Band of Brothers

Chapter Eight - To End it All

Tom was thinking fast. They were outnumbered ten to one and their chances of making out of this predicament intact were quite remote. There were at least twenty Death Eaters surrounding them with their wands drawn out for attack. If they tried to defend themselves they will be killed or taken prisoner but of they surrendered, they'll still be prisoners. Yep, they had no chance of getting pass the Death Eaters.

'Now… I will let you decide again. Join us and live or fight to the death?' he said again.

Harry looked at his friends. He didn't want any of his friends to get hurt or die but he didn't want them to get their memories modified and know him as an enemy. He weighing his chances until he finally came to answer.

'We're not surrendering and we're not going to join you!'

'Well that works…' Tom said full of sarcasm and muttered, 'Yeah we're all gonna die…'

Harry ignored Tom's remark and held his wand high and ready. Soon someone was going to cast a spell at them or the other way around and a fight will breakout. Like Tom, Harry knew that the only way out was to fight.

'But before we get started,' the Death Eater spoke, 'why doesn't our friend Tom here show himself?'

Everyone looked uneasy at Tom, Michelle asked, 'What's he talking about?'

'Nothing,' Tom replied quickly.

'Nothing?' the Death Eater said astonished, 'what not lift up that sleeve of yours?'

Any minute now Tom would have to reveal himself. If he could somehow draw the conversation away from himself then he'll save himself a lot of trouble, a lot of trouble.

'C'mon Tom, be a sport and – oh screw this, Imperio!' shouted the Death Eater.

Suddenly Tom's mind full of upcoming actions was wiped clean. His mind was blank and didn't seem to have a care in the world. Not even the presence of Voldemort could distract him from this. If truth be told, this was his first time placed under the Imperius curse but he didn't care… it was wonderful! But soon enough there was a distant voice calling to him. Pull up your sleeve… pull up your sleeve… Tom was about to do just that but wondered why?

'Er... why do I?'

'Because you're supposed to! Now do it!'

'Pull up my sleeves? What will that accomplish?'

'Do not argue boy! Do it!'

Had his mind been stronger he would not have given in but too late. Without thinking he was soon pulling up his right sleeve. Nothing. But then his hand moved to his left sleeve, it stopped. Although he was under the Imperius curse he knew somehow to resist it. His arm began to move to the sleeve but stopped when his other hand grabbed and pulled it away.

'Uh… Michelle there's something I need to tell you… not just you everyone…' Tom started hesitantly. It was now or never and he'd prefer now. 'You know how I love being the secret agent and all…'

'Yeah?'

'Well uh… I did secret agent stuff alright and you'll probably hate me and all…' he paused a little. 'Thing is, and this is no shit, I'm uh… DE.'

'You're a what?' said everyone in unison. Tom could see the Death Eaters were looking pleased. He was going to cough it up; he was going to face the music.

'I'masecretagentworkingagainsttheDeathEatersbuttodosoIhadtobecomeone,' he said all that in one breath. No one seemed to have understand so he said it slowly. 'I'm a secret agent working against the Death Eaters but to do so I had to become one.' There was silence all over.

Harry looked shocked then suddenly went all red with anger. 'You mean you've been targeting against us!' he shouted.

'WHAT?' shouted Hermione, Ron and Michelle together.

'It's not what you think - ' started Tom.

'Bull shit! You - you were a - Death - Death Eater?' stuttered Michelle.

'Well it looks like there's no need for fighting now is there?' said an amused Death Eater. 'So… join us or die. You know I'm getting tired of saying that over, I mean… jeez this is getting stupid.'

Suddenly everyone had their wands on each other… mostly at Tom. He was now against, not only his the Death Eaters but his friends as well. He wanted to get out of this situation but 'getting away' wasn't an option at the moment. Right now he was faced with his girlfriend which, it was safe to assume, just dumped him and Harry, the one he tried to protect, well… It looked like the end for Tom.

'ARGH!' yelped a Death Eater in pain.

Suddenly all of the Gryffindor and Slytherin students that were left behind jumped out of nowhere to rescue them. The air was filled with spells being cast in all direction and Tom was rooted on his position confused. What would he do? He was firing spells against the Death Eaters but what about his friends? What would he do about them? He didn't want to hurt them in any way and didn't even feel like defending against them. He just wanted to stay away… fade in to the darkness… course that wasn't an option. His first action was to run over to Michelle and see if he could gain her trust during the hell happenings right now.

'Michelle?' he asked the girl.

'What?' she said rather fiercely. 'Get away from me you bastard!'

'Wait listen! Listen to me!' he shouted grabbing both her arms.

'Fine… make it quick before I hex you!'

'You've got to listen. I'm working undercover for the MBI, Magical Bureau of Investigations. The word is that we've heard that someone knows how to get into Hogwarts using dark magic and we want him behind bars. Of course this if for the Aurors here but I couldn't help tagging along. We've got operators already in working with the Death Eaters and I happened to be one of them. Please… I'm telling the truth.'

She was silent for a minute. Michelle didn't say anything or move at all. She didn't even react to the fighting going around her, which was escalating by the minute. Finally she said: 'OK I believe you… let's try to look for some cover.'

With that they took off into the firefight looking for a place to take cover.

*

Harry was firing stunning spells to every Death Eater. Suddenly, as it appears, dozens of other Death Eaters appeared out of thin air. They were now heavily outnumbered and Harry knew that the good guys would crumple soon. Draco Malfoy, to his amazement, was battling against the Death Eaters and ran to his side.

'Surprise to see me Potter?' he said with a smirk.

'Not so much as me to see you last batch of Slytherins,' Harry replied with a smirk of his own. 'C'mon, let's finish these bastards off.'

As the fight grew louder Harry realised something. How did the Death Eaters appear? Like Tom said the whole area was covered with Muggle repellant, apparition repellant, the works. They must have used a Portkey to arrive. Just then Tom ran over to Harry.

'Look, I want you to get to the Portkey! It's that book over there! I want everyone to grab it and go! It won't take you directly to Voldemort's place so don't worry… trust me.'

'Why should I?'

'Because you have to! There's no other choice! You either stay here and get killed along with me or you leave this joint and find a safe place!'

Tom was right. If Harry stayed he would sure be killed but if he took the Portkey there would be a chance the he and the whole group of Slytherins and Gryffindors will make it back to a safer place. 'Fine! You make some sort of distraction and I'll get everyone to hold onto me and the Portkey.'

'Good! Just to let you know that Michelle and I are going to stay behind and cause the distraction and we won't hold out long. This means you better haul ass!'

With that said Tom ran back into the fight. From bad to worse it went to hell.

*

'We're going to cause a distraction and let them make their getaway alright?' Tom said.

'Cool but what about us?' Michelle asked.

Tom was looking grim. He didn't want to say it but knew the idea was there. 'We're going to stay behind and… well let's hope God has mercy on our souls.'

With that they went back to fending off the increase amount of Death Eaters. Tom kept stunning one after another. He knew that they had to find up with a way to drag the Death Eaters that were crowding around the Portkey away from it in order for Harry and the others to escape. He tapped on Michelle's should to signal her to go deeper into the woods to draw the fighting away, he would follow after.

She ran to three trees away and began to attack the Death Eaters. Like planned they began to move away, one by one, to Michelle's location. Tom ran over to her and began to fire back at the Death Eaters. He was going through a moment of remembrance. He knew that this was it, this was the final battle to end it all. He might not win the battle but in the end he would win the war… he just knew it.

'You know… Michelle. If anything, you… if something goes wrong… just want to say, you know…'

'That you love me?' she interrupted. Tom nodded. 'Don't worry. We're going to make it back… I just know it.'

'I hope you're right about that.'

*

Harry saw that the Death Eaters were slowly fading away into the forest and there - there over by the nearest tree was the Portkey but where was Mr Felsh and Guy? Harry ran over to Ron and asked him the same question. He too didn't know where they were and could only assume one thing: they were dead or somewhere else. To their luck, it happened that there was a Death Eater that wasn't stunned and also wandless.

Harry ran over to him and put a binding charm on him so he wouldn't be able to move. Fierce he asked, 'Where's the guys you kidnap?'

'Wha-?'

'Where's Felsh and Guy?' shouted Ron.

'They're dead! Ha! I killed him in fact, one swift blow. You know he was grateful - ' but that was all that came out of his mouth. Harry, disgusted, stunned him and ran over to the Portkey to secure it.

'There's no use now. Tell everyone to get over here now!' Ron went off and began to inform everyone about the plan. The Portkey wasn't big enough for all of them so they would have to hold on to each other and hope that they would also be transported as well.

*

Now that the battle was with them it became impossible. Hope seemed to have fade away and the only thing around was the hope to survive, not getting out. Tom dropped the stunning spells and began to use curses instead. He shot a spell that acted like a bullet and saw it blow through a Death Eater's heart. He took down three others at the same place.

'I understand if you want to leave Michelle. If that's the case I'll cover for you.'

'No thanks. I'll stay here with you.'

'Thanks… Let's hide in that ditch of broken down trees. We've got cover on all sides so we should be OK.'

*

Harry grew increasingly worried about the fighting around him. If Tom was supposed to keep them away he wasn't doing a good job at it. Right now he had fighting going all around him and it was escalating every minute and this time they were the Killing curse.

Ron appeared by his side with everyone huddled up against the Portkey. Suddenly, without warning, Seamus went down dead.

'Right now we have Neville who's out cold, Parvati needs help and Seamus is dead - wait, add Dean to that list.'

'Is everyone here?' They all nodded. 'Good. Grab onto the Portkey! If not hold onto someone who is!'

They did just that and when the time came they were sucked out of nowhere and to somewhere else. For them the horrible fighting was over. But for two others they were in the midst of it.

*

Tom was huddled up against the horizontal tree that protected him from the curses that were coming his way. However when a curse did hit the tree it sent splinters into his face and now he had cuts all over him. Michelle was fighting furiously to keep them away from her but they were surrounded and they were getting closer.

'You know we ain't going to leave this shit!'

'You think I didn't know that!' replied Michelle.

Tom began to let loose with all the spells he knew. It was panic and he was in it. Death or not he hated this forever and ever. He let loose an illegal spell but if it was going to keep him alive then who really cares. He sent a wave of magic that stunned and killed a whole group of Death Eaters but that didn't affect any of them. They kept coming and coming.

Sweat beads were coming down his forehead even though they were fighting in winter. He began to let loose another wave but after he saw the flash. His breath lost and feeling light… his fighting was over. With that he fell back to ground.

Michelle saw him fall down and knew his status. Tom Riddle, the one she promised to go home with, was dead. She knew that she was the last one left and like it or not, she would be coming home with him even if it meant death or bringing back the body. She stunned a whole group of Death Eaters when she was swept of her feelings. She went loose and ended… she too slumped to the ground near him.

*

Harry did not know the fates of his two best friends that stayed behind. Because for Harry he was safe and sound back at Hogwarts but for Tom and Michelle… their life ended in the battlefield where they fought to the end.

Author's Note: Finished it. Kind of not what you expected huh? You'll notice that I did speed up my story a bit… for other reasons. Don't worry there's an epilogue and it won't clear things much better.