No Longer The Last Safe Place
Amy groped into her Quidditch robes for her wand.
"You guys, get back into the school," she ordered, her voice stretching over the entire Quidditch field. "And for God's sake, Malfoy, get inside before you pee yourself."
Despite the situation, Amy couldn't hide her smile at the trembling Draco Malfoy.
He glared at the both of them. His fear was a total farce. Narcissa had owled him earlier to tell him to be on his guard, and he had been awaiting the Death Eaters anxiously since this morning.
Amy did not catch his glare or the hidden smirk that followed. She was flying towards the commentator's box.
"What are you doing?" McGonagall shouted. The black forms were becoming clearer in the sky, and beginning to take true shape.
"I'm an adult witch and a D.A. member. What do you think I'm doing?" she asked.
"Being an imbecile, that's what you're doing!" McGonagall spat.
"You can't force me off," Amy said quietly.
McGonagall breathed sharply through her nose. "If you insist on being a dunderhead about it, I'll give you this warning. You are the second line of defense, and second line ONLY. And since you are so keen on fighting, you'll follow my orders. Make sure all of the students are back in the school before you even THINK about battling."
"Yes, ma'am." She swung her leg over her broom and zoomed off towards the stands.
Lynn stepped out onto the grounds just to be pushed back with the force of 50 people swarming towards that particular entrance. She stumbled, nearly tripping, and pressed herself against the wall. Reaching tentatively for a familiar person, she managed to lasso Anais and pull her over to the side. Anais was one of Marcie's friends, though she was a 4th-year.
"What's the matter? What happened?" she demanded.
"Death Eaters!" Anais yelped.
The color drained from Lynn's browned face. "Oh my God. What should we do?"
"I don't know." Anais pushed her hair off her face, her hands trembling. "Make sure everyone gets in okay?"
"Yeah. Where's Amy?"
"She's out there."
"She's crazy!" Lynn squeaked.
"I know, I know," Anais said hurriedly. "Listen, let's just try and make sure everyone gets inside, all right? Levitate or something; see that everyone gets in."
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Lynn whispered, pointing her wand at herself and slowly rising in the air.
From her point, she could see the green blur of Draco's Quidditch robes. He was sitting stock-still on his broom, staring at the forms that were ever growing in clarity and size as they flew still faster.
"Locomotor Leviosa!" Lynn whispered, her wand still pointed at herself. Never mind the fact that the Flying Charm took up almost every bit of magical energy a witch could have. She had to get to him.
"Draco!" she yelled, her voice drowned out by sudden screaming and the howling wind. "DRACO!"
He turned his head very slowly and stared at her. She extended her hand. She was just barely 5 feet away from him.
"Come on!" she yelled. "Get inside!"
He looked at her hand, then at her face, back at her hand, and again at her face. Slowly, a grin broke out on his face, and he began chortling. His laughter grew wilder, and mirthful tears leaked from his eye.
"Draco?"
"And you were kinda cute, too. Too bad you're a moron. Ah, well, survival of the fittest, eh?"
"What are you…"
"Crucio!"
Amy screamed as Lynn hit the ground, twitching like a beached fish.
Her wrist whipped in a circle as she aimed for Malfoy. "Petrific…"
"AMY!" someone yelled.
Amy turned around just in time to barely dodge a jet of green light. It missed her but struck her broom. It spun in a circle. Her hands, wet with perspiration, and her stomach, nauseous with the situation of impending doom, would not allow her to stay on her broom. Her hands slipped off, her legs lost balance, and she toppled off her broom.
Even as she prepared to hit the ground she felt someone's hand grab her forearm. With a jerk she stopped in mid-air, and nearly screamed as she felt her shoulder pop out of the socket.
"Amy?! Are you okay?! AMY?!"
She looked up slowly. Balancing awkwardly on a broom was Olivia Applegate.
"AMY!!" Olivia hooked her legs around the broomstick and leaned over, taking Amy's arm with her other hand. She managed to ungracefully pull Amy's torso over the broomstick. Thank God she had taken the broomstick of the Slytherin Chaser, otherwise Amy would be suffering from more than a dislocated shoulder.
Olivia flew back towards the stands, where Thomas was waiting. Slinging Amy's good arm around her shoulder, Olivia dropped the broom from inbetween her legs and deposited Amy into Thomas's arms.
She had joined the D.A. to fight. Now was her big moment.
She grabbed the broom up, straddled it, and took off. The Death Eaters had finally arrived.
Harry and Hermione raced up the stairs, holding each other by the wrists. Just moments ago they had heard McGonagall's warning through an open window.
"Hermione, you go and get students to the Great Hall," he shouted back through short pants of breath.
"What are you doing?" she called back.
"I'm going to go fight."
"Oh, no, you're not!"
Harry's foot caught and he nearly fell forwards as Hermione planted her feet on the floor.
"Hermione, what are you doing?"
"You are not going up to that battlefield alone."
"Hermione, please, let go of my wrist!"
"YOU SWORE YOU WOULDN'T LEAVE ME!!" she screamed at him. "You swore it on Lily's grave! Wherever you go, I'm going to follow. If you go up to that battlefield, I'm going with you. I'll follow you to Hell and back, if that's what it takes for you to STAY WITH ME!!"
Harry stared at her. Her face was paper white and her whole frame trembled. Very slowly, he raised his hand, her hand still clamped on his wrist, and put it to her face.
"I can't have your death on my hands, Hermione."
"Even if you left me right here, I'd follow you. If you chained me to this very spot I'd break through and get to you. Because I love you that much."
"If you truly do, you have to understand that I can't handle having anyone else's deaths on my hands. So, PLEASE, can you just stay inside?"
Hermione took a very deep breath, trying to help her nerves and not succeeding one little bit. "I'll wait for you just inside the doorway. I'll watch you the entire time. I'll help if you need it."
"Hermione…"
"It's either that or I go out there with you for the entire time."
Harry opened his mouth and breathed in, hoping the oxygen would send a stimulator to the nerves that were shattering like a dropped water glass.
"All right."
Harry let go off Hermione's sweaty hand and a burst of sunlight hit his face as he finally stepped out onto the grounds. The glare was so intense that he had to shield his eyes.
Luckily, he hadn't shielded his ears, and heard the scream of "Avada Kedavra!"
He dropped as he felt the curse pass over his head. Thank God that only close-range Killing Curses worked. No one but Voldemort and Dumbledore could possibly make that curse work at anything but point-blank range.
He whipped around as he stood up, pointed his wand, and yelled, "Vuelas!" He heard a scream as a Death Eater flew into a wall, and then a slumping sound that signified the Death Eater had hit the ground and would not be getting up anytime soon.
His blood began to pulse harder in his veins as he felt thick, hot anger rise to his face. This was the third time he had dealt with Death Eaters since Sirius's death. The last two times, Bellatrix Lestrange had not been there. Now, he was sure she was.
"Wooking for me, itty-bitty baby Hawwy Potty?"
"You." Harry whipped around and stood face-to-face with her. The woman who haunted his nightmares, laughing at his incompetence, jeering at his loss, patronizingly waving her wand around like a pendulum and daring him to snatch it from her.
"Yes, me, you little berk. What, is Hawwy mad at wittle ol' Bewwa'?" She laughed. "Nice job you did on my husband, kid. He'll be out cold for at least 10 minutes. Too bad you couldn't concentrate some of that energy at saving my dear old cousin…"
"SHUT UP!!" Harry screamed at her, blood flying up to his face.
"Aw, wittle Hawwy is all upset about poor ol' Siwius dying." She snorted viciously. "The waste of carbon deserved it. Running around with filth…"
This was it. Righteous anger was outweighed by pure, utter hatred. They were mingling together and combining into one single, pulsating force that took over every inch of Harry's body.
"CRUCIO!!"
Bellatrix's mouth stopped moving and her eyes suddenly widened. She tried to speak, but all that escaped her lips were choked groans. Her fingers began to curl, slowly and unnaturally, and she began to lean backwards, as if attempting an acrobatic bridge.
He stared at her cruelly. "Everything you're feeling now is what I've had to go through for 4 months, ever since you killed Sirius. This is what you deserve. Don't worry, you're not alone. This is what Belicia Granger got, too."
Granger. Hermione. She suddenly burst into his thoughts, and the conversation they were having earlier came along with it. Hermione hated using Unforgivables, but she loved the thought of a world free of Voldemort more.
He watched as Bellatrix sank to her knees, on the ground. The sounds escaping her mouth were becoming connected. "Ahhhh…ahhhhhh…" Her voice was climbing higher and higher into a scream.
He stared at her. Surely this is what she deserved. But why did he feel so empty now? Why was the throbbing anger gone?
Hermione's voice came into his head…"I was at the top of the world and in the depths of despair at the same time."
"Finite Incantatem," he whispered, and Bellatrix slumped as the curse left her. "Petrificus Totalus."
Bellatrix froze in her position. Furiously, Harry kicked at her form and knocked her over. She had been much too cocky. She thought he was still the rash 15-year-old he had been in June.
He tore his disdainful eyes from her frozen body and began to scan the area. He had to be here. Voldemort would not attack Hogwarts with just his Death Eaters. He'd do it in person.
Peter looked around the field through the eye slits in his mask. How often had he come down to this Quidditch field in days gone by, to watch or help James and Sirius practice? It seemed almost blasphemous to hold a battle here. It was desecrating the very things held sacred by students.
He looked around again, and suddenly, they were all gone. There were no cloaked and hooded figures brandishing wands and shouting curses, there were no students and teachers yelling back counter jinxes, there were no moans of the dying and injured, indeed, there was only a clean grass scent and a light breeze blowing.
"Wormtail, come on, get on your broom," a male voice called, and Peter whipped around to see James on his Comet 260, the second fastest broom of the day. Peter found an old Shooting Star in his hand, a hand-me-down from his father. "Toss me that Quaffle, would you?"
"Head's up!"
Sirius suddenly shot dangerously close past him, laughing as his Silver Arrow, old but still the fastest broom at that time, strode through the air. He did a loop-de-loop, still laughing wildly.
"Sirius, you will kill yourself one of these days with your stupid stunts," Remus called from his Comet 140, a slow broom but still faster compared to Peter's Shooting Star.
"Yes, yes, and they shall write on my tombstone that I died an honorable death, fighting the forces of the tedious and mundane!"
Remus sighed, James laughed, Sirius turned and flew on his side, and Peter watched it all.
He was suddenly brought back to 2004 as a loud explosion knocked him off his feet and several yards away. He watched as a patch of ground flew over his head, sprinkling the area with dirt that lodged in people's eyes and throats.
'The Quidditch field isn't made for this,' Peter thought wildly. 'It's for school games, for idiots pulling stunts on broomsticks just to make their friends laugh.'
He stared at the field, watching as some little girl tried fighting a fully grown Death Eater. He watched in horror as the Death Eater knocked her over the head with the Dolorous Curse and kicked her away roughly.
He had joined them, for this? To watch as memories were desecrated, as children fought like heroes—and died like heroes, all for a man who would just as soon kill his followers as the next Mudblood?
He couldn't do this anymore. He didn't expect forgiveness or redemption. Not even the anonymous tip he had sent Dumbledore lifted the heaviness weighing on him. But he just couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't live with being responsible for so many people's death.
'James, Lily, Sirius, Remus, Harry…Please forgive me."
His hands seized his cloak. In a sudden burst of adrenaline, his ripped the black cloth away from his person and flung it aside. The sun shone down on his ordinary wizarding clothes, and for the first time in a long time, he felt like Wormtail again.
Elizabeth shoved open the portrait hole of the Snake's Pit, holding a 1st-year by the hand. It had taken a good ten minutes to round them all up. Sniveling brats, Elizabeth branded them. At least, most of them were. She has a special softness for babies and little kids, especially this little 1st-year attached to her hand, who idolized her.
"Hurry up and follow me!" she yelled back at the group. What she wouldn't give for Joan to help her, but Joan was already on the Quidditch field. Joan knew how to command respect. She needed to; she wanted to be an Auror.
She tugged the first year along with her, even as the 11-year-old tripped on the cobblestone floor. She made it to the stairs, jumping nimbly over the trick step.
Other students weren't so lucky.
"You guys are so stupid!" she screeched at them, yanking a 3rd-year's foot from the quicksand-like step. "Now, come on!"
Elizabeth was panicked. This was the last thing she was prepared for, and as the 1st-year clutched her sweaty hand, all she could think of was her baby sister, Michele. Suddenly she thanked God that Michele was still just a toddler and knew nothing of the magical world, and Lydia wouldn't be here for another year.
Unfortunately, not all her relatives were that lucky.
She slammed into Pansy and fell sideways, fortunately catching herself before she hit the ground.
"What's YOUR problem?" she spat, glaring intensely at her cousin.
Pansy remained silent, just staring at Elizabeth as if she were a mildly interesting TV show.
Elizabeth did not take kindly to being patronized. And now was not the time to test her temper.
"If you're done being stupid," she said coolly, swinging her arm to knock Pansy out of her way.
Pansy caught her arm with the grace of a martial arts master and tossed it aside.
"WHAT is your problem?!" Elizabeth screamed at her, pushing the 1st-year behind her and whipping her wand out.
"YOU are my problem, Elizabeth Theresa Attison," Pansy answered.
"Wow, my full name. I'm really scared now," Elizabeth said, rolling her eyes.
"You should be," Pansy said.
"Oh, really?"
"Really." Pansy raised her wand, pointed it at Elizabeth, and screamed, "Furnunculus!"
Elizabeth shrieked as a huge boil appeared on the side of her face. She clasped her hand to it, but it was already spreading across her whole cheek, festering and popping.
"What are you doing?!" she shrieked, as the boil began to swell out as well as all over.
Pansy brandished her wand, her sleeve falling to her shoulder to show the unearthly Dark Mark on her arm, and said icily, "Silencio."
But Elizabeth was ready this time. She whipped her wand in a circle, screaming, "PROTEGO!!"
The stream of white light from Pansy's wand bounced off an invisible force field that rippled as the spell hit. The spell rebounded and flew off course.
Pansy's eyes flashed furiously. Her wand shook in her hand. "Ava…"
But she never finished the incantation. Her wand dropped out of her hand and she stumbled backwards as Elizabeth's fist smashed into her face.
Pansy screamed, enraged, and opened her mouth to shout an incantation, but Elizabeth dropped to the ground and swung her leg out, tripping Pansy. As the Parkinson daughter fell to the ground, Elizabeth kicked her in the ribs.
Pansy choked, gasping for breath and reaching for her dropped wand. Elizabeth saw her hand not a moment too soon, and kicked the wand out of her reach.
Pansy swore, trying to straighten up, but Elizabeth reared her foot and dug it deep into Pansy's side again. She shrieked, her eyes and voice overflowing with pain.
"Come on, go, go, go!" Elizabeth yelled, grabbing the hand of the 1st-year and jumping nimbly over Pansy's body. She hit the ground just an inch away from Pansy's head, as the fallen girl curled into an almost fetal position to dodge Elizabeth's feet.
The students charged after Elizabeth towards the Great Hall, as the screams of the trampled Pansy faded behind her.
Dumbledore wiped blood off his upper lip and shot another curse at Voldemort. The battle was not going smoothly. But then again, what battle went smoothly?
He dodged a stream of green light and let out another red one. His nerves were jangling in his body, and he was fighting desperately to control them. Normally he was in complete control.
Was it the events of last June that was doing him in, or was it the sudden freshness in the wound left by Oleta's insanity? Why was she always coming back to him? She had been an amnesiac for nigh unto 17 years, but seeing Voldemort now, it was as if it was 1987 again, and he had knelt beside her, trying to conjure life into her blank eyes after fighting Voldemort out of the house. The old anger, the old woe was welling up inside him again and it was fueling his magic…but it was also clouding his judgment.
"HOYO!"
He jabbed his wand in the air and sent out a stream of pure, brilliant gold, blinding to the sight. Power radiated from tip to tip.
He watched as it hit his target, watched as the target let out a groan of agony. Voldemort was clutching his chest, where Dumbledore could see that blood was running loose. But it wasn't normal red blood. It was a thick, disgusting blue-black color.
Voldemort swore incoherently. Dumbledore could not hear exactly what he said. His eyes were fixed on that blood, the color of midnight and the thickness of undiluted eggnog. He'd heard about that blood before. There was something special about that blood. What was it!?
"Professor, look out!"
His mind was brought instantly back to reality as someone pulled him to the right, dodging an angry red stream of light. Parvati was clutching his arm.
"Professor, are you okay?" she yelped, her voice raising with every word.
Thoughts came rushing at him. He had been so absorbed in his fight that he hadn't noticed that some students were still on the field. They needed to be out of here, and now.
"I'm fine, Miss Patil," he started.
His eye suddenly caught another stream of red coming at him. He jumped, shielding Parvati with his back, and narrowly missed getting hit.
"Gather all the students and go back to the castle! Professor McGonagall will tell you where to go! Quickly! Now!"
Parvati nodded her head wildly and then took off. From the corner of his eye, he saw her catch Lavender by the waist and drag her from the fight she was having with what seemed a relatively minor Death Eater.
"Dumbledore, keep your mind on your fight!" Voldemort howled. "Or do you want to go the way I planned to kill your wife?"
Dumbledore turned, blue eyes turned to glacier ice.
"And you failed at even that, didn't you, Tom?" he said coolly.
Voldemort let out a snarl of rage and let out another attack, but Dumbledore had vanished. He silently cursed the old man. He was always forgetting key components. That sacrificing your life was a powerful charm…that phoenix tears had healing powers…that Dumbledore could become invisible at will.
He let out a snarl like a cornered animal and whirled around. Dumbledore was too noble to attack while invisible, but the Potter brat had to be here. He'd already lost against one enemy. He'd see to it he wouldn't lose to another.
"Bennie, you ready?"
Bennie turned to look at her Defense Against Dark Arts professor.
"I know it's weird," Tonks said sympathetically. "And I don't like it any more than you do."
"Yeah…" Bennie said softly.
"So, are you ready?"
Bennie nodded resignedly, chewing at the corner of her mouth.
"Count of three. One…two…three."
Bennie felt a strange movement inside her, like an earthquake had started, with her body as the epicenter. She felt her face bubble as it morphed into another form, the nose lengthening, the eyes tightening. She felt her hair straighten and could almost see it changing color. She felt herself shoot up at least two feet. And she felt her comfortable wizard robes turn into a weighted black coat. A sudden darkness over her face startled her, before she remembered that it was part of the disguise.
Most frightening of all was the sudden burning on her arm that she knew was making a tattoo she neither wanted nor cared to see.
She turned to look at Tonks, but standing in her place was a masked and cloaked Death Eater.
"Remus knows, so they won't think we've gone missing," Tonks said, but her voice was harder, colder. "I'm Bellatrix Lestrange and you're Belicia Granger if we're asked. Do not follow Aaron Granger or Rodolphus Lestrange at all; we can't risk our "husbands" finding out we're masquerading."
"Yeah," Bennie assented.
"Huh. Never thought I'd be masquerading as my dear old auntie Bellatrix."
"Me, either," Bennie said grimly.
"Well…let's go."
Tonks took off running, Bennie tailing her.
"I should've known you'd throw our deal away."
Snape backed up against the stands, his wand held protectively against his chest, as Lucius strolled towards him, unmasked and grinning.
"For her. For that ugly tart, you gave up power and the purification of our race."
"And for your ugly tart, you took servitude and groveling like a house-elf. Your utter lack of self-respect has led you to battling me on a Quidditch field. Corte piel!"
Lucius let out a sharp cry as a deep, disgusting cut appeared on his forearm, right over the Dark Mark. Blood showed through the black cloak and trickled down the sleeve and across his hand.
"You, Severus, will sorely regret that."
Severus watched as Lucius's wand directed at him at him and prepared himself for defense. But to his shock, the wand instantly shot to the right.
To where Petunia was dueling barely five feet away.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Lucius suddenly felt a body slam into his and knock him off balance. He skidded across the grass as the green light flew from his wand. The force of the blow cause the wand to jerk off target, and Petunia screamed with surprise as her opponent suddenly dropped dead.
Lucius clambered to his feet, panicked. He got to his feet, an icy fury shining from his gray eyes. He was startled to see a glare of greater magnitude, sent by coal-black eyes, directed straight at him, far more frightening than he could ever muster up.
"If you harm her," Snape said, a quiet and deadly tone ringing in his voice and every part of his body, "I will kill you."
"You will, will you?" Lucius drawled. "You're that devoted to her, are you? That's highly amusing, Severus."
"As is your face."
"That's highly childish, don't you think?"
"It works for me."
"Enough chatter." Lucius's face hardened suddenly. "I do believe we were dueling."
"As do I."
Lucius opened his mouth, raising his wand, but Snape was faster.
"CORTE BRAZO!!"
Lucius stopped mid-incantation, choking. Any color that was in his face drained out of it. Snape grimaced as he watched Lucius's wand arm slither out of his clock and collapse onto the ground, a bloody, lifeless mess of a limb, neatly severed as if cut by a master butcher.
Lucius did not make a sound though his face was a white as a wraith. Before Snape could move to destroy the wand he had grabbed it with his other hand and whispered "Portus."
He was gone in an instant, leaving his arm lying on the ground.
"Severus, McGonagall just…what is that thing?!" Petunia shrieked. She had just Petrified another opponent and turned to see him staring at Lucius's abandoned arm.
"I've struck a blow for you, Petunia," he murmured, not taking his eyes off the arm. "That was the arm that tortured you years ago."
Petunia looked slightly green as she saw the blood-stained appendage lying so still on the grass, but she fought back her nausea. "Severus, McGonagall says that we have to leave now! I have no idea where but we have to get as many people as we can inside the Great Hall to Floo out of here. Just…just grab whoever you can and run inside!"
Before he could stop her, she was running towards a group of D.A. members who were taking on two Death Eaters, unsheathing her wand. Casting his eyes around, he spotted more people on his side and hastened to do likewise.
"Get out of the way. Get out of the way, girl!"
Joan did not flinch as Voldemort spat the words at her.
"No."
"I have no qualms about killing you, you realize that, don't you?"
"You don't?" Joan sniffed. "Then go right ahead. Kill me."
His wand was directed straight at her forehead. A curse would have gone straight through her brain. But no words left his mouth, and no light emitted from the tip of his wand.
"You won't kill me," Joan said. "You can't. I'm the very last of any good you've ever had in your life, and even if you are the Dark Lord, you can't get rid of that." Joan pondered her words for a minute. "Even though I don't have the power to kill you, in a sense I'm stronger than you are."
"Out! Get out of the way!" Voldemort reached out with a cloaked arm and roughly shoved her aside. She maintained her grace even as she half-stumbled away from him.
"My Lord!" A Death Eater was running towards him, drawing the wand from it place. "Shall I kill the girl for you?"
Voldemort outstretched his arm, planted his palm on the Death Eater's chest, and thrust him backwards. He flew backwards at least 7 feet, skidding along the ground.
"You don't touch this girl," Voldemort hissed, in the frightening tone that he used to speak to Harry. "No one touches this girl."
Joan watched as Voldemort swept away. She knew that she held sway over him but that knowledge did not appear to make her happy. In fact, she grimaced as she watched him walk away, before pocketing her wand and running towards the entrance into Hogwarts.
Hermione watched the last remnants of the battle slowly pulled away. The D.A. and the Staff were maneuvering inconspicuously into Hogwarts one at a time, keeping the Death Eaters busy with duels as they retreated.
"You! You, Granger! And you, Applegate!"
Hermione was startled out of her observations as Snape rushed towards her, with the dirty and bloody Seamus, Anthony, Katie, Emmanuela and Terry trailing behind him. She quickly turned around and nearly jumped to see Marcie behind her. Emmanuela was quick to join Marcie's side.
"Don't stand there like imbeciles, get to the Great Hall!"
He swept past her with the D.A. member, Katie reaching for Hermione's robe to urge her along.
Marcie gave a short but terrified kind of gasp.
"What? What is it?!" Hermione yelped.
"It's Lynn!"
Hermione whipped around, finally noticing that Lynn, the first to fall, was still lying on the grass. She had hit the ground from a height of 50 feet with the Cruciatus Curse lingering inside her, though they didn't know it.
"Come on, Emmanuela," Marcie yelped, making a hand movement for the small girl to follow her.
"Wait! What are you doing?"
"Getting Lynn!" Marcie yelled, sprinting from the hallway that led to the Quidditch field, quickly followed by Emmanuela.
"Wait! Wait! You can't just go tearing out there!" Hermione felt her legs pumping after them. "The Death Eaters…they might…"
Marcie had already skidded to a stop and knelt beside Lynn, Emmanuela following suite. Hermione was approaching them, nearly at them.
"Stupefy!"
Marcie, who had already taken hold of Lynn's body, jumped out of the way as the Stunning Spell flew past her. The Death Eater that Voldemort had so roughly brushed aside was off the ground, pointing his wand at the four girls.
"Ah, 'Mione, who are your little friends?" he asked, in a high, cold, laughing voice.
"Aaron," Hermione muttered, staring at him. She had taken a protective stance in front of the girls, her wand in hand.
"Now, is that any way to address your father, 'Mione?" Aaron said absently. "It's too bad your mother didn't have enough power to finish you off a few months ago."
"My mother is dead. You and Belicia are the misfortune I was born to. Duele!"
The Dolorous Curse. The forerunner of the Cruciatus Curse. Half as powerful but allowed more time for torturing the victim. A suitable curse for Aaron, Hermione reasoned. Her palm wrapped around her wand and shoved it a few more inches into the air as Aaron's sneering face began to contort in agony.
Marcie flinched as Hermione let out the spell, but she had not time to waste. Emmanuela was assisting her with handling Lynn's unconscious body until she was in an upright position. Marcie wrapped her arm around Lynn's waist and clasped her to her side.
"Emmanuela," Marcie suddenly whispered. "When I say "now", we hit this guy with whatever curse we can think of. Okay?"
"Right," Emmanuela answered.
Marcie and Emmanuela inched their way around Hermione. Aaron's face was white with pain from the Dolorous Curse, but as he watched the two of them sidestep away, he wrenched himself backwards, shocking Hermione so much that she inadvertently ended the curse.
"Oh, no, you don't!" he screeched, turning his wand at them.
"NOW!" Marcie shrieked.
"Tarantallegra!" Emmanuela screeched, as Marcie yelled, "Furnunculus!"
The two jinxes hit him one at a time, and instead of turning him into a slug, his legs went into an uncontrollable tap dance and his mask flew off, as boils just like Elizabeth's began to pop up and fester about his face.
"Go, go!" Hermione screamed at them. They didn't need telling twice. Lynn's head bobbing with the movement, Marcie and Emmanuela ran for Hogwarts.
Hermione was facing Aaron, death and rage on her face. He had cast the counter-jinx on himself while she had been shouting. His face was still covered in a moss-like mess but his legs were now straightened out and planted firmly on the ground.
He whipped his wand and pointed it at her. She did the same, with a symmetry rivaling a mirror's.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!!!!!!!" both of them shrieked at once.
A green wave passed over one of them…someone fell to the ground, the grass crunching beneath them…Harry from twenty feet away screamed out Hermione's name and ran for her.
Hermione dropped her wand. In front of her, as if frozen and knocked over, lay her biological father, his wand still pointed at the angle it had been when he tried to kill her. Her hands shook as she raised them to her head, gripping her hair.
"Hermione!" Harry managed to stop his sprint by grabbing her from behind and using her body as pole to swing around and face her. "Hermione, did you…?"
"I…I killed him, Harry. I killed Aaron Granger."
Her face was ashen, a porcelain white so unnatural that he feared that circulation had been irreversibly stopped. Quite suddenly, she slumped, and collapsed into Harry's arm in a dead faint.
Ron wiped sweat from his brow and let out a strip of gold light, matched by the purple light from Luna's wand. They had been fighting this Death Eater for 10 minutes and had seen no moment to escape or Petrify him.
And Luna seemed reluctant to curse this Death Eater, which Ron credited to either fear or forgetfulness of the spells.
"Luna, look alive!" he yelled, and then winced. The searing pain in his welts had been steadily rising throughout this battle.
"Stupefy!" the Death Eater yelled.
"Protego!" Ron shouted, and the curse bounced off him and shot sideways, past Luna, and disintegrated in mid air.
"Vuelas!" Luna half-shouted, half-whispered. The jinx ran up against him and made him jump back several feet, but he recovered easily and charged back to them.
Ron opened his mouth to jinx him but he was quicker.
"Vuelas!"
Using Luna's spell, he threw Ron backwards with much more force than Luna's had had. Ron hit the ground with a thud on his back and rolled over and over before stopping ten feet away.
Furiously, he jumped up, ready to shoot another spell, but what he saw stopped him.
The Death Eater had his arm wrapped as tightly as a boa constrictor across Luna's collar bone, holding her against him. His wand was held threateningly above her head.
"One more step. One spell and I swear, she won't live to tell about it."
"Ron!" Luna screeched. There was nothing that defined Luna Lovegood in her now, there was only the panic of a trapped animal. "Tell Dumbledore…you've got to tell him…"
As she spoke, blood began to pour from her temples. She shook her head furiously, trying to stop them from dripping into her eyes. "You've got to tell him…the Dark Side, gone to the Dark Side…" The blood flowed quicker and with more conviction than ever.
"Shut up!" The Death Eater screeched, taking his eyes off Ron to look down at her. "Shut up, idiot girl!"
Ron saw his chance. With a bellow loud enough to rival a wounded bear's, he let out, "STUPEFY!!!"
Both the Death Eater and Luna froze in place. They swayed and overbalanced, falling backwards and onto the grass.
Ron sprinted towards the frozen forms and knelt next to them. With all the strength he could muster, ignoring the pain left by the brains that was now surging through his entire body, he pried at the Death Eater's hand until he moved the leaden arm off of Luna's collar bone. She was limp in his arms. The blood had stopped coming but what was already there was slipping off her forehead. She was horribly reminiscent of how Ginny had been after the attack at Grimmauld Place.
"Ennervate," he whispered, tapping her with his wand. She stirred, and her eyes half-opened. She was barely hanging on to consciousness.
"I'll finish him off," Ron said. "Then I'll get you to Pomfrey."
"No," Luna said in an urgent whisper. "No, Ron, don't…don't kill him…"
"Luna!"
"Please, Ron, please…don't kill him."
Ron stared at her, her eyes drooping as if she was nodding off to sleep.
"…Please…"
"All right, I won't kill him," he promised, aggravated. He fixed her so her head was slung over his shoulder, draping her arms around his neck, her legs dangling. Luna's eyes shut as she leaned her head into his neck. Suddenly feeling slightly embarrassed for some reason he couldn't fathom, he wrapped one arm around her back and the other across her thighs.
Across the field he could see Harry doing much the same with Hermione. But Hermione weighed more than Luna, so Harry couldn't carry her like Ron. He had slung one of her arms around his shoulders and had another arm around her hips, exactly like how Marcie had carried Lynn.
"Harry!" Ron screamed. "Is Hermione…is she…did they kill her?"
"No!" Harry called back. "She's just unconscious! I'll explain later! We have to get inside now!"
Ron didn't need telling twice. As Luna's grip tightened around his neck, he charged towards Hogwarts.
From the corner of his eye, he saw what he knew to be Voldemort on the other side of the field. He nearly shouted to Harry but something stopped him. They would be fighting with two unconscious or semiconscious girls clinging to them. From Harry's face, Ron could tell that Harry was also aware of Voldemort's presence and was incensed that he could not fight him now. Ron's half-open mouth shut and he ran mutely after Harry and into the school, where Marcie and Emmanuela were standing with Lynn, waiting for them.
"Hurry up, hurry up," Gibson urged. He and Susan were making the last rounds around Hogwarts, herding the few stragglers in the hallways. In the panic, they and the others had not remembered there were other students besides those outside until Elizabeth had brought a group of non-sports fans into the Great Hall.
They looked up as they heard running footsteps, and Susan let out a sort of terrified gasp as Marcie, Emmanuela, Ron, and Harry came at them, carrying the three girls.
"What happened to them?!" Susan yelped, staring, horrified, at Hermione. She and Hermione had been close since second year.
"They're just unconscious, they're not dead," Ron said, breathless from running even though Luna felt feather-light in his arms. "Luna's half-awake, some Death Eater did something to her…"
"No time, no time," Gibson said, going to Marcie and taking one of Lynn's arms to put around his own shoulders. He took off with Marcie, trailed by Susan, Harry with Hermione, Ron with Luna, Emmanuela, and the few students they had managed to round up.
"Hey!" Ernie called. He and Hannah were fast approaching. "We let all the owls out of the owlery!"
"What about the other animals?" Marcie asked frantically, thinking of her silver tabby, Beth.
"We think the students got them all, at least in the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw houses," Hannah said, gasping for breath. "We're not sure, though." She caught sight of Hermione, Luna, and Lynn. "What happen…"
"Hannah, there's not time, let's go," Ernie said hurriedly, catching her by the wrist.
Gibson and Marcie started running again, followed by the others, down the hallway and into the Great Hall.
They entered the Hall. Surprisingly, it was nearly empty. The entire D.A. and most of the staff were there, along with a few students and some animals.
"We sent most of the students home already," Colin explained, as the group approached him. "God, Harry, are the girls okay?!"
"They're fine, they just need Pomfrey," Harry said hurriedly.
"Colin, did Ginny go out on the Quidditch field?!" Ron asked, sliding Luna over so he could look at his baby sister's boyfriend. "Answer me!" He snatched at the front of Colin's robes.
"No!" Colin gasped, startled. "She wanted to, but Professor McGonagall made her Floo somewhere. I don't know where."
"Ron, stop shaking the poor kid!" Dean yelled from not far away. He was holding a bowl of Floo Powder and guiding along what looked like a 2nd-year Gryffindor. The girl grabbed a handful, shouted out her home address, and disappeared in a flash of green light. At another fire not far away, Neville and Tony were doing the same for a 4th-year Slytherin boy.
"ATTENTION."
The entire room jumped when McGonagall's voice echoed off the stone walls.
"WHEN THE DEFENSE ASSOCIATION IS FINISHED ASSISTING NON-MEMBERS TO THEIR HOMES, PLEASE ASSEMBLE AT THE NEAREST FIRE AND FLOO TO NUMBER 8, FREIMON AVENUE. I REPEAT, NUMBER 8, FREIMON AVENUE."
Soft meows took Harry's attention from McGonagall. Marcie had deposited Lynn totally onto Gibson and now, slung over each shoulder, were two cats. One was her own. The other was Crookshanks. Harry thought wildly for a moment that Hermione would never forgive them if they left Crookshanks behind.
Corinne helped the last student into the fire.
"ALL DEFENSE ASSOCIATION MEMBERS, PLEASE FLOO TO NUMBER 8, FREIMON AVENUE, NOW."
Wild thoughts passed through Harry's mind. He couldn't see where Bennie or Tonks were, nor Remus, and he knew Voldemort was still on the field with the dead body of Aaron Granger lying Petrified on the grass. But as these thoughts passed through his brain he moved mechanically towards a fireplace. He grabbed a handful of powder thinking that this was dangerous, but his Invisibility Cloak was still upstairs. While he mentally cursed his bad luck, he threw down the powder, and in a burst of green flame he was whisked through the fireplace, Hermione still held to him.
He hit the ground in another fireplace, hearing Ginny's shriek. She ran towards him, yelling something about Hermione being okay, but the soot had clouded up his glasses and ears, and he could neither see nor understand Ginny.
Someone took Hermione and pulled her away from him. With a startled cry he reached after her, but someone had taken his arm and was pulling him upright.
"Come on, don't block up the fireplace, there's more of you coming, Ja—Harry," a female voice said. "Good God, I almost called you "James"."
Harry frantically wiped the soot from his glasses and stared through the smeared lenses at the woman who was holding his arm. She was taller than him, with large black eyes, long, thick black hair, and a heart-shaped face reminiscent of Tonks.
"Andromeda?" he asked stupidly.
"That's me, Harry, now come on, go up those stairs. My husband and the elves will set you up."
"Hermione…"
"Is that the girl you came with? Ginny and my elf Timmory are taking care of her. Go on, I can hear another one coming."
Dazedly, Harry saw the steps she meant, and with legs that were finally shaking from all that he had done today, he slowly climbed the steps to the next floor of the house.