Sorry for the wait, hopefully a nice, extra long chapter will make it up to you.

OoOoO Chapter 8 - Guardian of Honey Dukes OoOoO

Harry and Jonathan ran out onto the grassy hillside that led up to Hogsmead. Harry could smell the smoke that filled his lungs and could hear faint screaming from over the hill. As the top of the hill got closer, Harry's mind spun faster in his head. What was he going to do? Throw sticks at them? He still didn't have his wand. Where was the rest of the Order already? Were they were just going to waltz into a burning village?

Oh Merlin.

"Jonathan!"

The younger made no motion that he had heard him.

Harry shot his arm out and wrapped a hand around Jonathan's wrist. He stopped in his tracks and yanked backwards. "Wait!" he yelled.

Jonathan was pulled backwards, nearly right off his feet, and tripped backwards into Harry, slamming into the older boys chest, and sending them both to the ground. "Bloody hell!" Jonathan said, the air knocked from his lungs on the ground. "What —"

Harry picked himself up from the grass. "We can't just going to go running into Hogsmead!" he demanded.

"What?" Jonathan asked, looking up. "They need our help!"

"There could be Death Eaters there!" Gods, hadn't he just done this? Had it only been four months since the Battle of Hogwarts? Was he ready to really do this all over again? Who would he loose?

"Exactly!"

Harry blinked away his thoughts. "We can't just run in alone, the Order isn't even here yet."

"I have you!" Jonathan yelled. Harry felt the blood leave his face. "We don't need anyone else and—"

"I don't even have a wand!" Harry yelled over him, raising his hands into the air.

Jonathan paused.

A high pitched scream came echoing over the hillside and Jonathan swung around, his eyes wild and his fists clenched. "Doesn't matter, we have to get in there."

"No!" Harry made to grab his arm again, but Jonathan shrugged him off violently.

"My sisters are in there!" he yelled, looking at Harry with wide eyes. "They were supposed to go with Ginny today, and they're both probably scared out of their minds, or…" Jonathan clenched his teeth, unwilling to go on.

Harry felt something in him go cold. "Or dead."

Jonathan looked up at him. "Yea," he croaked with a paling face. "Or dead."

Harry watched Jonathan's face go slack, his shoulders stiffen, and the palms of his hands grasp the edges of his robes. Something red hot poked and rubbed against the insides of Harry's intestines at the suddenly darkened face in front of him. Jonathan had never treated Harry with anything other than curiosity and awe. He was the big brother in this situation, and Harry knew that he would never know how that would feel.

"All right," Harry stated before his brain could catch up. "So we go save them."

Jonathan's eyes lit up and Harry watched as hope and relief washed over his face. It was unnerving, seeing such trust so freely given to him, but it also left a little warmth in the edges of his fingers. Harry turned from Jonathan and back up at the hill. "So," he started, wondering how he was going to do this. "First, we get back to Hogwarts."

"I had no idea this was here," Jonathan said, looking around the secret passage way into Honeydukes, his wand lighting the way in front of both of them.

"Your dad never showed you?" Harry asked, confused. Wouldn't it have been a right of Marauder passage or something?

"No, neither did Uncle Remus or Sirius."

Harry turned to glance at the younger wizard. "That's… not what I would have expected."

"Mum must have told them not to. Knew I'd sneak out and get chocolate before dinner or something."

"Yea, or something." Harry turned back around to the front. "They'll probably some kind of guardian or… I dunno, spell we'll have to cross over before we reach the other side."

"How do you know?" Jonathan asked, stepping after Harry.

"It's what I would have done, if not just completely destroy the secret tunnels."

"Were they?"

"Were what they?" Harry answered back automatically, following the next bend in the tunnel. There would undeniably be some sort of test at the end. What would stop people from coming in?

"Were your tunnels closed, you know, back where you used to live?"

Harry jumped back to the present, away from his inner thoughts. He glanced back at Jonathan. "Yea, for a while they were."

"Not anymore?"

Harry did a half-shrug. "Not since Volde— you-know-who's death."

"Oh," Jonathan said quietly. "Right." Jonathan was silent for a moment, but Harry could feel a question coming up. Like an itch at the back of his head. "So uh… how was it? Killing him. Did you… well, what I mean is-"

"Did it feel good?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrows.

Jonathan nodded slightly, the hazel in his eyes shinning. "Yeah."

Harry rotated his jaw and swallowed. The uncomfortable ball in his stomach tightened. "No. And yes," he admitted quietly. Harry scanned the tunnel ahead. He should be close. Very close to the entrance to Honey Dukes.

"I helped defeat you-know-who, and I avenged the memories of the people he killed. It felt… I dunno, good. Even great, I guess. All the stress and fear I had ever felt fell with his body when his curse came back at him. It was… freeing. To not look over my shoulder ever again. To know my greatest enemy was gone. The murderer of so many people… my parents… was never again getting up. Never hurting my friends or family," Harry said with a dull tone in the end. "Honestly, killing him made me happy, it really did, but at the same time, it was horrible. Disgusting. It tore me apart because I'd finally done what I was always 'meant' to do. Finally completed my prophecy. I'd killed him."

Memories of the battle attacked him with the images with his words, letting him see his fallen friends. "Right there. In front of everyone I knew. Everyone I loved. In the front yard of my first home. I'd killed someone." Harry could feel the crystal clear image of Voldemort's body falling to the ground, and the silence that rang in his ears. The never ending silence. If filled Harry's ears and nearly drowned out Jonathan's voice.

"It had to be done." The words broke through and sounded hollow in Harry's head. Had to be done.

"Yeah," Harry said dully. "That's what Ginny said too. 'Had to be done.'"

"Ginny Weasley? You knew her in your world? Wait- course you did, you were Ron's best mate right?"

"Yeah. Yeah, we were. Are."

Jonathan nodded. "So you and Ginny. Sounds like you were close then?"

There was something lighter in Jonathan's voice and Harry snapped his head around, daring the younger man to move forwards in that line of questioning. "Yeah. Why?"

Jonathan raised his hands in surrender. "Oh you know, just, curious."

"Right."

Jonathan nodded and stepped side by side with Harry. "So …" he breathed out with a long sigh, and Harry held back a either a laugh or a sigh, he couldn't tell. "…how close exactly?"

"Merlin," Harry shook his head, keeping a straight face. "No, no. We're not having this conversation."

Jonathan grinned. "So you are close. Very close? Very close?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Not anymore."

"That's definitely a yes then. Merlin, Bill and Charlie are going to love this."

"It's not—we aren't—"

Jonathan smiled. "A Potter dating a Weasley. Mum would love it. And I wouldn't blame you. To be honest, Ginny's… she's something." Jonathan smiled appreciatively. "That hair of hers."

Harry smiled for a second. Yeah, everything about Ginny was beautiful. She was smart. Strong. It was a few of the things Harry had loved about her. "Beautiful."

"Yeah, she is," Jonathan smiled dreamily. Harry raised an eyebrow. Jonathan seemed to have caught himself smiling, and looked at Harry quickly, embarrassed. "Er—well—"

Harry rolled his eyes. "It's okay, you don't have to choke. I'm not dating her."

"You're not?" he frowned. "But I thought—"

"I was. Well, we were. Dating, I mean. Just… not anymore."

Jonathan and Harry turned another side of the tunnel. "She break it off after the war?"

Harry shook his head and Jonathan glanced at him with serious eyes. "I ended it because of the war."

Jonathan stared. "What?" he asked. "If you-know-who was dead, then there couldn't have been much of a war on could there have been? I mean, no one was left except for the—"

"Death Eaters," Harry finished. "The Death Eaters and the memories of who were gone." Harry's insides hallowed at his words. "Both there to haunt me wherever I went. Hermione nearly died twice after the end of the war, Ginny was kidnapped, and people's faces followed me every step I took."

"Death Eaters kept on then?" Jonathan asked, understanding coloring his voice.

"They will no matter what," Harry nodded. "They lost their Lord and Master once, but seeing him die started an uprising within. A jostle for power across their ranks."

"That's horrible," Jonathan's smiling face was unusually morose. "You'd think they'd just give —"

"This is it," Harry interrupted him stopping. Jonathan stopped with him and Harry stood in front of a large stone staircase that seemed to never end to the ceiling.

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Great," Jonathan said looking up, and following the staircase with his eyes. "How do we get in?"

"I'd expect the stairs."

Jonathan gave Harry a dry look, and then around the tunnel, as if he expected his shadow to come jumping out at himself. "Right. So you're going first then?"

Harry gave him an unamused look and stepped forwards to the stairs. "You come up right after me okay? If I'm right, whatever test is right outside the door, so be ready. For anything."

"Gotcha."

"Good. See you." Harry turned and began the slow ascent up to the trap door. Remembering the last time he'd come through this passage, Harry counted over two hundred steps before he put his hand out in front of him before the ceiling so his head didn't hit the trap door ceiling.

Jonathan caught up to him a few seconds later and Harry tapped the trap door above him lightly. "On the count of two."

Jonathan frowned. "What? Why two?"

"Because three's overrated and I said so," Harry answered.

"But you can't just—"

"One-two. Go!" Harry pushed the trap door open and climbed out of the staircase quickly, his body low to the ground, and his eyes scanning the room. Jonathan was a second behind him, and he nearly slammed into Harry's back when the older boy had suddenly stopped. "What in the name of Merlin's—"

"Jonathan."

Jonathan stopped mid-rant.

Harry whispered to him with a tight jaw and unmoving eyes. "Don't make any sudden movement, don't make any loud noises. Keep calm and look in front of me, do you understand?" Harry asked.

Jonathan nodded, and slowly inched his head around Harry's body. "Holy mother of Merlin," Jonathan breathed out. "You have got to be kidding me."

"I think it's confused. Don't do anything surprising."

"Surprising? It's a bloody dragon."

"Yes. And the exit's behind it."

Jonathan scanned the wall behind the enormous green lizard and cursed under his breath. Of course it was. "This is the test? A dragon? What the bleedin hell was Dad and Uncle Sirius thinking? I mean, a Welsh Green?"

"You can ask after all of this is over." Harry kept his eyes fixed, unblinking into the face of the large animal in front of him. It's scales were colored a deep green with darkening brown tips, the color of the under canopy of forest leaves, and they gleamed over the small light from Jonathan's wand. Its horned head was unmoving, frozen in surprise as well, and its huge orbs of eyes, the color of wild green that could have only been taken out of the underbelly of nature, stared directly at Harry.

"Do you have a plan?"

"Don't die."

"Short and simple. Not exactly reassuring," Jonathan hissed.

"Just wait," Harry hissed back shortly.

Outside, a bang blasted dust from the corners of the room, and the dragon's head snapped back like it had been awakened from a daydream. Screams of people were faintly heard through the walls and Harry saw Jonathan flinch minutely beside him. "Jonathan, run," he ordered

"What? D'you –"

"NOW!" Harry shouted, his arms thrown out beside him and his stance spread in front of the dragon. Jonathan didn't hesitate, and leapt forwards around Harry. The dragon's head shook, and its mouth drew back, long white teeth exposing themselves from the back of reared lips. It's thick tail whipped in the air and the eighteen foot dragon reached his neck back, tipping its jaw upwards and opening its mouth. Harry had just enough time to mentally curse before the dragon screeched an ear splitting roar that sent Harry's hair backwards and Jonathan's face hard into the wood of the exit door.

"Don't let her fire touch you or your dead!" Jonathan yelled.

"It's a girl?" Harry shouted.

"More vicious and territorial!" Jonathan yelled before he turned and open the wooden exit. "Come on!" Jonathan yelled, stepping out and turning back to Harry.

"Right," Harry muttered to himself. One on one. With a dragon. With no wand.

The dragon aimed its head at Harry, mouth opening wide, and its long white fangs glistened in the candlelight. Wild green eyes met his like a challenge and Harry spread his feet apart, keeping his arms in close and his head low.

Harry didn't know exactly when the dragon had decided to released her fire on him, but Harry was already moving up and away, sliding across the wooden floor like a baseball player looking for a homerun towards the underbelly of the dragon. The spray of blazing thin streams of fire passed over Harry, boiling the air over him and singing the tips of his uncontrollable hair. He slid to the front legs of the beast and rolled away from the claws that tried to stamp him out like an insect. Harry could feel the heat of the fire on the left side of his face when he rolled to a stop and scrambled to his feet.

"Jonathan, find your dad or a member of the Order. Find your sisters." Harry kept his eyes focused on the green scales, and like she knew she was being called, the dragon turned her head to him and roared again, this time with what seemed like annoyance. She tried spreading her wings, but the low risen ceiling kept them down near her body. Thank Merlin for the small miracles.

"I'm not going to just leave you!" Jonathan shouted back.

"Well you're not helping!"

Harry jumped to the right, right under from another small torrent of flames and dove behind a shelf filled with sugar quills and liquorish wands. The exit was feet from Harry, but the dragon turned around faster than Harry thought possible, and her tail whipped right in front of where Jonathan stood resolutely still. Even if he could get to the exit, what was to stop her from following him? She had no chain on her neck, and a wooden house never stopped a dragon before.

"Here then, catch!" Jonathan shouted from the exit.

Outside, bangs and shrill screams echoed just barely over the noise of the dragon, and Harry faintly saw Jonathan reaching his arm back and throwing something in the air. "HARRY!" Jonathan yelled as a thin piece of what looked like wood flew through the air towards him.

Harry's eyes snapped to the downward spiraling object. Jonathan's wand. Harry zeroed in on the flying wand and threw himself forwards at it, his seeker's instincts taking over. He reached as far as he could with his given momentum, but it wasn't far enough. The dragon's enormous tail caught the end of the wand in an upwards swing and flung it through the air, over the dragon's head and on the opposite side of the burning room. Harry didn't pause to think.

He let himself fall into a roll out of his dive and then sprung to his feet. The dragon's tail slashed in diagonal strikes, pounding the stone floor and destroying the wooden supply racks filled with candy. Harry ducked, swerved, and sprinted away as fast as he could towards the burning section of Honey Dukes cellar. He dodged the dragon's front legs like a pair of huge bludgers and threw himself forwards.

At the edge of the curling fire, Jonathan's wand sat abandoned near the orange flames. Harry reached out and plucked it from the ground and spun on his heel. The flat end of the dragons tail sped across the air, straight towards Harry, and he dropped himself into a forwards roll, away from the fire at his back and sides.

She roared again, the wooden frames vibrating around them, and her long neck stretched behind her body. Fangs feet from Harry. Her head reared back, breathing deeply in, and Harry knew she was going to release more flames.

Harry did the only rational thing he could. He screamed to Jonathan, "Close your eyes!" before he leapt forwards toward the enraged dragon. He raised the borrowed wand high in the air and shouted "lumus solan!" before slamming his own eyes closed. Bright sunlight, like the inside of the sun, ignited the tip of the wand and burning sunlight shone out across room, blinding anyone in contact.

The dragon roared louder than she ever had before, screaming her pain, anger, and irritation, and it rocked the burning walls.

Harry knew he had to do something, and something fast, if he didn't want to be burnt meat strips at the end of this. His spell ended, and the sunlight disappeared. Harry opened his eyes and forced his feet under himself. He was almost directly under the dragon. Her eyes were open, dazed, and blinking, and Harry knew he only had a moment more of freedom before her vengeance would come pouring down.

Harry pointed his wand directly at the dragon's refocusing eye.

Her head jerked downwards, at the deadly speed only a carnivore could move, and Harry leveled his wand with both hands. He had one shot. "Immobulus!" he shouted. A blast of white light erupted from Harry's wand and straight at the Welsh's green eye.

The dragon stopped and its extended jaw froze like it was in stuck in the snapshot of a camera. Her feet were unmoving on the floor, and her large wings were still, half opened to the sky and half curled from the braking ceiling. Only her huge eyes remained moving as her body became unresponsive, and only to blink venomously at Harry.

She seemed to be saying, "Oh you are going to wish I had ripped you limb from limb when I had the chance you little two legged chicken." But she had, by all means, stopped moving.

"Merlin," Jonathan gaped from the doorway. "You did it. You beat it."

"No," Harry shook his head, because he hadn't. "I just slowed her down. The spell will wear off sooner rather than later, and then she'll be really, really angry."

"So we run now, right?"

"To have her follow and roast us before we even get to look at a Death Eater? No. We need to… I dunno…" Harry thought about it for a moment. "Communicate? Tell her we mean her no harm." Harry flinched as his own words. That probably sounded as dumb out loud as it did in his head. Talking to dragons? He'd never heard of it before. Charlie had never said anything. Hermione had never mentioned anything. Harry bit down on the side of his cheek in thought. What did he do?

"And how are we going to do that? You speak Dragonese?"

"I don't—" Harry was going to say that he didn't know of a way, but he stopped himself short. He stared at Jonathan with widening eyes. When he thought about it, he did know of a way. Sort of. Kind of. It might work. Ish. "Merlin help me," Harry said quietly. He raised Jonathan's wand up at the dragon, and her eyes narrowed in on the thin piece of wood dangerously. Harry emptied his mind completely, and then stared intently into the dragon's green eyes.

Legilimens, Harry thought as hard as he could. And then he dove into the dragons mind.

Images in colors Harry couldn't identify blurred past him, memories of sharp foreign smells whirled like a tornado in his senses, and the flight patterns of her prey raced through Harry's mind and imbedded the presence of her feelings onto his. He could feel her fear, her caution, her bruising ego, and good Merlin, her intelligence. Nothing bashing and sharp like Snape's mind, or twisted and painful like Voldemort's, but curved and fluid like wind or water. Foreign. Incredibly different and unexplored.

Her mind twisted under his and lashed out, angry and confused. Harry let go of her memories, but stayed on the outside of her walls. "Stop!" he shouted at her in his mind. "Stop I'm not going to hurt you I just—stop!" Her mind lashed out again, harder now that she knew how to hurt him, and slashed with anger, bitterness, pain, and hate. Harry drew himself farther backwards, but her attacks kept coming. Images of sharp teeth, claws raked with prey's blood and fire from her belly were shot through his mind, wave after wave, crashing against him and keeping him as immobile as his spell did on her. It was terrifying, and Harry couldn't help but remember the last time he'd faced a dragon, in Gringotts, and how different this was from then.

The image of Harry, Hermione, and Ron jumping onto its back and breaking out of the floor of Gringotts flashed bright in his memory. How he'd gotten away from the goblins, how they'd ridden the dragon to the lake, jumped off, and watched it fly off to freedom rolled like a video, and at the next moment, the dragon's mental attacks stopped. Her mind reached back into herself, for a moment, and Harry thought hard of the memory again. Hermione helping Harry helping Ron onto the white dragons back, and breaking through the ceiling to freedom outside. He concentrated on the image and the feeling of flying away into the sky on a dragon's back for the first time.

Her mind responded with an echoed memory of the white dragon flying away. Another image of the sky replaced that, sent straight to Harry, and he felt as if she had asked him a question. Sky? Harry didn't understand, and he felt her flash of annoyance. She gave him another image. An medieval form of armor. Black, scratched, and worn, but solid. Armor? Harry thought to himself.

He felt another flash of annoyance, but she said no more to him. Harry brushed aside his own frustration and pulled the images shed asked him to his mind front.

Armor and sky. That… Harry tried finding connections in his mind, but failed to see what she could be meaning. She was asking after the white dragon, Harry knew that much for sure, but sky? A human's armor? What could a dragon need with an old fashioned human's arm—and just like that, Harry understood.

It wasn't about the armor, but the idea of it. Safety. From an enemy, or from injury. The sky then, a place where human's couldn't go, and Dragons could overtake them even on broomstick, a place of safety for things with wings. She was asking if he was safe.

Harry opened his mind for her cautiously, and showed the white dragon flying away, happy in the sky, even though it was blind and malnutritioned. He gave her the sky image she'd given him and said "yes", or maybe the feeling of yes, he didn't know, but he gave it to her, and she pulled away from him, deep into her own mind. Harry tried to go after her, but she lashed out at him, not as sharply as she had to begin with, like she was sucking and twisting the life from him, but flat and bored, like a mother would slap a child's hand from a hot stove.

Harry somehow, found that amusing. Him almost being mothered to by a dragon. He released her mind and stepped back from her slowly. Her eyes were still shut, and her breathing soft. Fire from her previous attacks were growing across the sugary supplies, and smoke hung heavy in the air.

Jonathan stood still, quietly in the doorway. "What … did you just… did you- ?"

"I honestly, have no idea."

"Right," Jonathan deadpanned dryly. "Well, I thought you should know: the Order arrived."

"You saw them?"

"Heard 'em more like. They heard us too, but I figure they have a bigger mess to deal with."

Harry looked at the close eyed dragon in front of him. "Right."

"Hey what do you think—"

The dragon's head moved upwards, and its eyes opened.

Harry stood completely still, and let the dragon find him. The spell had worn off. He didn't think she would attack, not really, but if she did, well, Harry held the wand in his hand extra tightly just in case. The dragon zeroed in on Harry immediately, and lowered her head to his face. Harry stared at eyes as big as his whole hand, amazon jungle green, and untamed. She made no move other than her intense gaze, and Harry didn't look away. They remained like this for several seconds until she pulled her head back up to her body and puffed out a gust of smoke from her nostrils like she had evaluated him, and didn't find him all that spectacular.

Harry coughed the smoke away and glanced at Jonathan. "I uh… ready to go?"

"Will she let us?" Jonathan asked, looking over her skeptically.

"I think," Harry answered honestly.

Something blew up outside, and Jonathan jumped. "Yeah… sure let's go."

Harry nodded to the Green Welsh, faintly sure she could understand him. "Right, well … I'll be seeing you then." Harry turned on his heel, and felt large eyes on his back all the way to the door. Looking up, Harry saw the ceiling in ragged holes, showing bits and pieces of the darkening sky.

"Harry?" Jonathan asked.

Harry stared up at the sky. "Why doesn't she just leave?"

Jonathan looked around the burning pieces of wood and extra candy. "I doubt she'll be able to stay here now, so I guess she'll have too. Come on, the Orders getting their robes handed to them."

"Right. Okay… bye," Harry didn't think that's what he should have been saying to her, but he didn't know what else to say. Go back and ask her why she's not leaving a burning house? Why she's guarding the entrance? How'd they get her to guard the entrance? No, Harry had another mission still unfinished, and he hurried away from the Honey Dukes cellar as fast as he could, leaving the dragon to fend for herself in the suffocating flames.

Harry followed Jonathan to the front door of Honey Dukes and pushed him down beneath the front window. Outside, Order members were standing in a line against masked Death eaters holding several Hogwarts children as captives with wands to their throats. "Human shields," Harry said under his breath.

"What?" Jonathan asked, straining to get a look as well.

Harry let him, but kept him low to the edge of the windows glass. "The people they're holding. They're using them as human shields."

"What do we do?"

Harry frowned and looked at Jonathan questioningly. What a … beginners thing to ask. Harry didn't like to think himself specially trained in this, but it had never crossed his mind that neither had Jonathan. "Has the Order ever let you come with them to one of these?"

"A fight?" Jonathan raised his eyebrows. "No, mum would go mental."

"So this is your… first?"

Jonathan caught Harry's wary glance. "Uh, not really. No?"

"Merlin," Harry muttered before turning back to the situation in front. "Alright, I'm going to need a wand. And you need yours. So I'm going to go find one."

"Find one?" Jonathan whispered furiously.

Harry passed Jonathan back his wand. "Stay here for a moment okay? Don't do anything… stupid," Harry warned. He turned away, crouched low to the ground, and ran deep through the streets, letting the shadows cover him and the corners hide his skinny frame.

"Now where to find a—" farther down a passage ahead of him a white masked Death Eater stood, watching the Order members and Death Eaters standoff with the prisoners. He could hear the two groups shouting at one another. "What have you got?" a Death Eater asked.

"Release the children!" a short female Order member yelled.

"A dragon perhaps?" Another Death Eater continued. "Hiding all the way out here?"

"Fat chance!" Harry heard Fred yell.

"Don't you think if we had one, we'd use it against you?" George added.

"Shut your filthy little blood traitor mouths!" Harry's blood ran cold at the sound of Bellatrix's voice somewhere in the mix. Bellatrix Lestrange. Not so dead here.

Harry walked silently closer to the Death Eater, keeping his feet light and his breathing silent. Closer than a foot from Harry, the Death Eater turned. Harry saw the man's hand rise and Harry acted faster than he could think. Reaching his arm up, he slammed the heel of his palm against the guys nose, crunching bone and gushing blood down the gaps of the mask. The Death Eater reached to grasp his face, but Harry kneed him far lower than chest, and the man sank to his knees, unable to speak, to barely breathe through the blood and the mask. Harry ripped the wand from the man's hand and he felt a sliver of magic touch his fingertips and wind around his wrist.

Well, he had dueled him and won. Sort of.

"Silencio," Harry whispered to the man, stopping him from groaning, or calling for help if he'd had enough breath to do so. He bound the Death Eater, knocked him out, and put a notice-me-not charm over him for when he came back later. Grasping the wand tightly, he crouched down, and ran his way back to where Jonathan was hiding near Honey Dukes.

Or more specifically, where Jonathan had been. Coming back, Harry realized Jonathan was no longer there. In fact, looking around wildly, Harry couldn't find out where he'd gone. "Damn," Harry whispered.

"Oi! I've got another!" Harry heard a young, reedy voice announce from across the street. Harry ducked his head low, but became aware that no one was talking about him. It was about the wizard the reedy voiced Death Eater had in his arms.

"Jonathan," Harry muttered darkly. Stay here. That's what he'd said. Stay there. Don't do anything stupid. Walking away violated both of what he'd said. The little—

"What should we do with 'im?" the Death Eater asked, no more than sixteen years of age, coming down the lane, talking to a taller Death Eater with long, shiny, blonde hair. Harry narrowed his eyes. Lucius, he was sure.

"You've caught the Potter heir? The Dark Lord will be pleased. He'll go nicely with his sisters. Put him away," Lucius sneered with a flick of his head dismissively. Somewhere on the opposite side of the house, something exploded and Lucius frowned darkly. A roar, unmistakably a dragon's roar, echoed across the alley. Harry grinned. So she hadn't just stayed where she was. She'd decided to get out and do something. Good for her. "This won't do, "Lucius said. He took off in the sound of the roar and blasts direction, his black robes whirling behind him, out of the alleyway.

The short Death Eater nodded and bowed as Lucius walked away, and then tugged pushed Jonathan forwards as Harry followed. He shoved at Jonathan, taunting him with flames at the back of his neck, and whispered things down his ear that Harry couldn't hear. They stopped in front of the Three Broomsticks. "Inside," the Death Eater ordered.

Harry hid in the shadows across the street, and disillusioned himself, watching.

"Why don't you take your wand and shove it up your—"

"Now!" the wizard yelled, and shoved Jonathan forwards so hard, his head hit the side of the doorway. "And I'll just keep your little wand with me all safe and sound. You won't need one where your going."

Jonathan reared back, and blood dripped down his face from his temple.

The Death Eater flicked his wand, and the Three Broomsticks opened. He kicked at Jonathan's lower back, and the young wizard fell to knees, and then onto his chest in the pub. Reedy-voiced Death Eater laughed and leaned in through the doorway. "I've got another one for you. Malfoy says it's a Potter."

Something was said on the inside of the Three Broomsticks and the Death Eater laughed. "The portkey will be here soon. Make sure there all ready to go. …Yeah, okay. Okay." He closed the Three Broomsticks front door and Harry threw a stunner at him as soon as the lock had latched.

The Death Eater slumped to the ground.

Harry checked both ends of the empty street before he ran across and kicked the Death Eater over so he was face upwards. "Thanks for the help," he whispered. He leaned down and checked his pockets, until he found not only Jonathan's wand, but four others as well and pocketed them. He took the Death Eater's as well. Harry checked the darkening streets again, and silently bound the wizard at his feet. Moving as fast as he could, Harry dragged the man to the edge of the Three Broomsticks, and dropped him to the floor.

Now he just had to get inside.

Harry felt a stunning spell fly past his head. He turned around fast enough to miss the second, and then the third aimed at him. He blocked the next two spells that were marginally darker. There were three of them. All impossibly young. Fifteen, sixteen maybe. Two short, and one of medium height. The tallest threw another curse, and Harry blocked it again, his eyes going between the three Death Eaters.

"Haven't seen you before," one of the shorter ones said.

"Just joined up the Order huh? Bad mistake. More fun on the winning side," said the other.

"That was our friend you just killed," the tallest said.

"I didn't kill him," Harry said, thinking fast. Three against one. Historically, not in Harry's favor. "I just took away the rest of his lacking brain cells."

The first spoke up again. "Think your funny, do yah?"

"Funnier than you for starters." Harry tossed him a shit-eating grin. "Probably smarter too." He looked him up and down. "—definately more handsome."

"Watch your mouth you muggle-lover. Intestina expellere!" The tallest Death Eater shouted.

Harry flicked his wand, and a shield covered him before the spell ricocheted off. "Done yet?" Harry asked.

All three raised their wands. "You're outnumbered. Drop your wand and the Dark Lord will show you mercy."

One of the shorter wizards shot a body bind curse and Harry held the shield but immediately returned the fire. "Petrificus Totalus!" he shouted, and the flash of light hit him square in the chest. The boy fell to the ground, limp, and the other two turned for a second to look at their fallen comrade.

Harry aimed for the other shorter boy. "Expelliarmus!" he whispered into the air. The wand flew from the boys hand and the boy turned shocked at his loss. The wand fell between them as the taller boy was turning back around. Harry pointed his wand at the tallest and whispered, "Levicorpus!"

The Death Eater's feet were dragged out from beneath him, and in the next second, he was hanging upside down in the air. The taller boy's wand fell from his hands and Harry stunned them all, taking all three of their wands. Then he bound them together. He took off their masks, but didn't recognize any of the young unconscious faces. Harry unlocked the front door to The Three Broomsticks with a flick of his wand.

The once hospitable bar was overturned. Broken bottles and plates littered the floor, and the wooden tables and chairs had been reduced to splinters. Young wizards and witches of all age sat clumped together amidst the carnage, but he scanned over their faces, looking for only one. There must have been over thirty.

"Harry behind you!" Jonathan's voice came from his far right, but Harry turned on his heel immediately and raised his wand.

A flash of purple flew by his head, centimeters from his glasses, and two Death Eaters emerged from the far side of the room, wands held high.

Harry let his instinct carry his words. "Everte Statum!" he shouted, and a orange blast of light threw both masked men off their feet and into the wooden walls behind them. Harry didn't wait for them to recover, and stunned them in quick succession.

"Holy Morgana and—" Jonathan said, standing up and crossing the room. Several of the other children cautiously got to their feet after him, and held onto one another.

"Let's go," Harry said, tossing Jonathan's wand to him. Jonathan caught it midair and twirled it in his fingers expertively. "Who else knows how to use a wand?" Harry asked the room, taking in their terrified faced. Most were young. From about eight, he thought, to Luna or Ginny's age.

"I do," a familiar witch said, coming to her feet with long flaming locks of auburn hair. "My friend Luna does as well." Another familiar blonde witch to her left stood at her side.

"Do you know where your wands are?" Harry asked.

Ginny shook her head. "The man who grabbed Luna and I took them."

Harry pulled out the wands he'd taken from the Death Eater. "Any of these yours?"

Luna picked up one from the seven he was holding up. "This is mine, and that's Harriet Ellesmere's," she said picking up a second wand with dark wood.

"Okay. Just pick one then. You're going to need a wand if we're getting them all out of here," Harry told Ginny.

Ginny picked one of the longer ones and held out her right hand. "I'm Ginny. Ginny Weasley."

"Harry."

"Just Harry?" she asked, looking closely at his face.

"Just Harry," Harry faked a grin and turned to the rest of the people around them. "Older kids step up. We have to get everyone out of here, and I need volunteers."

Five of the older kids, one Harry remembered from his years, a younger boy from Slytherin stepped up, and the others, faces he sort of recognized as younger students in Hufflepuff, accepted the wands. "Ready then?" he asked the gather of students around them. There were some nods, but they mostly uneasy twirls of their new wands, and looks from one another, cautiously stepping closer.

"Ginny and Luna, you lead the front, take the kids out and go down to Honey Dukes. In the cellar, or… what's left of the cellar is a stair case. Take it. Go all the way through no matter what. It'll lead you straight into Hogwarts." Harry turned towards the six left. Harriet, a Slytherin, and the Hufflepuffs. "Harriet stay on the left side of the group, erm… you on the right," He pointed to a young Hufflepuff whose name he couldn't remember. "And you take the back. Make sure no one gets left behind. Keep them moving as fast as you can," he told the familiar Slytherin. He turned to Jonathan. "And you, behind them. Make sure they get out."

"What? No, I'm staying with you." Jonathan took a step back like Harry was going to physically throw him out.

"Have you found your sisters?"

"Yeah, but—"

"Remember what Dumbledore said, as leader of the Order. Make sure they all stay safe. They're counting on you. Then when they're all through to the other side, I need you to collapse the tunnel."

Jonathan frowned, aghast.

"The Dragon's not there to protect it right now. You can get in and get to Hogwarts, but if you can, then so can other Death Eaters."

Jonathan paled and leaned back on his heels. "You're right. They wanted all of us for something -"

"Hopefully, they'll follow you right into a trap."

"And you?" Jonathan asked.

"I have … stuff to do." He needed to figure out just how powerful Voldemort was here, and how out of his league he seemed to be. He needed more information, and not just one sided from the Order. "But I won't be gone long."

"So you're… you're staying here?"

Harry nodded. "I'll help the Order and your parents —"

"Gabby! Nikki!" Jonathan interrupted Harry, yelling over him. "Come here!"

Two identical looking girls with dark auburn hair and bright hazel eyes walked towards them, hands wrapped around the other. "Harry, this is Gabrielle and Nicole Potter. Gabby's in Ravenclaw, Nicole in Hufflepuff." He lowered himself to their height and motioned the young witches to Harry. "Gabby. Nikki, this is Harry. You'll probably be seeing each other a lot."

They both looked incredibly similar to their mother, her likeness in the cut of their cheek bones, and the tint of their skin, but they had James's eye color and a rounder shape of the eye. They stood at about Harry's chest level and they both studied him with piercing eyes. They were a little off-putting.

Harry nodded at the girls and wondered if he should shake their hands. Is that what one did when meeting your little sisters from a different world, who weren't actually related to you, but somehow still kind of were? Harry didn't know, he settled on a nod, and the girls nodded back.

"You look like dad," the one named Gabby announced first off.

"Dad doesn't have a younger brother right?" Nikki asked.

"I'm sure of it."

"What's your last name then?" Nikki asked.

"It's just Harry," Harry said, looking down at them. "But listen, follow the group that's about to lead you, and go as fast as you can. Move, and don't look back. Don't hesitate, just run, do you understand?"

Nikki nodded captured by his words, but Gabby looked untouched. "How many times exactly have you done this before?" she asked boldly.

Harry held back a sigh. "Jonathan, take care of your sisters, I'll see you later." He nodded once more to the two little girls and turned to Ginny. "You ready?" he asked.

"Sure, as I can be. You're sure there's no dragon waiting for me?"

Harry nodded. "Ninety percent sure."

Ginny lifted a ginger eyebrow. "Lovely."

Harry glanced out the windows and saw the coming shadows of masked men. He grasped his wand tighter. Ginny followed his gaze and clapped her hands loudly at the room. "Alright, no pushing, but everyone out. Go!"

Jonathan caught Harry's gaze one last time before he exited with the kids, and Harry nodded at him solemnly. It's wasn't like they weren't going to see each other again after this was all over with, but it made him feel better anyways. Jonathan turned from him, and Harry left the Three Broomsticks to find out where everyone else was. The sun had set and only the red streaks of the sun's remaining light and the fire from burning buildings lit the dark alleyways.

Ahead of him, he heard the roar of a very, very angry dragon.

~Missmusicluver

PS: You guys are absolutely wonderful. All of you. Thanks for the support. :)