Chapter 28 – Into War

Harry landed hard, stumbled and bumped into Sirius, nearly knocking them both of their feet. He was in the middle of a deserted street, surrounded by the other members of the Order, all the street lights extinguished.
He and Sirius both straightened up and moved over to where Kingsley Shacklebolt was ordering them into units. Harry found himself next to Dumbledore behind Sirius, Buffy, and his parents. Dawn, Ron and Hermione were a little way behind them. Together, all the units of people moved down the street and Harry could see their destination, a large manor house, dark and forbidding with windows lit with candle light.

The units lined up in front of the house and a group of Aurors moved forward. On a count from Kingsley, they shot redactor curses at the front door and the door burnt away. At once all of the units spilled into the house.

They we're all in a huge echoing entrance room with a grand staircase. The floors and walled were panelled in dark wood and a huge crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling. A few men had been crossing the room and began to fire spells at the group but were quickly stunned. The groups split, each heading into different rooms off of the main one. Harry found himself standing awkwardly with Ron, Dawn and Hermione. He had been ordered to stay put by Dumbledore before he had left to fight and around him, Harry could hear the noises of curses being fired and the slayers doing their work.

He felt scared and slightly irritated, at Voldemort, strangely, for not being directly in front of him, for not being present for Harry to fight. Harry hated the waiting; he wanted to be doing something instead of being useless. But still he remained, exchanging blank glances with his friends occasionally. Yells came from a doorway close to them, and Harry tensed himself to help whoever was yelling, when Sirius came running out of another doorway.

 "Stay where you are Harry!" he yelled, running to help the yelling person.

It was not long before the Order regrouped in the main hallway, a few injured but not seriously.
 "Not many of them here," Sirius said to Harry, panting slightly as they regrouped.
 "But one of them talked, there's a big meeting upstairs, all the big players including Voldemort. They know we're here now, but we're going up."

The Order moved up the large staircase, quietly considering how many of them there were and reached the top. A set of double oak doors were before them, inlaid with brass. Once again the Aurors moved forward.
Harry tensed himself and waited and the reductor curse was fired again, obliterating the doors.

Before them was another grand room, immeasurably large and it was filled, packed, with death eaters, all wearing their masks and brandishing their wands.
Curses began to be fired as the people spilled into the room and immediately Harry took out three Aurors with a kind of stunner that he had been practising.

Around him he saw people fighting, his father battling at breakneck speed with an unidentified death eater, Sirius stunning another. Dumbledore, taking out ranks with one spell.
Harry dodged a Cruciatus curse and stunned another death eater. He saw Buffy at the far end of the large hall punching out an unmasked Avery. She knocked him against the thick walls and he slid to floor, blood trickling out the corner of his mouth. At once another spell was fired at her but she dodged it quickly. She turned and saw the witch who had fired it; Bellatrix Lestrange.
 "You," Buffy said furiously.
 "Is that any way to address your cousin in-law?" Bellatrix said in her typical baby speak. "We're family now princess. I did kill your husband." Incensed, Buffy attacked, flying in with a roundhouse kick and knocking Bellatrix off her feet.
Bellatrix raised her wand and Buffy dodged another curse. She swung the scythe round and it sung through the air.
 "I don't kill people," Buffy said, breathing hard as she looked down at Bellatrix who lay on the floor, wand hand crushed under Buffy's foot.
 "The ickle slayer can't take it?" Bellatrix said, eyes narrowing wickedly.

 "You didn't let me finish," Buffy said, pressing harder on Bellatrix's wrist. "I don't kill people normally. But for you I make an exception." She swung the scythe down, and Harry looked away as it severed Bellatrix Lestrange's neck and her ties with life.

He didn't have long to ponder this as Lucius Malfoy approaching him, mask off and wand raised. Harry stunned him quickly, before Malfoy had a chance to fire a spell and moved off to help those fighting around him.

The fight still raged, with casualties on both sides, though slightly more on the part of the death eaters harry noted with satisfaction. He joined his mother and helped her take out three death eaters at once.

Anxiously, Harry scanned the room for signs of Voldemort, and at the end of the room he spotted another set of doors.
Something in Harry told him that this was the way, to his destiny and perhaps to his death and he moved towards the doors, taking out death eaters on his way. He drew nearer and the doors opened wide. A group of about thirty vampires spilled out and Buffy, faith, Angel and the slayers jumped into action immediately, doing what they did best.
Behind them Harry saw a familiar figure, with a stopping man shuffling along next to him. Harry felt a low swoop of anger as he watched Voldemort raise his wand and stun an Auror, allowing a vampire to feast on him. Harry strode towards them, but Buffy reached them first, pulling them vampire off of the man and staking it.
 She looked up at Voldemort and he smiled cruelly at her.
Harry watched as Buffy appeared frozen to the spot as Voldemort pointed his wand at her.
 "Hey," he bellowed and Voldemort's gaze shifted onto Harry. The fighting continued but the noise lessened and Harry knew that every person in the room had their attention on him and Voldemort.
 "Harry Potter," Voldemort hissed. "Always the hero, until the end." He raised his pale snake face and appeared to sniff the air. "You can smell it in the air, can't you Harry? The end. Destiny approaching for the both of us. We are akin, Harry, for tonight we both face our destiny and perhaps, our death." He pointed his wand at Harry.

Harry faced Voldemort, shoulders held up as he embraced his destiny and the future of the world.