I think it's time for another round of ask more hard questions.
Why did you bring Tara back just to kill her off again?
Read the next Chapter. She's not dead.
Why is your chapter named for something that would come straight out of the Buffy universe?
It's actually a line from the poem "The charge of the Light Brigade". This is a very dark chapter, so I really wanted to convey what sort of energy it was supposed to provide, if any.
Okay, first you said that Buffy has great power alone... and now you're saying that alone she's a failure? What gives?
I didn't mean for it to sound so uppety. I was building on what the reviewer I was responding to was saying. Buffy has the raw power, the power that love and sight and her own blood can't provide. She'll always win, even if she dies, because she has faught for it the longest and the hardest. I'm sorry if I offended any of you.
I have a really scary feeling a cannon character is going to die... is this true?
I've been holding this to myself for so long now. Grace, another one of my beta readers asked if Hermione was going to die. Harry has lost enough people he loves for one year. I think that the Harry Potter cannon characters are safe. Which leads to the Buffyverse. People ask if I brought Tara back just to kill her again. I didn't. There will be Slayer deaths, certainly. I'm not going to promise that all will live, just that some things may not be as they seem.
So, here we are. Counting down to the end. There is one more battle chapter after this, I believe. The last chapter is an epilogue, really. And once that's out, you can decide if you want a sequel or not. If there is one, though, it'll be after their seventh year, and back in California.
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all my reviewers! I love the fact that you're telling me exactly what you think! It in part makes me a better writer.
As stated above, the chapter title is from Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade". There was a reference to this in the last chapter.
I'm also apologizing for the chopped up mess the last chapter was. Remind me to never use a Linux system to update an HTML file again.
And here we go!
- - - - -
Chapter 31
Into the Mouth of Hell
- - - - -
A shrill scream pierced into the night.
"Nooooooo!"
Belltrix spun around, just in time to avoid a sharp beam of white light aimed for her head. A secondary figure was running toward the two women, her eyes on Tara, but her wand aimed at Bella. "Tara?"
"Looks like she'll never get to tell you," Bella said in a mocking sing-song voice, circling around Willow. "Did you love the little witch?"
Willow's eyes narrowed as she surveyed Bellatrix's wandtip and then her eyes moved back to that piercing onyx gaze. "You made the wrong choice coming here."
"I already got what I came for," Bella grinned, "my husband is still locked up in that wizarding prison for killing that witch's mother."
Willow's face registered nothing of the surprise of this news. Tara had never told her how her mother died, except that it was cancer.
"I'm two for two," Bella continued, finally pausing and looking at Tara's lifeless form. "First my useless cousin goes, and then his family's prodigal child." Her eyes flashed as she turned toward Willow and lifted up her wand. "The lover makes three."
As Bella shouted her incantation, Willow flicked her wand. "Protego."
"So you know how to play!" Bellatrix said, sounding pleased. "I won't get bored then."
"You've crossed the wrong witch," Willow seethed, taking a step forward, muttering her own incantation. Instead of the tip of her wand lighting up, Willow cast her spell out with her free bare hand, watching as the pure white light flung Bella off her feet. She groaned as she landed hard, sitting up slowly. "The last time someone tried to kill her, I almost destroyed the world. Imagine what I could do to the one who tried to hurt me again."
She gave her wand a little flip. Bella, who had been inches from reaching the wand that had flown out of her hand, was suddenly levitated into the air, her arms cast down at her sides, her eyes wide as a shimmering band of green held her at the waist. She could tell that Bellatrix was concentrating hard to break the holding charm and soon enough she fell away and dove for her wand, screaming "Impedimenta!"
Willow dove as the flash of red flew over her shoulder, discarding her wand on the ground. As she rose again, Bellatrix was surprised to see an odd glow emmanating from the witch. "Sustuli!" Willow cried out, using her hands to push the spell into Bella, who screamed as waves of pain washed over her.
She fell panting to the ground, her eyes closed.
Willow walked forward, picking up Bella's wand. Bellatrix looked up at her, trembling slightly from the force of the spell.
Willow pointed the wand toward the center of Bellatrix's forehead. "It ends here."
"Killing me won't help you bring your lover back," Bellatrix seethed. "No one can stopper death."
"She died before," Willow said, lowering the wand slightly. "She's still alive. I can do more than just stopper death. I can bring the dead back to life."
Bella glared at her. "Why would you waste such power on such a useless task. They're dead. They should stay dead. They died for a reason."
Willow let out a tiny sigh and lifted her hand. A small ball of white light was circling around it. "Bored now."
Bella glanced up in horror just as the surge of white light hit her, blasting her back several feet against the cold stone fence of the front gates. She screamed as the white light drained her, the pain beyond the farthest comprehension she had ever known. As she fell back to the ground, a fall of nearly ten feet, she landed on her back, her eyes wide as she stared up at Willow, who was standing over her, wand in hand. She cackled, a thin stream of crimson seeping out the corner of her lips. 3"You're going to wish... I killed you... when he finds... out... your... powers..." Bellatrix sighed before her head tilted slightly and a soft sigh came from her.
Willow bent down, using her fingers to close the eyes of her attacker and setting Bella's wand carefully next to the woman. After standing there a minute, she turned and ran back to where Tara had been knocked over. "Tara? Tara?" Grasping in the darkness for her wand, she found it and lit the tip.
Tara groaned slightly as Willow gently helped her up, pushing the hair from her face and brushing leaves and dirt from her robes. "Tara!"
"Wil?" Tara moaned slightly. "Willow?"
"I told you I would always find you!" Willow cried out as she hugged the other woman to her tightly, rocking back and forth.
In the distance, a loud explosion sounded.
- - - - -
Faith fell to ground in the impact from the explosion, shaking her head to clear it as rocks and other debris crashed over her. Seeing a figure lying next to her, she scrambled to the girl's side and picked up her wrist. There was a weak pulse, but she knew the girl would die unless she received medical help now.
She leapt to her feet quickly, seeing hoardes of vampires converging on her and the few Slayers she had left. She had sent a few back to the school to warn that the vampires had surpassed Hogsmeade altogether.
As she picked up a stake and held it in her bloody hand, her eyes narrowed as the few Slayers left standing gathered around her. "This is it," Faith shouted, her eyes on the vampires roaring over the hill. "This is our last stand."
With that, she ran forward, attacking and staking everything that moved. As she was hit across the head and fell backwards, she caught a fleeting glimpse of a Slayer being attacked and eaten by several vampires. "Hey!" she shouted out, pulling out her wand. "Incendio!"
As the all melted away, the Slayer fell into her arms. Faith gasped as the girl looked at her with gray, haunted eyes. "Is this the end?"
"Shhh," Faith whispered, pushing the girl's auburn hair away. "It's okay... don't be afraid."
Behind her, the vampires had broken the lines and were streaming unchecked toward the school. The girl in her arms gave one last shuddering breath before Faith set the body aside, standing up, the rage taking control. It was where she was always in control. With her wand, she screamed the spell again. "Incendio! Incendio!"
Suddenly, there was a different noise approaching. She turned back toward Hogsmeade to see a long line of figures moving rapidly towards them. "Hey!" she shouted to the other Slayers who, even though broken and defeated were by no means about to give up.
She was relieved when Buffy and the others charged toward the area. Faith turned and quickly kicked at a vampire, ducking his crushing blow.
Buffy leapt into the fray, an axe in her hand as she cleanly used it to behead the vampires gathering around her.
"Where are the others?" Buffy asked Faith as she kicked a vampire away.
Faith, who had just headlocked a vampire, grunted as its neck crumbled in her arms. "They're heading for the school!"
"Oh, my God," Buffy gasped as another explosion sounded.
It sounded too close to the school.
"Move!" Buffy called out as the Slayers quickly gathered and headed for the vampires set to attack Hogwarts.
- - - - -
"Harry! Harry!"
Harry turned at the sound of his name to see Neville and Ginny running toward him. "Everyone's out."
He heard his name from a different direction and saw Dawn Harris with Cho and a crowd of mixed Ravenclaws and Slytherins, all who looked terrified. "Those explosions sound like they're coming closer," Harry muttered, edging closer to Ginny, who took his arm.
"I hope I did the right thing staying here!" she whispered at his shoulder.
He clasped the hand that held his shoulder. "Just stay with me, okay?"
Ginny nodded, trembling slightly. Harry turned to look at the door leading out into the main entrance. "Let's go."
"Are you sure we're doing the right thing?" Dawn asked from behind him.
"He is," Cho said softly. "He's never failed us yet."
Harry stopped just shy of opening the two outer doors. Taking a deep breath, he pulled them open.
And saw two figures standing on the other side.
He gasped and stood back as Willow and Tara stumbled inside. Several members of the DA stepped forward to help her. "She needs... to get... medical attention..."
"Get her to the hospital wing," Harry told Ernie Macmillian and Terry Boot, who nodded and gently helped Tara away.
Willow glanced over them to see Giles and Wesley running forward. "Was that Tara?"
"Yes," Willow replied, looking stricken. "She'll be fine, she just needs some--"
Her words were cut off as a violent explosion hit near the lake. Everyone crowded around the entrance doors just as a large plume of water flew into the air and landed like needles around the lake.
"What happened to her?" Harry asked, taking Willow's arm.
"A Death Eater. Says she killed her worthless cousin and was coming after Tara next," she said, turning toward Giles. "Giles, what do we do?"
"We have to fight," Giles replied, stepping next to Willow. "We have no choice."
"Bellatrix," Harry hissed, stepping back as Hermione took his arm. "Bellatrix tried to kill Tara. What happened to the Death Eater?" Harry asked, directing his question toward Willow, who had just turned to talk to the rest of the DA.
"She's dead."
He let out a long pent-up breath. The agony of knowing that the woman who had killed Sirius had finally met her own cruel fate was satisfying, but still unrelenting, considering the sounds of a distant battle were growing closer.
"We must prepare to make our last stand here!"
The students whirled around to see Professor Dumbledore standing in the entrance hall, surrounded by several Professors, all with wands in hand. "The Aurors have been summoned from the tunnels and will be to our assistance momentarily, but we must ask that those students who have escaped be given time to reach their final destination."
"We have to go out there," Harry said in a low voice. As he said this, suddenly something hit him like the force of a gale. He fell to his knees as pain exploded at his head. At the same time, the amulet he was holding in his hands burned hot with the heat of a thousand blazing fires. He cried out, feeling as though he were burning...
"Professor!" Ginny cried out desperately as Professor McGonagall approached Harry and bent down to put a hand to him, but her hand quickly fell back.
"Something's happening, Headmaster!" she cried out just as the final explosion sounded, right inside the front gates as vampires spiraled below, snarling, their gazes hungry and expectant as they stared at the large crowd awaiting them above.
"Harry?" Hermione gasped. "Harry?"
"I'm okay," he said, looking up weakly, tears streaming down his cheeks as he stood up. "I'm okay. I know what I have to do now."
Behind the lines of vampires, the Slayers drew up quickly, surrounded by Angel and Spike. "You ready for this?" Faith asked.
"Ready as I'll ever be," Buffy replied, then cried out the charge as the Slayers charged the group of vampires from behind, and those from above attacked the front lines.
As Harry ran down, he placed the amulet around his neck and plunged his hand into his pocket for his wand.
The moment that the DA hit the army of vampires, his entire philosophy on them changed.
He managed to quickly flame two, but a third attacked him from behind. "Get off of me!" he shouted, trying to twist and spin as the vampire's fangs reached longingly for his neck.
"Get off of him!" a commanding female voice sounded from behind. Suddenly, a stake came through to the front and Harry cried out as he fell to the ground, seeing Dawn Harris behind the stake. She offered him a quick hand to help him stand up.
"Thanks."
"Anytime," Dawn said, throwing herself back in the fray.
Harry glanced around, ducking a blow himself and managing to pick up a spare stake on the ground and spun just as another vampire pounced, knocking him on his back. Harry managed to kick it off before there was a jolt and he felt something boil inside of him. A blue light shot from the amulet into the vampire and the next thing he knew, it was dust.
Harry stood up slowly, shaking his head when his eyes saw a slim hand covered in blood lying on the ground. "GINNY!" he bellowed, staking the vampire who was going in for the kill. He bent over her, tapping her face. "Ginny?"
She opened her eyes and seemed to focus on him. "Harry? HARRY, LOOK OUT!" Harry ducked just in time, but the blow that was directed for him hit Ginny instead. Ginny fell back to the ground unconscious, just as another figure grasped his arm from the side.
"Harry, we need to get out of here," Hermione hissed, helping him get Ginny off the ground.
"Get her back to the school," he told Hermione.
But Hermione's eyes were focused elsewhere. "Harry," she said, pointing. "Cho! Look at Cho!"
His eyes found her quickly. And widened considerably.
She was fighting vampires, not with a wand or a stake, but with a long sharp axe. As one of the Slayers bent down, she easily rolled over the other girl's back and launched herself into several vampires.
Another jolt came from his stomach. It was though a great heat were rising through his body. "Hermione, get her out of here!"
"Harry?" Hermione asked uncertainly, stumbling back just as a deep blue light began to spin around him. "Harry!"
Faith suddenly saw Harry and lowered her stake momentarily. "Buffy!"
Buffy bent up, fresh from a kill, her eyes searching the group. "What is it?"
"It's Harry Potter," Willow breathed from below them as she too stood up, brushing the dirt from her robes.
The Slayers all looked at each other, petrified as the blue light shot out over the group. Vampires immediately exposed were dusted.
"My amulet!" Spike cried, leaping forward. "It'll kill him!"
"Not before it kills you first," Buffy said, grabbing onto him before he ran into the light.
The light seemed to spread quickly. Both Angel and Spike had to duck into the shadows as dust exploded all around them.
Cho stood up, panting as Dawn stood next to her, stake in hand. Both were looking at Harry in disbelief.
"Cool," Draco Malfoy nodded from behind them.
- - - - -
"No, no, I don't need to stay here!"
Professor Snape glared at the entrance to the hospital wing as he heard a female voice and a voice that was unmistakably Madam Pomfrey's. He opened the doors and stepped inside.
"Severus!" Tara cried, standing up. "Would you please tell the good healer that I cannot stay here a moment longer... my friends are in danger!"
Severus nodded and stepped aside. "Go... do what you need to do."
Madam Pomfrey gasped in indignation as Tara ran from the room. "How could you just let her escape like that? She was nearly killed!"
"Sometimes we all have to sacrifice," he said in a tight voice before turning to the distant echoes of Tara's footsteps.
- - - - -
Buffy turned and glanced around the grounds. There were several Slayers down. Some were starting to come to. And others, she realized, never would.
In the distance behind them, large figures were starting to approach. From the school, Aurors and members of the Order were starting to gather. Remus found her first and sprinted forward. "We held off the giants as long as we could. It's up to Hagrid now." He gestured toward the Aurors, who were going after the Death Eaters, who had hidden in the forest or fled when the vampires had pushed forward.
"Let them come," Buffy sneered, looking around her. "The vampire army is gone."
"Um, Buffy?" Willow asked hesitantly from behind her.
"Our mysterious Slayer has been unmasked," Buffy continued, grinning at Cho Chang.
"Buffy?" Faith asked to her left.
"I'd say all in all, a few giants should be easy enough to handle."
"DUCK!"
Buffy gasped as a body hurled into her just as a sharp red beam of light fell over her head. "What?"
She turned her head back toward Harry. He was still wearing the amulet, but the the silvery blue light was gone, replaced with red. And his eyes were glowing the same shade as he stepped forward.
"Professor!" he cried out, just as his body began to seize up. "Professor... he's taking me!"
Next to him, with a now groaning Ginny in her arms, Hermione gasped.
Voldemort had returned at last.
- - - - -
To be continued.
Just think... this is your last cliffhanger!
Chapter 32 -- Voldemort possesses the Amulet. The giants attack!
All in all, this was a hard chapter to write. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know!