All was silent for several seconds as the two opposing forces eyed each other, forty or so metres of ground separating them. Harry tried to pull Hermione protectively behind him, out of the immediate line of sight of the Death Eaters, but she resisted, refusing to budge, remaining steadfastly at Harry's side.

The fireplaces whooshed again, and the sound seemed to break the lead Death Eater of the group out of his trance. He raised his wand, but Harry was ready. The Death Eater was not fast enough to win the duel that he had unknowingly just initiated.

'Sectumsempra!' Harry shouted, snapping his wand down in a diagonal line across his neck and upper torso. The Death Eater screamed in pain. A second later, he fell forward, his head hanging onto his neck by just a strip of flesh and skin.

The first blood jolted both the Ministry's forces and the rest of the Death Eaters into action. The Aurors and Hit-Wizards leapt into the centre of the Atrium and began attacking the Death Eaters with a shower of spells. The first group was ill-prepared for the concerted attack and was mowed down by the veritable wall of curses coming their way.

Harry pulled Hermione out of the way of the Aurors and Hit-Wizards. He would let them do battle, as Amelia had insisted that he do. He and Hermione shot a few Killing and Blasting Curses over the Ministry forces' heads at random, aiming in the general direction of the Floo grates. The sound of battle was too loud for Harry to hear if their spells had found their marks.

Harry and Hermione continued firing spells over the Ministry Forces' shoulders. The Death Eaters were constrained by the bottleneck that was the toilet-Floos. They could only send reinforcements in intervals of three to five seconds each, and only ten wizards at a time to boot. The Ministry had the superiority of both numbers and skill over these low-level Death Eaters. The Aurors and Hit-Wizards were having next to no trouble cutting down Voldemort's forces. The bodies of dead or otherwise incapacitated Death Eaters were beginning to pile up at the exits to the Floo grates.

But Harry could not see nor hear any trace of Voldemort. Even as the fourth or fifth wave of Death Eaters fell, Voldemort had yet to make an appearance.

'He's using them to soften us up,' Hermione noted in a whisper. 'Make the Aurors and Hit-Wizards tired before jumping in himself. Stop casting powerful curses.'

Harry nodded. It was the exact thing that he would expect Voldemort to do. Instead of Unforgivables or powerful dark curses, Harry instead switched to Stunning Spells and minor hexes and jinxes. They were nearly effortless to cast on his part, and they would do the job in dealing with the relatively weak Death Eaters that were streaming in.

Suddenly, there was a flash of blinding light that took Harry's vision for several seconds, followed by a loud blast and several screams. The moment Harry came to his senses once more, he jerked his head in the direction of the sound. An Auror and three Hit-Wizards were lying on the ground, either dead or wounded – Harry could not tell. In front of where they lay, the tiles of the floor were shattered or destroyed, and there was a small crater in its place.

Hermione grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him towards where the curse had hit. They looked out in the direction of the Floo grates. The bodies of the previously killed Death Eaters were thrown away from the exits. Death Eaters were now streaming out of the grates, taking advantage of the temporarily stunned Ministry forces. In the midst stood a tall, dark grey figure. Voldemort held his wand high in the air, raining green jets of light down upon the Aurors and Hit-Wizards over the heads and shoulders of his followers.

Several of Voldemort's curses hit their marks, and those who were caught in the way fell dead. Harry pointed his wand at the Death Eaters standing in front of Voldemort and pushed as much of his magic as he could into a Blasting Curse. Three Death Eaters were shredded on the spot, while two others fell to the floor, stunned by the explosion and hit by flying limbs. The Death Eaters closed ranks around the fallen, reforming the human shield in front of their master, not bothering to help or even check on their wounded.

He and Hermione cast together, hurling Blasting Curses at the Death Eaters' ranks or aiming at the floor in front of their feet. Harry lost count of how many times he and Hermione pulled each other out of the way of curses flying straight at them. It was all too horribly natural to them.

Aurors and Hit-Wizards were falling around them. Despite being weakened, Voldemort was still devastatingly effective at creating gaps in the lines. They were being replenished by a mixture of Aurors and Hit-Wizards being held as reinforcements in the wing corridors, or by Unspeakables arriving out of the lifts. Harry could not recognize anyone through the utter chaos, and he could only hope that everyone that he cared for – and everyone else – were safe.

But despite their best efforts, the Ministry lines were shortening, and its fighters were being forced to slowly retreat out of the Atrium and into the side corridors. Death Eaters were still arriving, judging by the flashes of green fire coming from behind the mass of Voldemort's army. For every Death Eater that fell, there would be two, at least, that arrived to take their place.

'How bloody many – Confringo! – how bloody many does he have?' Hermione shrieked.

'I don't know!' Harry shouted. He cast another Blasting Curse in front of the Death Eater lines that peppered two of them with cutting shrapnel. 'More than we thought!'

'Fall back!' came Kingsley's voice, magically amplified. Harry could see a sneering grin come across Voldemort's face. 'Retreat into the side corridors!'

The mass of Aurors, Hit-Wizards, and Unspeakables began slowly retreating under Kingsley's orders, continually firing spells as they went. More Death Eaters went down, but the Ministry was taking casualties, too, judging by the various bodies that lay on the Atrium floor, exposed by the retreat.

'Come on, Harry!' Hermione yelled, grabbing Harry's left hand and pulling him back. 'We can't loiter!'

Harry grudgingly followed her lead, continuing to attack the slowly advancing Death Eaters. He could see clearly now that they, for the most part, were not the cream of the wizarding crop. Their Shield Charms were so flimsy that Harry's Blasting Curses smashed right through them. Because of their proximity, each hit guaranteed that at least two enemies fell.

But, just like in the Third War in the future, they made up for their utter lack of skill and magical prowess with their numbers and brutality. Harry and Hermione were off to one side of the Atrium, away from the main focus of attention, but they could see a tidal wave of dangerous curses fly towards the centre of the Ministry lines, and an equally aggressive wave being flung right back.

Hermione dragged Harry into one of the side corridors. They were cut off by the advancing Death Eaters and unable to join the main fight. With them were around ten Aurors and ten Hit-Wizards, along with three Unspeakables. Harry saw no sight of Sirius, of his friends, of Remus or Tonks, or of Kingsley or Amelia.

'Sectumsempra!' Harry bellowed, waving his wand in a wide arc. The first row of advancing Death Eaters collapsed, a bloody, ghastly gash opening in their abdomens. 'We've got to break through!'

Hermione nodded briefly before casting a Sectumsempra of her own, mortally wounding three more Death Eaters. The tighter corridor made it easier to concentrate the deadly curse on smaller groups of enemies.

'I'm trying!' Hermione shouted back. 'We've got to clear them out first, though!'

The Aurors, Hit-Wizards, and Unspeakables advanced, taking advantage of Harry and Hermione's blows to close the distance with the attackers and push them back. Several of them were hit by curses as they moved and went down, but they still managed to form a defensive line. Once more, Harry and Hermione were caught behind them. Harry pulled Hermione into a small alcove as the Ministry forces ducked behind several conjured cinder-block walls for cover. He and Hermione once more shot curses over their heads and shoulders at the advancing Death Eaters in fire support.

The Death Eaters repeatedly shattered the Ministry forces' conjured cover with their spells, but they were always replenished before any damage was done. Besides the witches and wizards that were lost as they moved to establish a defensive line, only two additional Hit-Wizards had been killed as the Death Eaters advanced.

Yet they kept coming, even as they were being mowed down, two or three at a time. Harry had no idea where Voldemort managed to find so many followers, but he had no time to contemplate. He was too busy fighting the onslaught to care.

'I wish we had a machine gun!' Hermione shouted, partly in jest and partly in desperation as she cut down another line of Death Eaters with a Blasting Curse.

'Or a few grenades!' Harry yelled back, peeking out of his cover and casting a Sectumsempra curse which cut off three wizards' legs.

They continued fighting for what must have been only a few minutes in real time, but felt to Harry like hours. Eight more Aurors, Hit-Wizards, or Unspeakables had been killed, leaving only six still fighting. The corridor in front of them, however, was covered by a layer of dark-robed bodies. Blood was running freely on the tiled floor. Harry had seen too much death and blood in his life, but he could not help but feel his bile coming up to his throat at the sight.

'Attack!' the last remaining Unspeakable shouted to his comrades. 'They're thinning! Attack!'

The other five remaining, along with Harry and Hermione, attacked with all they had. Harry cast almost automatically, Blasting Curse followed by Sectumsempra, followed sometimes by a Killing Curse or one of the 'Terror Curses'. The petrol curse was particularly effective. With the minimal distance that separated each individual Death Eater, one of them being set on fire generally meant that his or her fellows standing closest to them would also face the same fate.

True to the Unspeakable's word, the Death Eater lines were indeed thinning. To make their predicament worse, the Death Eaters now streaming into the corridor now had to carefully wade their way through the bodies of their dead or dying comrades. More than once, a Death Eater tripped on a body and, now defenceless, met the same fate as the witch or wizard whose body they had tripped over on the floor.

The Unspeakable stood up, his wand in the air. 'Forward!' he bellowed. At that exact moment, he was hit in the head by a Killing Curse, and fell to the floor, dead.

The two remaining Aurors and one Hit-Wizard roared in rage and stood, casting aggressively at the advancing Death Eaters. Harry and Hermione fired curses at the advancing attackers through the wide gaps between them.

'Come on!' Hermione shrieked. 'Let's go up to them! We'll be more effective there than – '

There was a massive explosion. Harry instinctively pulled Hermione to the ground as a shockwave passed. The roar of the wave deafened Harry for several seconds and caused his ears to ring for several more.

When Harry came to his senses, the conjured cover behind which the Aurors, Hit-Wizards, and Unspeakables had been hiding had completely destroyed. So had the three final survivors themselves. Harry's eyes tracked up the corridor. There were no Death Eaters left, either, only parts of charred bodies left on the ground.

Then, a figure turned the corner into the mouth of the corridor. The grey-skinned, dull-red-eyed figure saw Harry, cackled, and raised his wand.


'Neville, damn it, fall back!' Daphne shouted. 'You're going to get yourself killed!'

Neville frankly did not care what would happen to him. All he wanted was to kill more Death Eaters, to keep filling up the chalice of vengeance for his parents. The chalice was probably already filled with blood, he thought, but he wanted more. Every one of these robed animals had the potential to be another Bellatrix Lestrange – hell, they already were just another Bellatrix Lestrange. Neville wanted them dead before anyone else could be touched by their barbarity.

Two sets of arms grabbed Neville by the arms. He turned his head to see Daphne and Ginny. Both girls had a death grip on him, and was dragging him back – against his will – into one of the corridors.

'Let me go!' Neville spat. 'Let me kill them!'

Ginny glared at him. 'You're won't be able to kill any of them if you're dead!'

Neville continued to struggle, but the two girls combined were stronger than him. All he could do was point his wand at the advancing Death Eaters and continue casting curses to cover their retreat.

He turned his head off to his left. Through a gap in the Death Eaters, he thought he saw a mane of brown hair flying wildly. Hermione.

'Harry and Hermione are over there!' Neville shouted. 'We need to get to them!'

'When we fight through this mob of Death Eaters, we will!' Daphne yelled back. 'Come. On!'

Neville grudgingly allowed himself to be dragged back by the girls into the corridor. The Aurors, Hit-Wizards, and Unspeakables were already setting up their defence. An elaborate fortification of conjured walls, complete with a makeshift rampart, was being constructed. A man pulled Neville and the girls behind an opening in the walls. Neville looked up and recognized the man as Professor Lupin.

'Get back, you three!' Professor Lupin ordered. 'Don't come any closer!'

Neville stared daggers at his former teacher. He was not going to stand back and let the others do the fighting. They did not understand. Neville had a personal vendetta against the Death Eaters that ran far beyond Light against Dark, Good against Evil.

'I'm more than capable, Professor,' Neville replied angrily. 'I'm not as good as Harry or Hermione, but I can take care of myself and fight back. Would you order them back?'

Lupin looked taken aback and he looked like he wanted to argue the point, but a second later, a Killing Curse flew over the ramparts and struck one of the Hit-Wizards standing next to him. Lupin's protestations were lost as he was forced to turn back to the fight.

Neville mounted the ramparts, and the girls stepped up next to him. Neville opened his mouth to protest, but Daphne and Ginny both shot him an incredulous glare, and he shirked away. As much as he hated it, it would be incredibly hypocritical of him to ask that they step aside, when he had just defied Lupin's orders to do the same.

Ahead of him, a mob of Death Eaters was moving into the mouth of the corridor. From his angle looking slightly downwards, Neville saw just how unruly they were. The 'troops' were barely disciplined, and they were fighting with each other to get to the front.

Not that they needed to fight. Aurors, Hit-Wizards, and Unspeakables were firing spells down at the Death Eaters like shooting fish in a barrel. Death Eaters began falling in droves to the point that the dead bodies were stacked high enough they could be used for cover. But they continued advancing, their sheer numbers negating the disadvantage they had in positioning and magical skill. Slowly – and taking horrific losses – the Death Eaters began pushing forward, firing spells at the defenders, occasionally damaging or destroying one of the conjured walls or hitting a defender.

A Hit-Wizard off to Neville's left was hit in the face with a spell that Neville did not know. He fell backwards off the parapet, clutching at his face. He roared in pain as smoke began to rise through his balaclava. His face was quite literally being burned off.

Neville turned back to the battle with hatred in his heart. He levelled his wand at the advancing Death Eaters. 'Oleoarde!' he shouted, aiming right at the centre of the group.

A Death Eater in the middle of the pack caught fire, and due to their proximity, the ones standing directly adjacent to him also erupted in flames. Then, the ones next to them caught fire, and soon enough, a good half of the Death Eaters currently trying to make their way through the corridor were burning to death, their shrieks of pain cutting through the air like a red-hot blade. Their fellows backed off temporarily, seeing the fate of their fellows and fearing for their lives.

'Cowards!' a voice strangely familiar to Neville shouted. 'Avada Kedavra! You're failing the Dark Lord with your cowardice! Avada Kedavra! Scared of filthy Mudbloods and blood-traitors? Avada Kedavra! Forward!'

At Draco No-Name's urging, the Death Eaters began their attack once more. They surged into the corridor with a roar, stepping over the still-smouldering corpses of their once-comrades. The Ministry's forces counterattacked, but whether it was due to their fear of Draco No-Name or their devotion to their master, the Death Eaters' renewed attack was stronger than their last. They were still taking massive casualties, but nonetheless, perhaps thanks to pure fanaticism or to the pressing weight of their numbers, they were quickly gaining ground on the defenders.

Several more Aurors, Hit-Wizards, and Unspeakables fell around Neville. The Death Eaters were less than five metres away now…four…three…

'Back!' Madam Bones's voice barked. 'Back to the second line!'

Witches and Wizards began stepping off the parapet and fired Reductor Curses at the conjured blocks, turning them into a fine dust, obscuring their retreat while firing spells through the cloud. Neville turned his head for a second and saw that a second line of defence was already being constructed.

Neville had almost made it to the second line when there was a high-pitched shriek. A small body flew through the air. Neville would recognize the dirty-blond hair from anywhere.

'Luna!'

Neville rushed towards Luna. Through the dust cloud, Susan appeared. Neville breathed a sigh of relief at seeing her mostly unscathed. The same, though, could not be said for Luna. She was unconscious, and her right arm was twisted at awkward angles. Neville did not need to be a Healer to know that she had suffered breakages in multiple spots. He put two fingers to the base of her neck and felt for a pulse. He let out a breath that he did not know he had been holding when he felt Luna's heartbeat.

'She's alive. Susan, help me!'

Susan did not need to be told twice. She lifted Luna by the feet while Neville carefully looped his arms under her armpits. The two of them carried the unconscious girl through behind the second defensive wall.

'Healer!' Neville shouted. A few seconds later, a lime-green robed witch came up to Neville.

'Alive?' she demanded. Neville nodded.

'Injuries?'

'Broken bones,' Neville replied.

'Lay her down over here,' the Healer ordered curtly, waving her wand a few times over Luna. 'It's not severe. We'll treat her when we get to her. She'll be okay.'

Neville nodded again and set Luna down gently where the Healer pointed. He mumbled a thanks to the Healer and returned to the second line of ramparts. He and Susan squeezed in between Ginny and Daphne. Neville looked over the parapet. The Death Eaters had passed where the first line had been, and now were advancing on the second.

The Ministry's wizards and witches continued cutting them down as they came. Voldemort's numbers were dwindling, but so were the Ministry's. Behind him, Neville saw the bodies of wounded or dead Aurors, Hit-Wizards, and Unspeakables, as well as Healers, distinguished by their lime-green robes, working as hard as they could to help the wounded.

Neville looked down at the floor in front of the stone wall. There were rivers of blood, probably from both the Death Eaters and Ministry wizards, running in all directions, pooling in shallow craters that explosive curses must have created. It almost looked like a morbid world map, with its crisscrossing and joining rivers of red flowing into horrifying oceans.

There was a scream to Neville's right. He thought for a terrified moment that Daphne had been hit. It was not her, but that did not make the sight any less ghastly. Two witches had been hit by some kind of curse. Their bodies were falling backwards, but their severed heads flew through the air in an arc before hitting the ground with a horrible cracking sound.

Neville turned back to the Death Eaters. He would make them pay for these two deaths, along with every other that they had caused or planned to cause. 'Sectumsempra!' he shouted, wildly slashing his wand. Thanks to his slightly elevated position, his spell hit two rows of Death Eaters at once. They fell to the ground, screaming with pain caused by various injuries. Neville could see an amputated hand, a decapitation, several bodies slashed open height wise… It was truly ghastly, but Neville could have nightmares later. He needed to finish this war first.

The Death Eaters responded to the deaths of the fellows with even more aggression. Curses were coming so fast that the Aurors and Unspeakables had barely re-conjured destroyed walls before they were destroyed again. Several more unlucky witches and wizards were hit by an array of horrifying curses, and their screams combined with those of the Death Eaters into some kind of morbid, deathly symphony.

Up ahead, he could see the torrent of Death Eaters entering the corridor had slowly turned into a trickle. Voldemort's forces were being destroyed. Neville shuddered to think of the cost. Now was not the time, he reminded himself.

A soft 'oof' sound from the left. Neville turned just in time to see Ginny, clutching at her chest and stomach. He abandoned the fight and rushed to her.

'What happened?' he demanded, panicking.

'Purple…spell…' Ginny struggled to reply. 'Slash…Hermione…that…'

Neville's mouth dropped open in horror. From what Hermione and Harry had told him, the spell could do serious damage to a person's organs. He had seen how powerful the spell was in Hogsmeade. Even though he had shielded Daphne from it, the curse had still knocked the wind out of her, and Madam Pomfrey had noted minor damage to her lungs from the remnants of the curse.

But Ginny was still alive and conscious. Neville thanked his lucky stars that whoever had cast the curse must have been inexperienced with using it.

'Healer!' he shouted for the second time that day. A lime-green robed wizard rushed up to him. Neville pointed at Ginny. 'It was a purple curse. I don't know the name of it. It can do massive damage to internal organs. Help her, please!'

The Healer nodded and waved his wand several times over Ginny. 'She's bad, that's for sure,' he said grimly. 'Set her down over here. We should be able to save her.'

Neville laid Ginny down gently on her back and only turned away when the Healer began working over her. He re-joined Daphne and Susan on the parapet.

'How is she?' Daphne asked in a whisper.

'Healer says she'll make it,' Neville answered concisely. The girls seemed to be satisfied with the answer.

Neville turned back to the onslaught. There were not many Death Eaters left now. It seemed like during the short time that he had been away, the fighters had managed to route the attack. Now, the last few remaining Death Eaters were fighting a fruitless battle against the Ministry's forces. One by one, they were put down.

'Fiendfyre!' came a sudden shout from around the corner. Neville recognized the voice as belonging to Draco No-Name. He had barely had time to be horrified before a wave of heat washed over him, and a great dragon, made completely of flame, flew into the corridor.

'Stay back!' Minister Shacklebolt shouted. 'Everyone, stay back! Let the Aurors and Unspeakables handle this!'

Five or six Aurors and an equal number of Unspeakables vaulted over the ramparts, wands in the air. Neville saw the Minister, Madam Bones, Sirius Black, and Professor Lupin among them. They shouted incantations that Neville did not know, waving their wands in complex patterns. It seemed for a moment that they were only angering the fiery beast, however.

Suddenly, the dragon dove. To Neville's horror, the dragon dove directly at a group containing Professor Lupin, three Aurors, and two Unspeakables. Professor Lupin managed to pull an Auror and an Unspeakable out of the way of the fire as the flaming beast attacked. To his left, Daphne gave a horrified gasp and clutched his arm so tightly that it hurt.

The two Aurors and Unspeakable left were not so lucky, however. The flaming beast opened its maw. The three wizards tried to get away, but they were not fast enough. Despite the others' best attempts, the Fiendfyre engulfed them. Terrible screams of agony rent the air as the three were burned to a crisp.

Neville saw that Professor Lupin was also hurt, but thankfully alive. He was batting at his left sleeve, which had caught on fire. Neville winced. That must be agony. Lupin conjured a jet of water, which extinguished the flames, but Neville could see that the skin on his entire left forearms was either angry red or burnt black.

The Fiendfyre's attack had distracted it, however. Even with three wizards and Professor Lupin out of action, there were still more than enough wizards and witches left to dispel the cursed fire. Madam Bones and Sirius Black slashed their wands several times, and the flaming beast roared. Its wings broke off and evaporated in a ball of flame. Next went its body, and finally, the entire creature disappeared, dying in an immense fireball.

Sirius Black and one of the surviving Aurors helped Professor Lupin back behind the parapet, while Minister Shacklebolt, Madam Bones, and the other survivors covered them. All looked calm. The battle appeared to be over.

And then Draco No-Name appeared around the corner, bookended by two other Death Eaters. He levelled the wand at a retreating Unspeakable who had his back turned.

Neville could not stand by and do nothing while No-Name cursed a man in the back. He leapt over the defensive wall and raised his wand, pointing it at the Death Eater.


A/N: The Death Eaters' (and Ministry forces', for that matter) tactics both are rather laughable from a modern perspective, with their tactics being reminiscent of the Napoleonic Wars or perhaps the American Civil War. Remember, however, that the wizarding world is stuck in the middle ages, so they would have no concept of 'modern' manoeuvre and squad-based warfare. Especially the Death Eaters, since they would think that there is nothing to be learned from muggles. Plus, judging by canon, this was how battles were mostly fought, so I don't think their, to be frank, stupidity, is unrealistic.