Chapter 49
Battle: A Flash of Red and Gold
As Harry and the others swept through Dumbledore's office windows and into the battle, a kaleidoscopic rush of images met his eyes. Nervously standing in a line of defense up by the castle's entrance were the members of the D.A. Harry saw Hermione come running out the front door and thought to himself that the girls must have run all the way down the stairs. To his horror, he saw Cassie running out of the castle right behind Hermione. Knowing her, she had refused to stay in the broom closet. Harry suppressed the panic he felt at the thought of her out in the open. Hermione would just have to watch over her. He had to concentrate on his job and let others do theirs. He swooped over the defensive lines and saw Dumbledore look up at him. The Headmaster smiled and Harry felt some of his nervousness decrease. He had been right. This is what he was supposed to be doing.
He looked out over the lawn of the castle, and noticed that many of the Order members and other defenders were looking up with expressions of dumbfounded disbelief and incredible joy. He heard gasps and shouts of "It's Harry Potter!" I can't believe Harry's alive!" and, "Harry Potter's alive!"
Harry quickly flew over their heads and approached the line of Death Eaters, behind which Voldemort was standing. It was not possible to see their faces from here and no one was yelling out in joy at seeing him from this side of the battlefield but Harry knew they had seen him and knew that were shocked. His scar throbbed and he knew that Voldemort was extremely angry. Good. Harry looked at the formation of the battlefield. Formed in almost a "V" shape with the gate into the grounds at their back, the Death Eaters had created a formidable line of attack. At the center of the "V" and behind the line was Voldemort with Lucius Malfoy and Belatrix LeStrange acting as aides. As he drew closer to this line, screams and shouts rose up from the Death Eaters. Voldemort's screams were the loudest. "It's Harry Potter! How could this be? I was told he was dead!" Voldemort did not waste time finding out how he was fooled. He pointed his wand at the unfortunate minion who must have told him that Harry was dead three weeks ago and the man fell over as the green light hit him square in the chest. Well, Harry thought, if Voldemort could just keep killing his own supporters, it would certainly help their cause. He could see Ron and Ginny out of the corners of his eyes if he turned his head and felt better. They had all made it this far. Harry pointed his broom downward and swept closer to the invaders. Apparently, they had recovered from their shock because wands pointed upward and flashes of yellow, red, and purple light shot up toward the three of them. Harry and the two Weasleys turned, rolled, and zig-zagged to avoid the shower of curses aimed in their direction. Harry tried to pretend these were just vicious Bludgers at a Quidditch game and let himself react to them without thinking too much about it.
Harry turned to make another sweep over the Death Eaters and saw Hagrid. Of course, it was hard to miss him. Hagrid was looking up at him and wiping tears from his eyes. "Pay attention to the enemy, Hagrid," Harry muttered. He was close enough now to the line of giants and centaurs that he could tell what their plan was. There were pushing forward against a slowly retreating line of Death Eaters. The giants, who were very resistant to magic as Harry knew, were acting like the constant stream of curses hitting them were no more annoying than biting gnats and continued pushing toward the line of masked wizards. Harry noticed at least two centaurs down and a couple of others trying to help them. As he turned once again to make yet another loop over the Death Eaters he saw members of the D.A. pointing at him and waving. He waved back quickly and checked behind him. Yeah. Ron and Ginny were still there. It was time to get down to business.
Both Ron and Ginny looked scared but determined, speeding up to get close enough to Harry that they could yell at him. "I don't think they were glad to see us!"
"Let's get 'em!" Ginny yelled.. Harry smiled and nodded, trying not to think of his own pounding heart and sweaty hands. As they swept over the front line, Harry noticed they were pressing forward despite the hailstorm of curses, screams, flashes of yellow, red, purple and green light. As he had anticipated, he heard the unmistakable screams of intense pain caused by the Cruciatus curse. To his dismay, he was close enough that he could see several of the defenders down on the ground and one or two others trying to help them. Harry again heard shouts of "Harry Potter!" mingled with a couple of frantic calls of "Be careful, Ginny," and "Be careful, Ron." Harry straightened his shoulders and gripped his broom tighter.
He approached Voldemort who was still behind the line of the Death Eaters and he yelled to Ron and Ginny, "Watch my back! I'm aiming for Voldemort!" He had no sooner said that, then he saw a ball of fire shooting up at him and had to do a roll to avoid being hit. "It's just a big Bludger" he thought. He desperately wished that the Weasley twins were near with their bats. He would feel a lot better. Harry gripped his wand tighter in his left hand. He didn't plan on using it in the next few minutes but he felt better knowing he had it. Harry concentrated hard and shot a similar fire ball back at Voldemort, who easily stepped out of the way. It had been too slow. Speed was going to be very important if he hoped to catch Voldemort by surprise. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry noticed three Death Eaters firing curses at him with their wands. He was about to go into a roll to avoid them when Ginny sent a Protego spell that intercepted the colored streams of light and deflected them away from him. At the same moment, Ron fired a stunning spell. Normally, the Death Eaters could have easily deflected the Stupify curse, but they were watching Harry and all three fell to the ground unconscious. Harry knew they wouldn't stay down long. Someone was bound to mutter the counter curse quickly. But, still . . . .
Harry narrowed his focus onto Voldemort. He had to do what he came here to do and kill Voldemort. He just hoped that the plans he had developed in the safety of the Hogwarts' classrooms would translate favorably onto the actual battlefield. Suddenly, Voldemort's voice rang out over the chaos of the field. Harry thought maybe he was the only one who heard him, but from Ron and Ginny's reaction as well as the reactions from the Death Eaters, Harry realized that he must be using a Sonorus charm so that everyone could hear him as he taunted Harry. Well, two could play that game. Harry pointed his own wand at his throat and muttered the charm. But he waited to speak until he heard what Voldemort wanted to tell him first.
"So the halfblood is back and ready to watch again as others die to save his worthless skin. How many times is this, Harry Potter? Three? Four? How many must die this time?" Harry concentrated on his training in Occlumency and he cleared his mind of the guilt that suddenly flashed through it, focusing instead on calming thoughts. He knew Voldemort was trying to make him angry -- that way Harry would lose his concentration. He had to keep calm, ignoring the twisted truths Voldemort would be screaming at him for the next few minutes. When he felt in control, he answered Voldemort, his own magically magnified voice pouring over the fighting crowd beneath him.
"You know that I'm a pureblood, Tom. It's you that is the halfblood. And everyone knows it. Riddle is a Muggle name." Harry watched with intense satisfaction as Voldemort reacted. Up until that moment, he had never let the current Lord Voldemort know that he knew his actual identity. He smiled as the ugly face twisted in obvious shock. "Tom Riddle! You killed your Muggle father to try to erase . . . ." The shock receded and Voldemort sent two quick bursts of energy up at Harry. He wasn't sure what they would have done if they hit him. He didn't want to find out. He maneuvered quickly to avoid them before he swept out again to come in for another pass.
When he turned to face Voldemort again, he first saw the Death Eaters backing away from him quickly before he registered the reason why. Instead of the tall, almost skeletal wizard who had been standing there a moment before, a gigantic dragon was spreading its black wings and turning its golden eyes to Harry. Harry slowed his broom down and climbed. He had to be up much higher now. He glanced quickly behind him to see Ginny and Ron following his lead. "I can do this myself, you two. You go help the rest of the lines. If there are three of us, it just makes a bigger target!" Ron opened his mouth to argue but Ginny said something Harry couldn't hear and the two of them reversed. A moment later they were out of sight and Harry tried to ignore the sudden plummeting of his stomach. He was almost three years older now but it didn't matter. He still didn't want to face this dragon. He glanced around at the rest of the battlefield. The wizard/dragon had moved and stepped on one of his forces who had not moved fast enough out of his way. The cloaked figure was not moving. That was when Harry suddenly understood Dumbledore's rationale at bringing the five thestrals onto the field. The skeletal creatures fed on blood and raw meat and as he watched, two of the black animals approached the fallen man, nosing him, wondering if he was going to make a tasty meal. The man regained consciousness at the push of their wet noses against his face and started screaming. Two of the other Death Eaters left their position to help him, trying to shoot various curses at the two magical creatures, but they, like the giants, were unimpressed. Harry smiled to himself. Good thinking, Dumbledore. He looked around again to make certain of what to do next and saw Charlie Weasley heading toward the dragon. He was coming to help, thinking that he could assist Harry as his job was training dragons. But Harry needed to do this himself. "Go away, Charlie. There's nothing you can do here!" Charlie paused and considered. Then he backed up again to where the giants were still picking up Death Eaters and throwing them.
"Sorry, Voldemort! You're not scaring me! Are you disappointed? Almost as disappointed as you were to see me? Are you worried your Death Eaters will start doubting your power. Dragon was a bad choice! I've fought a dragon before. And she was a much more scary dragon than you are! Did your gang never tell you the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament? You're a little out of touch, I'd say!" Harry was unsure what exactly he was facing. Was it a dragon that Voldemort had somehow possessed? Did he have a dragon's instincts? Or was it just Voldemort in a different shape? He didn't know and couldn't take time to find out. Well, it had worked once before. He started doing the same thing he had done to that mother dragon, luring this one up from the ground by flying just out of reach of claws, tail, and fiery breath. As he had hoped, the dragon reluctantly rose from the ground to try to catch the annoying pesky Harry and Harry swept quickly down to its soft underbelly, shooting a steady stream of his most powerful pain curses. The dragon howled in agony and a moment later, Voldemort stood again in the center of a diminishing force of dark wizards. Harry pumped his fist in the air and yelled in triumph! His scar throbbed mightily in response. Ah, Tom was a little annoyed. He had been made to look a fool.
Before Voldemort could transfigure again, Harry sent a quick spell down and a griffin appeared next to Voldemort. Harry immediately followed up with a spell creating an iron cage around both of them. This was not going to kill the wizard, Harry knew, but it would keep him occupied for a few minutes. Voldemort quickly recovered his composure and flicked his wand and the cage disappeared. However, by that time, the griffin had pounced, claws bared, and Harry could see the sudden slash of scarlet on Voldemort's neck even from his height. "That had to hurt, Tom!" Voldemort jumped backward, trying to get enough distance between himself and the lion/eagle to allow him to wave his wand at it and get rid of it. But every movement was met by the approaching griffin and Harry watched, smiling to himself. This was better than he had even hoped. Harry took advantage of Voldemort's distraction and flew overhead, sending a fireball straight down on Voldemort's head. It was deflected and he turned to pass back over. He had to dodge several more curses aimed at him, taking him out away from the center of action and over Hagrid, Charlie and their forces. He watched for a brief second as the centaurs loaded their bows with arrows and Hagrid took careful aim with his crossbow. Together, they released a hail of arrows into the teeming mass of dark-cloaked wizards, and Harry laughed as a couple of them struck targets. Wizards weren't used to having to fight such primitive weapons. But they still hurt like hell, he imagined.
Harry could see that Hagrid, Charlie, and their friends along with the Aurors were doing well on the flank of the Death Eaters and were pushing them back, He looked for Ginny and Ron and saw both of them turned on their brooms shielding themselves from curses flying thick and fast at them from the ground. He looked down and saw a wizard he was positive was Malfoy taking aim at Ginny. Harry immediately stunned him and Ginny flashed him a grateful smile as Malfoy collapsed to the ground. Harry flew over Voldemort again sending down several quick fireballs on and around him. Voldemort was still fighting the griffin but managed to repel them anyway. Obviously, thought Harry, I'm going to have to do something else.
Harry made a wide circle over the defending front line as he lined himself up again for another pass. Harry could see a couple of defenders who had been wounded and had been taken back near the D.A. He could see Madame Pomfrey, Hermione and . . . he did a double-take. Sure enough, there was Cassie kneeling by one of the wounded wizards helping give him a potion. He couldn't believe his eyes, but didn't have any more time to think about it.
As he circled over the lake, Harry noticed a handful of Death Eaters trying to outflank the defenders and begin firing curses at the left flank of the D.A. line of defense and at the wounded defenders and their helpers. With his voice still amplified, Harry yelled, "Look out on your left flank." He glanced back and felt his stomach turn as he saw several flashes of red light and saw a few of the students get hit and crumple to the ground and the little group of helpers fall flat on the ground dodging several curses. He heard the teachers who had been with the D.A. start yelling to not panic and hold their ground as they ran to that flank. A number of students on that flank of the line had begun to cast spells and were attempting to shield themselves, producing an array of sounds, flashing beams of light and smoke. Hermione jumped up and took a defensive stance protecting Madame Pomfrey, Cassie, and the wizards. Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Cho Chang, and Seamus Finnigan joined her and began casting spells and curses in the direction of the attackers who, after a moment or so began to retreat as they were also being hit from the side by some of the defenders in the front line. Fred and George, who were on the left flank of the defending front line, were focusing their attention on the group of Death Eaters. As they fought their way past the line, the twins combined their wands and conjured an enormous lion that charged the Death Eaters with a loud roar. The Death eaters lost all pretense of trying to fight their way back and broke and ran toward the safety of their line. As they did so, the twins sent several stunning blasts, toppling three of the enemy. As the remaining few Death Eaters reached their line, the huge lion evaporated into a puff of smoke.
Dumbledore, Arthur, and Bill Weasley moved forward to offer support as Harry prepared himself to meet Voldemort one more time. Voldemort had finally banished the griffin and turned to watch as Harry approached. Again, his voice rang out, drowning out the other noises on the battlefield. "Did you really think that pitiful attempt at conjuring could defeat me? I am the greatest wizard to ever . . ."
"Yeah. You keep saying that," Harry taunted, his magnified voice equal in strength to that of Voldemort. "Personally, I don't believe it, Tom. Never seen any proof of it." Harry laughed, forcing himself to sound demeaning. His scar was throbbing and he was having a hard time seeing straight. He shook his head and concentrated on forcing Voldemort's emotions out of his mind. It didn't work too well but at least it gave him a little room to breathe. Suddenly, in front of his eyes, Voldemort transformed into a giant snake. It was bigger than the dragon had been and it was curled up and ready to strike. Harry's eyes widened. He thought that this snake was even bigger than the basilisk he had fought in the Chamber of Secrets. But rather than the deadly golden eyes of that monster, the eyes on this serpent were simply a deep Slytherin-green and Harry met them squarely. The snake began to sway hypnotically and Harry could hear quiet hissing as he attempted to lull Harry closer so that he could strike.
He focused hard and, yes, he understood what the snake was saying. "Come to me, boy, all your troubles will be over. All the loneliness . . . all the pain." Despite himself, Harry found himself following the movements of the giant head, feeling himself getting sleepy. "Yes, that's right. Come to me, boy." The snake was curling, preparing to strike, even as he kept up the lulling words. Suddenly, Harry shook his head and pulled his gaze away from the snake's.
He answered the snake. "I don't think so, Voldemort! Don't want to make things too easy for you!" Harry heard the hissing coming out of his mouth as he answered the snake in its own language. As the snake started in surprise at hearing parseltongue from the boy, Hagrid took careful aim and shot his huge arrow through the snake's tensile body. Instantly, the snake was gone and Voldemort was standing in place, with the huge arrow protruding from his left shoulder. Harry knew better than to feel too confident. A simple healing spell and Voldemort would be as good as new. Well, maybe "good" was a bad way to put it. . "What? Did you forget I speak parseltongue, Tom? Again, your ignorance about your enemy constantly amazes me. And it will be your downfall . . . today!"
Voldemort spoke to Malfoy and LeStrange, both of whom were firing at Harry. Their spells were being blocked by Ron and Ginny and Harry concentrated on Voldemort, not wanting to let him out of his sight. This entire time, they had been slowly backing toward the gates of the school and Harry knew that once Voldemort had passed through them, he would disapparate and it would all be over. Harry used his wand and conjured a wall of fire to try and keep them from getting there to easily. On seeing Voldemort and the Death Eaters moving toward the gate, Hagrid, Charlie, the giants and the centaurs moved around the line of Aurors toward the gate with the plan of cutting them off.
Suddenly, Harry caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see a student - Neville! -- heading toward the line of Death Eaters. In a flash of sudden understanding, Harry knew what Neville was there to do. Bellatrix LeStrange was still alive, something that would change in the next few minutes if Neville could do anything about it. He looked terribly exposed out there by himself, between the lines of Hagrid and the Order members. He was trying to look inconspicuous, but to Harry he stood out like a sore thumb.
Harry heard Ron swear and roll as a green light missed him by inches and headed straight for him. He heard Ginny scream and she too rolled in order to miss a curse. Harry saw a fireball heading straight toward him and turned his broom to present the smallest possible target for the weapon. The tail of his broom caught the outer edge of the fire and deflected the curse downward. Harry gasped in anguish as the curse caught Charlie Weasley on the side and he saw him collapse. Harry wanted to streak down there and help Hagrid get Charlie up to Madam Pomfrey but he knew that was not his job. He had to concentrate on Voldemort. He worked hard to push the feelings of guilt aside. It had been an accident. He couldn't let his feelings overwhelm him or Voldemort would have an advantage.
As he approached the now crumbling line of Death Eaters, Harry saw Voldemort take on the image of Peter Pettigrew. He called out to Harry in Peter's quivering, sniveling voice, "Harry, Harry, I'm sorry I betrayed your parents to the Dark Lord, but it had to be done. I'm sorry they had to die and leave you all alone." Harry fought back a surge of pain and anger and instead laughed. He hoped it didn't sound as forced to everyone else as it did in his own ears.
"Oh that's a good one, Voldemort. Do you really think that the sniveling little rat is going to scare me? You obviously have underestimated me once again! Hey, Peter. How do you like Voldemort making fun of you in front of everyone? He even has your whining down perfectly." Pettigrew had stopped in his flight out of the Hogwarts grounds, turned, and was staring at Voldemort in a mix of astonished dismay and revulsion. Harry continued on. "You know, Voldemort. You make a pretty good Peter Pettigrew. In fact, the two of you are a lot alike. You and Wormtail are both spineless little wimps with no backbone."
Voldemort screamed and cursed in anger and sent a fireball at Harry who turned on his broom again and batted the fireball back down to the ground with the tail of his broom. Harry flew away quickly to come back and try for another pass. Neville was still standing there, having now been integrated into the line of Order members, but he was steadily approaching the little knot of wizards where Bellatrix was standing, unaware as of yet of Neville's presence. As some of the end twigs of the broom smoked and smoldered again, Harry glanced over at Ginny and Ron who were both exchanging wand fire with various Death Eaters quickly retreating toward the gate. Both of them suddenly performed a quick spell, catching and binding with cords two Death Eaters who had made a break toward the gate.
Harry knew they had to stop the Death Eaters from exiting the grounds where they would be able to disapparate. A number of dead and wounded attackers remained behind on the field. He headed toward Voldemort one more time, who was moving as quickly as possible toward the gate. He saw in the distance at least fifteen wizards and witches running from the direction of Hogsmeade to cut off the escape route of the attackers. Harry knew they had to hold them long enough for the others to arrive. He sent a fireball at Voldemort and Hagrid and the centaurs followed it with a storm of arrows. Voldemort and the others flashed their wands at the fireball, but were unable to stop all of the arrows. One of the spears hit Belatrix LeStrange in the arm, ripping flesh and fabric and causing a large gash. She screamed in pain and then sent the Cruciatus curse at Harry, who did rolls in mid-air to miss the curse. Ginny sent a stunning curse at LeStrange which knocked her to the ground. Neville apparently saw that as his opening and started running toward her. Suddenly, Dumbledore raised his arm, and Neville fell to the ground, bound securely in ropes identical to the ones that bound the Death Eaters.
Harry turned his head a little and noticed movement up on the hill by the D.A. line of defense. Hermione, Luna, Cho, and the others were standing in a semi-circle in front of the castle, guarding the wounded who were laying there waiting to be seen by Madam Pomfrey. Harry then turned his attention back to Voldemort. He needed to stop him now or he would be outside the gates in mere moments. Harry was getting ready to send another fireball when he stopped in mid curse and stared in horror at Voldemort. He had once again changed - into Sirius Black. "Harry," the dark wizard said in Serius's voice, "Why didn't you help me? Why did you kill me? Why did you let me die? I trusted you, Harry!" Harry's stomach turned and he couldn't bring himself to cast the curse. His concentration drained from him and he halted in mid-air. A second later, Harry's attention was brought sharply back into focus by Voldemort's evil, triumphant laugh as he stepped through the Hogwarts' gates and sent an extra large fireball at Harry. Harry turned his broom again but was too late this time as the fireball streaked by, sending a shot of hot, excruciating pain from his right shoulder through his body. He tumbled in the air end over end and strained to stay on his broom.
Harry used his left hand to guide the broom and turned back toward Voldemort. As he did so, he saw out of the corner of his eye Dumbledore and several other of the defenders in front of the advance line. They were rushing forward as quickly as possible to try to stop Voldemort's escape. Standing around Voldemort were McNair, Bellatrix LeStrange, and Lucius Malfoy, both of whom had recovered from being stunned. As if in slow motion, Harry saw Malfoy point his wand at Dumbledore and scream, "Avada Kedavra!" A stream of green light flashed from the end of his wand toward Dumbledore. Harry watched in paralyzed shock as the flash of green light raced toward its intended victim. At the last moment, Harry saw a small red and gold figure fly in front of Dumbledore, taking the full brunt of the killing curse. The figure fell dead to the ground and Dumbledore looked down in solemnity at the red and gold crumpled form. Lupin, Weasley and Mad-Eye Moody uttered exclamations of anger and outrage and all hit Malfoy with curses. The blonde wizard flew ten feet from where he had been standing and landed in a heap. McNair and LeStrange grabbed him, dragging him through the gate and all three of them dissapparated.
Harry saw Ron fly over the field and his mind raced in horror. No! Oh, God, no! "Ginny!" He heard his still-amplified voice screaming. He turned toward Voldemort and screamed, "Burn in hell, Riddle!" And with his aching arm, Harry raised his wand and, even though he knew how dangerous it was to use his wand against its twin, he pointed it and screamed "Avada Kedavra!" A strong bright stream of green light raced toward Voldemort and hit the very spot he had been standing only a split second before. Voldemort had disapparated.