Notes: well, by now I'm sure all you lucky folks have read the Half-blood Prince. I still need to finish this story before I even pick it up! Despite all your excitement about the newest, greatest book, please don't forget this story ;) I worked hard :) lol, enjoy and thank you for the wonderful comments!

Chapter 7

The second Ron asked Hermione for the time with that commanding tone of his, Harry knew something was seriously wrong. Hermione answered without hesitation and Harry was already reaching for his wand, suddenly sensing a shift in the atmosphere as the crowd around them went on their business. Neville and Ginny were across the street, heading over to join them and there was a baby crying somewhere off to their right.

"They're early. Arm yourselves." With those words Harry prepared himself for the battle of his life, pulled his wand from his pocket and held it at the ready. He heard startled gasps from those around him as the three of them were suddenly armed and moving so their backs were to each other, an automatic response. Honestly, they were doing this way too often. He looked at Neville who, he vaguely noted, had his wand pulled the instant he saw their actions.

"Neville! Warn everyone! Ginny! Get Dumbledore Now!" He commanded sharply and they shot into action without question. A sharp pain erupted in his forehead but he ignored it even as it threatened his vision for a moment. He could feel Hermione shaking beside him and Ron was still as a mountain. The people around him began yelling in alarm and pulling their own wands as they tried to get away and get their children to safety. They were not auror's, but they were unwilling to not protect themselves even though they had no real idea what was going on.

"Harry! In front of you!" Ron barked sharply and even though all he could see was a mother pushing two little boys into the building directly across from him, he whipped his wand around and yelled "Stupefy!" The mother whirled around and glared at him in shock and fear, until a something splashed into the puddle between them and an invisibility cloak pulled half off, revealing a black cloaked body beneath it.

"Death Eaters!" She screamed and, if there wasn't a panic before, the street erupted.

"Sneaky bastards!" Ron hollered beside him but Harry was too busy searching desperately for more hidden attackers. They could be anywhere. "Expelliarmus! Stupefy!" Ron yelled and suddenly a wand whipped out of nowhere and another death eater was revealed as he fell to the ground. Ron snapped the wand and tossed it harshly, concentrating for another attacker. "Hermione! The broom rack!"

"Petrificus totalus!" She yelled and another death eater fell. Three so far, who knew how many there were. Harry felt Ron jerk beside him suddenly but didn't look, he couldn't afford to at that moment.

"Harry! Where are they?" Neville was suddenly yelling across the lane and Harry couldn't answer, because only Ron really knew. They had been walking into an ambush. If his friend hadn't sensed them just before then they may have all been dead by now. He shuddered but yelled back to Neville, Ginny had just disappeared around the corner to race back to school. She had stolen a broom from the rack on her way.

"Invisibility cloaks!" He roared over the din, was that his voice? Neville swore loudly and pushed a second year into the door beside him, not noticing how the girl went flying inside. He pointed his wand at the door and sealed it tight.

"They're everywhere!" Ron bellowed and then suddenly the three of them went flying in different directions, Harry impacting hard with the ground ten feet away. He gingerly picked himself up, ignoring the mud now coating him. His friends were also standing and Ron shouted out two more curses, missing both his targets apparently and he dove away from a large rock that went hurtling at him, crashing into a waste bin behind. Suddenly the invisibility cloaks were being removed hastily as the Death Eaters, coming to grips with the fact that they had been discovered, decided to take a more active attack. You couldn't fight properly while hidden, and it seemed that, somehow, Harry and his friends knew where they were. Thank Merlin they didn't think long enough to realize that Harry and Hermione actually had absolutely no idea.

A face he didn't recognize appeared to his right and pointed a wand at him and yelled stupefy at the same time Harry yelled the protego charm. He instantly swore at himself as the curse was luckily deflected, because if that had been an unforgivable Harry would have been a goner. "Silencio! Accio wand!" the Death Eater was rendered speechless and Harry snapped the wand the second it landed in his hand. The man's eyes lit in a sudden rage and he started charging towards Harry like an angry bull Harry didn't have time to shout out a hex. Just as he was about to be hit the Death Eater flew sideways and smashed into the wall of Margaret Magnolia's, the local live flower shop. He slumped to the ground and didn't move, Harry twisted to see Ron turning away and running towards Luna Lovegood, who had been hit with a binding spell. There were still pedestrians running in the street, though a few were stopping to help attack the Death Eaters. There were dark cloaks everywhere.

Fear clouded around him at the same time the adrenalin ran through him. He didn't have a bloody clue what to do, despite the fact that everyone thought he would know when the time came. He drove his shoulder into the back of a witch about to attack Hermione and she went flying, but before he could throw a curse to further render her useless another witch appeared and pointed her wand.

"Impedimenta!" She screeched in a voice five octaves higher then was natural. Harry cringed at the sound even as he went flying through the air once again. He hit hard, smacking his head off a lamppost as he slid to a stop. He lay on his back, head leaning against the post, dazed a moment as she approached. They were throwing stalling curses at him, not trying to kill him. Suddenly it occurred that they wanted him kept alive, at least for now, and that meant that Voldemort himself might be on his way, or even now lurking in the back ground, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. Coward! Anger flooded through Harry, a hot rage that he hadn't felt since Sirius had fallen out of this life. He glared at her approach and she stopped, as though momentarily startled by his harsh look of hatred. He didn't give her time to recover.

"Hocus totalo!" She screeched as her wand began to burn, red hot and she threw it to the ground in horror as it burst into flames and then combusted into a pile of ash. He glared at her. Hocus totalo, a spell McGonagall had taught him just last week, was one step from being placed on the unforgivable curse list. Destroying ones wand was a very serious spell and only certain professions allowed for wizards to use it. Since she taught it to him, he didn't think she would mind him using it now. This was the first time he had managed to pull it off though; it normally didn't even work against a child's study wand. She pulled back in alarm and sudden fear as he stepped towards her, and then she retreated, running off into the fighting crowd, away from him.

Watching where the witch had disappeared to Harry suddenly saw a familiar cat running at the group, and aiming for a particular wizard who was pointing a wand at a cluster of fifth years from Hufflepuff. The cat leapt into the air, claws and teeth bared as it hissed, and just as it was about to hit it transformed into McGonagall and she slammed into the evil being with all her tiny weight and large ferocity. She rolled to her feet and had her wand disarming him even as he still lay in utter shock as to where she came from. Her robes whipped around her as she twisted and dove into the fray, not taking a moment to think and just acting. Then, perhaps the most shocking thing to happen so far, Draco Malfoy burst around a corner and conjured a cobra, which latched on to the nearest Death eater and held tight as the man screamed and frantically tried to tear it away. Would wonders never cease?

Seamus and Dean burst out of Honeydukes across the street, looking as though everyone inside had been doing their damndest to keep the two young men in there. They pointed their wands as one at a rather large and bulky attacker, and a moment later the Death Eater was tumbling like a giant to the ground as though his entire body had suddenly become boneless. A wizard Harry didn't know fell to the ground, clutching his chest and screaming painfully. Harry turned away, looking to help anyone. Hermione was lost somewhere in the crowd, but as he turned he saw Ron picking himself off the ground, a far ways down the street and separated from the main fight. His heart froze in terror. Ron didn't have his wand, and he wasn't even trying to look for it as a Death Eater, Lucius Malfoy (how the bloody hell did he get out!) advanced menacingly on him. There was a sick and twisted grin on his features, as though he had been waiting a long time to attack Ron, years in fact. Harry bolted for his friend, but he knew he was to far away to help him.

000

Ron stumbled as he backed away from the half crazy man approaching him. Malfoy, bloody Lucius Malfoy! Of all the slimy, barmy, ugly arse pure-blooded gits to be here it was him. And he looked as though he'd just arrived fresh for a business meeting! How the bloody hell had he escaped Azkaban without them hearing about it! He was going to have a talk with that Cornelius Fudge when this battle was over, and Fudge was not going to simply walk away if he knew anything about this and failed to tell Dumbledore! Then again, if Dumbledore had known and had decided not to tell them…that was a whole other fight to be had!

However, now that the mad wizard in question was approaching him, grinning as if he had won the quidditch cup, Ron decided he'd plan his future fights in the future. He stumbled back, trying to get away from the wand pointed directly at his chest. He'd lost his wand as he had been sent flying through the air and landed where he was now. His shoulder was screaming at him and he felt his knees shake as though he would collapse any minute. He had stopped thinking clearly after he had been thrown from his tight protective huddle with Harry and Hermione, the confusion, the adrenalin, the fear, and his need to protect his best friend overwhelming his normal sense. He didn't stop to think of strategy, he just threw himself into the fight. And now he was wandless, facing his family's greatest personal enemy, who was cracked in the head.

"I've been looking to kill a Weasley for a long time." Malfoy grinned and Ron glared at him. He felt the evil in his aura as it approached, and it almost made him sick to his stomach. All the Death Eaters felt this way when they were really close to him; like a disease that was searching to infect. It made him feel dirty and, in a way he chose not to dwell on, violated. Their auras were digging into his being and he couldn't get away from their hate.

"You'd better keep looking then!" He rasped, not at all happy with how shaky his voice came out. Malfoy laughed, looked over Ron's shoulder and grinned even wider. Then he squared his shoulders, preparing to throw his curse and Ron reacted instinctually. He held his hand out and, without thought, summoned a rock from the ground. It flew into his hand so hard it would leave a bruise, and his fingers curled reflexively around it.

"Avada" Malfoy sneered the beginning of his curse as Ron threw his last weapon "Kedavra!" The rock smashed into his face and his wand jerked at the last second, sending the death curse harmlessly into the air as the man stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, unconscious. Ron twisted violently to look behind him and fell to the ground as a tall figure stood not ten feet away. He could see the gaunt, pale, snakelike face easily and he gasped. The red eyes were lit upon him, intense as they stared, like dead blood.

"Voldemort." He hissed feeling a rock digging into his hand as he scrambled back a bit. He saw the slit nose of the creature before him flare, as though smelling him. So many emotions suddenly erupted within him, fear, anger, loathing, terror, and a hate so deep he didn't know he was capable of holding it. He scuttled off to his left and Voldemort seemed to slither around him, maintaining the distance. It was all happening so fast. Now he could see Harry forcing his way through the crowd, but he was still so far away. Good, because Ron really didn't want him anywhere near this thing. He jumped to his feet and glared.

"What have we got here?" It didn't sound like a question as the dark lord stared with steady, intelligent eyes tinged with madness. Ron raised his arm and pointed it at the creature. He could try and end this now, here, and spare Harry the pain of this final battle. He saw the dark lord jerk, almost unnoticeably, and then he felt a burning travel through his hand, up his arm and into his body as though his blood had turned to ice. Instantly cried out and clutched his arm, his last bit of resistance, to his chest as he was overwhelmed with the evil of the creature before him. It filled him and he choked on it as he fell again. There was an incredible urge to throw up, pass out and explode all at once before Ron was able to force the vile energies from his body. He sent it, unthinkingly, into the earth, where it would spread, be consumed, and cease to exist, eaten by the positive energies of the earth that Hogsmeade rested upon. He sobbed in relief as it left him and looked up to see Voldemort staring at him, unable to hide his sudden sick interest.

"A chaneller." He hissed, the sound meant only for Ron's ears and Ron flinched. He recoiled as his enemy took a step towards him and tried to raise his arm again, but it refused to follow his command. He had to try and stop him, but his body refused to allow him to attack, to drain his enemy of his power. He knew, instinctively, that if he did he would die, he wasn't…he couldn't…his body refused to try and steal Voldemort's energy, but he managed to raise his left arm threateningly. Voldemort hissed a hex and suddenly Ron was tumbling forward from his kneeling position, his left arm stretched out and his right arm huddled to his chest, still aching. Voldemort wouldn't kill him now; he had discovered that Ron was something worth keeping. Ron wanted to scream in panic and revulsion. He couldn't move: he had been stupefied. He could see the battling group to his left and Voldemort in front of him, and suddenly a familiar shoe and a familiar robe was standing over him.

"No!" Harry snarled, and Ron felt such relief at his friend's appearance that he was ashamed. He was glad Harry had shown up, but now Harry might die. He struggled to move but was frozen in place, trapped and useless. Harry's voice, as cold as Ron felt, carried out above him. "You will not hurt him." He ordered, and it was absurd really, because only Harry would think he could get away with ordering Voldemort around.

"No, not now, I'll save that for later." The snake like voice hissed. "You, however, will no longer be around to worry about it, and nor will your friends." Ron looked with his eyes at the group that seemed so far away. Many Death Eaters had been felled, but there were still scores of them closing in around a large group of people, who were struggling to fight them off. Hermione was in that group…and so was Ginny! He couldn't do anything! Harry's feet suddenly facing the opposite direction as he did the stupidest and, perhaps, the bravest thing he could have ever done. He turned his back on Voldemort and aimed his wand at the group.

"Buffersuro!" He howled, and a burst of magenta sped from the tip of his wand and into the swelling crowd. A large, transparent, magenta sphere encased all the people surrounded by the Death Eaters, swallowing them in its protective cocoon. Many looked at it, startled, but Ron saw that Hermione had completely dropped her guard and was staring at Harry and him, fear etched into her face and tears beginning to well in her eyes. The Death Eaters were throwing all sorts of hexes at it, but it held with ease, absorbing the dangerous spells. For a moment Harry staggered above him before regaining his footing and turning to face Voldemort again, who was smiling cruelly.

"And now, Harry Potter, you will cease to exist." He had tricked Harry into using his energy to save his friends. Ron wanted to scream, but he could only produce a slight gurgle as Voldemort raised his wand pitilessly and pointed it at Harry. "AVADA KADAVRA!"

"LUMINOSALLA!" Harry bellowed, the fury in his voice matching that of Voldemort's and two piercing jets of power met in mid air, crashing terrifyingly. Ron couldn't see Harry, but he could see the where his red magic fought with Voldemort's green magic. It was like the battle he fought when Cedric had died. Wand pitted against wand (as Harry had described it to him), and it was power and need, desperation, hunger, and will that fought. Harry shifted on his feet as Voldemort roared, and Ron could hear his friends struggle, hear each gasp of breath he fought to take while not breaking his concentration. Ron could feel the magic, dark and light, flowing around him in waves. Harry gasped, and then growled as he pushed Voldemort back a step, only to cry out as Voldemort fought back and came two steps closer.

Harry had given too much energy to save the people behind them, and Voldemort was full of strength. It was an unfair battle. Ron felt the tears sliding down his cheeks as he struggled to move, to help Harry somehow. The prophecy, it had stated that only Harry could defeat Voldemort, and one of them had to die. It didn't say he couldn't have help.

Ron's arm was stretched out, almost touching Harry's leg as his best friends cloak trembled over his arm and hid his hand from view. That was it! Between the fear and hatred and hope Ron felt an irresistible need to touch Harry, touch his skin! If he could do that, he could help him. He didn't know how, and he didn't care, he just needed to touch him. He felt a jolt as Voldemort threw more energy into his attack, and he saw Hermione crying silently in the distance with Neville gripping her shoulder tightly and Luna Lovegood hugging Ginny as they all watched. Some of the Death Eaters were still trying to get them, but most had stopped to watch this final battle unfold in its last moments.

Harry! His mind screamed in anguish and he could feel the pain coming from his friend as that evil attacked him relentlessly. He sobbed, feeling his throat tighten. He needed to touch! And suddenly Harry shifted, slightly, and Ron could feel his sock on his knuckle. He was there! He would help. He concentrated all his energy on that finger and he felt it twitch, after who knew how much time had passed. His finger moved and he stretched it out, finding the top of the sock only millimetres from where his finger had rested. Help Harry! Harry needed strength! Ron didn't know what he was doing, but he willed all of his strength into Harry, and then he welcomed the blackness that rushed up and captured him.