Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

Original A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Seven

Attack

"So Sirius, how did you like being a professor," Filius Flitwick asked, "not quite as fun as being a student, ah?"

"No, not as fun," Sirius said, "but it certainly has its moments. I actually had more fun than I thought."

"I could tell," Filius smiled, "I can't tell you how many times your lesson was a point of gossip in my class."

"Brilliant," Sirius smiled. "Still, I do miss being and Auror. Though, I wouldn't trade being so close to Harry and getting rid of Umbridge for anything in the world."

"And for that, we all thank you," Pomona Sprout comment. "Oh she was such a dreadful person, even as a student she would cause all sort of problems. Very cruel to those that she didn't like …"

"That sounds about right," Sirius said smiling.

The smile faded as he heard the explosion, his heart dropped to his stomach.

"What …?"

"The children! They're attacking the children!"

It didn't surprise Sirius at all that every single one of the staff had ran just as quickly as he to get to the fight that was happening just outside of the castle. They loved all their students and to think of them being attack just outside of their school …

"Dumbledore," McGonagall said as she approached the front gates from a different direct than Sirius and the other staff members that he had been talking to.

Dumbledore was standing at the gates, several silver wisp flowing away from him before he turned to McGonagall, his eyes drifting to the others that were coming towards him and then he looked back at her. "There are at least Twenty Death Eaters outside the gate, I had extra guard at Hogsmeade station, but there are more Death Eaters preventing them from getting to the children. We must hurry."

"Remus?" Sirius asked Dumbledore, knowing that he shouldn't but he couldn't stop the question.

O

Chaos, they were in complete chaos. Harry jumped out of the carriage to find that his wasn't the only one that was destroyed; smoke covered the scene as screams filled the air. There were kids running around all over the place as the flashes of the curses and explosions surrounded them.

"Gather the other students …" Harry said to Neville, turning to see that there was several Death Eaters behind them making it impossible to get back to Hogwarts where Dumbledore and the professors were. Looking the other way, he could see more Death Eaters attacking and moving closer with every passing second. "We should try to get to the main part of Hogsmeade … the towns people might be able to help us. If not, at least it would be harder for the Death Eaters to hurt us than out here in the open. Try to get them to either Honeydukes or the Shrieking Shack," he added pointedly to Neville and the other boy nodded.

"Come on Hannah, Susan," Neville said even though they didn't get why Harry wanted them to go to those two places, he knew that Neville did.

"Be careful though, who knows how many Death Eaters are here," Harry said.

Harry looked at Ron and Hermione and they didn't need to say anything, the three of them ran together, sending curses at the few Death Eaters that were in the middle of the two fronts and causing the most chaos as they were deliberately trying to make the people panic with loud curses and explosions.

Harry's curse missed slightly, but it made the Death Eater dodged into Hermione's curse. Ron stunned the Death Eater nearest them as the trio continued running. Luckily for them, they weren't the only ones fighting as Harry was sure they wouldn't have lasted as long by themselves. Still, he knew that they were all going to be overwhelmed soon if they didn't find some kind of order.

"Hermione, write to the others in Infinite Light, telling them what I said to Neville, make sure they tell as many people from the DA the same," Harry said. "Make sure they realize that there might be Death Eaters waiting on the other side too."

"Okay," Hermione said taking out her map, as Ron and Harry covered her. It seemed several minutes later, as every second seemed to last minutes, "it's done. What now?"

"Now we have to cover their retreat," Harry said grimly.

They weren't the only one that stayed behind fighting off the Death Eaters. It seemed that half of the people from the DA where standing beside them as the other half rounded up the younger students and leading them to the town. Judging by the sounds form that direction, it wasn't a smooth path to go either and Harry was worried that he had advised them to go into a trap … only the truth was staying here would have been worse.

"Something's wrong," Ron said several minutes later as they duck behind one of the carriages for some cover.

"Well obviously, we're being attacked by Death Eaters!" Harry shouted, standing up so he could curse someone.

"Exactly," Ron said. "Why the hell are we still alive?"

"I'm glad you have such a high opinion of our fighting skills," Ernie MacMillan said, he was one of the DA members that stayed behind.

"Ron's right, they're not trying to kill us," Hermione said. "I don't understand, why would they mount an attack like this and not send Killing Curses … not once?"

"You don't think they're going to kill the people going into town?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, Harry," Hermione said. "I just don't know."

"I'm also wondering where the hell the Order members are," Ron said. "Dumbledore has to know by now … he would have sent a portion of the Order but we haven't seen them …"

"The Death Eaters have probably put up an anti – Apparating zone around here," Hermione suggested. "I don't know if we're going to be getting any help."

"They're toying with us," Angelina said, another of the people that had stayed behind. "I don't like being toyed with."

"Me neither," Harry said, "but I don't know what else we can do."

Hermione gasped and then reached into her pocket and pulled out her map. "Neville says that there are more Death Eaters stopping them from getting to the main town. He could tell others are fighting the Death Eaters but the others can't get to the town yet."

"Shite!" Harry growled. "Where the bloody hell did Voldemort get so many followers." It seemed like a lot more people than what he had expected Voldemort to have.

"What do we do now?" someone asked and Harry couldn't tell who, because he was wondering the same thing himself.

O

Remus rested his head on top of Tonks's as he held her against his chest. He looked at the clock and realized that there were only a few more hours (or half a day) before he would have to leave her, and he wasn't sure if he could.

"You know I'm going to be okay," Tonks said. "You're only going to be gone for a few hours. You're just picking up Harry from the station."

"How did you know I was thinking about that," Remus asked amused.

"That's the fifth time you checked the time in the last half hour," Tonks said. "I might be a little soar and dazed, but I still notice things."

"I never thought you wouldn't notice," Remus sighed.

"But you do think I'm some helpless damsel that needs you staying with me for twenty-four hours a day," Tonks said.

"I didn't say that," Remus said. "When have you ever heard me say something like that?"

"You declined going to the platform as an extra guard," Tonks said, "I thought for sure you would want to go so that you could be closer to Harry, quicker. And don't try to deny it; I know you've been worried about him a lot lately."

"I wasn't going to deny it," Remus said, "I probably would have gone if it …"

Before he could finish his sentence a silver phoenix flew in.

'Death Eater attack on students in route to Hogsmeade Station, need all the available help possible.'

Remus felt as if he was breaking into pieces, how could this be possible? How could they not have known that this was going to happen?

"No, no, no, no," Tonks repeated, looking at Remus with terror. He was sure that she was blaming herself for keeping him away from the platform but he couldn't bother thinking about that right now. He'll wait to feel his guilt and suffering later.

"Tonks, you need to go to the Ministry …" He started to say, and like he expected he was interrupted.

"I'm going with you," Tonks said, standing up, but he could see she was still weak from the blood loss and the fact that she had been poisoned.

"No, you're going to Scrimgeour and making sure the Aurors know what's going on," Remus said. "The others might not be able to do that. You can talk to him. Do whatever you have to get him there."

"Remus John Lupin, don't think you …" Tonks started with narrowed eyes.

"I know you're going to join the fight," Remus said. "You're going to come with the other Aurors, but you have to make sure that they get the message first."

"Hmph," Tonks said, but she wasn't about to argue, they didn't have time for it. "If you die, Remus, I will never get over it."

"Same here," Remus said to her gravely.

"Go," Tonks said pushing him, knowing that his mind was on someone else that he couldn't stand to lose.

Remus turned and ran out of the house, hearing Tonks call out 'emergency Auror office' as he did, knowing she was heading for the Ministry like he asked. As soon as he left the house he spun on the spot, thinking of Hogsmeade only to find himself force back to the doorstep he was on. He growled in frustration, knowing that they must have put up an anti-Apparated zone and that he couldn't get close to where he needed to be.

Remus tried to Apparate to the Hogsmeade station, but that didn't work either. He thought of the town … that was well away from the path that the horse carriage took the students, but that didn't work either. Then he tried the Shrieking Shack, thinking maybe his old haunt might help him once again but he found no luck. Finally he was able to disappear as he thought of the caves that were outside of the town. He sent a quick patronus to Tonks, letting her know the trouble in Apparating he had, and then started running as quickly as he could. As a man he had never travel though the mountainous cave area before, but he was running on full instinct now, and his feet seemed to know the path better than his mind did.

O

"Harry Potter," the voice rang loudly through the area and caused even more panic then there already had been. "You have fought valiantly but you must have realized by now that your effort has been in vain. We have surrounded you and all of the other students of Hogwarts, if you insist on fighting us, we will destroy you all. But there is a way for you to save them, Harry Potter. Come forth and give yourself to me, and I will spare everyone in Hogsmeade. Come forth now, or have the blood of hundreds of innocents' lives on your hands."