Chapter 27 ~ It is Burnt
" A good sacrifice is one that is not necessarily sound, but leaves your opponent dazed and confused."
~ Nigel Short
ECOTS
The gnarled, scarred face of the peg legged man had begun to twist, as if the skin was sliding over itself, changing...morphing into something paler, near translucent, into something...
"Keep quiet, for I'd hate to have to hex you and incur the wrath of that overly noble old man." Abruptly her breath caught, a disembodied voice whispering into her ear. "He seems," the voice continued, "to rather protest such things where his students are involved. A pity, I always took him for a wizard in possession of better humor."
Her brain processed the voice as that of the man they had called Regulus within Grimmauld Place, but that was all she had time to do.
Entire form quivering, she could barely breath, hazel gaze glued to the disquieting scene playing out before her, to the morphing of the man into something reptilesque, a false eye falling out of an empty socket, the skin sliding to form a human face that was not entirely human...
Shadows in the periphery of her vision moved, her gaze tearing away from the empty eye socket as it started to narrow, to slitten, the thing beginning to glow with an aberrant light. Shaking, her frightened gaze fell upon the shadows.
People. Death Eaters. Emerging from every direction.
A wand jabbed viciously against her shoulder, forcing her to let out a startled breath, an incantation muttered in a ridiculously cultured voice for the situation. It felt like a cool, tickling sensation was moving over her flesh, and sucking in a breath, she found that in an instant...
She could no longer see herself.
Staring at her hand in shock, for this was the second time the spell had been done upon her in less than ten minutes, she swallowed. Crouching where she was, near the terrified first year student, she was removed from the central area where that creature stood, but...
Regulus' grip grasped her firmly around the upper arm, voice at a low din. "Now would be an opportune time to move, girl."
Kally's own grip had tightened around the girl's arm, her gaze flying immediately to the young girl that was curled up on the ground, hyperventilating and shaking, the witch not looking at anyone. Her voice cut out in a scant whisper, "What about-"
"We leave her. The child's too hysterical to move quietly for what we need to do."
It felt like something had gotten caught in her throat, her grip tightening on the child for a second.
This was wrong, but Regulus was right.
The creature, for one could not even call it human, the one Dumbledore was calling Tom, was hissing in a voice so horrible now that it sent her blood cooling. A wave of something dizzying washed over her for a second, a distant, dim memory that was not entirely her own neigh-ing in panic. Unicorns...knew this creature.
Closing her eyes, breathing shallowly, quivering for another scant second, Kally found herself fighting down the panic of an animal that wasn't even hers.
Then she nodded, her disillusioned, invisible hair falling around her face. "Okay," she whispered back, her head dropping down by the girl's head. "We'll be back for you," she whispered, her grip slipping away from the young girl.
But the Slytherin girl did not even seem to notice.
A second later she was on her feet with the man called Regulus, the two of them moving slowly, tensely so as to not attract attention. Not able to see him at all, she was able to follow due to the tight grip he maintained on her arm. Darting around several pieces of burnt up wood littering the street, the ends of what had once been pieces of flooring still glowing a dull red as they continued to cinder, she caught her breath, holding it as they neared an outcropping of Death Eaters.
One stepped directly in front of them, so swiftly and elegantly that they barely made a sound.
They nearly bowled into them, Regulus slamming to a halt so quickly that Kally nearly bashed into his back.
Icy eyes of the Death Eater immediately darted to them, narrowing almost in almost feline fashion as they looked directly at them, looking through them, as if the woman knew they were there but was unable to make them entirely out...
The callous grip Regulus had upon her upper arm grew viciously tighter, his meaning for her to stay quiet clear.
The Death Eater began to move towards them, taking a step closer, cocking her head slyly, suspiciously. "Amycus," her cold, nasally voice sneered, "I want you to wrap your impossibly small-mind around a simple task, and tell me if you see anything."
A squat, lumpy looking wizard shuffled forward, their nose practically sniffing at the air. "I see," came the wheezy voice, "our Lord preparing to finally destroy the old man and that," a wheezy, anticipatory giggle erupted into the night, "Potter boy."
Remaining motionless, Kally's grip unconsciously tightened onto Regulus' arm. The tightening of his muscles evidenced his tension as the squat one called Amycus shuffled past them, along their side...
"Paranoia perhaps, dear sister?" Amycus snorted wheezily. "You always were the twitchy one."
"Call me sister one more time Amycus-"
The hissing between the apparent siblings was cut off abruptly as Regulus gave her a subtle yank in an opposing direction, the strong grip he had upon her upper arm maintained.
They moved slowly, at an angle, away from the Death Eaters, their black cowls barely concealing the hateful looks glowering upon their faces. There, in the ruined street, amongst the dark wreckage, they weaved near-invisibly another ten meters through the debris. Stepping cautiously over several pieces of scrap metal, clearly blasted off from something else, she finally dared to breath aloud.
The Death Eaters had surrounded the area, forming a circle within the street around Dumbledore, Kingsley, Tonks, and Potter, and Regulus and her...
Had just gotten outside of it.
The ruins of Grimmauld street stretched out in front of them, light posts flickering and buzzing with electrical damage. Several houses remained on fire, a loud crackling a noisy constant that filled the air, the greedy flames devouring wood, brick, plastics, a horrid stench lingering in the air.
Abruptly Regulus drug her behind the remains of an overturned vehicle. Thudding her back against the remnants of the exhaust system, the manifold digging sharply into her back, she breathed shakily, finding fear flowing through her despite everything.
Just the sight of that creature's shifting face, of its red, snake-like eyes, had drove an icy dagger through her.
"They haven't seen me yet," Regulus was hissing, "and you were the farthest away from that central group of reckless imbeciles so unfortunately for me you are the one that I had to-are you even listening to me girl?"
Kally's gaze shifted from the street stretching out in front of them, devoid and empty of Death Eaters to block their path, but strewn with the evidence of their previous destruction, back to where Regulus ought to be. Conversing with an invisible companion was...disorienting, her gaze seeing right through him and landing upon the remains of a wrought iron fence that had been torn out of the ground and thrown onto a front porch.
A Muggle man lay impaled, gutted by one of the posts, a thick, viscous liquid staining his clothing.
Something akin to a soft, mushy looking tube hung out of the flap of skin that had been his stomach, the intestine-
Shuddering, she closed her eyes, whispering hastily, "I'm listening."
"Good. Do you see that house to the left? The one that is not on fire?"
Eyes flashing in that direction, she swallowed, whispering, "Yes," back.
"They're connected to the Floo network. Or used to be when some Mudblood loving fools moved into it in my youth. At either rate the fireplace ought to be still connected to the Floo network. Get to it, toss this," something was shoved at her, her fingers wrapping around the pouch – one that seemed to be filled with sand, "into it, and get the Ministry of Magic. Those incompetent fools might be meddlesome but when outnumbered with this many casualties their help will regrettably be needed. Especially if we have a hope of keeping the Muggle authorities at bay. By now someone would have been bound to have heard this."
Staring down at the bag in her hand, the bag that could no longer be seen the moment she had taken a hold of it, she breathed shakily. Heart pounding steadily, she knew he was right. The way that snake-like man had looked at Dumbledore, at Potter...
She looked back at Regulus' invisible form, voice a fearful whisper. "And what are you going to do?"
There was a pause, a moment's hesitation, then a rather grimly satisfied sound. "I am going to surprise the hell out of a few old friends."
She didn't see him leave, just felt the wooshing of air as he moved, his cloak smacking against her face as he left her there, fingers clutching onto the bag of Floo powder, terror sliding through her.
A moment later found her running down Grimmauld Street towards the indicated house, knowing #12 Grimmauld was closer, but the battle...
Was right in front of it.
Floo sent to the Ministry of Magic, her head in the fireplace, she snapped something very loudly at the wizard walking by right at that second, the man actually jumping, dropping the coffees they had been carrying in surprise. Ah yes, she was invisible, and a disembodied voice in the fireplace. Either way she shouted the street where the attack was going and shouted that a man that she thought was an Auror had already been injured.
That ought to get their attention.
Kally's head was already pulled back out of it though, never seeing the pompous look of doubt on the wizard's face as the empty styrofoam coffee cups spun at his feet.
Nor did she the hesitation, the doubt and anger crossing his face, as if he didn't want to believe that Death Eaters were alive, well, and attacking innocents.
The last thing that Kally did not see was Percy Weasly make a grudging decision, abandoning the coffee cups and taking off at a run towards the Minister of Magic's office.
Kally was already running back out of the house, her feet skidding to a stop as she saw what was transpiring.
It wasn't until the hand clamped forcibly over her mouth, hauling her back into the shadows that she tried to scream.
ECOTS
Harry and Dumbledore were the first to recognize the face slowly twisting over what had just been Mad Eye Moody's, that slithering laugh...
Dumbledore's wand had already flicked out, faster than a brandished whip, an invisible force seizing Harry, lifting him into the air and throwing him backwards and away from Tom without preamble.
Slamming to the ground with such a force that Harry skidded across the pavement, he did not stop until his body forcibly slammed into an overturned vehicle. Wind nearly knocked from him, Harry lay there for a second as a bout of coughing seized him, stunned.
Laying upon the cobblestone as he was, at ankle level, his jade gaze cut through the night in time to see Dumbledore placing himself between himself and Voldemort. A quiet, calm power radiated from the Headmaster. Like a palpable heat it vibrated upon the air, like heat rising off pavement, Harry could practically see it.
Beyond Dumbledore, Lord Voldemort's lips twisted into a slit-like smile, and in that moment...
Harry's scar began to burn so fiercely it blinded him.
A low hissing, like the forked caress of a serpent's tongue, was breathed upon the air. "Helllllo Albusssss. Did you really believvve my loyal servantssss would have allowed your pattttthetic Professorssss to confisssscate all of that meddlessssome peg legged fool'sssss hair?"
Through the blinding pain Harry realized what he meant. Barty Crouch Junior had sent some of Moody's hair to Voldemort. He hadn't just kept it for himself.
How many more times had Voldemort impersonated him?
Long, skeletal legs, pale and striped so bare that the musculature beneath could be seen, were revealed for a scant second as the robes around Voldemort swished in the night's intermittent gusts. "Or perhapssss," his snake like tongue continued, "I should be thanking the blood traitor. And her blood, for my new..." the snakes slit-like eyes suddenly turned round, flashing with blue coloration, before turning to fixate upon Tonks, "talent."
The sounds of Tonks growl had to have been heard all the way down in Surry.
Scrambling upwards, until his back thudded against the roof of the overturned vehicle, Harry breathed hard, looking around as there was suddenly movement from elsewhere on the ground.
Around them, one-by-one, the Death Eaters that they had rendered unconscious began sitting up, for Voldemort, under the guise of Mad Eye Moody, had quietly reawakened them all. And from the shadows between the homes of Grimmauld Street, more shadows moved.
More Death Eaters were emerging from the shadows, nearly a dozen, with those waking up nearly 18 Death Eaters, and Harry recognized it for what it was.
This was the true ambush. Everything before it had only been a distraction, to lure the Order of the Phoenix out of hiding and into the street's center.
Tonks and Kingsley were facing outwards, defensive stances assumed on either side of Dumbledore as they covered the other sides, trying to protect them. Kaylens...
Harry did not see her. Before anything remotely resembling panic had time to register, a second blinding pain seized him, Harry writhing, doubling over and seizing at his scar. Curled up as he was, breathing hard, raggedly, he tried to clear his mind. He tried to block him out.
Voldemort's harsh, merciless laughter rose into the night, mingling with the stenches of smoke and blood. "Still haven't learned to keep me out, have you, Harry?" An actual tutting came from the darkest of wizard's mouth. "Careful boy, I am beginning to think you like having me in there, that you relish my influence."
Clutching his scar, seething with pain, Harry's legs scrambled ineptly beneath him as he tried to get up, to launch himself at Riddle, his voice screaming raggedly at him. He didn't even know he was screaming though. "I'd rather die," he bellowed, "than be influenced by you!"
The creature that had once been Tom Riddle had begun to slide one leg over the other, moving laterally, Dumbledore matching his every movement. It was like watching coiled rattlers facing off, tension building as one or the other prepared to spring. "That's sssso good of you, Harrrry," Voldemort's tongue slithered, "for I have come to give you that wissshh."
"Harry," came Dumbledore's calm, but powerful voice, a note of carefully restrained authority within it, "clear your mind, and block him out."
Voldemort callously laughed, "Such tutelage."
Bellatrix Lestrange, rising to her feet finally, her mangy hair shaken out as she spat blood upon the ground. Clutching his scar still, breathing harder, Harry barely saw her as her furious gaze befell upon Tonks. "Dear niece..." her wand spun in a black circle of death, the spell flung out so quickly that Tonks had no time to do more than twitch her fingers.
The curse took her straight in the chest, throwing her viciously backwards into a light post. The resounding crack audible even amongst the still crackling flames.
Her limp body slid down to the pavement, laying there, frighteningly not a trace of blood upon her. There should be blood, but there wasn't.
There was no movement either.
The carefully restrained power rippling around Dumbledore suddenly burned all the more brightly. "All these innocent souls Tom," came his age wisened voice, the sorrow radiating within it palpable, as if one could actually reach out and touch it, if they only listened hard enough. "You are my greatest regret, Tom." Still circling Voldemort, he continued, "That I could not see what pain was twisting you into while there was still time.
Voldemort's cruel, hissing laugh slithered across the air. "You always were a weak dreamer old man. It blinds you to where power truly lies."
"There are more important things in life, Tom, than power."
"Lies!"
The blinding spell flew out so fast from Voldemort's wand that the broken off front door that Dumbledore summoned barely had time to fly in front of him in time to absorb it. It did though, the door splintering into a thousand shards in every direction.
Still Dumbledore did not attack back, Harry breathing hard, not daring to clench his gaze closed to aid in blocking out Voldemort's influence upon his mind, lest he fail to see something in time. Why wasn't Dumbledore attacking back?
Why hadn't Dumbledore done something? Breathing hard, Harry refused to believe that Dumbledore could be tricked like this, as easily as the rest of them.
Instead the Headmaster seemed unnaturally calm, as if this were a block party, and continued to mirror Voldemort's movements, maintaining his position between he and Harry at all times.
Harry wanted to desperately scream at the Headmaster to run. They were surrounded by Death Eaters. He couldn't shield him from all of them.
As if on cue Bellatrix's raucous laughter rang out as she pranced around her cousin's limp form. Crouching down to the ground by Tonks closed eyes, Bellatrix made a chittering sound as she sniffed her, a cutting request coming from her mouth to linger upon the air. "Just a taste my Lord?"
The request was met with a sinister smile upon Riddle's snake-like face. "Patienccce Bellatrix. I have need of a metamorphmagus' abilitiessss still. For my other...loyal servantsss." A forked tongue flickered out over his lips, something truly amused glinting in his slit-red eyes as Voldemort's gaze shifted across the pavement to the blond child. "Feed on that filthy Mudblood, Bellatrix. There is not much blood within ssssuch a young child, but it ought to sussstain you."
The power radiating off Dumbledore almost seemed to grow, Voldemot's head twisting sharply in that direction, his lips twisting happily. "Such a ssshame that my servant was unable to provide me with more of a sampling of the blood traitorsss blood. Tell me Albusss, they are not with you. Have you found them out then?" Angelina.
The fury at what she had done to Kaylens, to Fred and the Weasleys by deceiving them, flew through Harry renewed.
Bellatrix let out a delighted laugh, and began to move towards the blonde Hogwarts student.
Harry practically sat bolt upright, his hand grabbing onto the roof of the car as he realized that Bellatrix would feed upon that little blonde first year. She couldn't get near her, she couldn't be allowed. "Dumbledore," he groaned out, still clutching at his skull, fighting back the searing sensation Voldemort caused, "Bellatrix...she's a vampire."
Dumbledore's calm response, as if he were calmly correcting a student in the middle of a lecture on the finer points of flobberworms, came. "I am already aware, Harry. Please do me the favor of staying behind the car, if you would." Harry gaped at him, the pain in his scar suddnely thudding less sharply for a moment as Dumbledore addressed Voldemort.
It was as if Voldemort was temporarily too distracted to be causing him pain. Like causing him pain now required him an active effort of will, as opposed to the mere proximity that used to cause it before.
Something had changed.
Dumebledore was still talking. "I am afraid though, Tom, that I cannot allow such uses of my student population." His ordinarily kind face suddenly smiled again. "Surely you can understand that I will of course, have to resist on young Tiffany's behalf."
The name flew through Harry's mind, and if anything knowing the young girl's name just made it all that more important to him that she not be touched.
Bellatrix was nearly upon her though. Tiffany, that was laying upon the ground. The one that Kaylens had abandoned and left curled up in a whimpering ball. Harry made to shove away from the car and move to her. Bellatrix had taken Sirius, but she would not take her.
"Sssso be it you old fool, I only came to ensssure that my work here was done to my bidding. Now though...you've given me a whole new motivation for this visssit."
"And to think, Tom, I would have thought you were more concerned with gaining the prophecy from young Harry than with killing him." Dumbledore observed conversationally, the Death Eaters that had surrounded them scowling. Harry saw their faces now. Avery. Nott. Crabbe. Goyle. Rabastan Lestrange. Others he did not recognize.
Voldemort practically spat. "The prophecccy is meaninglessss so long as Harry issss dead. My followersss only have held back for I have wanted him for mysssself."
Kingsley tensed as his gaze flew between all the potential attackers.
Dumbledore, however, seemed entirely oblivious to the utterly indefensible position that they were in. "What a shame, Tom, I would have thought you'd have wanted to face a fully trained Harry Potter, lest all you prove to your followers is that you were capable of killing a boy not yet even of age."
Dumbledore's form had turned, just enough for Harry to catch a familiar glint within the Headmaster's eye.
The Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry proceeded to wink at him, as if everything were going very much according to plan.
And then the whole of Grimmauld Street erupted into a whole new type of fiery fury.
It seemed hundreds of flashes of light exploded into the night, a spectrum of violent colors flung forth in a flurry of curses aimed at the Death Eaters surrounding them. Grimmauld street strobed like a fireworks display, the attacks coming from every conceivable direction. From windows, from the roofs, from the street level itself.
"That is the last time one of your lot thieves my eye from my nightstand!" A gnarled and scarred man leapt out of the shadows, raising the Order's war cry as the retired Auror moved impossibly quick for a man with a peg leg, flinging a hex straight into Avery's chest, sending the Death Eater flying back into a house's siding. With a fury Mad Eye Moody charged into the fray. "You criminals never did master the knack of wearing it right!" Another hex flew forth as he hollered, "It swivels in the eye! Observes! But it does NOT twitch!"
If the Death Eaters had been expecting easy kills, they were suddenly found wrong. Over a dozen dark cowls of the Dark Lord whorled around in a furor of black fabric, whilst the Order of the Phoenix ran out to meet them.
They Order had gotten there in time.
Harry suddenly understood how Dumbledore had been so calm, why he had allowed them to fall into such a recklessly unguarded position. He had been expecting them, and known that they were there.
Harry wanted to gape in shock as more Order members than the eye could count flew out of the shadows, literally, two red headed identical figures joining the fray and swooping down from a roof on brooms, tossing handfuls of objects suspiciously shaped like eggs down onto the attacking Death Eaters, but there wasn't time to.
Bellatrix had just leapt at the first year girl that had uncurled long enough to scream. Harry made to run for her-
He didn't get a chance to.
With a riotous shout Fred stopped trying to balance the carton of eggs he'd been carrying, tipping them over onto Bellatrix Lestrange.
They exploded on impact.
The Death Eater screeched as she slipped in the goo, slamming to the ground. Immediately she tried to get up, clawing at her clothes as more eggs exploded upon her, a black goop covering her instead of yolks, the suspiciously tar-like substance sticking her to her spot on the ground, preventing her from moving-
"PERMANENT STICKING CHARMS 'SPECIALLY DESIGNED TO STICK ONLY TO THE COWLS OF THE DARK LORD!" George was shouting from in the air. "AVAILABLE FOR ALL YOUR LATE NIGHT EGGINGS OF KNOWN DEATH EATER HOMES AT NINETY-THREE DIAGON ALLEY!"
Now Harry did gape. Bellatrix was still stuck to the pavement, whatever had burst out of the eggs coating her like a viscous tar. But the same substance coated the young blonde girl, only she was able to move in it, scrambling back on all fours and shrieking. It only affected Death Eater robes.
He nearly missed the green curse that cut from Voldemort's wand, Dumbledore's moving faster than the eye could follow, and a second later Harry was thrown back to the ground.
A sheet of metal suddenly yanked off of the car's roof, curving around Harry in time to block the Killing Curse's impact. The effect though was to leave Harry trapped in a metal cocoon. The metal was blasted by the Killing Curse, the site of impact denting in and resonating with a loud gong.
Swearing, Harry banged his hands against it, futilely, before he leveled his wand at it, snapping a spell at it. The transfiguration changed the metal into cotton immediately, and Harry tore through it with his hands. Particles of it flew out in every direction as a gust of wind sent them flying, some flying into a charging Death Eater's face.
Before he had time to so much as think Harry's wand had snapped out, a moving spell cutting from his mouth, his wrist flicking at the windshield's broken glass. With a clashing crack the shards were wrenched from the vehicle, flung at the cowl-
They struck the Death Eater in the chest, the cowled servant of the Dark Lord stumbling to a stop, staring at Harry for a second in seeming shock.
There was barely time to register what had happened before the Death Eater's knees buckled beneath him, the bastard dropping to the ground, Harry breathing hard. Kaylens had been right, pieces of glass did work.
A second later he jerked, kicking at the unmoving Death Eater's hand, sending the bastard's wand clattering away, spinning across the cobblestone and out of his grasp, just in case.
The sound of spell fire from every direction as the Order members faced off with the Death Eaters was almost deafening, a cutting curse flying by, slamming into the passenger side door of the nearest vehicle, the metallic bang almost thunderous. Swearing, Harry ducked down, his head jerking in the direction of the spell fire.
Voldemort and Dumbledore were facing off, curses flinging between the two. Dumbledore's wand not ceasing its twisting as the Headmaster continued to incant a battery of Latin-based words, the wrought iron metal gates of a yard coming to life and twisting around Voldemort's ankles, yanking the Dark Lord to the ground.
Voldemort let out a cry of fury, launching a black tainted spell from his wand's end at the light post over Dumbledore, Harry letting out a warning shout. "ABOVE YOU!"
The top of the light post had already come to life though, moving in a way wholly unnatural to benign street lamps, the decorative metal point at the top already aiming its sharp end down at Dumbledore like a spear.
With a metallic crunch, like a sound from the depths of hell, the entire light post suddenly jerked, bending down like it was made of rubber, the metal point slamming into the concrete where Dumbledore had been standing a second ago. A hiss of metal and it twisted in the other direction, trying to impale Dumbledore against the concrete, repeatedly.
Dumbledore had already turned and was gone in a whirl of cloak, reappearing elsewhere, slashing his wand at the outcropping of shrubs that had escaped the fires consuming the street. Immediately they turned into writhing vines, the vines slamming over Voldemort, covering him until he could no longer be seen beneath the leaves.
Spells still flew in every conceivable direction, and Fred hesitated mid-air, pulling his broom back with a, "Woah twiggy!" It was enough for the animated light post to "see" and aim at him. Harry's wand was already slashing in its direction, "REDUCTO!" bellowed.
The bright red light flashed out of his wand's end, flying through the onslaught of battle and slamming into the light post a meter from Fred. With a horrible metallic screech and crack the top of the light post was forcibly torn away from the rest of it. The torn away piece was flung like shrapnel, the metal spear spinning violently until it slammed into the front of a house.
The house was already burning though.
Fred's gaze had gone impossibly wide as he stared for a second, before shouting, "Thanks Harry!" giving him a salute.
It was all Harry could do not to laugh, amidst everything going on.
His reverie was cut abruptly short as a Death Eater's body flew through the air, slamming to the unyielding earth right in front of him, robes steaming as if they had been scorched. Head jerking, he saw Mad Eye's real eye gleaming with a furious light, the former Auror's gnarled face twisting in a grating command. "To your right, Potter! Vigilence!"
It took Harry a second to realize what he'd meant, and when he did he jerked, dropping to the ground, wand thrown out in that direction, "Expelliarmus!" bellowed.
Avery dodged, the Death Eater's body twisting so quickly that the man and his cowls of the Dark Lord slammed into a fence post, the bastard pausing long enough to look at Harry and laugh. "You'll need a quicker wand than that to take on the Dark Lord boy! Dolor!" A sickening green spell flew at Harry, and he barely had time to roll out of its path before it slammed against the ground, gouging a hole in the Muggle street and flinging pieces of cobblestone upwards.
Pieces slammed into his side, gouging him deeply, Avery's pounding feet heard barreling towards him, but before he could move-
A piercing, shrill cry cut through the air, and against the night sky there was a sudden burst of swirling flames directly above Harry's head, gleaming claws exploding out of the aberrant flames that twisted in mid-air like a whirlpool.
The phoenix song resonated over Grimmauld Street, a sudden surge of courage filling Harry's heart, the same song that reminded him in every note of Dumbledore giving Avery pause, as if he were uncertain for a scant second-
Fawkes launched himself at Avery's face, claws extended, his feathers a crimson and gold mass that glowed faintly in the darkness. A horrible howl burst out of Avery, the Death Eater's hands coming up, wand flailing as he grabbed at Hawkes, only for Fawke's gleaming beak to stab the flesh covering his face. The bastard clawed at Fawke's feathers, feathers that had once borne the brunt of Harry, Ron, Ginny and Lockhart's combined weights as he'd flown them out of the Chamber of Secrets.
Harry was up in an instant, launching himself at Avery as well, right as the Death Eater got off a spell.
It struck Fawkes, sending the phoenix whirling to the ground.
Harry slammed into Avery a second later.
ECOTS
Sliding on the ground, Kally slammed her foot into the Death Eater's legs from behind, her disillusioned form taking out the bastard's knees and sending them toppling to the ground over her.
An instant later the Order member the bastard had been facing off with hopped over her and stunned them unconscious, the excitable man's violet top hat nearly falling off. "Well done, girl!" he applauded, rounding around as if doing a pirouette, his wand waving about as if not certain of a direction as-of-yet.
Shoving her hair out of her face, Kally heaved, "No problem," in Dedalus Diggles direction, her eyes already searching for any other Death Eaters near them.
It'd been an Order member that had yanked her into the shadows. The real Mad Eye Moody, who could see straight through invisibility cloaks and, apparently, disillusionment charms.
She'd been told to stay out of the fray.
Diggles had other ideas though for how someone of her size could be used creatively.
She'd went with Diggles, well aware of Moody's growl of, "Just keep yer head down girl."
A sudden burst, like an array of sparklers, flew out of Dedalus' wand and right into the face of a Death Eater running at a full out sprint. The yelp that resounded from them as they shrieked, their hands batting desperately at their robes – which had suddenly taken to emitting fireworks out of them – had her gaze widen.
A second later Kally's barely working wand had stunned the bastard. Diggles was still clapping.
And that was when the two bodies slammed into the ground right by them.
Screaming, she fell back, slamming into the ground to avoid being hit, her eyes widening as two bodies slid past, a messy black haired one on top of the other, pummeling him with his fists furiously. It took her a second to realize who it was, her gaze instantly narrowing as Diggles jumped back, his too-small feet doing a little jig whilst he yelled encouraging, "There's a good lad, Harry boy! Atta'way to show him!"
Kaylens' gaze flew from him to where Potter had just been thrown onto his back, a sputtering sound escaping her lips. Diggles was cheering them on and not helping?
Clearly, he was insane.
And right then the Death Eater with the bleeding nose jumped on top of Potter, wand flipping around with frightening speed towards his throat.
Kaylens was on top of him a second later, launching herself at the bastard, colliding hard. Toppling to the ground with him, she clawed at any part of his body she could reach, the angered shout of the Death Eater loud in her ears. Splinters of blasted off wood and broken glass that littered the ground dug into her leg as she was thrown against them-
A second later the brutal hands had seized her hair, slamming her head against the ground, the brute force causing her to cry out, the hard, unforgiving rock that met her brow-
Her entire world spun.
Then a second later it became crushed, for the Death Eater had just gone limp, and fallen down on top of her.
ECOTS
The end of Harry's wand practically sizzled, Avery's body having dropped limply to the ground from his curse's impact.
Only Avery's body didn't lay on the ground. Instead it hung awkwardly, suspended several inches above the ground, as if it were laying on something invisible.
And Harry knew exactly who it was.
Shoving himself up off his knee, he didn't bother with formalities, grabbing Avery by the back of his Death Eater robes and tossing him off her with a loud grunt. "What in the hell do you think you're doing?" he snapped, a viciously red spell whizzing past a mere meter overhead, causing him to duck the hell down reflexively.
The sound Kaylens made was akin to a groan. "Nice," she muttered, "to see you too."
He didn't even bother to repress the growl in his throat, already reaching down and grabbing at her, his hand freezing on her disillusioned clothing when she made a sound of pain.
It struck him then that she was hurt.
Swearing under his breath he dropped back down to the ground by her, keeping his head low and ignoring the acute pain in his own side. "Kaylens where in the hell are you hurt."
"Head," she replied hazily, "don't worry, corridor activities with you prove I wasn't using it anyway."
He was going to throttle her, later, much later, when he forcibly hauled her ass away from the verifiable war zone. Snapping his wand at her, "Finite!" cut from his throat, quickly. Immediately the disillusionment charm upon her dropped away, every inch of her exposed, pale skin revealed. Right along with the matted blood in her hair, a nasty abrasion running down her forehead, the skin peeled away unevenly by the ground she'd slammed into, a strangely tinted blood oozing from it.
Her blood was no longer red. A silver tint shimmered in it. Cardiac muscles nearly skipping as he realized what it was from, the mixing of the unicorn blood with hers, he nearly reached out to cover it.
Kaylens hand jerked to grab at it instead, the cursed witch clutching her brow and grimacing. "Ow."
"Ah ho! Stupefy! Muto bestia!" Diggles pranced past, flinging spells in every direction, a Death Eater that had tried sneaking up on them suddenly transfigured into a platypus, before another voice that did not belong to Diggles more angrily snapped, "We'll just hold off the advancing attack then while you two get reacquainted then?"
Harry's head darted up, glaring at wherever the disembodied form of Regulus Black was.
"Salazar knows being apart for these fifteen minutes or so must have been difficult," he was continuing, "but perhaps your kissing and making up tender moments could wait until there are perhaps no killing curses being flung."
This time Harry's growl was directed at him, opening his mouth to snap something furious – snogging a girl one...no two times didn't mean he was ever going to do it again - but Regulus was still talking.
"You get a hold of the Ministry, girl?"
Kaylens was nodding, her voice sounding a bit off. "Yes."
Head snapping around to gape at her, he furiously snapped, "You called the Ministry?"
He could practically hear the sound of her eyes rolling at him, but he missed seeing the gesture.
For across the ground he had just seen a mass of crimson and gold feathers move, shaking itself off. "Fawkes," he whispered.
Regulus snorted. "And here I was thinking if you were man enough to face the Dark Lord that you'd be able to actually use profanities properly. Fawkes indee-"
"I think," Diggles interrupted with too much delight, twirling in a circle and wielding his wand as if he were in a fencing duel in the middle ages, "that he was not using a clever alternate for the beast of all profanities, but was instead referring to Dumbledore's pet phoenix, who appears to be getting up right over there." Gesturing flamboyantly with his wand, Diggles actually stood on tiptoe and did some type of elaborate, and frighteningly poorly executed, mid-air leap.
The frown could practically be heard in Regulus' voice. "Something is very wrong with him, and if not, there is about to be."
From underneath him Kaylens snorted, her fingers now massaging her head as if pained. "He got hit with something. Has been incessantly giddy since."
Harry threw her a dark look, his grip on her arm tightening for a moment, just to feel that she was there, before bluntly questioning, "Think you can move?"
But she was already nodding, batting him away with her hand. Sitting up, gingerly, he saw Kaylens gaze eyeing herself for a moment. "You took away my disillusionment charm." If he hadn't known better, Harry would have sworn to something unholy that she actually pouted. "I was having fun with that."
Harry grimaced, throwing the question at Diggles. "Alright, what the hell was she hit with?"
"Apparently," Regulus drawled, "the ground."
"I'm just dizzy. That's all," she was snapping, sounding tired, the way she was blinking driving a dagger of something not unlike panic through him. Grand, she was disoriented.
Something exploded near the burnt out husk of a nearby vehicle, Harry ducking his head the hell down as sparks flew in every direction, the cars they were behind shielding them temporarily. They were on the outskirts of the battle, the battle that the Order appeared to be winning.
They had to get back in there, Harry swearing at her for the distraction. "I swear to Godric if you've given yourself a head injury because you felt like tackling someone I was handling-"
Kaylens shook her head stubbornly. "You were too far ahead in our saving each other's life tally. Couldn't have that. You'd be more insufferable."
Opening his mouth to snap something dark at her, he didn't get the chance to.
A flapping of crimson wings suddenly dropped down beside them, Kaylens actually jerking in startlement. Harry merely watched as Fawkes black eyes observed him, the phoenix's head turning as it appraisingly looked him over. He was doing the same though, concern for Fawkes daggering through him, the knowledge that if Fawkes died that he'd be reborn immediately the only thing appeasing him.
Harry's voice was lowered, his head ducking down to address the phoenix directly. "Nice work on Avery."
The clicking of the beak, a powerful clacking sound as it opened and closed, signified Fawkes' amusement as best it could, its feathers glowing faintly in the night.
And then the golden talons walked awkwardly across the cobblestone, stopping by Harry's side, the phoenix tilting its head. Harry leaned back, grip on Kaylens releasing as he spotted his own side, blood pooling from it.
It was only then that the pain he was in fully registered, the stabbing, penetrating pain where shards had lodged themselves into the side of abdominals. Grimacing hard, Harry grabbed at his shirt to hold it tight, only for Fawkes to nip at his fingers.
Immediately he let go, the phoenix immediately releasing tears onto the wound.
And like before, like the other three times Fawkes had healed him, a golden sparkling traced over his skin, the flesh sealing back together.
Letting out a breath, Harry peered out at Fawkes from behind his dirty glasses as he gratefully breathed, "Thanks."
Fawkes merely swiveled his head, as if peering deeper into Harry than before. Harry's heart pounded, and it was the sound of Kaylens' grunt that had his attention dart back to her, the entire ground they sat on shaking violently as something far off exploded. Seeing her expression scrunched up as it was, that unsettling feeling he always got when she was hurt flew through him.
His gaze darted back to Fawkes, a hopeful note in his tone. "Her head...think you could...?" Tilting his head at where Kaylens clutched her head, Harry watched Fawkes head swivel to regard her for a moment.
But Fawkes didn't move. Instead the bird, Harry swore, shook its head no.
"Oh terrific," came Kaylens sardonic tone, "you even trained your pet to detest me."
Before he had a chance to angrily retort, Kaylens gaze dropped shut, her entire form seeming to lose strength. Grip darting out to grab her before she could slump to the ground, his callused fingers had barely wrapped around her arm before something happened.
It was dull, barely noticeable, but a silver hue was slithering its way across her forehead, where her blood stained her skin.
Kaylens breathing had suddenly grown swift, shallow, as if she were struggling.
And then her hand slipped away from her brow, fingers falling to splay across the ground, and Harry saw for the first time what had happened.
Her wound was gone.
Brow creasing, confusion flying through him, Fawks let out a satisfied trilling, before spreading his wings out, taking off into the sky.
Harry's head jerked, watching the phoenix disappear into the smoke coiling over Grimmauld street, before his gaze turned abruptly back to Kaylens. "Your head-"
"Unicorn blood," she quietly interrupted, her gaze fluttering open almost sheepishly, as if she suddenly understood something far better than he did. Though now, unlike before, her eyes were clear. Her gaze flickered across his face for a moment, her voice quiet, "Healing properties, remember?" Staring at her for another long moment, he realized she was right.
He'd been the one to tell her that.
He just hadn't expected that.
Managing a grunt that was not at all relieved, he told, "Good. Don't expect any sympathy for injuries then."
Despite the situation, despite everything going on hellishly around them, Kaylens let out a startling laugh. "Like I'd want your sympathy."
Shoving himself to his feet, he shot her a glare, "You would. Seemed to have indulged in it so far."
"Hmph."
From several meters away he thought he heard the distinct sound of Regulus Black gagging. Sirius' brother or not, Harry threw him a glare, debating the merits of hexing him.
He didn't get a chance to debate that though, for the temporary reverie they'd had from the heat of the battle ended – abruptly.
Three meters off, the air suddenly swirled into a vicious vortex, like a small scale tornado twisting into life in the center of the street, and then with a concussive sound the wind abruptly punched down into the concrete with a mighty fury that sent the ground buckling downwards. The ground in every direction cracked from the brute force, splintering the cobblestone into spidering webs that raced towards them-
It sounded as if the very earth itself were being torn wide open.
Harry shouted, throwing himself out of the way of a fissure as it flew forth, gutting the ground beneath him. Slamming back into the ground, his shoulder striking first, the cobblestone and concrete crumbled down into the gaping void where he had just been standing. Rolling, Harry managed to slam his feet back against the ground in time to prevent himself from skidding into another gaping chasm.
He barely stopped in time, the toes of his shoes at the very edge of the now slanted downwards ground.
In the periphery of his vision he saw Diggles jumping up and down on tiptoe, dancing around the cracks within the ground as if it were some sort of game. Clearly the cracks near him had not been that dangerous.
Some were mere centimeters deep. Others, like the ones by Harry, were tens of meters deep. Deep enough to kill.
A racking cough adverted his attention to Kaylens, who had somehow avoided the same fissure he had, the vortex's violent winds sending her golden hair flying violently around her face, to the point that he could not see anything but her mass of hair. His own clothing whipped violently around him-
And that was when the vortex's wind slammed outwards, the blast grabbing at Harry and throwing him, sending him sliding across the ground. Clawing at it, he attempted to hold onto something, his grip latching onto something, his leg already over the edge-
"ENOUGH!"
A thunderous sound erupted through the street, the vortex suddenly trapped within a glowing blue bubble. It still spun with vehemence, but the bitter winds ceased instantaneously.
Dumbledore was striding towards them, stalking over the fissures in the earth as if he did not even see them, a cold fury now burning in his gaze. "I said," he commanded, brandishing his wand at the remnants of the vortex, "that is enough!" A spell burst forth from the Headmaster's wand, striking the bubble containing the vortex.
Both spun out of existence, disappearing with a resounding pop.
Harry's foot kicked at the open air, but he was already clawing his way away, away from the chasm he had nearly been blown into.
"You are a fool Tom," Dumbledore called out, his attention entirely fixated upon finding Riddle's whereabouts. "You would have been able to keep me prisoner once you had handed over Miss Granger. I would have gone willingly. Though your attempts to end our deal prematurely, without seeing her to me safely, if I recall were the deal breakers within our fine print."
A sinister, snake-like laugh filled the air. Hauntingly, as if it was coming from every direction. Harry, laying upon the ground right where the vortex had thrown him, lifted his head, his jade eyes narrowing. A half-dozen meters away he could see Kaylens laying upon the ground as well, her fingers curled around the edge of a chasm so violently that he could see the whites of her knuckles even from there. Across the field of battle that had been Grimmauld street half a dozen more figures could be seen beginning to move, all of them having been thrown to the ground by the vortex. Even Diggles looked less than jovial now.
Dumbledore, however, remained right where he was, standing his ground, his gaze flashing intensely behind the half-moon spectacles. The ancient lines of his face radiated with power, his head turning slowly, as if hunting for something.
"Tell me Tom, was attacking Grimmauld so important that you would willingly forgo the certain destruction of an enemy? Were you really that impatient, Tom?" The Headmaster's tone was calculating, curious as he scanned the battlefield, the distant sound of sirens rising into the night's air.
Muggles. If anything, that only served to have Harry's heart pound louder.
Across the way Kaylens had begun to move, slowly, shoving her palms flat against the ground, as if she were first testing it, as if she were not certain about whether or not she should trust it.
He couldn't blame her. The ground had been destroyed, broken into what resembled tiny, individual islands that one could leap between.
"What good issss a deal, even one with the famoussss Albussss Dumbledore, when I have been handed all I could ever want ssso early? Ssso unexpectedly?"
It started as a whispering, barely heard upon the air. But then the whispering grew.
A cool breeze gently began to trace a slithering path across Grimmauld Street, the aberrant breeze whispering as it passed by each living soul that lay upon it. It was as if the wind were alive, twisting, snaking, winding its way between all those who lay upon Grimmauld Street's ruins.
"I confesssss, I desssired Potter for myssself, desssired you for mysseeelf, desssired the Prophecccy, for who but I could deffffeat the sssupossed Great Mudblood Defender and the ssuposssed Chosssen One?"
The breeze slid over the cobblestone like a fine mist, slow, unhurried. Unlike the one preceding it, it carried no brute force behind it.
No. Instead, as the breezing mist reached each person, they found that it was far worse. Even the slightest of touches from this breeze made a wizard feel tainted, as if their innermost thoughts had been cursedly invaded by the wind's disembodied presence.
This breeze...it made a wizard desire to tell it things, to tell it their innermost secrets. From farther off he could hear Kaylens let out a frightened, whimpering sound as she fought against it.
" But what meaning doesss a Prophecccy have, if I can kill the chossssen one beffffore it would matter?"
Grimacing, Harry squeezed his gaze shut, his scar beginning to pound as the breeze brushed along him as well. It whispered to him. Whispering, tempting him to tell the prophecy, to just say it, for all to hear, for it would finally relieve him of this terrible burden that Dumbledore had placed upon him so unfairly.
He didn't know how long he lay there, fighting it. Time ceased to have meaning, but eventually...
He fought. Voldemort claimed the prophecy didn't matter if he killed him, yet he was still tempting him for it. He needed it, wanted it, Harry knew that. Scar burning, hotter than the Gryffindor fire, Harry's teeth slowly, painstakingly ground out the words, "Not...today...half-blood."
It was as if the soothing, calming wind suddenly grew very still.
And then it got angry.
Suddenly the wind that had been gently swirling around him rose in sound and volume to equal that of an approaching train, Harry throwing his head down along with everyone else as the sound of unadulterated fury screeched onto Grimmauld Street, slamming to a stop with a thunderous blast.
Voldemort's form swirled back into existence, his slit-like eyes searing red with hatred as he materialized behind Dumbledore. The calming, soothing wind of falsehoods suddenly gone.
Voldemort's voice replaced it. "Then so be it, Harry Potter."
Dumbledore's aged face shone upon Harry for a moment, as if resigned, as if there were no more time for anything. Harry stared in horror, Voldemort's wand already whipping out, slashing a lethal looking slash towards Dumbledore's back-
Harry bellowed, a sound of utmost warning, a fiery despair and anger igniting within him as he realized with a cold, dark fury what was about to happen.
There was no time for Dumbledore to react.
"Avada Kedavra!"
The green light burst forth from Voldemort's wand, flung out in cold, vindictive hate. The fiery feel within Harry grew, watching the Unforgivable curse fly at Dumbledore's exposed back as if in slow motion.
His very flesh felt hot, like he was literally within a fire. A searing pain suddenly shot through him, like he was being burnt, the hot, desperate anger to help Dumbledore igniting every nerve within him-
In the distance Harry could hear a beautiful trilling, the phoenix's song.
And that was when the world around him burst into flames, the phoenix's song rising to a crescendo, so loud that it deafened him, blocked out every sound but that of the whirling flames encircling him, blocking out the sound of Kaylens shouting his name, for it was transporting him. He was moving faster than he ever had-
He burst out of the flames in a fiery explosion, a red-orange fiery mass that threw him out of the air behind Dumbledore, directly into the Killing Curse's path. A piercing, shrill cry tore through the air, Fawkes swooping back out of the clouds, the phoenix's beautiful cry – the most beautiful sound he had ever heard next to its song - giving him hope.
And strength.
The whirlpool of fire behind Harry's back flickered out with a fiery hiss.
But Harry was already fighting, his wand already swishing, flicking, "EXPELLIARMUS!" flying from his tongue, his fiery red spell flying forth, colliding with the deadly green curse that had fired from Voldemort's.
The curses struck one another, the brute impact of them meeting in the air sending his arm vibrating violently. Instantly he felt his hand sear to his wand, Harry's other grip grabbing onto it to steady it with both hands as the wood shook, a thread of deep golden light bursting into life between them, connecting the two wands.
It was as if he could feel the power radiating from Voldemort through the Priori Incantatum connection, Voldemort's power so different than Dumbledore's. Whereas Dumbledore's thrummed with the energy of life, of love, the Dark Lord's cried a foul song of fear.
Harry had expected this.
What he had not expected was the shocked, outraged look of unadulterated fury plastered so plainly across Voldemort's face, "That's not possible, Potter!" he bellowed, his spindly, white fingers tightening around his wand in an effort to control it. The magic that was their contrasting efforts of will thrummed violently between them, a powerful song beginning to rise from the connection.
Sweating, Harry merely smirked back at him through his own struggling. "Apparently," he threw back at the Dark Lord, "it is."
"If, however, the owners of the wands force the wands to do battle...a very rare effect will take place."
Harry's feet were wrenched from the ground, just as they had been within the cemetery, the suddenness of it still shocking him even if he had been expecting it. Gaze fixated upon the thread of light shuddering violently between them, instinct warned him to not look away from the thread of light, to not look down at the ground below.
The horror that the periphery of his vision revealed was enough, the burning catastrophe of a street, the bodies littering the yards more than enough to nearly tear his concentration away from the battle of wills between he and the dark wizard he was destined to either kill, or be killed by.
But it was enough to remind him of why he was fighting as well.
They rose higher. The golden thread between them splintered, first hundreds, then thousands of glowing, golden threads shooting out from the central connection, shooting high in the air above them before they spun downwards, encircling them. The glowing threads spiraled around them, crisscrossing until they were completely enfolded with the golden dome of the phoenix.
"Harry's wand and Voldemorts wands share cores. Each of them contains a feather from the tail of the same phoenix. This phoenix." Fawkes.
The air was filled with that unearthly, beautiful, soul-wrenching sound. The phoenix's song. The same powerful trilling that he had heard when he'd been transported in the circle of fire. He didn't know how it had happened, he didn't know how Fawkes had transported him behind Dumbledore in time to save him, but he didn't have time to question it. Instead Harry's teeth were grinding, his entire face contorting as he grimaced, his only thought to hold onto his wand, and to send the beads of light vibrating along the central thread down to Voldemort's.
Just as he had done once before.
One of the wands will force the other to regurgitate spells it has performed – in reverse.
Beyond the burning houses of Grimmauld Street, flashing red and white lights could now be seen.
The Muggles were getting close.
"MY LORD!" The cry of the Death Eater was muffled, Harry nearly grinning at the muffled sound. The phoenix song, the dome it enclosed them within, made all sounds from outside of it seem distant, muted, not important.
Still Harry grinned at him. "Sounds," he grunted, the beads of light moving down the thread of light, "like your followers are worried, Riddle."
Voldemort made an outraged sound, and with that burst of anger the beads darted farther down the golden thread towards the Dark Lord's wand. "My father's name," he hissed, "is not my own."
Arms straining, grimacing as his wand heated up beneath his hands to the point it nearly burnt him, Harry maintained his grin. "Sure it is, Tom. Bet they've got a nice cemetery plot right next to your dear old daddy in that cemetery for you."
Voldemort sneered, only for a sudden, gratingly bright burst of flashing lights to light up their dome from below.
The strobing effect was enough to send both Voldemort and Harry's heads jerking downwards, their gazes grimacing against the powerful lights. Harry had been unaware of anything else that was going on below until then. Their height...they had gotten as high as the top goal ring a Quidditch pitch.
The fire engine was rolling by below without any signs of stopping, for the firefighter operating it was hanging out the window, staring upwards, the man's face an unreadable mask. Two other men hanging off the rear ladders were doing the same, one of them bashing an oblivious third in the shoulder to get his attention. Red and white lights flashed violently on top of the engine, signaling the arrival of what ought to have been relief to any Muggle.
Harry wished they had stayed away.
The beads of light had nearly struck the tip of Voldemort's wand, and Harry felt this.
More frighteningly though, he felt what Voldemort was going to do.
Harry barely had time to scream, "NO!" before Voldemort's skeletal hands jerked away, breaking the connection with a thunderous popping, the phoenix song dying as abruptly as the golden threads of light.
In an instant he felt his stomach fly upwards, Harry's body dropping downwards at an alarming, out-of-control rate. A horrible, serpent-like hiss was heard though, and Harry had time to turn in mid-air in time to see Voldemort's wand flinging forth a vicious spell at the fire engine.
There was not enough time to shout warning, nor to do anything.
In an explosion the likes of what two dozen exploding hexes would look like off, the spell slammed into the side of the fire engine, the firefighters eyes seen going wide in that split instant between when the fiery blast lit up their world and when they disappeared beneath the flames and shrapnel.
Harry saw the fire engine torn from the ground, thrown and already flipping before the sound of the blast hit his ears. The pressure slammed against him, the force of it snapping against his eardrums and throwing his body back up into the air, tossing him around as if he were nothing more than a piece of paper caught in a gust. And the heat...
The screeching, metallic sound of the engine being torn apart he heard now, the sound deafening, an unreal creaking as it slammed back into the ground, bouncing-
Harry only had time to see Dumbledore throwing up a shield as it flew right at a half dozen Order members.
ECOTS
Standing there, upon the destroyed and decimated roadway, her arms hung limply at her sides as she stared upwards. Breathing shallow, eyes fixed upon where Potter and the wizard with the slit-like eyes were floating, she felt frozen.
Until the blinding lights of the fire engine lit up the road, the sudden, golden glowing dome that encased Potter and his assailant high in the air bursting-
Kalliandra's throat seized in a silent scream, something she couldn't identify knifing through her at the sight of Potter's stubborn ass falling, something even worse daggering through her at the flash of sudden light bursting forth from far above-
There was no time to realize what it was though. Not until it struck the engine, the fire engine that had been rolling towards them...
If time could slow down, she would have willed it to.
Only it didn't.
There was no time to run.
It all happened in just a few seconds.
The fire engine was struck, and it was like a full steam train had slammed right off the tracks and through a populated station. The banging sound hit them like a shockwave, the screeching of metal being forcibly torn apart painfully assaulting her ears, smoke flying out at them in a dark cloud faster than the now airborne fire engine moved, its hose breaking free and whipping through the air like a deadly cable.
The first piece of red painted shrapnel slammed down into the cobblestone not a meter from her leg, Kalliandra jerking to the left, away from it, screaming.
"GET YOUR HEADS DOOOOWN!"
Dumbledore's roaring voice slammed out, Kally's head whipping towards him, seeing the Headmaster waving his wand as the fire engine slammed into the ground in front of him, the enormous vehicle screeching against the cobblestones for a ear-shattering second, only to bounce.
Dumbledore made no move to get out of its way, ancient power radiating from the old wizard as something deep blue burst out of his wand-
The wave of black smoke struck him, enveloping him, blocking him from her sight-
The wave of fiery smoke hit her a second later, Kally throwing her head and herself down to the ground, covering her face with her hands, the last thing she saw being the fire engine mid-air, flipping side-over-side towards them.
ECOTS
Remus had arrived too late, the ungodly sight of a fire engine spinning through the air, Dumbledore disappearing beneath a massive cloud of smoke and metal, a single deep blue spell bursting out into the night, the golden dome of what could only be the Priori incantum disappearing, a body falling through the air-
An impossible lump within his throat Remus Lupin barreled forward, bellowing a loud yell through the night. "Wingardium leviosa!" The spell flashed out of his wand's tip so forcefully it nearly knocked him backwards, the spell's aim having to be true. He needed it to be.
It slammed into Harry when he was no less than five meters from the ground, the next best thing he had to a son jerking in mid-air, Remus' arm giving a pained wrench as he struggled to force Harry upwards against the gravity that had been accelerating him downwards-
Two broomsticks darted out of the night, the red haired figures snaring Harry together-
The sudden lightening of the magical burden had Remus stumble, his gaze flying over the scene of devastation.
He stood within the burnt out husk of what was now a collapsed home, burnt to its foundations. Staring at the devastation, bodies littering everything, the sudden disapparation of Death Eaters was heard in every direction, something inside Remus shouting in agony that they would escape after causing all of this.
An impossibly large cloud of black smoke hung low over one side of Grimmauld Street, where Dumbledore had disappeared beneath, and now...
The crashing of metal pieces, one-by-one, could be heard raining down. They were striking the ground as rhythmically as falling sand. Making to move that way, agony in his chest, Remus' gaze landed upon something else.
A soot-covered shock of blinding pink hair, attached to a motionless form.
Suddenly he knew an all new form of agony.
ECOTS
It was like a tidal wave of air was slamming against them, Kally shoving her face into the ground and screaming without realization.
The entire world around her was nothing more than dark, smoke-laden black swirl, the noxious fumes from burning fuel burning her eyes as she coughed into the ground, her pulse beating frenziedly as she braced herself for the crushing pain.
It never came. Instead a split second too long went by, then a full second, long enough for the engine to have struck and stolen life from all of them twice over by now.
That was when the tire slammed into the ground besides her head, the impact forceful enough to send the cobblestone road buckling down where it struck and up where she lay. Screaming, it bounced her a quarter meter into the air, her back striking the ground now, her eyes flying open against the tear-causing smoke-
A piece of metal piping was twisting down at her, Kally throwing herself to the side just before it impaled into the ground with brutal intent, right where she'd been laying.
Then smaller pieces began raining down, Kalliandra yanking her legs up to her chest to shield herself-
A body slammed to the ground besides her, and before she could so much as scream in horror, it had thrown an arm over her, that overly cultured voice issuing a spell before she had processed what had happened.
Regulus spell flashed out over them, encompassing them in a small shield instants before smaller pieces of metal began to slice downwards, tinkering against it.
A moment later it was over, Kally's eyes flying open, only to find a small, stuffed toy laying on the ground in front of her face.
It was a frighteningly realistic version of a mangled fire engine.
Regulus' head rose up besides hers, sighting upon it as well.
Then the man began to laugh.
ECOTS
Slamming into the ground with less force than one anticipating death would expect, Harry lay on his back, stared at the sky, and proceeded to cough up a lung.
Or a quarter of a lung. He wasn't sure which. What he was what sure of was what he rasped out, his grip grabbing a hold of the nearest Weasley twin. "Voldemort. Where-"
"Gone mate. Disappeared along with all those other masked imbeciles."
Fingers still staying tight around George's – or was it Fred's? – lapel, he grimaced for a second before letting him go.
Then he dropped back onto the ground, making a pained sound. "Good. Would have hated to have to show him up again so soon." Coughing again, the wind thoroughly knocked out of him, he wheezingly added, "Can't be good for the old snake's self-esteem."
Fred was looking at him with one of those looks ordinarily reserved for seeing your best mate suddenly sprout a second and third head, one of which was a slug.
It was the sound of apparating from every direction that had Harry jerking himself back up to a sitting position quicker than he thought possible, his wand already out and aimed-
Right in time to see a frenzy of wizards and witches pouring onto the street, all with robes donning the crest of the Ministry of Magic. The eyes of one, a man Harry recognized as Rufus Scrimgeour, the newly elected Minister of Magic, landed upon him, the man pulling down his spectacles to regard Harry quizzically. "Harry Potter," he said as if entirely unsurprised, "I should have known."
Groaning, Harry laid back down on the ground, begging, "Fred, George, one of you please just hex me."
That was when the rather loud sound of clattering metal got his attention, his gaze rocketing back open, darting towards where he had seen Dumbledore disappear so fast it was nearly impossible. A piece of scrap metal, what had evidently once been part of the fire engine's hood, had been partially embedded in the street itself. The other half of it lay across the ground not far off.
And three people had just thrown that piece off the person it had crushed, the blurred out face of Regulus Black, Kaylens, and Mundungus Fletcher dropping to the ground besides the figure.
Harry's breath caught in his throat.
The crushed figure was Albus Dumbledore.
