Everyone was fighting. One last fight. Tonks could feel it. She tried not to think about the fact that it might be her last fight. She'd already got lucky tonight, after all. Would she really be able to tempt fate one last time? Well, she was going to damn well try.
Spell after spell flew from her wand. Nearly every one of them hitting their mark.
Remus was duelling two Death Eaters at once; Dolohov and Carrow. He was holding himself at an awkward angle - she knew that he was still injured, but it looked like he was more than holding his own.
She was running over to give him a hand when she was stopped. No need to guess who she was stopped by. Bellatrix.
Tonks didn't even give her aunt time to mock her before she let loose a stream of spells, she didn't even know she could cast that quickly. Beatrix's taunting smile soon turned into a scowl as she returned every sine spell Tonks flung at her.
It was like the woman never tired or felt any of her injuries. On the other hand, Tonks was really starting to feel hers but still, she fought on. She couldn't not fight.
Bellatrix was suddenly distracted from her when a spell flew past her ear. It was from Hermione. Luna Lovegood and Ginny were on either side of her, all three of them looking for a fight. Before Tonks could even grab her aunt's attention again - there was no way she was going to let her anywhere near those girls, Bellatrix took that decision from her. A blasting charm to the ground made Tonks fall backwards while Bellatrix turned to the three teenagers.
Out of the corner of her eye Tonks could see Kingsley battling Voldemort of all people. Granted, it was with McGonagall and Slughorn but still.
She scrabbled back to her feet, trying to find her way around the debris that was now in front of her. Pain shot through her ankle. Great. Just great.
Bellatrix was still fighting too, fifty yards away from Voldemort, and like her master she duelled three at once: Hermione, Ginny and Luna, all battling their hardest, but Bellatrix was equal to them, was better than them. Tonks tried to get a shot in without risking any of the girls. Oh, why had they intervened? A Killing Curse shot so close to Ginny that she missed death by an inch-
"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"
And then suddenly Molly was duelling Bellatrix! Tonks found herself taking a step back from fear of the look of pure fury in the mother's face. Molly was fighting to kill. Molly Weasley.
"No!" She cried as Tonks ran forward, trying to come to her aid. "Get back! Get back! She is mine!"
Well, she couldn't argue with that. Not that she could get anywhere close to the duelling witches anyway.
Molly's curse soared beneath Bellatrix's constricted arm and hit her squarely in the chest, directly over her heart.
Tonks felt her own eyes bulge just like her aunt's as the woman fell to the floor. Dead. Voldemort screamed.
Voldemort's fury at the fall of his last, best lieutenant exploded with the force of a bomb, Voldemort raised his wand and directed it at Molly Weasley.
"Protego!" roared someone, and the Shield Charm expanded in the middle of the Hall, and Voldemort stared around for the source as Harry appeared from thin air. He was alive?
The yell of shock, the cheers, the screams on every side of: "Harry!"
"HE'S ALIVE!" were stifled at once. The crowd was afraid, and silence fell abruptly and completely as Voldemort and Harry looked at each other, and began, at the same moment, to circle each other.
"I don't want anyone else to help," Harry said loudly, and in the total silence his voice carried like a trumpet call. "It's got to be like this. It's got to be me."
And then the two men were talking. Well, Harry was doing most of the talking but Tonks found d that she couldn't hear any of it, the blood was pounding in her ears and there was a roaring sound coming from somewhere. She tried to focus. Tried to remain ready. Someone grasped her arm and she junked, whirling around with her wand at the ready but it was only Remus. He wasn't looking at her, his attention fully on the scene in front of him, his jaw tense.
Tonks got the feeling rising in her. Like something was going to happen. Something big. This was it, wasn't it? The end. There was only going to be one victor. But who?
Then suddenly she could hear again. She could hear everything like it was magnified by a hundred sonorous charms.
"So, it all comes down to this, doesn't it?" whispered Harry. "Does the wand in your hand know its last master was Disarmed? Because if it does... I am the true master of the Elder Wand."
Wait. What? What had she missed? The Elder Wand? What? But before she could even think of anything else a red-glow burst suddenly across the enchanted sky above them as an edge of dazzling sun appeared over the sill of the nearest window.
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Expelliarmus!"
The bang was like a cannon blast, and the golden flames that erupted between them, at the dead centre of the circle they had been treading, marked the point where the spells collided. Harry saw Voldemort's green jet meet his own spell, saw the Elder Wand fly high, dark against the sunrise, spinning across the enchanted ceiling. And Harry, with the unerring skill of the Seeker, caught the wand in his free hand as Voldemort fell backward, arms splayed, the slit pupils of the scarlet eyes rolling upward. Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty, the snakelike face vacant and unknowing. Voldemort was dead, killed by his own rebounding curse, and Harry stood with two wands in his hand, staring down at his enemy's shell.
One shivering second of silence, the shock of the moment suspended: and then the tumult broke around Harry as the screams and the cheers and the roars of the watchers rent the air. The fierce new sun dazzled the windows as they thundered toward him.
Remus and Tonks got there just after Ron and Hermione and Ginny. She could feel more people pressing on her back, everyone wanting to touch Harry, wanting to hold each other. Wanting to prove that they were alive.
In a daze, Tonks backed off, trying to regain some sense of balance - both literally and figuratively. Tonks looked around in absolute shock. It was over. It was really over. Voldemort was dead. Beatrix was dead. Her body was right over there. Molly had killed her. Molly. Harry was alive. Remus was alive. She was alive. People were celebrating because they had won.
Remus was giving her the same look she was sure she was giving him. Relief. Love. Hope. Other things she couldn't put words to. He reached out a hand it her and she took it. Never before had she been so grateful to be holding his hand.
Tonks grabbed his hand and laced her fingers with his, smiling softly at him. Her face might be covered in dried blood and he might be limping but their love for each other was still the same. And they were alive. Something an awful lot of other people couldn't say. Injuries didn't matter. Not in the long run. Injuries would heal. Eventually. They'd scar over. Not be as raw. Only leaving g silvery marks behind to remind them of what happened. They would heal.
It was a good thing that they had forever.
She leaned against him and looked up, suddenly feeling all her strength and adrenaline leave her.
"I want to go home," she said.
