Disclaimer: I know that it's been a while since I last updated, but even during my prolonged absence I was not successful in acquiring the rights and ownership to Harry Potter or the world in which he lives, and so I say again, with a little less originality than I have in the past, that I do not own any of this, and I am merely enjoying the world that JK provided for us to frolic in.
Chap 51: Hogwarts Hostilities
As soon as Harry appeared with Ron in Godric's office, the group got down to business.
Everyone knew their task, and so without any prompting, people started moving. Ginny changed into her battle robes and gathered her weapons. Hermione grabbed her bag of potions and medical equipment, as did Demeter. Athena and Neville went straight over to their Dragon Hide cloaks and put them on while Blaise secured his invisibility cloak around his neck and made sure he had all his things. On the other side of the room, next to Ron, Harry mentally changed his Robe of Gryffindor from quidditch seeker robes to black battle ones, as he studied the map on the wall to get a better idea of what was going on in the school. Each member of the Mansion Group also had their own copy of the Marauders' map on them too. Harry had insisted on it as they weren't always going to be together, and he wanted each of them to have access to this tool as it could very well save their lives.
In short, Godric's office was a flurry of activity.
After donning his battle robes, Ron stepped up to the map as well, "We have a group of about a dozen, led by Tom Riddle, coming through the Chamber." he told them as he pointed to the spot on the map, "Harry, you need to ask Hogwarts to direct them to the Great Hall."
Harry nodded in agreement, and closed his eyes. As he sent out a silent plea to the school for help, Hogwarts began to shift stair cases, obscure hall ways, and even made some walls appear where before there were none, in order to coral Voldemort and his followers into the ambush.
"We have about seven minutes before they get there, Harry. The Castle Group better use their portkeys soon, or we wont have enough time to get to our starting point for the attack." After a slight pause, and intensive study of the map, he continued, "OK. They're all in position. Let's get going!"
Each member of the Mansion Crew, save Neville who had his own means of transportation, grabbed either Harry or Ginny, and were instantly transported, by either fire, smoke, or in Neville's case teleportation, to the great Hall were the eight had planned to make their stand.
"My Lord!" one of the Death Eaters exclaimed, "It would appear that the Castle is working against us and leading us to a specific location!"
"CRUCIO!" The Dark Lord exclaimed, causing the 'observant' Death Eater to collapse on the ground, as he writhed in pain, "Do you think me thick? Or perhaps a little slow? I am NOT as dim as you! Now GET UP! If we weren't in the middle of an attack, I would have killed you for your assumption that something so blatantly apparent had escaped my notice! During this amazing revelation of yours, did you not even stop to notice that the castle was leading us to the very place that we were planning on heading? Did you not stop to think that perhaps it was doing so at MY request as I am the Heir of Slytherin, one of the founders of this castle? Now Silence! If I ever require your opinion again in the future, I shall give it to you!"
The nameless Death Eater struggled to his feet and made his way to the back of the group, in hopes that he would escape His Lord's notice for the rest of the battle.
At the same time, the Dark Lord himself was lost in thought, 'Despite my bluff, this is not my doing, but it is not like I would be admitting that to these simpletons anytime soon. How did anyone find out about my assault? Dumbledore! What are you up to!'
Amendments to Lord Voldemort's carefully made plans were already underway to compensate for this possible ambush.
"Malfoy!" the Dark Lord stated after several more steps.
"Yes my Lord?" as the bleached blond sycophant replied.
"You, my apprentice, have the honour of leading the first assault on the Great Hall." Voldemort told the boy, "Do not fail me!"
"Of course my Lord! Thank you, my Lord!" the young man answered, as he deepened his bow.
'That should be enough to spring any trap that the old muggle loving fool will have in place, leaving me a clear path to claim victory. There is only one way that the old man could have figured out what was going to happen today. Either Malfoy let it slip at the wrong time, or one of the students under his charge did. Either way, he is responsible, and I think that this is a fitting form or retribution.' Voldemort thought as he sneered at the back of Draco Malfoy's head, 'Besides, his father was a failure, and despite his gifts and abilities, this one has shown me nothing this year but that he is of the exact same stock. Youth these days just don't know their place."
The cold on the quidditch pitch continued to increase as swarms of dementors made their way towards the students still assembled there.
"PLEASE REMAIN SEATED AND CALM." the Headmaster yelled with the help of a sonorous charm, "EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL. WILL THE MEMBERS OF THE D.A. PLEASE MAKE THEIR WAY TO THE PITCH LEVEL."
Albus Dumbledore had no sooner cancelled the sonorous charm on himself, than he was assaulted by questions from frantic members of his staff.
"Headmaster!" cried Professor Vector, one of the non-Phoenix members of the staff, "What should we do?" the woman asked as she nervously clutched her wand.
"We're surrounded! Why didn't you tell the students to run? They might have had a chance than!" chimed in professor Hill, the muggle studies professor.
"Do not fear, my dear Professors. We have the situation well under control." the Headmaster assured them confidently.
As soon as the Headmaster finished assuring his staff, the ground troop, led by some of the original D.A. members, got up a brilliant translucent white shield up that covered the whole of the pitch, stands included.
The dementors, not having seen anything like this before, continued forward without hesitation. It wasn't until one of them tried to touch it that there was any reaction.
The constant din of conversation that was taking place beneath the shield was silenced as an ear-piercing cry sliced through the pitch.
"What was that, Albus?" asked McGonagall.
"My assumption would be that that was one of the dementors. The shield must have worked exactly as Harry had told me it would." the elderly man stated proudly, with a twinkle in his eye.
"The patronus shield is firmly in place, sir." Terry Boot said to the assembled professors as soon as he made it into their box. As assistant-head of strategy, Terry was placed in charge of the ground troops, and it was also his job to inform the headmaster of a safe time to get the children, and non-combat staff, to portkey out of the engagement zone.
The ground troops not holding the shield, and the air unit made their way down to the pitch, and began to get into attack formation. The milky white nature of the shield was both a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing in that the Death eaters, and whoever else was attacking from the outside, would not know that most of the students had been evacuated, and that the ones that had stayed were ready for them, but it was a curse in that the people on the interior had no idea how many people/creatures they'd be facing off against once the shield fell.
"Excellent, Mr. Boot," the headmaster praised, "Please begin to have everyone who isn't staying activate their portkeys."
"Yes sir." Terry acknowledged with a quick bow. As soon as he reached the bottom, he reached pitch level, he sent off the dozen runners waiting there to the different towers to instruct the spectators there on how to activate their ticket to safety.
'Everything's going smoothly out here, Harry, I just hope the same can be said in there.' the Ravenclaw thought to himself as he watched his runners head off to their destinations.
Once all the preparations in the Great Hall had been made, Ginny let her mind roam outside to see how things out there were fairing.
'According to Terry, everything's running smoothly outside, Harry.' Ginny assured her boyfriend mentally.
'That's good to know.' Harry responded, genuinely relieved, before looking down and tensing up, "Be ready everyone! According to the map, they're just outside the door." he yelled to the rest of the mansion group. He wasn't sure exactly why Tom would have Draco leading the first assault, unless he liked the blond prissy aristocrat as much as Harry did and was hoping he would meet his fate in 'glorious battle' instead of just killing him outright.
One of the many spells that Harry had put on the doorway before the fight was a powerful wandless sound barrier. With the Map, Harry wouldn't have to hear what was going on the other side, but this way, he could yell out instructions before the fight hit without worrying about giving anything away.
The mansion group was spread out around the room in strategic locations. Hermione and Ron were in one corner, Demeter and Neville in another, and Athena was off to one side alone, but all of them were well protected. Blaise had a bit of a different role, as he was a floater with an invisibility cloak. His job was to slip in behind if at all possible and take a group down from the inside. Harry and Ginny, the first ones the opponents would see which set them up as the main target, were behind the head table, which had been reinforced and transfigured by Harry into marble, the most magical resistant rock in existence, for extra protection.
Suddenly, Draco Malfoy burst into the room, followed by half a dozen other death eaters, to see Harry behind the head table, which had been turned on its side. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have a chance to see much more, let alone where all the others had been positioned, before a myriad of spells came whizzing at him from every angle.
Once all of the black robed individuals had fallen, Harry looked them over and noticing that the door had slammed shut again, called out: "Everyone alright?"
His question was answered in the affirmative by all.
"Good to hear! That was only the first wave, according to the map, there are more..."
But whatever else Harry was about to say was drowned out by a near deafening boom as the two doors to the Great Hall exploded in a shower of splinters and shards of wood.
The Mansion Group started sending spells at the doorway in hopes of hitting an enemy or two despite their obscured vision, but once the dust settled, all they saw was a large marble wall.
Harry first put away the map and then made a motion for his friends to get ready. Once they nodded, Harry stood up, "Voldemort! Why don't you come out and fight! You and me, right now! Let's end this." Harry said with more confidence than he actually had.
"Harry Potter! This should be fun. I was hoping to defeat Dumbledore once and for all today, but your death will serve the same purpose. It will show once and for all that I AM the most powerful of all wizards!! Prepare to die young one!" the voice, that seemed to come from all over responded.
Feeling something behind him, Harry dove right at the last second to narrowly avoid a sickly green blast of magic that had come from Voldemort's wand. The spell slammed into the stone wall, causing part of it to explode. This, in turn, sent Ginny flying off to one side. She quickly scrambled for cover, as many other spells started flying at her from the doorway.
Seeing their friends' plight, the rest of the Mansion group felt useless since they could do nothing to help their leader, as they were currently facing problems of their own. The marble wall had shrunk to chest height, and death eaters were providing cover fire for their Lord.
"You're fast Potter, but are you fast enough?" the Dark Lord taunted as he sent spell after spell at Harry, not giving the boy a chance to set up a proper defensive, let alone a counter attack, "Or maybe I should start sending spells at your little lady friend over there." he continued to taunt, motioning towards Ginny, who was within his line of sight as she sent spells back at the Deatheaters behind the marble barrier.
Having no other option, Harry flashed to right in front of Ginny, hoping to throw Tom off a bit, and get a chance to take the offensive.
Temporarily disorientated with his opponent's sudden disappearance, Tom Riddle was taken by surprise as a newly reappeared Harry Potter started to return the favour, sending spell after spell at the self proclaimed dark lord.
Ginny, seeing that Harry's back was now turned to the Deatheaters at the front door, focused primarily on covering Harry from their spells, and gave up all together attempting to return fire.
"How did you do that Potter?!" Voldemort yelled in rage as he threw up a shield, just in time to block Harry's latest spell, a cutting curse.
"It's just one of the many little tricks I picked up this past year in my preparations for this moment." Harry vaguely explained as he wordlessly continued to send offensive spells at Voldemort with both his wand and Godric's too, completely unaware of the spells that would be hitting him square in the back had Ginny not been there to work with him.
Making a quick decision, Voldemort silently cast a spell to turn his wand into a staff as he continued to parry and dodge his attacker's offensive. The furor of Harry's onslaught had taken him by surprise, and he needed some time to come up with an effective attack plan before facing him again, so he held the staff over his head and shouted.
"ARCANUS LABYRINTHUS" (1)
Suddenly, walls shot up all around the Great Hall transforming it into a giant maze.
What the?' asked Ginny mentally.
'That was the Maze spell I used back in Diagon Alley the night I got my tattoo.' Harry responded in kind, 'Tom must have been spying on his followers and seen me use it.' Harry was a little more worried than he allowed himself to show.
The spell in question was very rare, and for a caster to learn it, they needed to study the spell at length. Even with his advanced learning and magical abilities, he wasn't able to cast one this big for a good week after he started studying it. That meant that Voldemort must have a copy of the text that the spell came from, and thinking back to that book, Harry was more than a little worried to find out which other spells the dark lord might have picked up from that volume.
'Why aren't we together?' the mental voice asked him, 'You were standing just in front of me.'
'It's another part of the spells design. It was designed to split up a team of people so that they could get more practice with one on one battles and search and rescue. So unless two people are touching, a wall will appear between them, and even then, one of the two people who are touching will be injured fifty percent of the time, causing a handicap for the pair.' Harry explained mentally.
'So we're not that far apart in space? It didn't transport us to a different spot in the room?' she asked in clarification.
'No, it doesn't transport you, and yes, we're close together. But I still have no idea how to find you.' Harry admitted.
'Have you tried flaming?' she asked.
'That wont work, I have no idea what the area around you looks like.' Harry retorted.
'Do you really think that Fawkes has been everywhere Professor Dumbledore has been? Yet he always appears right beside him.' she pointed out. 'We...um...have a link of a kind too. Maybe you can use that to flame here?' she reminded him, with some hesitation.
'Why didn't I think of that? I'll see what I can do. Let me know when you're ready.' he sent her.
After a couple of seconds and no reply, he asked her again, 'Gin? You ready?'
When no answer came, Harry knew something was wrong, and suddenly disappeared in a flash of flame.
"Say goodbye, Weaslette." were the first words Harry heard when he rematerialized. Looking up, he saw the back of Malfoy's blond head as he stood over Ginny's bloodied and crumpled body with his wand pointed at her and his mind flashed back to a similar sight earlier this summer as the Deatheater stood mockingly over Luna.
"Avada..." but Draco Malfoy didn't get to finish that spell as his internal alarms started going nuts and so, trusting in his instincts, he dove to the right as an angry red beam of magic went flying through the area where he had been standing.
"You're dead Malfoy." Harry whispered gravely, just loud enough for the boy in question to hear him.
"I've been looking forward to this all year. Let's see what you got, Potter." the Malfoy heir sneered as he silently threw up a shield that easily deflected Harry's latest spell.
And show him he did. Harry started out with relatively simple spells in comparison to what he actually knew. A few wand based stunners and blasting hexes. And for a while, he managed to keep Malfoy on his toes, but as Malfoy caught his bearings, he brought the whole thing up a notch.
"CRUCIO!" yelled out the blond headed aristocrat, catching Harry off guard.
"AHH!" yelled Harry, before mustering up enough strength to transfigure a pebble into a stone wall before him to cut off the spell.
"So the great Harry Potter isn't untouchable after all." sneered the Head of the Malfoy family, before throwing several blasting hexes at the stone wall in front of him causing it to explode in a shower of debris and dust.
When the dust finally cleared, Malfoy in a state of shock when all he saw on the ground was the fallen form of Bellatrix Lestrange, reaching out to him with one hand while nursing a broken arm, "Draco, h..help me..."
"Auntie Bella?" Draco asked in disbelief, as he slowly lowered his wand.
"Nope!" his 'Auntie' said before lifting 'her' other hand, the one he thought looked broken, and started shouting, "Diffindo! Adfligo!(2)" and many other spells that caused Draco to quickly take the defensive.
As Harry threw the his spells, he slowly morphed back into his normal forms, which confused Draco until he clued in on what was actually going on.
Once the Slytherin had sure footing again he started to return a few spells and sneered, "So, Potter, a Metamorph too? I'm impressed. Who'd of thought a half-blood like you would be so magically gifted."
Now it was Harry's turn to sneer. He sent off another wordless cutting spell and said, "You should ask Voldemort how gifted a half blood can be. After all, he is one."
"LIAR!" the head of the Malfoy family retorted in defense of his Lord as he dodged Harry's curse, "He is the heir of Slytherin! Diffindo! He is pure!" he yelled between spells.
"Protego! Is that so? Than how is it that his last name is Riddle? Stupefy! Not a very pure blood name now is it?" Harry continued to taunt, while letting off a couple of silent spells.
"Riddle? Protego! Why do I know that name." Draco muttered to himself, as he defended against Harry's spells.
"You should remember. I know for a fact Filch made you polish it more than once the 'muggle way'." Harry replied as he quickly transfigured some debris into a wall of rock in front of him.
"That's right!Special services to the school." Draco snorted, "I highly doubt my Lord would do anything to help this muggle-loving school. Reducto!" he sent at Harry's wall, blasting a chuck of it off, before transfiguring one of his own just in time to intercept on of Harry's bludgeoning curses.
"He would if it saved his own arse in the process. Not to mention framed an innocent Gryffindor. Does that sound more like him now? Maximus Reducto!" Harry's spell did a lot more damage to Malfoy's wall, causing it to shatter into a million pieces, and sending the blond young man flying back a good ten feet in the process.
Seeing his chance, Harry quickly brought his cloak up close to him again and disillusioned himself, after which, he silently flashed to the other side of his opponent.
After landing, Draco quickly got up and started sending various spells down the hallway were his adversary had last been seen. When he saw that none of his spells hit anything but wall, he became annoyed.
"Come out and fight Potter! Or your precious whore gets a green bolt to the head!" Draco yelled as he placed his back to the wall, and started to make his way over to the prone form of the youngest Weasley.
Suddenly, a spell came flying at him from the direction opposite than what he had been waiting for, which severed his wand arm at the shoulder.
"I knew that would get your attention." Draco said with a pain suppressing chuckle, "My Lord will be more than able and willing to fix this when I bring him your dead body!" he yelled as he threw out some wandless spells with his off hand which caught Harry completely off guard.
Due to the suddeness of Draco's attack, Harry didn't have time to erect any shields and was thrown up against he wall, his hood was knocked off his head in the process, revealing his exact location, as he slid down the wall in obvious pain.
Wasting no time with continued taunts, Malfoy cast multiple bludgeoning hexes at his target. Some were blocked, and some weren't, leaving behind a very battered, bruised and tired looking Harry Potter.
"What a disappointment." yawned Malfoy as he briefly bend down to pick up his wand with his left hand in order to cast the final spell. "And here I thought you'd actually give me a good fight, Potter...Potter?" he had only taken his eyes off his target for a split second, but when he looked up, the sight of his fallen enemy that he expected to see was not there, much to his confusion. His confusion only increased when the tip of a sword suddenly protruded from his stomach.
Draco's eyes glazed over as life left his body, and he fell to the ground, dead.
Harry pulled his sword from the corpse without a word, wiped its blade on its victim robe before resheething it and bending down to take the invisibility cloak Malfoy had been using.
No words were said. None needed saying.
He then turned to the fallen form of his love, and holding her hand he tried to flame them directly to the Hospital wing, but the maze spell they were under wouldn't allow him to flame out of the maze, just within it. Instead, he transformed fully into his phoenix form and wept bitterly, spraying a large amount of tears all over her battered body which closed the more serious wounds, and completely healed the lesser ones. Before leaving, he force fed her a few potions to help with blood loss and pain before moving her off to a corner, casting several concealing and disillusionment charms and lying Malfoy's invisibility cloak over her for added insurance.
Harry then used his metamorph abilities to heal himself as best he could. Thought the small cuts and bruises were healed, he could do nothing about the physical and magical drain he had experienced during the duel.
He really didn't think that after his fight with Draco that he wouldn't have enough in him to face off against Voldemort, but he had to try. Transforming into his kneazle form, he went off in search of the cause of all this.
"Are you alright?" Ron asked, as he helped his girlfriend up from the floor.
"I'm fine." Hermione responded, "What happened?"
"You were thrown to the ground by this wall when it shot up. It's a good thing we were holding hands, if not, you could have landed a lot harder." he responded as he looked around before taking out his copy of the map.
"Thanks Ron." she said with a smile as she cast a quick diagnostic charm on herself.
"It looks like we're still in the Great Hall." Ron stated while still looking at the map he had just activated.
"This must be the maze spell Harry told us about. I wonder how Voldemort got a hold of it." the bushy haired girl pondered.
"The walls aren't showing up on here." Ron said in frustration, "We're walking blind. Stick close, and watch our back."
A couple of minutes later, the floor beneath them exploded in a spray of rocks and other shrapnel. The flying debris cause lacerations to appear all over both of their bodies, though Ron back took the brunt of it, as he reacted the quickest and threw her against the wall and shielded her as best he could.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? A Mudblood and a Blood traitor. This is going to be fun." sneered the Death eater that was approaching them slowly with his wand raised.
Ron knew he recognized that voice, but it was Hermione who knew it best. She could still hear it laughing from time to time in her nightmares as his magical whips cut into her flesh, again, and again.
"Do...Dolohov.." she whispered in fear.
"Ah. I see you recognize me." he said with pride, "I'm flattered."
Ron didn't need to hear anymore, and in a quick motion, he pulled his wand, turned and pointed it at the source of the taunting.
"DIFFINDO!" the redhead yelled.
The Deatheater silently threw up a shield with his bare hand, while he pointed his wand at Ron and cast, "Jacio!(3)"
Ron, not having heard of this spell before, threw up his strongest, "Protego!" and hoped for the best.
The spell, however, went right through Ron's shield, as it was designed to do, and sent him flying down the hall into the wall, rendering him unconscious.
Hermione was unable to move due to fear throughout their confrontation, however short it may have been.
"Now, mudblood, let us finish what we started in the Department of Mysteries." he sneered.
"But...but you're in Azkaban!" she retorted lamely, fear evident in her voice, as she unconsciously took a step back.
"Correction, I WAS in Azkaban, but my Lord emptied Azkaban this morning with the help of the Dementors. You find that the pathetic Ministry of Magic is now short a few prisoners, and Auror's too for that matter." he told her, as he chuckled to himself.
"But enough idle chit chat." he said, before slashing his wand towards her and creating a whip of fire to extend from it.
Hermione let her reflexes take over, and dove to the ground, rolled and then stood several feet away from her original position.
"You're quick, I'll give you that, but you can't be lucky forever." he taunted, before repeating the spell that once again missed its mark.
When she landed on her feet, Hermione she returned fire with the first spell that came to mind.
"Stupefy!" she yelled, pointing her wand at the target.
Silently, the Deatheater threw up a shield and chuckled with an amused look on his face.
"Still using fifth year defense spells? Oh no! I've finally met my match." he taunted sarcastically before returning fire silently with a sickly red bolt of magic.
Hermione blocked it expertly and thus began the exchange of spells.
Hermione shot off combinations of body binds, cutting curses and the occasional bludgeoning hex where as her opponent shot off many more lethal, and not as legal, spells including two of the three unforgivables.
"Crucio!" Dolohov yelled, falling back on a Deatheater classic, but missed his mark, just before diving to his right to avoid to angry unrecognized orange coloured spell that was shot his way by the schoolgirl he was fighting.
Hermione was not only holding her own, but was even starting to take control of the fight as her fear was slowly replaced by confidence, unfortunately, she was so focused on the Deatheater in front of her, that she didn't see the one sneaking up behind her.
"Crucio!" was the last thing she heard before she was consumed by pain. After what seemed to be an eternity of suffering, which was in reality about a second, she fell to the floor in relief, but still feeling some residual pain.
"You were losing to a little school girl? And a mudblood at that! I'm disappointed in you Antonin." the new comer mocked.
"Rookwood." the first man smirked, "It's good to see you too. She is surprisingly well versed in dueling...for a mudblood. I admit that I underestimated her, but I would have won this fight, even had you not stepped in." he said as he dusted himself off.
"Sure you would have. Was she alone?" Algernon Rookwood asked.
"No, her bloodtraitor boyfriend is down the hall unconscious." Antonin told him before exacting some revenge on the mudblood who embarrassed him in front of his colleague, "Crucio!"
He kept the spell brief, as he didn't want to drive the girl insane before he could have a little fun with her, after all, crazy people didn't know fear or really feel pain, and he wanted her to become very familiar with both. He wanted her to suffer at his hand and know a little of the pain he had felt in Azkaban thanks to her and Potter.
He turned to his partner to ask what they should do first to their captive, when he caught sight of a hilt of a small blade sticking out of the Rookwood's throat and he began to fall backwards, dead. He turned quickly in the direction that the blade would have come from to see the young Weasley boy walking slowly towards him with sword drawn.
"I challenge you, Antonin Dolohov, to a formal duel for attacking someone under the care and protection of the pureblood family of Weasley. No terms, not restrictions, to the death." the young man challenged in a gravely stern voice.
Having a demented sense of honour and support of old pureblood beliefs and ways, Antonin answered in complete seriousness, "Very well, young Weasley, I accept your challenge. Your terms are acceptable. Let's begin." As he was the one being challenged, he had the right to set the terms, however he didn't see the point as he agreed with the ones that were suggested.
Dolohov began by shooting off several spells, which Ron expertly deflected with his blade as he advance his target at a steady pace.
Antonin, not sure what to do, having never really been attacked by a sword before, raised his arm in protection as the katana came swinging down towards him.
The blade sliced smoothly through the Deatheaters arm, severing it just below the elbow, but before the man could scream out in pain, Ron turned his body and blade around a full 360 degrees, resulting in the clean decapitation of his opponent. The whole duel lasted ten seconds, leaving behind a blood covered Ron and a dead torturer.
Realizing that the woman he loved was injured, he uncharacteristically dropped his sword resulting in a loud clang and ran to her side to make sure she was alright. He then poured a pain-relieving potion down her throat, but before he could do anything else, he was hit in the back of the head by a body bind spell.
Lying there, unable to move, all he could do was look at the sneering face of his once ally.
"I'm so glad Harry made us do so many accuracy drills as I'm sure that spell would have bounced right off your battle robes." Justin Finch-Fletchy mocked with a Malfoy-esc sneer.
The traitor proceeded to cast a binding charm on both of his captives as well as gagging them.
"My Lord will be pleased. Stupefy!" was the last thing Ron heard before the spell hit him.
Neville heard the screaming before he was able to see the source, but he recognised the voice even through all the pain and suffering it held.
"Demeter!" he whispered urgently to himself as he took off in a run.
He rounded the corner into a small open area to see Demeter writhing in pain while her torturer cackled in joy and pleasure. But it wasn't until Neville realized the identity of his friend's torturer that he truly saw red.
Bellatrix Lestrange.
"Contendo Cuspis (4)" Neville yelled, sending a wooden stake flying at the woman who tortured her parents to insanity. The spell itself was designed and used primarily for the hunting of vampires, but at the moment, Neville wanted to inflict pain, and this spell most definitely would.
The woman in question heard the spell being cast, and instinctually dove to the side, but not fast enough to totally avoid the piercing projectile as it stabbed into her shoulder, instead of the center of the back that Neville had initially aimed for.
Neville, not being in the sanest frames of mind himself at that moment, just kept shooting, "Adfligo, Verbero(5), Contendo Cuspis , Stupefy..." until Bella was finally able to erect a solid shield of rock before her.
Seeing that his attacks were no longer effective, he sent one more spell at the torturer of his parents, a cloud of vapour that hampered breathing so that Bellatrix would be more distracted, before making his way over to Demeter and transfigured a shoulder high stone semi circle wall around her for protection.
Bellatrix tried to get into a defensive posture as well she possibly could with three wooden spikes sticking out of various parts of her body and now also coughing severely. Though she was in pain, it appeared as though she was enjoying the sensation.
Neville stood up behind his protection and stepped out in order to face his target.
"Ah. Longbottom. cough How delicious." she tried to say sweetly between coughs, "cough I've wanted to cough play with you for a long time."
Neville, not having anything to say to the creature before him, decided to stop this conversation with his wand.
"Adfligo, Diffindo, Verbero, Tundo(6), Diffindo, Verbero, Adfligo, Tundo, Diffindo."
With every spell he cast, he would teleport himself to a different place in the clearing to cast it and due to his ability as a breather of all, he didn't have to worry about inhaling the fumes still hovering around Bellatrix. Since teleporting is silent, and instantaneous, Bellatrix could do nothing but remain on the defensive.
This lasted for a good five minutes, during which time the vapour had completely dissipated. She managed to block almost every spell that came her way save two slicing hexes, (one hitting her leg, and the other her abdomen) and one bludgeoning hex that caught her off arm, shattering the bones inside it.
"STOP TOYING WITH ME LONGBOTTOM! FIGHT ME FACE TO FACE!!" she yelled, her voice extremely hoarse from coughing.
"EXCARNIFICO!! (7)" was the last word Bellatrix heard before her world exploded in pain.
Pain that lasted for a full thirty seconds until that same voice spoke sadly, "You are probably the only person I could cast that spell on successfully."
She would have responded with a snappy come back, or sarcastic jab had she been able to utter anything above a groan.
Neville had come across this curse in one of the old books in Potter Mansion. It was the grandfather of the Cruciatus Curse, and needed the same emotional support. Hate. Translated from the Latin, both words mean the same thing. It actually causes just as much pain as the popular unforgivable, but it doesn't result in insanity when over used. It just kills the victim. The main reason it fell out of use was that it was five syllables long, took a little more power to cast successfully and 'crucio' was so much easier for the average Deatheater to remember.
"And now that I've done it to you, I don't ever want to do it again." he admitted in disgust, "And I will never have to. Goodbye Lestrange."
"STUPEFY!" Neville shouted, dumping all the power possible into it to insure that she wouldn't wake before this was all over.
To say what happened next surprised him would be an understatement. The normally red coloured bolt of energy that usually signifies a Stupefy spell, was instead a deep purple.
Neville, wanting to make sure that the spell still worked properly, crouched next to his target to check the outcome, only to find Bellatrix Lestrange dead.
He would not spend anytime right now shedding tears for this animal, nor waste time trying to figure out what happened, especially not when better people, who were still alive, needed his help.
The young man then turned his full attention on his fallen friend, and set about mending her wounds as best he could.
"Bella? Bella are you alright?" Neville could hear from the other side of the makeshift wall he was currently housing Demeter behind.
The young Gryffindor bent down and whispered in the blond girls ear, "Don't worry love, I'll be right back. You'll be ok." before blending into the background and teleporting to the other side of the room.
There, kneeling over the fallen body of Bellatrix Lestrange was her husband, Rudolphus. Neville was so surprised, that he stumbled slightly, kicking a small piece of debris that was underfoot.
The Deatheater looked up at the source of the noise, but apparently seeing nothing, he returned his attention to his fallen wife.
Or at least Neville thought.
"Diffindo, Frango (8), Seco (9)," the older man cried as he suddenly got up and started casting spells directly at Neville, who was not expecting an attack and was unable to raise any shields.
The first spell one was mostly absorbed by Neville battle robe, leaving only a slight bruise, the second one, however, shattered his wand hand, and the third hex sliced a big gash along the left side of Neville's face, from below the chin, through the middle of his eye, and ending just shy of the hair line. The cut wasn't deep enough to kill him instantly, but he would die shortly if someone didn't help him.
The Deatheater approached the unconscious form of the young man and sneered, "Do you think you're the only one with hereditary abilities, Longbottom? Unconscious? What a shame. It would have been nice to torture you as I did your parents before killing you for murdering my wife. Though maybe I should be thanking you? She wasn't much of a house keeper after all, this gives me a chance to get a better, younger model."
Whatever he was going to say next, if anything, the world would never know as his robes were suddenly transfigured into an iron maiden. With vision fading, he saw a young girl emerge from the small rock wall behind him and move towards Neville slowly. It was apparent that she wouldn't last much longer on her feat either.
Had she not been gifted in transfiguration as a master of the art, she would not have been able to even come close to casting that spell on an opponent's robes successfully as they are protected from that kind of thing by the wearer's magic. But due to her gift, and the intense emotions she was feeling at the time, her spell work succeeded against all odds.
He tried to yell, but found that he couldn't speak as one of the spikes had pierced his vocal cords, and he knew he was slowly bleeding out from that and many other such wounds on his body.
He watched as she closed the gash on Longbottom's face, and force fed him a potion that she had pulled out of her robes.
The last sight he saw was of her collapsing on the Longbottom whelp before the whole world went black.
"Come on, Zabini. We don't have to be fighting like this." the man called over the debris he was hiding behind, before sending off another spell, "Diffindo"
"And why's that, Parkinson?" Blaise called back to his year mate's father, before returning fire with a silent cutting spell of his own.
"You're a Slytherin, and you're a pureblood. Why don't you come and join us? You could be powerful!" the older man tried to lure, this time, not sending a spell along with his words.
A plan formed quickly in his head. Blaise responded, "And how would we go about doing that? How do I know that you wont kill me as soon as I step out from behind this rock."
Right after he yelled that, he peaked around the edge of his hiding place to see if there was any chance to get a good shot off if he did stand. When he looked though, he noticed something even better as a shimmering figure over to the side of the Deatheater's hiding place caught his eye.
'Athena' he thought as he smiled to himself looking down at the map in his hands.
"I haven't shot at you for since we started talking about this have I?" the hidden Deatheater yelled back, as he leveled his wand on the student's hiding spot. "Why don't we both step out and..."
The voice was cut off by the fact that the young witch behind the Deatheater had stunned him.
"All clear." Athena told him as she cast a body bind on the fallen death eater.
Blaise emerged from his hiding spot and addressed his friend, "Thanks for the help, but I had everything...DOWN!" he yelled as he leveled his wand and began to cast.
Athena dropped herself to the floor as the sickly green jet of magic flew over the spot she had been occupying only a split second before.
Blaise had wasted no time and cast, dropping the Deatheater with a common stunner before he could cast another spell, then rushed over to his fiery fallen redheaded friend.
"You alright?" he asked.
"Of course I am. I had everything under control." she teased back echoing back his words.
"Ya, ya, ya." the Slytherin replied sarcastically as he bound the Deatheater and floated him over to his partner.
"Blaise?" Athena asked.
"Ya?" the young man responded as he turned to look at her.
"Thanks." she said in full honesty, with a small smile on her face.
He smiled back, "Don't mention it. Now we're even."
She nodded in reply.
"Shall we?" the young man asked as he held out a shimmering silver robe.
"Lets!" she replied as she moved closer to allow him to put it on over both of them, "But you better not think of getting fresh with me under this thing, mister!"
Blaise rolled his eyes, "I have better taste than that." he told her with a grin.
Had anyone walked into the area at that moment, they wouldn't have seen a thing, but they probably would have heard the sound of a hand slapping a face rather harshly before the voice of a young man muttering, "It's not like I put my hand there on purpose!"
After a few more minutes, the wall Harry had been resting his hand on as he went along with the chameleon power of Gryffindor's cloak, started to sink back into the floor. He was a bit surprised as the spell he knew would not allow anyone to dispel it until only one team was standing, and as the walls slid back into the floor, Harry could see quite clearly that he and his were not the last ones standing.
'It must have been a variation than.' he thought.
What's a variation? Ginny asked groggily, Ohhhh, my head. She groaned mentally. What happened?
'Shhh, Gin. Stay still, don't move. I'll explain everything afterwards.' Harry sent her before blocking his thoughts and thinking, 'If there is an afterwards.'
As the walls receded, he fell into a defensive crouch, still under his cloak, and scanned the room until his eyes met the most horrifying sight he had ever seen.
'Gin. Don't open your eyes.' Harry tried to warn her, his eyes still glued on the sight before him. But it was too late as he heard her mental gasp.
"Oh Harry?" the Dark Lord called out mockingly, "Please reveal yourself and join us over here. If you refuse to, I cannot promise the safety of your...friends here." he sneered as he motioned in the direction that had cause and kept Harry's eyes ever since the walls fell.
In front of Voldemort were the unconscious forms of Ron, Hermione, Neville and Demeter. Harry though he could see at leas Neville and Hermione breathing, but he wasn't sure as he tried to ascertain the condition of his friends lying at the Dark Lord's feet. Each one was individually bound, and they were lying side by side on the floor. The four of them were surrounded by half a dozen Deatheaters, with at least one of their wands pointed at each of his friends.
As bad as this looked, Harry also knew, though, that this meant that Blaise and Athena were still out there.
Making his decision, not that it was a difficult one to make with his friends' lives hanging in the balance, Harry stood tall and willed his cloak to reveal him.
"Ah, there you are." Tom Riddle said with a sick, evil smile as Harry appeared not even five meters in from of him.
"Let them go, Tom. It'sss me you want." Harry hissed, defiantly in the language only his opponent would understand. He knew that he was in no shape to duel the Dark Lord at this point, especially not after wasting so much energy on Malfoy not even 10 minutes before, but he did want to unsettle the followers of the 'dark lord' as much as possible. He wasn't sure why he was stalling, but he continued to pray that something would come to him.
"Harry, Harry, Harry." the once headboy mocked in a patronizing tone of voice in English, "Everyone knows the only reason you can speak the noble language of snakes is because it was a gift I gave you as an infant. And besides that, you are in absolutely no position to be even making suggestions to me let alone attempting to order me around. So, no, I don't think I'll be letting them go. Besides, you seemed to have relieved me of a couple of my faithful followers, so I see no reason why I shouldn't return the favour." the Dark Lord threatened as he motioned to the dead bodies of Malfoy, Bellatrix and Rudolphus Lestrange, Antonin Dolohov and Algernon Rookwood.
"And as you can see," the Dark Lord continued after pointing out each of his fallen followers, "You still owe me one."
Then the Dark Lord looked over at the side of the room and smiled grimly, "I think I'll take that one." he said as he wandlessly and wordlessly summoned the cloak that was hiding Ginny.
The young redhead was still to hurt to move, and so all she could do was weakly raise her wand at Voldemort causing him to chuckle as he, again, wandlessly and wordlessly cancelled all the obscuring spells Harry had placed on her.
Ginny gritted her teeth and tried to run, but stumbled quickly, leaving her wide open for the binding spell sent at her from one of Voldemort's followers.
"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Harry yelled as he cast a shield around her.
Harry's mind was desperately trying to form a plan. And he thought he might have something. If it worked, the invading party would be forced to leave, but if it failed, they'd all die, though on the bright side, so would Voldemort and his followers. He didn't know if Hogwarts could do what he needed her to do, but that wouldn't stop him from asking.
'Hogwarts, you can read my intentions, and my magic. I can't do what I need done alone. Can you help me?' he sent mentally.
Soon he was filled with a warm feeling of affirmation, which brought a small smile to his face.
They may just get out of this one after all.
After attempting to stun, bind and even levitate the young Weasley over to him, the Dark Lord smirked, more than a little impressed at young Potter's ability. Not that he would ever admit that.
"Very well Potter. It would appear that I must first finish you before I can have fun with your girlfriend." he said evilly as he raised his wand at Harry, "Do you have any last words before you are executed for your weakness?" the Dark Lord sneered.
"I do." Harry said, as he fiddled with the cube in his pocket, "HOGWARTS! NOW!"
Before any spells could be cast, before anyone could run or dive for cover, every person standing in the Great Hall suddenly vanished, leaving behind only the unconscious and the dead.
AN: I know, I know. You waited this long only to be faced with another cliffhanger. Sorry 'bout that. ;) Hopefully you wont have to wait that long for the next update.
(1) from chapter 41(42) "...Something borrowed,
something Blue."
(2) Adfligo: crush, break, damage, ruin;
(3) Jacio: throw, hurl, cast; throw away;
(4) Contendo Cuspis : Shoot Stake (loosely
translated)
(5) Verbero: beat, strike, lash;
(6) Tundo: beat; bruise, pulp, crush;
(7) Excarnifico: torture; punish with torture;
torture mentally;
(8) Frango: break, shatter, crush;
(9) Seco: cut, sever; divide in two/halve/split;
All Latin words were found at the web site: Words by William Whitaker. I'd post the link here, but ffnet wont let me, so I'll post it on my Yahoo site instead.
Only two more chapters to go people. Hopefully I'll get them both done this year :S. I want to apologize for the delay. This whole 'married life' thing is amazingly great, but unfortunately it really cuts into your free time ;) Not to mention that my wife is also now pregnant and I'm helping with the household chores as she has 24/7 morning sickness :( Another small problem is that for some reason this year, I actually find myself trying to pay attention in classes, maybe it's the poor marks I got last year or something. Anyways...I have the next two chapters laid out now all I have to do is flesh out the skeleton. See you soon...hopefully :SFarfumsane
