuries, he added, "And some nasty bruises and a few rope burns. Nothing looks life threatening, though."

Harry smiled meekly. "Just hurts like hell then."

"Well, yeah, there is that minor issue," George responded, laughing a little.

Over to the side, Harry saw a group of aurors had finally arrived and were taking the prisoners from Ron and Hermione. Took them long enough, Harry thought, frustrated.

Once Ron and Hermione had rejoined them, George and Ron helped Harry stand and then the group slowly moved down the block to George's shop. Hermione stopped briefly to let the aurors know where to find them if they needed to.

Upstairs in George's flat, Ginny collapsed on the couch while Hermione began brewing a strong pot of tea. George helped Harry seat himself in a nearby chair and then disappeared for a minute, returning with a jar of rapid-bruise remover, one of Fred and George's early discoveries and an often used product in the WWW office.

After applying liberal amounts of the ointment to the bruises on Harry's arms, George had him remove his shirt and began applying some to the bruises on Harry's torso.

"There," George said, "that should help a bit. But for the ribs, you should probably stop by St. Mungo's. I'm no good with healing bones."

"Thanks," Harry said gratefully to the Weasley twin.

Hermione returned with the tea and after serving Ginny and Harry a cup, sat down next to Ron. Once everyone was settled, Harry looked around at George and his two best friends.

"So, anyone want to tell me how you guys knew were in trouble," he asked.

"Ginny's patronus," George said. "It showed up here and said you guys were under attack. I sent my own off to the Burrow to alert the others and then rushed out to help."

"Yeah, and his arrived in the living room while Hermione and I were there so we apparated here as fast as we could," Ron added.

"And just in time to save your sorry arse yet again, Harry," Hermione said, a smile playing at her lips.

Returning the grin, Harry quickly thought about all the times she and Ron had been there. It had been the three of them against any danger for so many years. "Yeah, we've had quite a few little adventures, haven't we?

"All because I had to sit in your bloody compartment on that first Hogwarts Express," Ron said in mock indignation.

"And once again, we were left to our own devices. These ministry aurors are always right where you need them, aren't they," Harry stated sarcastically.

"Showed up just as the battle ended. You have to admit, that is better than you would have gotten a year ago," Ron joked.

"But aren't you and Ginny supposed to have people shadowing you? Hermione questioned fretfully. "Isn't that what Kingsley said?"

"We have protection at Hogwarts and in Hogsmeade. Plus, the Burrow is protected. But I don't think we have shadows following us everywhere or anything like that," Harry answered.

"Well, they really should be tailing you. You attract trouble, Harry," Hermione said, looking worried.

"I just want it to end. I just want to go live a normal life." Harry sighed, glancing at his nine-month pregnant fiancée. "I'm tired of constantly fighting. Frankly, I don't even thing I want to be an auror anymore. I don't know if I want to spend the rest of my life the way I have spent the past seven or eight years."

"Yeah, but Harry, you're so good at defense," Ron declared. "It'd be a crime for you to let it go to waste. Just look at today. You really saved my sister. You were fighting them off right and left."

"Not really. I would have failed and we all out have been taken if you guys hadn't showed up." Harry turned gingerly in his chair to face Ginny. "This time, Ginny saved us. I thought I saw something silvery but I didn't really have time to think about it. Nice going with the patronus. That would go right through the shield, since it's a protective spell too. When did you learn to make the talking patronus?"

"Bill taught me, back when we were in hiding. Thought it might come in handy."

Ginny was extremely grateful that her brother had had the foresight to make her learn that particular spell.

"Thank Merlin for that," George said. "It's a good thing you were able to send for help. Who knows what might have happened."

"I know," Harry acknowledged. "I would hate to see what might have happened otherwise. I really don't know how we could have gotten out of there." Looking ruefully into his fiancée's eyes, Harry broke into a grin. "You know, I just might kiss your brother the next time I see him. He really saved our lives out there."

"Now that I would pay to see!" Ron exclaimed, causing everyone to break into fits of laughter. The tension of the battle was finally broken as they all laughed until they cried at the mental image Harry had provided.