Chapter 38

(12 Grimmauld Place)

Fleur watched as Rose and Madam Pomfrey worked on Harry who remained unconscious, which she concluded was probably a good thing all things considered. She had to force herself to stay out of the way when everything inside her told her to go to the bed where her lover lay and hold onto him, the last hour or two seemed to have been far longer.

"How is it going?" Tara's whispered voice made her jump, but she managed not to cry out or in any way distract Rose or Pomfrey. "Sorry," she added when Fleur turned to glare at her for making her jump.

"I don't know, they've been at it since you all left," Fleur responded as she turned back to where Harry lay. "Harry hasn't regained consciousness, which is probably a good thing as he would be in great pain if he did," she added.

"Harry is strong Fleur, he will come through this," Tara said as she gave the upset quarter Veela a sideways hug and did her best to comfort her. "When he does come to he will need you more than ever, don't give into fear," she advised her.

"I know you are right Tara," Fleur agreed, letting the comforting words sooth her troubled thoughts. "Harry will be fine," she added as confidently as she could.

Tara nodded and was pleased to see she seemed to have helped Fleur find some strength to continue to watch and wait for Harry to come to. She knew from her association with Buffy how difficult it was to sit and wait when your friends or loved ones were recovering from a bad injury. She had seen Jenny go through it a few times with Xander and she had seen it with Willow and Oz as well. Like them Fleur would make it through this, it would however linger within her in those dark places of people's minds that liked to prey on their greatest fears.

"Maybe you should go get something to eat and then take a quick rest Fleur," Tara suggested as she got a good look at her friend's features and saw how much this seemed to be getting to her.

Fleur tried to protest but Lily, who had been listening to their conversation as she waited for Pomfrey to call for her assistance cut in.

"She is right," Lily told her. "Staying here is doing neither of you any good. Harry will not wake up for another couple of hours if we are lucky," she told them. "Which should be long enough to fully fix his shoulder," she added at their looks at her choice of words. "He would not want you to exhaust yourself waiting for him," she continued.

"Rose is right Fleur," Tara agreed, although she was confused on how Rose could know what Harry would want. Just who was this mysterious new woman Xander and the others had brought into their mists? Did she have prior knowledge of Harry somehow? She decided she would confront Xander and Jenny later on. "Harry would want you to take care of yourself first, and staying here watching him being patched up won't help your state of mind," she told her.

Fleur looked between the two women before finally nodding her head in agreement, turning she left the room and headed for the kitchen for a quick bite to eat before heading to her room to sleep for an hour or two. Tara watched her go with some relief. She really did believe some food and a good rest would do Fleur well.
"Thank you for that," Lily said turning to Tara. "I was beginning to worry she was going to work herself into a right state," she added.

"She is Harry's girlfriend," Tara informed her and noted the surprised look that crossed Rose's face at the news. "She loves him very much, I'm sure you can understand that," she added.

Lily finally recalled Fleur's name been mentioned before when they were discussing whether to let anyone else in on her real identity, so this was her son's girlfriend. She seemed to honestly care for her son, but until she got to know her better she wasn't sure what to make of her or more importantly her relationship with Harry. Before she could say anything else Pomfrey called her back to help with Harry. Tara remained where she was for a few minutes before she turned and left them to it.

+COF+

(Riddle Manor)

Voldemort sat on his throne waiting for news of the attacks on Fudge and Bones. He was confident Bellatrix would not fail him in her task. Dolohov however was another matter having already failed him multiple times now, the only reason he still lived was as cannon fodder for his war. However should he fail this time he would ensure Dolohov became an example of what happened when they failed their lord and master. He would ensure no one dared to fail again. Bellatrix would also have to serve as an example even though she had so far never failed him. However he had sworn what would happen to her in front of the others in a fit of anger.

Thus if he failed to kill her then his followers might think they too could escape their own failures, worse it might make him seem weak and that was something he could not afford. He had boxed himself in, in a moment of anger at the multiple failures he had suffered lately. Leaning down he stroke the head of his familiar Nagani, 'Hopefully Bellatrix wouldn't fail, so I wouldn't have to kill her,' he thought as she was his most useful Death Eater.

+COF+

(Bones Manor)

Moody used his magical eye to watch as the Death Eaters advanced closer to the house, he had to hand it to Amelia and her niece Susan. They had held them off for quite a while before he and Tonks had shown up. Still the situation did not look good. A break out would be suicidal at this point and escape by magic was also denied to them so the question was how did they get help here?

"They are getting closer," Susan pointed out from her place near a window.

"I can see that lass," Moody responded with a roll of his good eye. "Unless we can summon some kind of help we are doomed," he stated, seeing no reason to sugar coat things.

"How about the floo?" Tonks asked as she managed to take down one of the attackers as they tried to advance.

"Not working for some reason. I can only surmise that they have someone in that office who was ordered to take it offline during the attack," Amelia answered as she fired another blasting curse, and was relieved to see another of the attackers thrown back as the cover he was in exploded.

"What about house elves?" Tonks inquired as she fired of some more spells as quickly as she could, but due to the darkness of the night missed all of them. "Can't they circumvent regular magic?" she asked.

"Our house elves are dead Tonks," Amelia told her with a grim look in her eyes. "They are one of the reasons we held out so long before you turned up, but they managed to kill them all," she spat angered by the death of the elves that had been with her family for so long.

"Damn it," Tonks muttered in response. She did not like how this was going.

"What about the house elf that is always helping Harry?" Susan suggested as she recalled how the elf had helped Harry find the Room of Requirement that they had used to do the D.A lessons.

"Shit I forgot about him," Tonks cursed as she recalled the elf and the way it seemed to do all it could to help Harry.

She even recalled the stories Harry had told of how Dobby had helped Harry survive the second task of the tri-wizard tournament, as well as finding out who had set up the reopening of the Chamber of Secrets. Although she snorted in ill humor she recalled Harry had not been entirely thankful for all of the insane elf's help, because said elf had ended up nearly killing Harry with a tampered bludger during a Quidditch match that year.

"Dobby," she called out and prayed to anyone who would listen in either magic or Muggle myth. A few seconds later there was a sudden pop and Dobby arrived looking slightly confused.

"You call for Dobby, but Dobby does not know you," Dobby stated as he looked the four over even as they did their best to keep the Death Eaters back. "Wait... Dobby remembers you," he said pointing at Susan.

"Yes, I'm a friend of Harry Potter and we need help," Susan said, thankful now more than ever she had joined the D.A last year. She doubted she would be handling this fight as well as she was had it not been for the things she had learnt from Harry. She also thanked her friend Hannah for convincing her to go to the original meeting.

"We need you to either get us out of here or go to Harry or anyone with him and tell them we need help," Moody said with a glare at the elf.

"Dobby can't get you through anti magic barriers, they are focused on humans," Dobby stated with a shake of his head.

"Then go get help you blasted thing," Moody growled out as he finally brought one of the advancing figures down with a well-placed killing curse.

"Please Dobby, go to Harry and get help," Susan put in a much calmer request.

Dobby looked them over again for a few seconds before he clicked his fingers and vanished with another loud pop. Amelia let out a sigh of relief at the idea help may be coming as she had no desire to see her last living relative die here.

"Do all you can to hold them back until help arrives," she ordered. The others nodded and increased their spell fire.

Outside Bellatrix let out a growl of frustration as what started to be an easy mission turned hard. Those blasted house elves had helped keep her force at bay for way too long. She hated the damn things. She had managed to kill two of them with the rest being taken down eventually by the others. Still it had taken too long to remove them from the fight, now she had to deal with two newbies showing up and if she wasn't mistaken one was old Mad Eye himself and the other was her darling niece Nymphadora. This meant some idiot in her team had forgotten to also put up the wards that kept anyone else from getting in, no wonder her Master had threatened to kill her if she failed here if this stupidity is what his people were capable off.

Even after all that extra training she had been putting them through, the newer recruits and even some of the older ones made huge mistakes. She rubbed the bridge of her nose. She preferred how things were in the first war she concluded.

"Push forward you fools, we have to kill them," she finally snapped out as she watched one of her men fall to a well-placed curse. Clearly a killing curse by the looks of it as well she thought. 'Blast it,' she cursed inwardly.

+COF+

(12 Grimmauld Place)

Lily almost pulled her wand as she heard a sudden pop from behind, and then realized she was foolish as no one who wasn't keyed to the wards could get into this house. Turning she found a small house elf standing behind her looking with wide eyes at Harry's motionless form. She was unsure why the elf had come here or why he seemed so well the only word she could use was shocked at Harry's injuries.

"Can I help you?" Lily inquired finally when it seemed the elf wasn't going to say anything.

The elf slowly turned to look at her. "Is Harry Potter alright?" the elf inquired in what had to be the first time she had heard one sound worried about the health of a human who was not its master.

"He was injured in a sneak attack, but he should recover in time," Lily answered after sharing an unsure look with Pomfrey about what to say. "Is there some reason you are here?" she asked again.

"Harry Potter's friends require help," the elf told her, hoping from one foot to the other. "They call for Dobby and he came, he recognized the girl with the flaming hair as one of Harry Potter's friends in his secret club," he explained. "They told me to get help from Harry Potter or anyone with him," he stated.

Lily frowned before she had a bad idea who was in trouble, letting out a curse she rushed out of the room to find Xander and the others. Pomfrey watched her go before turning to find the elf had moved closer to Harry's bed and was now pulling on his ears, clearly the elf knew Harry or he wouldn't be so distressed by his current condition she thought.

Down in the living room Xander listened as Lily explained her belief, that Tonks and Moody were the ones the unknown elf had stated were in trouble. Xander couldn't fault her reasoning either, no one else would know where Harry was or that he would have others staying with him.

"We have to go and help them," Lily stated.

"We do need to help them, but not you Rose," Xander responded ensuring he used her cover as Hermione, Daphne and Emmeline were also in the room with them. And he didn't need for them to realize that Rose was in fact Lily, or the fact that they had decided to hide this fact from the others. "Emmeline find Jenny, Remus, Faith, Tara, and Fleur," he said turning to Emmeline.

"Fleur is in bed trying to rest after watching me and Pomfrey work on Harry for two hours," Lily pointed out. "She will not be any good in a fight right now Xander," she told him sternly. "Plus her mind is not focused on anything, but Harry right now," she added.

"Fine leave Fleur where she is," Xander sighed, realizing she was correct. He had seen what happened when people who were not in the right frame of mind got into fights. "But get the others, if this is Tonks and Moody then we need to get to them and fast," he said facing Emmeline again.

"You got it," Emmeline responded with a nod of her head before rushing out of the room with Lily close behind as she headed back to Harry to tell the elf to come down to Xander.

"Don't you want us to come with you?" Daphne inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"No Daphne, not on this one," Xander answered with a shake of his head. "You guys are still getting used to the fact you've killed," he pointed out. "I won't push you into a fight where you might have to do it again so soon," he continued. "When you feel ready you can come, but not now," he finished as Jenny, Faith and Tara appeared with Remus and Emmeline coming in close behind them.

A sudden pop signaled the arrival of Dobby who looked at all the new people until his eyes came to rest on Hermione. "Harry Potter's Grangy, Dobby is so happy to see you again"

"Harry Potter's Grangy?" Daphne whispered in amusement which was shared by Faith and Tara.

"Hello Dobby," Hermione unable to resist a smile at the small elf who was currently dancing around at seeing a familiar person. She also ignored Daphne's question. Proof positive that elves could and should control their own fate, at least she thought so. "Where are the people in trouble?" she asked.

"They were at Bones family home," Dobby answered instantly knowing where he had been as all elves did when they went somewhere.

"Then it has to be Moody and Tonks," Emmeline spoke up as she prepared for another battle.

"And Amelia and her niece," Remus reminded her with a troubled expression as he remembered Susan Bones from his own time at Hogwarts as the defense instructor. She was a very friendly young woman he recalled and she was also usually inseparable from her friend Hannah Abbott.

"Dobby, can you get us into the manor?" Jenny inquired deciding to get things moving.

"Dobby believes so Miss," Dobby replied with a nod of his head. "Wards block humans leaving not arriving," he told them with a smile, happy to help any friends of Harry Potter.

"That's unusual," Remus mused thoughtfully. "They usually put wards up preventing both means," he stated.
"They might have made a mistake in a rush to kill Amelia and her niece," Tara suggested. "Then again it could have been a rookie who was putting up the wards and simply forgot to add both," she added.

"Enough we are going now," Xander ordered. "Ok everyone who is going, place their hands on Dobby's," he instructed as he pulled his wand ready for the fight ahead.

Hermione and Daphne watched as the group vanished along with Dobby. Hermione hoped everything went okay as did Daphne.

+COF+

(Fudge Manor)

Fudge stared out of his window in horror as he witnessed the battle proceed outside his home, the attack had begun half an hour after he had come home. He was thankful he had ensured his own protection by assigning ten Aurors as his bodyguard. They were at least keeping him alive for now. He was just very angered there was no way out of this house. They had wards up preventing him from leaving. The floo for some reason wasn't working and neither did any portkeys he created. He was trapped and he didn't like it one bit. He had to hope and pray either the Aurors won the fight, or somehow help would arrive.

Outside Dolohov snarled as the fight dragged on, he had no doubt his life was hanging in the balance on the outcome of this fight. The Dark Lord's threat against him was real, of that he had no doubt. The fact he had even threatened Bellatrix should she fail in her own attack showed how serious his Master was, he had to win this fight no matter the cost.

"Press forward and kill them you cretins," he ordered as he moved forward himself firing killing curses as he went.