35 | PHOENIX BURNS
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- HEADQUARTERS OF THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
It was seemingly another ordinary night when they all received patronuses from either Dumbledore or Moody. Hermione and Sirius were sitting for another dinner with the Potters when the patronus came. Lily paled, and James and Sirius froze. They were told the siege on Malfoy Manor would likely happen sooner rather than later. But that didn't change the jarring kick to reality when the time finally came. For a blissful but fleeting moment in time, they could almost pretend everything was okay- as normal as they could ever remember life being.
The Order gathered with a swiftness and unity that Hermione had never seen in her time. Perhaps it was because everyone was always so concerned with the semantics of 'trying to protect the children.' Hermione knew in retrospect that she had very little understanding of the second Order. Yet this final meeting not only summoned their core leaders and skilled professionals, but also any and all allies they'd ever had.
Hermione looked around the headquarters in awe.
Andromeda was gathered with her entire family. Ted Tonks stood proudly at her side, their daughter Nymphadora in his arms. Narcissa stood on her sister's other side with Draco holding onto her hand. Sirius wandered over to greet them all with a somber tone. When Snape finally arrived, he caught Narcissa's eyes and made his way over to the familiar face.
Marlene was waiting with her parents, and Mary McDonald and Hestia Bones kept them company. Hestia even brought her younger sister from the Auror department- Amelia Bones.
The Prewetts stood proudly beside Moody as they discussed matters in hushed tones. McGonagall stood not far off from Dumbledore, speaking assertively to a group of her fellow professors from Hogwarts.
Remus found them quickly enough, assured by Lily that the kids were hidden away in the Potter residence with Polly, who had strict instructions on contingencies.
Kingsley stood with a large group of witches and wizards, all dressed in similar uniforms. Hermione could only assume they were all part of the Auror department- perhaps the most loyal and trusted, she suspected. Molly and Arthur stood alone, all of their kids absent from their sides as they held on to each other with tense anticipation.
Dumbledore cleared his throat loudly, the rest of the room falling silent as they turned to their leader.
"First of all, I'd like to thank you all for coming. I wish it were under better circumstances, but I can only hope that after the fight ahead of us, we'll be leading this country into a better future." Dumbledore told them all earnestly. "Auror Moody, if you'd like to brief everyone?"
Moody nodded assertively, stepping up beside Dumbledore.
"Just today we received intelligence from one of our best-placed informants," Moody tipped his head towards Hestia Bones. "There are whispers of a revel happening at Malfoy Manor tonight. We believe it'll likely be a victory celebration for their attack on Auror Black's home."
Sirius stiffened beside Hermione, and a flood of whispers filled the room like fiendfyre.
"As such-" Moody boomed over them. "Tonight is the night we strike. We know where all or most of them will be. And, more importantly, we know where the Dark Lord will be."
"Voldemort," Dumbledore corrected softly. "We intend to fight him- now is not the moment to fear his name."
"Are we prepared to do this now?" Molly asked in concern.
McGonagall stepped up this time on Dumbledore's other side. "We've been strategizing with Miss McKinnon and our lead Aurors since our last meeting. We have detailed diagrams of Malfoy Manor as well as plans for which teams will infiltrate through which wings. Our safe passage into the manor has been guaranteed by Narcissa Malfoy, who's pledged her personal house-elves- loyal only to her- with the duty of getting us there."
"We're approaching this as always," Moody added. "Everyone gets a partner, and you are not to leave your partner at any time. If injured, you escort your partner back here for triage before either both go back to the battlefield or the uninjured pairs up with another off partner. Got it?"
They all nodded, the Aurors the most reluctant of them all. Hermione wouldn't put it past some of their heroic tendencies to ignore protocol in this unprecedented battle and go back alone anyway.
"I'll leave it to our head strategist to announce our plan of attack," Moody told them, gesturing Marlene over to the trio of senior Order leaders.
Marlene McKinnon was not a shy witch. After her one moment of vulnerability in her first year at Hogwarts, she'd learned one vital lesson: no one would have her back as well as she could. And no one knew her limits but her. She laughed off everything that tried to strike her down, and she lived with an unapologetic thirst for life. She lived for the moment. They had what they had when they had it.
It was that deeply fueled fire within her that allowed her to square her shoulders confidently in front of the entire Order, half of whom were older than her.
"We've decided to divide and conquer- as we did with the Nott stronghold." She spoke clearly, using her wand to conjure a misty, three-dimensional model of Malfoy Manor into the center of the room for everyone's reference.
The Order members, including the Aurors, nodded in approval. Gideon Prewett, who now stood at the head of the Aurors alongside his twin, was watching her with a proud gleam in his eyes.
"Now, since this is meant to be a revel, we already assume there will be prisoners for..." Marlene gulped, grimacing in hesitance. "For their entertainment. Narcissa has shared the exact location of the dungeons. One team will be heading down to the dungeons to rescue prisoners and take them straight to St. Mungo's. We shouldn't risk bringing them here, nor can we since it's under the Fidellius. Once all the prisoners are cleared, this team will be free to rejoin the main fight against the Death Eaters."
At the sign of agreeing nods, Moody broke in. "The rescue team will be comprised of Marlene McKinnon, Ted and Andromeda Tonks, and Arthur and Molly Weasley. Since everyone is required to be in pairs, I will accept one Auror as a volunteer to join the rescue team."
All the Aurors shuffled reluctantly. They were all prepared and willing to fight Death Eaters. Search and rescue was a noble and essential job, but their skills were needed at the main fight!
"I'll go," Gideon volunteered calmly.
Fabian's head snapped to his twin. For as long as he could remember, they'd always partnered together for missions. They'd worked their way up the ranks of Aurors together. They'd always fought together. He was almost about to argue before he saw his brother's gaze paused on McKinnon as it continued its sweep across the room. Fabian sighed, knowing Gideon's skills and reflexes would serve the relatively untrained group of rescuers well.
Marlene gulped ever so slightly, her eyes caught in Gideon's piercing oceanic gaze.
"That's settled," Moody agreed. "McKinnon- next team!"
"Uhum... right! We have the triage team, who are meant to stay here and heal any wounded Order members who return and determine whether they're fit to return to battle. So far, this team includes Lily Potter and Mary McDonald, both certified healers near the end of their training. Madam Pomfrey, the Hogwarts mediwitch. And Narcissa Malfoy- I believe you've also volunteered to help with triage."
"Then we have the primary fighters- these are the experienced and trained wizards and witches who will be engaging directly with the Death Eaters. You all will be apparated directly outside the main ballroom where events and festivities are held. The elves have confirmed this is the room being prepared for the night's gathering. Moody will lead his team of Aurors and Severus Snape, Hermione Dumbledore, and Remus Lupin have been approved by Alastor to fight with the team."
Sirius tensed beside Hermione, his eyes burning into the side of her head. But she merely stared straight ahead. He had to know this was coming eventually. There was no way Hermione would sit on the sidelines.
"The secondary fighters will be stationed at the balconies overseeing the ballroom. This team includes the Hogwarts professors, any unassigned families such as my own, and any other Ministry workers. Your task is to target Death Eaters from a distance. The professors have already been briefed- their primary objective is to prevent any Death Eaters from fleeing or escaping. But as a whole, you need to take down as many of them as you can while maintaining your own safety."
"Everyone got it?" Moody barked at them all. "Good. You can pick your own partners within your assigned teams but pick carefully because you'll be as good as glued to the person for the rest of the night!"
With Moody's dismissal, everyone moved to find their teams.
Mary made her way to Lily just as she and James shared a heartfelt goodbye. He dropped a kiss on Lily's forehead before moving to join the Aurors. Right as they proceeded to set up their cauldrons of potions and balms and create stations for triage, Snape surprised them both.
"I made a few additional cases of dittany based healing paste," Snape told them, handing them a bag heavy with cylindrical tin containers. "It's less potent but works well for minor stuff like stinging or slicing hexes."
"Be careful out there, Severus," Lily told him in concern. "And pick a partner who'll actually have your back! You'll have a huge target on your head tonight."
Snape nodded once, his eyes flickering to Mary uncertainly before going back to Lily. Mary held her breath, not daring to say anything and not knowing what she could possibly say.
"I'm sure you'll do a fine job patching me up if I don't find one. I'm not sure who'd be willing to partner with me." Snape told Lily.
"Ask Hermione!" Lily insisted.
"Perhaps," Snape acknowledged.
With one last nod of goodbye, he turned to head to Moody's team. Mary felt more and more anxious with each step he took away from them.
"Wait! Severus!" She called after him, quickly meeting him halfway across the room.
He turned to her, lifting an eyebrow curiously.
"Come back in one piece," Mary told him. She hesitated before adding, "You'll have one more friend who'll miss you if you don't."
Snape's lips tugged ever so slightly in a wry grin. His hand lifted on its own accord, hovering just above Mary's cheek. Her breath hitched as the calloused pads of his fingertips brushed across her high cheekbone. Catching himself, Snape forced his hand down, clearing his throat.
"You have my word," he murmured smoothly in his deep baritone before continuing on his path.
From the other side of the room, Gideon Prewett bid his twin good luck before he traveled to where the search and rescue team had congregated. He came upon them, hearing bits of discord between the Black sisters.
"I should be out there fighting too!" Narcissa argued. "Why are you going, Meda? I thought you were going to help with triage?
"You'd be a walking target if you go out there, Cissa," Andromeda told her youngest sister softly. "Besides, we're trusting you to watch over Dora until we return."
Narcissa gulped, holding her hand out to the young metamorphmagus as Ted reluctantly set her down.
"You'd better come back," Narcissa told her sister firmly. "I only just got you back."
"You can count on it," she assured her soundly.
Marlene, noticing Gideon approaching, stepped out of the group to meet him as the Tonkses said goodbye to their daughter.
"Are you sure you're the right person to join us?"
Gideon raised an eyebrow with a smirk. "Why? Doubting my skills to keep up with you?"
"Hardly," she rolled her eyes. "You're one of Moody's seconds in command, doesn't he need you with the primary fighters?"
"I can join him after search and rescue," Gideon shrugged. "They can hold down until then."
"You mean we can join him, right?" Marlene said pointedly.
"You will be joining the secondary fighters after the rescue- along with the rest of your team," Gideon told her.
"I'm your partner!" Marlene said furiously. "If you're fighting with the Aurors, I'll be right there beside you."
"Damn it, Marlene," Gideon groaned.
"Look, either you can accept I'll be your partner wherever you choose to fight, and we can both make sure to have each other's backs. Or I'll just sneak out there beside you, and we might both get injured while we're separated." Marlene crossed her arms stubbornly.
"You're a piece of work, you know that?" Gideon's mouth quirked in a reluctant grin.
"Thank Merlin for that," Marlene scoffed. "Otherwise, I'd just let you go off on your own, half-cocked, and ready to die."
"I'd be fine!"
"We have protocols for a reason!"
"Swot," he accused softly.
"Neanderthal," she returned with a grin.
On the opposite end of the room, the Aurors all gathered together with Moody and Dumbledore. Everyone was breaking into partners. Since the Aurors were used to working in pairs, they stuck with their typical ones- people they'd spent years fighting alongside and with whom they could duel synchronously.
Amelia Bones and Benjy Fenwick.
Edgar Bones and Caradoc Dearborn.
Elphias Dodge and Sturgis Podmore.
Kingsley Shacklebolt and Dedalus Diggle.
And more. Many of the names being thrown about were familiar to Hermione from the brief history she'd read on the First Order. But many of the names were still unknown to her.
"We have to partner together," Sirius told her firmly.
"I know," she agreed. "Our magic will be a lot stronger than normal when casting in tandem. Besides, we'll be better able to protect each other."
Sirius turned to James regretfully. "Mate, I'm so sorry-"
"No!" James insisted, shaking his head. "It's fine, I can just partner with Remus."
"What about Snape?" Hermione asked hesitantly as the silent man came to stand with them.
Sirius scoffed lightly while James hesitated. Hermione rolled her eyes. She wouldn't trust many people to stand faithfully alongside Severus Snape in battle. He was surly and not generally likable. Despite proving his loyalty and worth, very few people in the Order actually wanted anything to do with him. Not that he'd made any effort to change that.
"I guess he'll be stuck with me," Fabian's voice called out as he joined them. "Seems I was abandoned by my own twin."
Hermione met Fabian's eyes and smiled. He was one of the few she could trust to be impartial. She feared she couldn't even count on the Marauders for this particular task.
"I've seen you duel, Snape. You're not bad. I just need you to have my back, and I'll have yours." Fabian offered his hand, and Snape looked at it uncertainly for a moment before shaking it.
Snape nodded wordlessly, his confident posture and unbending gaze making all the promises he wouldn't utter aloud.
"And what about you, Alastor?" McGonagall asked loudly. "Where's your partner?"
Moody glanced up at the usually stern transfiguration professor, who watched him with a challenge in her gaze. Seems she still wasn't over their last incident during a meeting. Moody couldn't help but taunt her again.
"Aw Minnie, you know better!" Moody guffawed. "I lead the charge- I don't need a partner."
"So, you're going to break protocol?" Minerva mocked, her flaring nostrils the only sign of her reacting to the laughable nickname. "My, my, what a poor example to lead by."
Before Moody could retort, Dumbledore jumped in. "You know, Minerva, you're quite right. Perhaps you would deign to be Alastor's partner for the battle."
"WHAT?" Both Moody and Minerva snapped their heads towards their usually logical leader.
"I don't need a partner!" Moody insisted.
"Albus, surely I'll be of more use to the other professors?" McGonagall tried to reason.
"No, no," Albus refuted, his mind already made. "Alastor, Minerva is right. You need a partner. We need someone to have the back of the Head Auror. And Minerva, it might've been a while since your last real duel, but you forget I've seen you fight. I can think of no one better to work with the Head Auror. The other professors will manage fine."
Moody and McGonagall glared at each other silently as the rest of the young Aurors bit back their smiles, knowing their supervisor would flay them alive if he ever saw.
"The objective is rather simple for us," Dumbledore said, turning to the team. "You all need to keep the Death Eaters busy. And you can leave Voldemort to me."
Seemed simple enough, Hermione thought.
How bad could it be?
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- MALFOY MANOR
A total and utter disaster- that's how bad it could be.
Things started off reasonably well. The elves brought all their teams to the area just outside the ballroom while the Death Eaters were in the throes of their festivities. Having surpassed the wards with the house elves' aid, they had the element of surprise.
They took the rare opportunity to survey the room. There were over fifty death eaters in the gigantic ballroom, all robed but unmasked. In the middle of the majestic staircase leading to the balconies was a single throne-like seat. What shocked Hermione was not the gaudy facetiousness with which Voldemort conducted his gathering, but Lord Voldemort himself.
She remembered looking into the cold, dead, soulless eyes of the noseless monster right before she'd been thrown back in time. Yet this Voldemort, despite having split his soul multiple times over already, hadn't yet lost his original body. He was as tall as she remembered, but that was where the similarities stopped. His nose was existent, for one. His bald head was replaced by lush, thick waves of dark hair. His pasty underdeveloped face was replaced by an angular jawline and sharp cheekbones covered with smooth porcelain skin. This was worse than the Voldemort from her time. At least then, they could all see him for the monster he was inside. Now he hid behind a handsome costume of humanity, lulling his supporters to his side with his charisma and false promises of purifying and reclaiming society.
Moody silently instructed them to spread out. The secondary team took their positions upon the balconies under the guise of disillusionment charms. The revel's festivities were just hectic enough that even Voldemort seemed oblivious to the movement of their additional bodies.
The primary team spread out so they could make their ambush from every possible entrance to the ballroom, cutting off any path for escape.
All it took was one cue from Moody, and their world exploded into an array of bright flashes and colors.
At first, the fight seemed like an easy win. Despite their disadvantage in numbers, the wave of Aurors sweeping relentlessly through the room coupled with the aerial support of targeted attacks was able to disengage the distracted and surprised Death Eaters. Moody and McGonagall led the frontal charge, drawing the attention of the entire room. It was when everyone's heads turned that the Aurors attacked.
Hermione fought with grace and nimbleness, keeping Sirius at her back at all times. The couple complemented each other well, both synchronized in the elegant and practiced flourishes and jabs of their wands. Harry's dark holly wand bent and flexed with Hermione's magic well, allowing her to cast faster than her opponents could keep up with. She didn't notice much other than the opponents directly in her path- she couldn't risk getting distracted. If her fifth year in the Department of Mysteries had taught her anything, it was to never take your eyes off the opponent. Most of the Death Eaters were unfamiliar to her, their unmasked faces blurring into a line of unidentifiable fallen victims. It wasn't until a familiar face approached them that Hermione jerked out her trance-like casting.
"My, my, lookie here," a sharp voice mocked. "How'd you save her, cousin?"
Bellatrix stood a few paces away from Sirius and Hermione, her wild curls and sharp features painting her every bit the villainous character Hermione remembered her to be.
"It's none of your business, Bellatrix," Sirius bit out in an icy tone. Cousin or not, she'd nearly killed Hermione. There was no coming back from that in his book.
Both Order members startled as a fast-moving curse coming from behind them collided with a seemingly invisible barrier. They glanced back to see Dolohov approaching them from the other direction, his lips curling into a predatory smile.
"You can sort out your family matters, Black," Dolohov called across them to Bellatrix. "But, I want the girl."
A quick questioning glance between Sirius and Hermione told them both that neither had put up a shield against Dolohov's curse. So how had it been deflected? They refocused their attention- Hermione, with her wand trained on Dolohov and Sirius's on his cousin. But Bellatrix merely watched them in unprecedented surprise. She'd seen the protective barrier form instantaneously between the pair and Dolohov's curse. Knowing what she'd done to the girl at Sirius's side the last time she fought them, there were only so many things that could've allowed her to survive.
Bellatrix's eyes widened manically, a sliver of fear sinking into those cold orbs. "You-"
"Tandem casting," Hermione whispered to Sirius urgently.
"Stupefy on 3." He responded.
"1... 2..."
"STUPEFY!" They both exclaimed in opposite directions.
A sonic boom erupted from the pair as a wave of energy released from them. Bellatrix and Dolohov immediately dropped to the floor like dead weight- as did many of the nearby fighters surrounding them.
The entire room paused, the fireworks of stunners, hexes, and unforgivables halting as everyone glanced to the pair with nearly a dozen unconscious bodies surrounding them. Voldemort himself, who up until that point had been frowning at the scene before him as an unacceptable inconvenience, tilted his head and narrowed his eyes on the pair. The man he could easily place- aristocratic features, long jet-black hair, fighting alongside the Aurors? It could be none other than Sirius Black. Yet the witch beside him was unfamiliar. Who could she be? Who had he missed? Who could possibly be capable of magic that potent?
"This ends tonight, Tom," a calm voice drew everyone's attention. Dumbledore emerged, walking through the semi-cleared path to Voldemort, courtesy of the Aurors.
"It does," Riddle lifted an eyebrow elegantly. "By which time, I shall be victorious, and you shall be dead."
In a split second, they both pounced, identical jets of red and blue light shooting towards each other until their spells collided in the middle. The sparks coming from their epic duel spurred the temporary ceasefire out of its pause. Witches and wizards on opposite sides started attacking once again with a newly renewed vigor.
"Shit- Sirius! The Aurors," Hermione pointed to a few among the unconscious who surrounded them that were actually on their team.
"Everyone's wearing a portkey around their neck," Sirius instructed her quickly. "We just need to activate them."
They stepped through the cluster of fallen bodies, crouching to send any on their side back to headquarters until they woke up again. Hermione cursed herself internally. She had no idea their tandem casting would be so raw and intense.
Just as they'd finished extracting the last of their fallen, a sharp burst from Voldemort's wand shattered all the windows in the grand ballroom as well as the ginormous crystal chandelier, bringing glass raining down on them all. The shards quickly reconverged under Voldemort's control, surging towards Dumbledore and the Aurors like attack drones. The Aurors, still busy with their individual duels, were utterly vulnerable to the impending attack. Thanks to Dumbledore's cleverness, the glass was quickly unrefined into a fine spray of sand. Though it saved many of them, it also temporarily blinded them.
In that moment of unarmed tension, multiple things happened that had Hermione's heart dropping to the floor.
From a few paces behind them, Remus and James were caught off guard by the Lestrange brothers. Remus's wand was flying out of his hand as James was caught on the arm by a slicing hex.
A few paces ahead of them was the grand stairwell, at the bottom of which Dumbledore was still recovering after the spray of fine sand.
Time slowed down to a snail's pace.
Hermione saw Voldemort lift his wand before Dumbledore had even turned back to him, a victorious gleam in his power-hungry eyes. She heard Sirius yell his friends' names as he lunged to their aid.
Hermione's lips tugged up- wry and unamused. She'd known many of the heroic figures among them tonight would eventually forgo protocol to win them the victory they so desperately needed. Never in a million years had she counted herself among them. Hermione was the level-headed one. She was the one who usually talked Harry out of pulling unplanned and ridiculously risky stunts.
As Sirius ran for James and Remus, she knew she should follow him. He was her partner, and they were supposed to stick together. Yet even as the rational part of her mind told her to follow him, her legs were already carrying her forward, her wand raising towards the Dark Lord with the nastiest slicing curse she knew.
What should have been Voldemort's felling attack on Dumbledore turned into a surprised shield as an unanticipated spell shot at him from a different angle.
Riddle turned to the witch at the bottom of the steps in ire, drawing himself up to his full length as Dumbledore recovered.
"And who might you be?" Riddle bit out in unrestrained anger, his voice steadily booming through the ballroom. "Who the bloody hell are you to think you can defeat the great Lord Voldemort?"
All parties froze once again. Sirius, who'd just disarmed one of the Lestrange brothers and allowed James the split second he needed to stun the other one, turned back around as ice-cold fear flooded his veins. Dumbledore and Hermione stood at opposite ends of the base of the stairwell, staring up challengingly at one of the darkest wizards of their time.
Hermione felt her lips quirk into a genuinely amused grin as she summoned Harry and Dumbledore's bravery from all the times she'd seen them go up against the wizard who'd ruined so many lives. And for what?
"Oh, didn't you get the message, Tom Riddle?" She mocked shamelessly. "Naming yourself a lord doesn't actually make you one. You're still just the damaged little half-blood boy who never learned to get along with others."
Riddle's nostrils flared as his wand arm twitched. Hermione herself tensed as she noticed Nagini silently slithering down the stairs behind him.
Hermione tilted her head with snark. "And you have more than one Dumbledore to worry about tonight."
Riddle struck like a viper. His first spell careening towards Hermione, who hastily deflected it. In his rage, he easily blocked Dumbledore's intervention, his raw, pulsing energy throwing the older wizard back against the banister. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Nagini coiling up as if preparing to strike- straight towards Professor Dumbledore.
Hermione raised her wand, unregretfully casting a swift sectumsempra towards the giant serpent when a second flash blinded her from her peripheral.
The last thing she saw was the smirking face of a young Voldemort through the putrid green light enveloping her.
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A/N:
Umm... yeah, so I just did that. Yes, the green this time is the killing curse. And before you all go ballistic, remember that baby Hermione is still alive in this timeline. That's all I'll say.
Thank you all so much for your witty comments, votes, and endless patience 💛
Love you lots,
adharyn