THE BATTLE OF HOGSMEADE
Hogsmeade
The death eaters had already carefully surveyed the place where they were to attack. They knew what they were to do. They entered the village under heavy glamour charms with the Germans at their side. It was Emmett Wagner's idea in the first place to attack the village.
This morning, he gathered what was left of the inner circle together and addressed them straightforwardly, "The way you are fighting will not win you a war. Your enemy is bold as brass and they have trounced you every time you show up. If you want to win against them then you have to make them fear you. If you want them to fear you then you have to hit them where it will hurt the most. They prize their children above all. They treasure them. I have gathered intelligence that shows today is an opportune time to strike." He started ticking off the points, "First, it is a Hogsmeade weekend, meaning that the students will be out of the castle and vulnerable. Second, there is a conflict in the east. Many of the Ministry Aurors have been called away to assist in that conflict, meaning that the usual compliment of Aurors will not be in the village. Third, this being Valentine's Day, they will likely be distracted with their celebrations."
He looked around the room to see that his reasoning was sinking in, then continued, "We will send some of our own to raise wards around the village while we attack them in numbers and kill as many as we can. Since it will take time for them to break the wards, we will cause as much mayhem as we can and then we will make ourselves scarce. We may lose a few men but we will have dealt a blow to them which will make them shudder with fright."
The members of the inner circle needed no more convincing. They immediately agreed to the plan. Lucius instantly went off to arrange for the necessary strike force. Their plan was to send in teams of 4 wizards each to the shops and keep the students hostage. They would have no qualms about killing a few of them if they so fancied. When the ministry forces did arrive, they would have a lot of trouble getting past the wards.
Three of their ward masters raised the wards then made themselves scarce. They were to hide and wait for the signal to take down the wards when it was time.
Von Pelt strolled up the high street carelessly and bumped into Cormac McLaggen. The young bravo rudely responded by saying, "Watch where you're going idiot."
Deciding that he was as good a target as any, Von Pelt whipped out his wand and fired a spell at McLaggen. He couldn't dodge it and instantly fell to the ground convulsing. McLaggen's friends ran hither and thither while he relayed orders to his men.
A few of the students who had seen what was happening had tried to attack the death eaters but they paid for it by being shot. In the span of a few minutes 5 students were down.
Hestia's Hearth
Harry leapt from his chair with his wand in his hand and asked him quickly, "What happened Mr. O'Neil?"
He said between his gasping breaths, "The death eaters have attacked Hogsmeade. One of my customers who is at the village just flooed to me and informed me about it."
Harry turned to Susan, "Sue, I am sorry that…"
She interrupted him mid-sentence, "We don't have time to waste, Harry. Our friends are in danger. We are needed there NOW."
Turning to Mr. O'Neil, he said, "Gather whatever resources you have. We are going."
With that he caught her hand and disapparated.
Hogsmeade
Daphne had just entered the Three Broomsticks when she spotted Ron and Hermione at a table in the corner where Hermione was lost in a book and Ronald looked on fondly. She made a beeline towards them and found that the book was a romance novel!
She took the book from her hand and said to her, "Really Hermione? You have your boyfriend right here and you are reading a novel?"
Hermione smiled sheepishly, "Ron gifted it to me. I couldn't resist."
Daphne snorted, "Only you Hermione!"
Daphne could see that Ron and Hermione were being kind to her and they wanted some privacy but couldn't ask her gently. She had just decided that she would leave them in peace when she felt an oppressive feeling about her and turned to the duo, "Did you feel that? The air just got heavier and stifling."
Hermione nodded, "Like someone enchanted the air to be heavier like…"
Ron completed her sentence, "Like a ward!"
Hermione frowned, "Yes, like a ward. But why would anyone raise a ward in the village?"
Her question was answered when they heard spell fire outside. Before they could go nquire, four masked figures entered the inn. On their sight, the students stiffened in their seats. The one in the lead lowered his mask revealing the face of Travers, one of the escapees featured in the newspaper when Azkaban was raided.
He and his comrades had their wands out, aimed at the students, "We have taken the village captive. Don't try anything or you will pay for your foolishness with your life."
Hermione scanned the crowd and realised that at least 10 members of the Order of the Snow Leopard were present in the crowd. Since she was sitting, her hands weren't visible and she summoned her wand to her hand from the holster while silently thanking Harry for the foresight of gifting all of them with a wand holster.
She tapped on it lightly while looking up, not at her wrist as to give her game away. The message was delivered to the intended recipients. It read, "D. E. Attack at the village. We charge on "Now."
She stood from her place, turning to the death eaters and said defiantly, "You are not welcome here. Retreat before the ministry gets here and kills you all."
The death eater turned his wand on her, "Do you not love your life?"
One of the wizards at his side said, "It's the mudblood. Kill her."
Before Travers could do anything Hermione spoke again, "Leave and you will live. If you don't then you will die NOW."
The words were the signal that the others were waiting for. With the word out of her mouth, spells flew from every direction towards the death eaters. Travers had seen the wands coming up. By instinct, he raised a shield. His comrades were not so lucky. One of them fell down with a couple of bone breakers to his ribs. Two more of them were peppered with bombarding spells or reductos.
Knowing the situation to be out of his control, Travers ran outside. He was not fool enough to try and take on 10 wizards at once who were using bone breakers with apparent ease.
Outside he ran into Wagner who was at the head of 30 death eaters while 50 more were making their way to their designated locations. Von Pelt asked him contemptuously, "What is the matter, Travers? Why are you running? Where are your companions?"
Travers wheezed, "Killed. They all died at the hands of the students."
Before Wagner could express his astonishment at the news, the door of the inn was blasted off its hinges. Ten wizards dashed out casting every offensive spell they knew at the death eaters. The death eaters took their positions and started answering.
Daphne had taken charge of a group of students. They were firing at the death eaters when they got the opportunity, dodging when they could not. She had divided them into pairs. One would cast in their turn after the other. Meanwhile, Hermione and Ron were sending messages on their wand holsters, grouping up all of their members who were present in the village to launch a counter offensive against the death eaters.
To their horror, a few students were already down on the road, not moving.
They knew they could keep the death eaters at bay for quite some time but not forever. They would need some serious help and that would soon come from Harold Peverell or Dumbledore or the Aurors.
Suddenly there was a war cry and Dawlish lead the Aurors of the Hogwarts outpost to engage the death eaters. The Aurors were better trained than the death eaters or the students. They attacked in formation, keeping enough space between each pair of them for dodging. They knew they were heavily outnumbered but they were undaunted. For each pair, the one in front kept a shield up while the one behind cast offensive spells as Moody had been training them. While they kept shields up at all times, it was plain to see that they were also dodging. The death eater spells would not have hit any of them even without the shields, but if someone got it into their head to try a wide area spell, that wasn't going to work either. Although there were only ten of them against 30, the Aurors were inflicting heavy losses on the death eaters.
With the attention of the death eaters diverted to the Aurors, The Order of the Snow leopard quickly retreated and took cover. It was better to get out of the field of fire so that the Aurors could use everything they had without worrying about hitting friendlies. That was when the death eater reserves broke cover and joined the battle. Even with ten of the death eaters down, the Aurors were still outnumbered 70 to ten. They were caught in a pincer movement that threatened to both outflank and surround them. They began to retreat down an alley to limit the death eater's arc of fire and prevent themselves from being surrounded but that limited their ability to dodge. The death eaters, seeing how things were going began to rain down on them with spell chains starting off with shield breakers. The wizards casting the shields were hard pressed to defend against the onslaught.
Of course, this meant that the death eaters had to choose between bunching up in the opening to the alley or retreating. They never even thought of retreat. Such a thing would be ludicrous with the annihilation of the Aurors imminent.
That was when The Order of the Snow Leopard responded in force. They had taken up positions on the roof-tops across the street from the opening to the alley. On Ron's signal, their wands all spoke with one voice and 10 of the death eaters in the rear took bone breakers to their heads. They went down instantly, most of them never to rise again. In the confusion that ensued, the wands fired a second volley, but the effect was greatly reduced as the German mercenaries among them raised shields. Only a few of them were struck by the second volley. In the next moment, they spread out in pairs and started firing back at the rooftops. They did a lot of property damage, but the students were no longer there.
None of the students were still there, not even the ones they had injured earlier. Daphne and her crew had acted swiftly the moment the death eaters were occupied, they conjured stretchers and whisked all the injured away to where she had set up a first aid station in the basement of Madame Puddyfoot's.
The Aurors, for the most part, looked like they had been mauled by an angry bear. Four of them were already out of action, injured, possibly dead. But they still held their place with a grim determination that would make a barnacle proud. They knew it was only a matter of seconds before reinforcements would arrive.
The death eaters were down to 60 active from their original force of 80. More than half of them were hunting students. Ron's forces were using every concealment spell they knew, looking for targets of opportunity among the death eaters who did not know that they were the hunted.
Some of the residents of the village when they saw that the students themselves were leading the resistance joined in. A few of them were shot instantly since they were not very good at defensive magic while others helped where they could. It was time to stand together and face this menace. In time help would arrive from Hogwarts or the Ministry.
Hermione's team was assisting the Aurors at their end. They were defending them more than attacking. The plan was to get the death eaters distracted enough to get the injured Aurors out of battle and send them to Daphne's team for treatment.
Ron's team kept on harassing the death eaters. When they least expected it, a spell would come from behind and take another one out. By the time they turned to meet the threat, the students were gone. They had only managed to pick off about four death eaters this way, but the intimidation factor was huge. A bit more of this and Ron would have them shooting at each other.
Ron's team would have been much more effective if they didn't have to look after the younger students. A lot of third year and fourth years who didn't know how to fight were to be escorted to safety. Only about 30 of the fighters of the Order were present in the village.
Dawlish had engaged Wagner in a duel and the Auror was taunting him as they battled. Dawlish was nimble on his feet and dodged anything that the German sent at him. Having Moody berate you every time you failed to dodge would do that to a person. He sent a castration hex at the German but Wagner rendered that useless with a shield. He was also getting frustrated with the Auror. He had kept Wagner at bay for 10 minutes now. While it promised to be an interesting duel, Wagner had to keep track of the time lest they find themselves vastly outnumbered.
As Dawlish dodged yet another spell, Wagner feinted casting to the right. As Dawlish dodged to the left, he slashed his wand up with a jerk in that direction. The spell which left his wand met the Auror with full force cutting him in various parts of the body. It was a lethal spell which cut into the Auror and he started to bleed profusely. Before Hermione or anyone else could do anything about it, a slicing hex put the Auror out of his misery.
While Daphne and her team were evacuating the wounded, the Twins led their team in securing the non-combatant students in the village and appointing defenders for them. They were to protect the students until help arrived. Daphne knew that it was possible that Harry might not have got the message yet. She only hoped that they would arrive quickly.
"Hello children, trying to be heroes?", said a grim faced death eater to the trio who were leading students to safety.
The twins flew into a rage seeing the death eater. They said to Daphne, not taking their eyes off the death-eater, "Get them to safety, Greengrass. We have a score to settle with this one."
It was obviously Dolohov who was smirking, "Children want to fight with me? You dream too big."
They said with uncharacteristic harshness, "We will see."
Daphne had wanted to stay and help them but decided that the students were her priority.
Ministry of Magic
The raid alarm was clanging away at full volume. All the Aurors present in the Ministry were scrambling to the staging area. To their surprise, the General himself came charging into that room as soon as they had started to gather. Moody was there, barking orders at them, "the death eater scum have attacked Hogsmeade. Our team at the outpost is in danger. Let's go."
Frank intervened before they could go off with that half baked order, "Alastor there must be wards around the place. How do you plan to get through them?"
That was a practical problem. The wards would have to be brought down or circumvented if they were to be able to arrive quickly. Who knew how many had already died?
Sirius came up with a solution, "my cottage is in Hogsmeade. It has a floo connection. I am ready to give the secret to everyone here. From there we can lead the attack."
Frank nodded as he turned to Alastor, "Form your teams and lead them to the floo point instantly, Alastor. We haven't got a moment to lose."
Many of the Aurors didn't need the secret since they had already been there. Within 5 minutes, Aurors were lined up and heading to the floo with Frank at the head of them.
Moody walked over to Sirius, "Black, where is your son?"
Sirius frowned, "I don't know. I guess he would be there fighting if he was in the village today. Anyway we will know soon enough."
As each Auror read the secret and went into the floo, Sirius sent a patronus to Moony at the Rosier Estate where he was with Dora who had taken leave from her duty to take care of him.
Before Frank left however, he beckoned Robards forward, "Gawain, you and Bartley Higgins are in-charge of the security of the ministry. You will remain here and see to it that we are aptly defended. We will be back soon after having put them in their places.
Rosier Estate
Dora was kissing Remus when the Dog Patronus walked in and spoke in Sirius's voice, "Hogsmeade is attacked. Rush to the village."
Dora was up in an instant. Remus's eyes flashed amber as he sprung from his bed. She glared at him, "What foolishness are you up to, Remus?"
He said agitatedly, "We are needed there, Dora. The death eaters are attacking."
She snapped, "You can't fight in your condition. You will only end up injuring yourself. Stay and I will go fight."
Remus tore away his bandages in one fluid motion, revealing that his wounds were nearly completely healed and almost shouted, "You've got to be joking. There's no way I'm going to lay about when my pup is in danger. Besides, I'm fine."
She knew there was no time to be lost in squabbles so she gave up, "Alright. Now how are we going? I suppose there will be wards around the place."
He nodded, "We'll floo to the cottage. It will be our quickest way in."
Hogwarts
Severus Snape was brewing a potion when the coin in his pocket heated up. Picking it out, he read the message, "Attack planned at Hogsmeade today. Happening Now."
He ran to the fire place, picked up a jar from the mantle, threw in a pinch of the powder and said firmly, "Headmaster's office, Hogwarts."
Dumbledore's office came into view where he was preening Fawkes' feathers and Snape shouted, "Albus, Hogsmeade is being attacked. I just received a message."
Dumbledore stood up quickly, whipping his wand, he sent two patroni while turning to the portraits of the headmaster's and Headmistresses barking orders at them.
Severus shouted, "I'll meet you at the front gates, Albus."
Albus said, "No. You will stay put. You showing up there will end your usefulness to us, Severus. We will handle this."
Severus gritted his teeth and said, "As you wish, Headmaster."
Albus whistled and Fawkes soared into the air. Albus caught hold of his tail and they disappeared to reappear at the gates.
One of the patroni had reached Neville who was in Paradise with Hannah. They were kissing at the time. The arrival of the patronus surprised them making them jump apart, "Hogsmeade is under attack. Get to the village quickly."
He turned to Hannah, "Han please for the sake of the love that I have for you, stay inside and find what order members you can. Rally them to secure the castle so that if the death eaters come calling, they will be in for an unpleasant surprise. I'm going to help others."
Leaving Hannah and without waiting for her to answer, Neville dashed across the grounds toward the main gate of the castle. About half-way, he met Blackstorm. Bowing to the beast he approached it. Blackstorm answered the bow with one of his own.
Neville caressed his sides and said, "My friend, I know you are bonded to Harry but today I have a need of you. Will you take me to the village as quickly as you can? Many lives may depend on it."
The beast nudged him as if saying, "Why are you wasting your time here? Get on and let's go."
Neville mounted the Hippogriff. Blackstorm wasted no time in taking to the air. In a few seconds they neared the gates. Then Neville remembered the war wards. He was afraid they would be killed by them but before they reached the edge, the wards shifted aside and allowed him to pass. Dumbledore had seen them approaching and willed the wards to give way to the Hippogriff. Once they passed, Dumbledore reset the wards to cover the school again then disapparated to the village.
McGonagall had received the patronus and instantly she was out of her office in her cat form running to the nearest window. She jumped down from that floor to another and then to another and arrived at the ground floor in half the time that it otherwise would have taken her.
She found some of the students rallying and moving towards the gates led by Colin Creevey. She changed back to her human form and asked him, "Mr. Creevey, what is the meaning of this?"
Colin turned to her, "Professor, the death eaters are attacking the village. We are going to fight."
She sternly said, "You will all go back inside and stay there. No one will leave the grounds unless the headmaster says so."
Colin protested, "Professor, we have to go. We have to fight."
Before McGonagall could say anymore, Hannah arrived and said sternly to Colin, "Obey her orders. You and these students under your command are to stay inside and defend the castle in case the death eaters come here. Adopt manoeuvre Thermopylae. These orders have come from Neville."
Colin dutifully turned and led the students inside the castle while telling them to deploy their numbers at the locations he wanted. This display of obedience by the students to Hannah's words left McGonagall amazed. She turned to her, "Miss Abbott, how?"
"Professor the students respect Neville and Harry and they wouldn't cross either of them. Neville told me to rally the students to the defence of the castle though it is possible that nothing will happen here. Since the orders come from Neville, they are executing it. Now if you will excuse me, I have a troop to command."
Saying that Hannah left McGonagall there and went inside the castle without waiting to answer any questions that the Professor may have. McGonagall knew what had happened at Thermopylae so she was a bit apprehensive too.
The students had already agreed upon the standard procedure in this condition. They had practiced it a great many times so that the students would know what to do. Within 10 minutes, the castle was being defended by the students and the teachers alike. McGonagall had activated some of the sentinel statues to patrol the borders and the grounds. Hagrid himself was at the double doors with his cross bow in one hand and his pink umbrella in the other. McGonagall had tried to ask if he needed anything, he shook his head and told her that by himself he could deal with as many of them as dared to come.
Hogsmeade
The members of the Order of the Phoenix started arriving at the edge of the wards where they were supposed to arrive after being informed about the attack. There was Podmore, Arthur, Bill, Charlie, Fleur and a few more members who had responded almost immediately.
At the Auror's end in the middle of the battle, 5 Aurors were down while the remaining 5 were fighting alongside the students. Hermione and Ron stood back to back, fighting together. Justin and Isobel had joined them. Hermione had taken a bludgeoning hex earlier and she was panting with exertion while Ron was bleeding from his right elbow. About 3 more students were down and it was clear that they would die if help didn't arrive soon. Ron however was still optimistic and shouted over the din, "Just a few more minutes and Harry will be here. We have to hold them for just a few more minutes."
They were in trouble but they had given a good reckoning of themselves. About another ten death eaters were already down on the ground, dead. They were having a tough time because they were also trying to save the Aurors and the students who were wounded while the death eaters had no such compunctions.
Suddenly there was a blast to one side. Someone had clashed with the wards making them shudder but they held. Wagner who was firing constantly at the students, shouted over the tumult, "Finish quickly. They will be here soon."
As he finished speaking, there was a mighty explosion and the wards went down. About a few seconds later a great shadow came upon the battle field. The shadow of a giant bird with a wingspan of twenty feet or more. The bird went into a nose dive that levelled out 5 feet off the ground. The students realised it was Blackstorm. Neville Longbottom jumped down and immediately sent a blasting hex at one of the death eaters who was levelling his wand at him. The man didn't have time to realise what had happened before his head was blown away.
Wagner scoffed, "A child! They have sent a child against us? Is that it?"
A cold voice that could cause blood to run cold growled, "He is not alone."
There was Albus Dumbledore, the victor of Bavaria with his wand in one hand, Fawkes the phoenix on his shoulder and cold fire in the abyss of his eyes. Von Pelt actually shuddered when he saw Albus Dumbledore but he was here to do a job. Without any warning, he sent a curse at Dumbledore who conjured a flock of canaries to block the spell. Dumbledore shouted, "Get the students to safety." Then he whipped his wand up and started casting.
The death eaters had closed in from all sides upon them and were coming down on them. It was clear that soon they would all be trapped. Dumbledore was waving his wand like a baton producing walls, javelins, and lances to hurl at the death eaters and was not allowing them to close the circle.
Neville turned to Ron and Hermione, "get them out of here, guys. We've got this."
They defiantly stood their ground, "No, we will fight. The rest can retreat."
Neville growled, "You're both injured already. For the sake of Merlin. Please go."
Justin and Isobel had already started herding the students away while deflecting curses that came their way. He was securing an escape for the students when he took a hit and fell to the ground. Neville became extremely angry, "Why don't you both go? Do it."
Ron could see how angry Neville was and also felt the need to escort the students to safety. He dragged Hermione by her arm while he kept deflecting whatever curses came their way.
Some of the death eaters who recognised them got on their tail. They let loose a volley of curses towards the duo, but an earthen wall that had risen out of the ground, unlike being conjured, and it dissipated the spells. The earthen wall remained there, cutting the death eaters off from the retreating students.
They all turned to see the one who had snatched their prey and blood seemed to ebb from their faces. Harold Peverell was standing there with an unusual looking wand in his hand, his face red with anger and a grey aura ensconcing him like a cloak.
Harry had arrived with Susan near the cottage where Viktor Krum was living when they disapparated from Hestia's hearth. Viktor was in there with his wand and he looked like he was ready to charge in and fight the death eaters himself.
He saw Harry and approached him, "Harry Potter, tell me vot to do. How can I help?"
Harry turned to Susan and said in his most authoritative tone, "Sue, go with Viktor and secure the village and any students that you may find. Lead them to safety. I will go and find where they are fighting and try to neutralise them while we wait for the ministry forces to arrive."
She recognised the tone for what it was. It was the order that a commander gives to his underlings. He expected to be obeyed. Auntie had taught her that orders such as there were not meant to be defied but obeyed without asking a question because a life may depend upon it. Besides this was not the moment to stop and quibble with him about it. They needed to save the students.
Susan and Viktor had gone in one direction while Harry ran towards the centre of the village where he could hear the fighting was happening. In the way, a few death eaters tried to stop him but his training from running around the lake came in handy this time. He fired off curses at them while he ran and his curses found their marks. He had killed about 3 death eaters before he arrived in the middle of the fight. Harry had felt it when the wards had exploded. He also saw Black Storm coming in with a rider aboard. He frowned at first but then seemed to recognise that his familiar carried his god-brother on his back.
He saw Justin taking a hit and falling down and also saw Ron's attempts to save the students while dragging Hermione away who looked reluctant to leave. He saw the volley of curses and did what came to his mind first. The Nagas had taught him to will the earth to obey his commands. It was a power which took a lot out of a wizard so it was not advisable to try it too often and certainly not for something massive and humongous but the occasion was desperate. He screamed in parsel tongue while he stomped his foot and the earthen wall had risen to the challenge.
The Aurors started popping out of the floo and lining up in formation. About 30 Aurors had been sent. In a minute or so, they were all crammed into the little cottage. Moody was not one to stand around and as soon as the last man came through, he barked, "Forward men. Let's show them what we're made of!"
They ran out in formation with the General at the head alongside Moody, Sirius, Amelia and Alice. They realised that they hadn't flooed within the boundary of the wards and they would have to break them down. Before they could do it however, the wards shuddered and a moment later, they were destroyed. The sound of the blast reached their ears a few seconds later.
Moody roared, "CHARGE!" and the Aurors rushed in.
Remus and Dora had arrived just after the Aurors and they joined in with them. Teams went in different directions with one being sent to secure the students while one rushed to the centre of the battle and the last one was tasked with searching the village to route out any death eaters that were hiding in the village.
Wagner had felt reasonably sure that the wards would hold for sometime. He was not sure who broke them down. Someone had blown them apart with brute strength rather than dismantling them. The boy who had made such an entry had made him shudder for a second with the power that he was oozing. Dumbledore's appearance had terrified him. The old wizard was credited to have fought the longest magical duel ever to defeat Gellert Grindelwald himself. So he and his men were nothing more than pesky insects to him.
When the earthen wall had appeared to cut off his forces from the escaping students, he had been shocked. He had heard about such magic but never seen it. The wall stayed intact despite being hit with dozens of hexes and spells. The boy-who-lived made him wet his pants not that he was going to let that show. Meyer had taught him to be fearless. He had never feared anyone but the boy's appearance and the palpable anger radiating from him would have made the devil shudder.
He had decided to engage Dumbledore in a duel. With them being in such a public place, he knew Dumbledore could not use some of the more exotic spells against him for fear that it may hit someone innocent. True to his prediction, Dumbledore was using pretty pedestrian spells for him but they were sufficient to keep his men from doing any major damage. He knew they had the superiority of numbers only until the Aurors arrive and when they do arrive, the death eaters would be severely outnumbered and outclassed.
Harry saw Wagner engaged in a duel with Dumbledore and turned on the other death eaters. He and Neville exchanged some thoughts with a look between them and they charged them. Dumbledore was trying to disable Wagner so they could take him captive and interrogate him since he could see that he was a leader of sorts.
Harry and Neville had divided territory between them. While Neville liberally used his choice spells against the death eaters, Harry started the charge with the lightning bolts which seared a few of the death eaters before they decided that they might stand a chance if they attacked him together. Harry rushed into them while casting with his hand and wand. His movements were so fast and fluid that others could not make it out but death eaters were dying left and right. One fell missing most of his face; one fell with a spike through his heart, another fell missing most of the right side of his body. A few of them even perished from the curses that Harry dodged as he tore a swath through the middle of their ranks. By the time that Harry slowed down he had killed 5 more. It was then that he heard the heart rending cry, "Harry, SUSAN IS DOWN!"
Travers realized that they needed more men. He had run off to one side and had gathered twenty to follow him when they met the Aurors. The Aurors directly started attacking them and Sirius charged Travers himself bellowing, "Travers, you will pay for Marlene today."
Travers laughed maniacally, "I will kill you the way we killed her entire family. Come at me and die."
Remus appeared by that time at Sirius's side, "He is not the only one who wants to kill you."
Travers grinned and sent a curse at Remus who lazily produced a shield against it and dissipated it. He was about to cast when Sirius caught his hand, "He's mine, Moony. I'll kill him."
Moony nodded, "Don't let him die an easy death, Sirius."
Sirius started sending a spell chain of confrigno-bombarda-reducto at Travers who was forced to raise a shield. Sirius didn't relent for about 5 minutes. When Travers got his chance, he started sending an unending chain of bone-breakers at Sirius who was swatting them aside with such fluidity that it was a piece of art to see. When he was sure that Travers had become complacent, he raised a reflecting shield which deflected Traver's bone-breaker back at him. Travers had no time to dodge and he was hit in the wand-arm with the full impact of the spell. He roared in agony dropping his wand. Seeing his chance, Sirius fired another spell chain.
This chain consisted only of two spells- first a shield breaker and the second a family spell. It was the most lethal spell in Sirius's arsenal. It was a speciality of the Blacks. It would cause numerous burn wounds on the victim's body. The wounds would start to fester instantly. The one curse wouldn't die instantly but the wounds would keep festering for a day, burning the cursed one's body from within, eating at his flesh. At last when he was beyond hope, the husk of body that remained would crumble away. This spell wasn't known at the ministry so he was safe under the 'family magic' distinction. This curse had no counter either. Being hit with it was certain death.
Travers started convulsing as Sirius stood menacing over his limp body, "I have exacted the justice of men upon you. May you be judged for your crimes when you go to the after-life." Before he left Travers helplessly writhing on the ground, he destroyed his wand with a reducto.
He found that the Aurors had started moving towards the centre of the village. Frank and Alice were fighting as a team and killing whoever they could find. Alice would defend and Frank would attack. Remus was on the other side fighting with another death eater and Sirius was sure that the other death eater would not live for more than another 5 minutes.
Moody was well, Moody. His wand was cutting through the air with such speed that Sirius found it hard to follow. He would run in to the death eaters, sending bone-breakers at one, bone crushers at another. If a spell came his way, he would flick it aside with ease as if he were taking a walk in the garden.
He was about to go find someone else when he fancied he saw Susan in the distance. He saw her jumping in front of a spell which was meant for another girl who had her back turned on her attacker. With a horrible feeling and in morbid fascination, he watched as Susan was hit with the curse and she fell down, not moving. He heard the cry, "HARRY, SUSAN IS DOWN!" He ran in that direction. He knew hell was about to be loose.
Susan had met Bill, Fleur, Charlie and Arthur as the Order of the Phoenix came in. She had unleashed Viktor on the death eaters they met in the way. She spoke to Bill, "There are students trapped in the village. Try to extract them. Search every house and every shop. Herd them together, form a perimeter around them and defend them. The ministry forces are about to arrive and they will take on the death eaters. I believe the Order of the Snow Leopard is already in there."
Arthur tried to interrupt, "Susan, you need…"
She cut him off before he could finish, "These orders have come from Lord Black, Lord Weasley. As his betrothed, I am his representative and my words are his. Follow them."
Arthur knew there was no other way for him than to follow the orders. Also saving students was important today. They had pretty soon run into Daphne who was leading about 20 students in the effort to evacuate the wounded. They were fighting off a tail of 5 death eaters. It helped that the students she was escorting to safety were third years and had learnt well under Professor Rana. They couldn't duel as well as others but they had quick reflexes and they could cast some decent shields or selvio hexia. It was a skill worthy of a third year and Vikram rejoiced in teaching it to them. So while they at times deflected hexes coming at them, Daphne had been taking death eaters down when she could. She had killed at least 2 death eaters on the way. She had left Tracy and a few others of the Gryffindor Quidditch team in Madam Puddifoot's tea shop to guard a group of students and wounded who were barricaded in there.
She was so relieved when she saw Susan that she threw herself into Susan's arms. Susan was also relieved to see her safe. Hurriedly Daphne told her everything. By this time, one of the Auror teams led by Hestia Jones had found them. Hestia had divided her team and sent two of them with Charlie, Arthur and Podmore to Madam Puddiffoot's to guard the students and the wounded. She had sent four more of those under her command with Proudfoot to search the village on one side while she led the rest of the column to the other side. She had instructed Bill, Fleur and Viktor to scout the perimeter of the village. While this was happening, Susan and Daphne had slipped away towards the centre of the village where the fighting was going on. Judging by the booms and crashes which came to their ears, the fighting was heavy.
Dolohov had opened his mouth to shout his signature spell at the twins but one of them had immediately hit him with a silencing spell while the other had conjured a flock of canaries to block the spell. The violent end that the canaries met made them agree that they should not allow the death eater to cast one more spell.
They knew their advantage was in being together. He and Fred had once coerced Bill into teaching them a spell. Bill had taught them a spell which could dissolve the entire body of a man into a puddle of unrecognizable goo within seconds. As they had decided Fred fired first followed by George and they kept at it. In between they would even send in shield breakers, reducto or bombarda at the death eater who knew the best bet for him was to keep his shield up against whatever these menaces were sending at him. This was made difficult with the fact that they were casting at him relentlessly. They were taking turns to fire so he had not even a second to do anything. His companions were already fighting the Aurors who had arrived some time during the fight. He was being peppered with curses and he tried with all his might to retaliate but the twins were flawless in the execution of their strategy. He saw another of those curses coming at him and braced himself for the impact with his shield when it exploded in his hands. The other one had sent a shield breaker at him. As the shield was gone, Dolohov tried to duck but the curse grazed his left arm. Within a second, half of his left arm was dissolving into a puddle. He used a dark cutter to slice off what remained of his arm to prevent himself from dying. In all this, he forgot the twins. Seeing that their spell had worked, they sent a rain of bone breakers at him. As he was amputating his own arm, the bone breakers hit him all over his body and broke several of his bones. The twins walked over to him and said in unison, "This is for our uncles, Fabian and Gideon."
They cast a slicing hex at his throat to finish him off then left to join the main battle. They were joined by Ron and Hermione who had come out after committing the students to the care of the Aurors. The fight was still going on at the fringes of the village but mercifully the damage was minimal. They went to find the main event when they heard the cry, "HARRY, SUSAN IS DOWN!"
Susan and Daphne were nearing where the majority of the death eaters were engaged with the Aurors and their allies when they were ambushed by four. They stood back to back and their wands spoke as one as they deflected spells and curses coming at them. Soon they were joined by Terry and Mandy who had been securing the students and now had come to the side of their friends. They had also sustained scratches and minor injuries and they looked pleased with themselves.
They each marked their opponents and started duelling with them. Their opponents were not worthy opponents and were no better than foot soldiers. While they had trained and trained and knew more than them, their having been trained by Harry, every green flash met a conjured or summoned object instead of finding its mark. Their opponents only seemed to know the Killing curse and they were using it.
Terry had conjured a flock of canaries to block the first curse from his opponent and then started sending spell chains at his opponent. He had sandwiched a shield breaker in between a bombarda and a reductor. It would have been a worthy strategy but he was still not able to flawlessly execute a spell chain so he had faltered after the shield breaker and his opponent had managed to raise a shield against the reductor. On his second attack however, he did not bother with a spell chain. He first sent a shield breaker followed immediately by a fire whip. He snared him with it and pulled. His opponent's head was rolling on the ground a moment later. He turned to find another opponent when he heard the scream, "HARRY, SUSAN IS DOWN!"
Mandy had sent a tripping hex at her opponent who hadn't expected it and he fell victim to it. He fell flat on his face. Mandy lost no time in making short work of him with a bombarda to his head. She turned around to find another and heard the same words, "HARRY, SUSAN IS DOWN!"
Daphne dodged her opponent for about a minute before she got her chance. She was not in the mood to prolong it. She conjured a javelin and banished it at her opponent who had no idea about such an application of transfiguration or charms. What he needed was a wooden shield to defend himself and not a shield charm so the javelin passed through his body and he keeled over. She heard a thud behind her and turning, she saw Susan's body falling to the ground. She didn't realise when she cried with so much pain in her voice that it would have rent others' hearts, "HARRY, SUSAN IS DOWN!"
Susan had opened with a bombarda at her opponent. That being shielded she cast a family spell which was called "Dragon-fire." Dragon fire was a spell which could burn anything to the ground and no shield except a mage shield could block it. The opponent did not realise what the spell was. It tore through his shield and hit him in the face where it started burning him. She turned to find another and saw a death eater taking aim at Daphne whose back was turned. She knew she had no chance to hit him before his spell would hit Daphne in the back. She decided in the hundredth part of a second about what she had to do. As the spell left the death eater's wand, she forgot all the training Harry, Moody and Neville had drummed into her and jumped, using her own body to block the curse. It hit her in the chest and her limp body fell to the ground. The last words that she heard before losing consciousness were, "HARRY, SUSAN IS DOWN!"
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