A/N: This is the chapter where everyone hates me by the end. (evil grin!) By the way, I'm too exhausted to really look this chapter over. I'm sure it's all great. See you!
Ravenclaw Disclaimer: Well, honestly! JKR wouldn't expect us to whittle our energies away on trivial pursuits. What else were we supposed to do with our time, except write?
Chapter Twenty-one -
The Hogsmeade Hunt
"I'm going to head over to the three broomsticks for a butterbeer, Anyone with me?" Hermione shivered in her heaviest cloak while she waited for the others to finish with their snowball fight. She and Luna had just returned to the hill beside the Shrieking Shack from Scrivenshaft's Quill Emporium.
Ron poked his head up above the barricade he and Ginny had created out of the heavily falling snow. "I'll come!" he shouted, and received a mitful of snow right in his face. His woolen hat was knocked off, and he spluttered furiously.
Harry and Neville were laughing uproariously at Ron's reaction, and they didn't see Ginny sneaking in from the side with two large fisfuls of snow.
Ginny grabbed the necklines of both their cloaks, and in a stunning two handed maneover, stuffed the contents down both their backs at once.
The resulting shrieks sounded embarrassingly feminine, and Ginny quickly used the giggling Hermione and a rather bored-looking Luna as her human shields.
Neville had succeeded in loosening the snow from his cloak, and scooped up two more handfuls before he'd noticed where she had gone. "Aww, come off it Sabertooth! We can't hit them! They weren't even part of it!"
"That's what I'm counting on!" Ginny muffled back to him from the protective folds of Hermione's cloak.
"So are you coming to the Three Broomsticks or not?" Luna said as she turned and began to saunter back down the hill towards Hogsmeade. She looked as though she hadn't just witnessed the torture-by-snow that Ginny had provided.
"Yeah, we're coming." Harry said, shaking the snow out of the hood of his cloak. "Just remember I owe you one Ginny." He sneered at her jokingly.
"Ooooh, I'm absolutely shaking in my boots!" She giggled sarcastically, still using Hermione as her cover.
Harry searched the folds of his cloak, and was quite surprised to come up empty. "Oh no! I've lost my wand!" Harry really didn't like the thought that he didn't have his wand on him. It made him feel vulnerable. The last time it had gone missing, someone had stolen it, and he didn't want to think that he might be in the same position now. He cast his eyes from left to right over the town, but no one looked overtly suspicious. It didn't seem he was being followed.
Ron and Neville turned and immediately began searching through the snow with Harry.
"I've found it!" Ron said exhuberantly, and he handed it to Harry.
Harry breathed a sigh of relief, clutching his wand to his chest, and turned to see if Ginny had come out from her hiding spot. She hadn't, but Harry made a promise to himself that he would retaliate in some form later when he had the chance.
Ginny stayed hidden from both Neville and Harry until the pack had reached the door to the Three Broomsticks pub, and walked inside.
The air was warm in the pub, and the atmosphere was welcoming and pleasant.
Harry noticed professor Vector chatting excitedly to a drunk-looking professor Trelawney over at one of the small round tables near the Christmas tree in the back. He saw Snape standing beside Vector in the shadows and he was looking rather disgusted with the their topic. He looked over and sneered at the group of students for a moment, before Harry quickly looked away.
They took up one of the large booths opposite the bar, as far away from the teachers as possible. As much as Harry, Ron and Hermione were curious about the teacher's conversation, they didn't want to be that close to those particular teachers. Especially when they knew that Snape had spotted them coming in.
"Did you find the book you were looking for Hermione?" Ginny asked politely.
Hermione shook her head. "I didn't really expect to, but I thought someone might be able to point me in the right direction."
"And no one could?"
"No. I'll just have to check Flourish and Blotts in London over Christmas. Maybe they know where I can find it."
Madam Rosmerta hustled up to their table at that moment, and they all ordered butterbeer, except for Luna, who ordered something called a 'black cat', and specifically requested non-alcoholic, as though the barmaid couldn't tell that she was under seventeen.
"So, did everyone get a chance to get all their Christmas shopping done?" Hermione asked pleasantly, trying to get them back into the jovial Christmas spirit.
"I've still got one more thing to get and it'll be near impossible." Ron complained.
"Who's it for?" asked Ginny.
"Percy."
Ginny's eyes lit up. "It's okay. I've bought him something pretty good. You can go in on it with me, all right?"
"All right." Ron smiled. "What is it?"
Harry began to tune out the conversation a bit. He'd just felt something he hadn't in awhile.
A twinge in his scar.
It wasn't a bad one, and seeing as his scar nearly always felt a little sore, it was probably nothing to worry about. But he could feel a source of happiness and anticipation that he should not have felt. It was not his emotion to feel and as such, he was worried. Any time Voldemort was happy was not a good time for anyone else.
He made sure no one was watching him before he closed his eyes and relaxed.
000000
The snow crunched thickly beneath his feet. His eyes stared at the cluster of people before him, and he smiled darkly.
Far off behind, the tiny hamlet appeared on the horizon from behind a crude outcropping of gnarled trees.
"We begin immediately""Yes my Lord."
"Wormtail, you will be my eyes and ears." He pointed to the forest. "The rest of you will circle and destroy all that you see. Give any trustworthy person the opportunity to join with us, and if they refuse, kill them. Any mudbloods are to be forcefully questioned and then executed."
The Death-Eaters all nodded with anticipation, and all but one started to march off into position. There were twenty seven of them, and he felt they could surround the town quite easily.
"I ask that you all return to me with wondrous news and a good number of hostages. You know who I want Bellatrix, that is your job. I will leave you to it."
"I'm looking forward to it." The female voice by his side whispered.
"Harry?"
Harry leapt to his feet, and smashed his thighs against the wooden table in the process. "Argh!" He ground out a hiss between clenched teeth. He looked at Ron, who had spoken, and realized the entire table was now looking at him with confused and worried expressions.
His scar still burned, and Harry knew they were all in danger. "Everyone, get out." He said forcefully. Fear burning through his blood, mixing with the feelings of anticipation and glee that were not his to feel. He pulled out his wand.
"What?" Hermione asked, looking mystified.
"Get-out!" Harry nearly yelled. "They're coming!"
The six friends leapt from their places simultaneously, making Madam Rosmerta halt in her path, and eye them angrily. She held a tray with five bottles and a black smoking goblet.
"Put them down anywhere, and get out." Harry told her. "It's going to get dangerous in here."
Madam Rosmerta didn't know Harry that well, but being a barmaid, she obviously heard things many people didn't. She trusted Harry without comment. She dropped the drinks on the table, rushed back behind the bar, and grabbed her shawl. She nodded to Harry once, then slipped out the back door.
'One down...'
"What will we do?" Hermione asked, putting on her cloak.
"Indeed?" Snape's thick voice ground them all to a halt. "What may I ask, would make six students, who have only just arrived, suddenly abandon their drinks without paying? Or might I add, even drinking them."
"Professor, they're coming here now!" Harry stared directly into his professor's eyes, making him see the truth. "They've got the whole town surrounded! We have to get all of these people out of here!"
As Snape stared menacingly at Harry, something amazing happened.
Snape nodded, and his eyes filled with unquestionable fear.
"We'll need more people." He said quickly. "Can I trust you to organize some sort of escape while I summon the Order?"
Harry nodded, stunned at the sudden change in the demeanor of his professor.
Snape twitched his wand.
Nothing happened.
Again, Snape's eyes flooded with fear, but this time also an icy resolve.
"They've put up an apparition ward." He whispered.
Harry felt as though he were sinking into the earth, and would never be heard from again. There was going to be a battle here, and there was very little that he could do about it. He would have to fight, and he would have to survive. Even now, the pain in his scar had dissipated almost completely, and Harry knew that Voldemort would not be here to confront him. The Dark Lord had gone home, and was waiting for news. The thought made him a little angry and frustrated that he wouldn't have the opportunity to end it all, but the fear still swirled dizzyingly through his head. He knew that Voldemort or no Voldemort, he and his friends were still not ready to fight.
Things had never been clearer to him in his life.
"Hermione, you can go."
"What?" she asked looking a little confused.
Ron's eyes lit up, and he pulled her aside so that Snape wouldn't overhear. "Eyespy is the one with the most likely chance of getting a message to Dumbledore." He said. "And you'll be safe if you go."
Hermione understood immediately. Ron turned to Neville.
"Neville, we need everyone in town to get into the trapdoor in Honeydukes and escape to Hogwarts. People will trust a sad-looking dog's instincts when they won't always trust a person."
Neville nodded, and he began to edge away with Hermione while Harry thought up some way of diverting people's attention. He thought that if somehow, he could draw all of the Death-Eaters away from the rest of town, Neville might have a better chance.
Before anyone could do anything however, the door of the Three Broomsticks pub was blasted inwards by what seemed to be a gale-force-wind and the whole pub errupted with screams. The flying door aimed itself directly at the pack, and the only one not able to get out of the way in time was Snape. The edge of the door caught his shoulder, and sent him spinning back into a table. Harry thought he might have heard something crack as the potions master landed, smashing the table, and he winced at the sound.
Snape's eyes were closed, and he was either dead or unconscious. They had no more chance to observe the sudden chaos before dark shadows crossed the threshold of the door.
Harry counted six of them, all wearing long black cloaks and white Death-Eater masks. He heard the screaming in the pub intensify, and many people overturned tables to protect themselves as they made their escape.
"Get me four of them! You know who I want!" He heard a woman screech, but didn't truly understand that the voice belonged to someone he knew and loathed.
Harry had his wand out and ready to fight even as he realised that the pack already seemed to be three less than before.
Hermione, Neville and Luna had disappeared.
A Great-Horned Owl flew through an open window in the back, a yellow gecko slithered under an armchair, and a curled brown tail disappeared behind the bar and out the back door. None of the Death-Eaters saw a thing amidst the dust.
"Ahhh... What have we here?" drawled the sickening voice of Lucius Malfoy behind the first Death-Eater mask. "My, my... all in one place! Our lord is certainly going to be impressed. Bellatrix! They're all here!" He pointed his wand back at Harry.
"Expelliarmus!"
"Protego!" Harry's shield seemed to be strong enough to preserve not only his own wand, but also those of Ron and Ginny.
"What do you think you're doing Malfoy?" Harry yelled. "I don't think Voldemort usually sends off a weak curse like that to start a fight! Dentera!"
Malfoy yelped, and let out a gargle of pain as his teeth began to chew uncontrollably on his tongue. Harry felt a sick sort of pleasure at having sent this curse at both Malfoys with similar results.
"Stupefy!" Ron yelled, and one of the other Death-Eaters collapsed.
The three of them took quick refuge behind the bar as the room exploded with spells and hexes. It seemed that the other few people who were left in the pub had been given a bit of hope by the actions of a few young children, and some of them joined the fight while their friends slipped out the windows and back door.
Malfoy was getting angry. Harry could feel the sizzling heat of his hexes as they whooshed overhead. Obviously he knew a thing or two about soundless magic, and could overcome the annoyance of pain. A stream of blood dripped from his pale lips, and he gargled to MacNair, who stood beside him.
MacNair translated for him, and yelled at a smaller Death-Eater. "We aren't enough here! Go get the others! Get as many of them as you can find!"
The diminutive Death-Eater nodded, and slipped out the door in compliance with Malfoy's apparent order.
The Death-Eaters began to stream in the doors. As much as the sight terrified Harry, he knew that Neville had more of a chance now. A couple of the Death-Eaters brandished their wands fiercely, but didn't make any moves toward Harry, Ron and Ginny. It was obvious that these new Death-Eaters were not quite as prepared for battle as Voldemort and Malfoy seemed to think.
Harry nodded at them, and laughed. "It seems your lord is just setting himself up for a major disappointment! Look at those losers he calls his faithful servants!" Harry yelled at the furiously machinating Malfoy. "Expelliarmus!" Malfoy wasn't able to get a shield up in time, due to his lost verbal skills and was blasted backwards into the side of an armchair. His wand flew into the air, and it landed on top of the bar.
Lucius Malfoy was badly injured from his fall. He had a broken leg and was gripping his ribs and wincing in pain. Harry saw him reach into a pocket and attempt to mutter an incantation around a seriously swollen and bleeding tongue then in a swirl of colour he was gone.
The laughter began.
It was shrill and full of uncontained mirth, and it was very obviously, the voice of Bellatrix Lestrange.
Harry felt a hatred fill him that he had never before realized. It was not a pleasant feeling, and Harry was a little disgusted with himself. It consumed him with contempt and the absolute dire need for him to kill this woman.
"You killed Sirius." Harry yelled.
She laughed. It only incited Harry's wrath even more.
"You will pay for what you've done!" He spat the words as though they were venom, and Harry felt Ron and Ginny flinch at his sides.
The sudden realization that Harry still had some friends standing beside him stopped the curse from leaving his lips. Their presence pulled him back to reality.
Hadn't he told Hermione when school began that he could never kill out of revenge? What had made him think it would be all right now, just because it was this particular woman?
He sent another strong curse over the countertop, then turned to his friends. "Ron, go and help Neville get people out of the town."
"No!" Ron yelled. "I'm not leaving Ginny!"
"Excuse me?" Ginny said looking insulted. "Go, Ron. You're small enough to hide! Harry and I aren't!" She hissed.
Ron looked at his sister as Harry kept them covered with various spells. It seemed that the Death-Eaters had decided that this pub was where all of the action was happening, and were pouring in the door in droves. The few people from the pub that had stayed behind to help Harry and his friends were skirting their way out the back door looking terrified.
"Go!" Harry yelled once more. "I'll take care of her!" He wasn't really sure what he was going to do all alone with almost twenty Death-Eaters, but it was necessary for him to hold them off as long as possible. They could do that without Ron, but Neville would need some help. He momentarily berated himself. What was he doing, trying to save everyone again? He caught a few more Death-Eaters with incapacitating hexes before he remembered.
"My choice is to protect the innocent, Ron." He muttered quietly in between hexes and shield charms. "We know what we're doing."
Ron nodded with wide staring eyes, and looked once more at his sister, who had only just finished covering MacNair with great flapping bogies, then stunned him.
Sidetrack the fox slipped out the swinging back door, and Harry and Ginny covered his escape with a quick volley of curses. The flashes of light neatly concealed the opening and closing of the door.
A flash of light, and Ginny was on the ground, clutching her wand-hand. Someone had sent a stinging hex at her.
"Are you all right?" Harry yelled over the sound of the battle. He stopped his curse volleys to perform a fast healing spell on her singed palm.
Ginny groaned at the sting, but flexed her reddened fingers, picked up her wand and threw another curse over the counter.
The pause in the firing was all that the Death-Eaters had needed, and suddenly that horrible laughter Harry hated so much was right beside him pointing a wand at his head.
"I'm going to enjoy killing you..." she sneered.
"Lestrange! We were told not to kill them!" Harry heard another voice from behind the bar that he hated. His face flushed red with anger.
Before he could look at the figure, ropes had snapped around him, and he found it impossible to move. A gag fixed itself into his mouth, and he nearly choked.
Bellatrix laughed, and Harry saw her wrap more ropes around the struggling Ginny.
"What do you think Wormtail? She asked, lifting Harry bodily to his feet. "Will we have a Potter stew tonight? Or maybe we'll have his friend instead." Laughter went up from the crowd of Death-Eaters. There were about ten left conscious, and Harry felt a moment of satisfaction, knowing that he, Ron and Ginny had taken out more than half of them.
The snivelling rat glared at Bellatrix almost as hard as Harry did. "Not until after the Dark Lord has had his revenge Lestrange. We are not to kill him here!"
She frowned simperingly. "Oh, but I so want to!"
"We're to take him back to our lord, Bellatrix!"
She huffed. "We will. Don't worry your little head!" she turned to the rest of the masked figures. "What are you all doing here!? This was my task! I will complete it! Get your filthy hides out into the street, and look for Mudbloods!"
While Bellatrix screamed at the fidgeting Death-Eaters, Harry took a quick look around the pub. It seemed that the battle was over.
The masked group believed that Bellatrix and Wormtail had the situation well in hand, and were slowly filing out the door. All of them had confident smirks of pleasure on their faces.
There were six bodies on the floor. Snape was obviously unconcsious, as they could see his dust covered chest rising and falling amidst the rubble of the broken table and pieces of door. A thin trickle of blood ran down his face from a gash in his forehead.
Hopefully he'll have a scar, then he'll understand what it's like. Harry thought in anger.
Two other people who lay on the floor were tied up with ropes and very much awake and alive.
Professor Trelawney and Professor Vector were shivering and staring up at him from the corner where they had sat chatting earlier. They looked terrified, and Harry bit at the gag in his mouth angrily. Harry couldn't quite understand why they were there, and why they were still alive. Three other civillian people looked like they could be dead. It only made sense that the teachers should have been killed too. Didn't it?
Harry felt a little queasy at the sight of the dead bodies. He could only hope that he and Ginny would not soon be joining them. By the tone of the conversation between Wormtail and Lestrange, who were now the only ones left inside the pub, Harry felt reasonably confident that he would not be. He couldn't say the same for Ginny. He was the one they had wanted all along. If Ginny showed any signs of being a burden to them, they would kill her.
He positioned himself carefully between Bellatrix and Ginny, and shoved hard into her middle. She was caught completely unaware, as the focus of her anger was currently on Wormtail. An explosion went off beside her as Harry sent his wandless soundless magic out to a glass jar on the bar. Galleons, sickles and Knuts flew everywhere, and pelted at both Lestrange and Wormtail.
Bellatrix was sent stumbling back almost into the fireplace, and her mask came tumbling off. Her black eyes were livid. She looked to be truly insane, and Harry made certain he was still strategically between her and Ginny. He didn't dare look over at Vector and Trelawney.
Bellatrix's equilibrium returned quickly, and so, apparently, did her fervour for killing. She pointed her wand at Harry, looking murderous and completely out of her mind.
Her eyes flashed, and Harry gathered his anger for wandless soundless magic again. "Avada-"
What felt like an explosion rocked the foundations of the Three Broomsticks.
Bellatrix Lestrange was thrown off her feet and smashed her head hard against the stone wall above the fireplace.
The silence that filled the pub after this explosion was deafening.
Wormtail stood now where Bellatrix had been. He had one silver fist raised, and clenched. His wand was down at his side, unused.
Wormtail had just punched Bellatrix with his silver hand. His gift from his master had just been used to nearly decapitate his master's favorite Death-Eater.
Had Harry just seen Wormtail, of all people protect Harry from Bellatrix? Or had it been an illusion? Had Harry helped the power of the blow with his wandless and soundless magic? He had been intending to throw her backwards into the mantle. After analysing the spectacle before him, he could only hope that he had been unsuccessful.
Harry looked at Wormtail, who looked absolutely petrified, and his still clenched and raised fist was shaking in fear. He was staring at the dust covered, and crumpled form of Bellatrix Lestrange at the base of the empty fireplace, and a whimper escaped his lips.
A large pool of blood was slowly seeping onto the floor around her. The blood was coming mostly from the side of her head, where a massive gash gushed and pulsated with the shape of Wormtail's fist. She had another gash on the opposite side of her face where she had hit the fireplace. The blood was running in torrents down the side of her face and through her hair.
Bellatrix wasn't breathing anymore.
In fact she seemed to be dead.
