The exhilaration of being involved in his first big battle was almost too much for Harry to handle. When they first burst into Grimmauld Place he was raring to go, and he instantly got involved with a tussle involving both Sirius and Remus, both of whom had made a beeline for Harry the second they'd spotted him. Thankfully Voldemort was watching out for Harry as less than five minutes into the battle he was almost fatally wounded by a curse Sirius threw at him, and he only survived thanks to his grandfather pushing him out of the way. The near miss calmed Harry down significantly, and from that moment on he was more focused, and he locked his excitement inside as he concentrated on the job in hand.
For Harry the job in hand involved dealing with Remus. After Sirius had nearly gotten Harry, Voldemort had stepped in and ensured that he dealt with Sirius. But Remus was no easy opponent and while he seemed slightly more hesitant than Sirius to throw nasty curses, he was still up for the fight. In fact it took all of Harry guile and magical skill just to survive the battle.
Harry was so caught up with Remus for the majority of the battle that he didn't have a clue what was happening elsewhere. His grandfather and Sirius were fighting in the same room, so he knew how that was going, but that was about it. Everyone else had disappeared to other parts of the house and although he could hear fighting, he didn't know who was winning.
Despite fighting Remus, Harry wasn't sure about actually using the killing curse, and when the opportunity to came to take the upper hand he faltered ever so slightly. Luckily his hesitance wasn't fatal and Remus didn't get a chance to capitalise on Harry's indecision before Harry hit him with a powerful stunning curse that blasted him backwards and caused him to crash into a bookshelf, bringing it down on top of Remus. Before Harry checked on Remus, he took in the situation with his grandfather, only to find Voldemort already had Sirius subdued and lying helplessly on the floor.
"Nice work, Harry," Voldemort praised, grinning at his grandson.
"Thanks," Harry replied as Hermione poked her head into the room to see how things were going.
"We're all fine here, go and check on the others," Voldemort told his daughter.
Hermione disappeared to check on the others at the same time Lucius and Severus appeared to let Voldemort know they'd taken care of the Order members that had come their way. Harry listened to the tales of his father and Lucius, before briefly regaling them of his fight with Remus. Suddenly remembering he hadn't yet checked that Remus was definitely out of commission, Harry turned to the fallen bookshelf, but before he could search for the wizard he'd been fighting, Beth rushed into the room looking very solemn.
Harry was stunned when Beth announced Narcissa had been hurt, and he was torn as to whether he should go and see if Draco was okay, or if he should stay with his grandfather. In the end Voldemort made the call for him, by asking him to stay behind and help him deal with Sirius while the others helped get Narcissa to hospital. Harry sent a message of support with Lucius as he and Severus rushed off with Beth to help Hermione and Draco get Narcissa to safety.
"Are you okay, Harry?" Voldemort asked.
"Just a bit shaken," Harry admitted. "I never thought about anyone getting hurt."
"I'm sure Narcissa will be fine," Voldemort replied, praying he was right and that she would pull through and recover from whatever injuries had been inflicted on her. "She's on her way to hospital, so the best thing we can do is handle things here."
Just as Voldemort finished speaking, Beth returned and filled Voldemort in on what was happening with Narcissa. She also mentioned that she was going back to Hogwarts to sort things so they could explain Draco, Harry and Hermione's absence.
"Good," Voldemort said with a nod. "Are the others still here, or has Bellatrix gone with her sister?"
"The Carrows are checking upstairs, the Lestrange brothers are double checking the rest of the ground floor, but Bellatrix is dead," Beth replied.
"Dead?" Voldemort repeated in shock. He'd always thought of Bellatrix as rather invincible and he wondered just who had gotten the better of her.
"In the kitchen," Beth supplied. "I don't know what happened. Last I saw of her she was fighting one of the Weasley boys."
"I'll let Rodolphus know," Voldemort said to his wife. "You get going back to Hogwarts and once we're finished here, we'll meet you at the hospital."
Beth gave her husband and grandson a kiss before disappearing from the house. Harry was still reeling over Narcissa's injury and Bellatrix being killed when his grandfather gathered the Carrows and the Lestrange brothers. He gently broke the news to Rodolphus and promised him that they would find out who killed his wife.
"Is the rest of the place secure?" Voldemort asked.
"We can't find anyone else," Amycus Carrow replied. "They're either dead or have fled."
"Harry, what happened to the werewolf you were fighting?" Voldemort asked his grandson.
"Under the bookshelf," Harry answered, turning to the bookshelf and frowning when he spotted it had moved and there was no sign of Remus. "Or at least he was there."
"Amycus, Alecto, check it out," Voldemort ordered. "Rodolphus, Bellatrix is in the kitchen. Go and take her home, I'll be in touch later on."
While the Lestrange brothers went off to remove Bellatrix's body, Harry watched as the Carrows double checked under the fallen bookshelf and found no sign of Remus. Somehow in all the commotion, he'd managed to free himself and disappear. No doubt he'd gone for help, but Harry knew no-one could enter the house until his grandfather allowed them to.
"Never mind, we'll get him another time," Voldemort said to Harry, clapping him reassuringly on the back. "Alecto, Amycus, you can leave now."
"What about the bodies here?" Alecto asked.
"We're going to leave them," Voldemort replied. "Once I've finished with Black and we've gone, I'll drop the wards around the house and the Order can return. Let them claim their dead."
At the mention of Sirius, Harry turned around half expecting him to also be gone, but Sirius was exactly where Voldemort had left him, bound and unconscious on the floor. Once the Carrows had left, Voldemort turned to Sirius and using magic he hauled him to his feet and awakened him magically.
"I'm not telling you anything," Sirius hissed at Voldemort, although his hate filled eyes never left Harry.
"Do you not think I have ways of making you talk?" Voldemort chuckled.
"You can't break me," Sirius insisted.
"That's what they all say," Voldemort replied with a shrug as he raised his wand. "Crucio!"
Harry watched in rapt fascination as Sirius crumpled to the floor in agony. Even though the pain was written all over his face, he refused to give Voldemort the pleasure of hearing him scream, and Harry could see him biting his lip to hold in his cries. His lack of noise just seemed to amuse Voldemort and rather than be annoyed, he just increased the pressure of the curse. Still Sirius refused to break, and blood started running from his mouth as he bit through his lower lip in his attempt to stay silent.
"Impressive," Voldemort finally admitted as he dropped the curse. "But can you keep it up? Crucio!"
The second blast of the curse came from nowhere and this time Sirius let out a pained cry before he managed to stop himself. Even though it was just a small cry, Voldemort leapt on the noise and with an evil smirk on his face he set about breaking Sirius. Harry watched events closely, intrigued to see how his grandfather worked. It soon became clear that Voldemort got what he wanted by breaking the curse regularly, only to reapply it with more force. Instead of the pain just steadily getting worse, he receded it before piling on more pain, making it even more painful in the long run.
Sirius was rather stubborn, and he withstood almost fifteen minutes of brutal torture before he was constantly crying and shuddering with pain. Only then did Voldemort release the spell and magically haul him back to his feet.
"Now we'll see who's going to talk," Voldemort smirked. "Tell me about the Horcruxes you have? Have you destroyed them?"
"Yes," Sirius spat with what little strength he had left. "They're gone."
"He's lying," Harry said.
"How do you know?" Voldemort asked. He also thought Sirius was lying, but that was just gut instinct, he didn't have any solid evidence to back it up.
"His eyes," Harry replied. "They looked towards the ceiling ever so briefly. The Horcruxes are upstairs."
"Nice catch, Harry," Voldemort said with a proud smile. "Let's go upstairs, Black."
While Voldemort hauled Sirius up the stairs, making sure to hurt him every so often, Harry tried to decide which room Sirius would have hidden the Horcruxes in. Deciding it would either be his room or Remus's, he led the way into Sirius's room. Sirius didn't react when they entered the room, but as Voldemort once again hit him with the Cruciatius curse, he crumpled to the floor in agony and Harry watched as his gaze skittered over to a picture on the far wall. While Voldemort was busy with Sirius, Harry headed over to the picture and pulled it off the wall, revealing a safe built into the wall.
"Look what I've found," Harry called, stepping to one side and grinning at his grandfather.
"Excellent work, Harry," Voldemort replied. Freezing Sirius so he couldn't escape, he checked out the safe his grandson had found. "I think this safe can only be used by a family member."
Turning back to Sirius, Voldemort unfroze him and hauled him to his feet once again. Dragging him over to the safe, he physically forced a weakened Sirius to open the safe. When the safe popped open, Harry delved inside and found the Horcruxes, along with a box of what looked like Horcrux research.
"Grab the lot," Voldemort ordered. "Once you've got everything, we're leaving. I can feel the Order trying to get into the house, and while they can't manage it, they're starting to get on my nerves."
Quickly finding a bag, Harry dumped everything from Sirius's safe into the bag and slung it over his shoulder. Slamming the safe shut, he replaced the picture in front of it and turned to his grandfather to let him know he was ready to leave.
"Come and take hold of my arm," Voldemort said as he secured Sirius so that he couldn't escape on their travels. "The second we leave the wards around the house will drop and the Order will be able to enter. Do we have everything?"
"We do," Harry confirmed as he tightly grabbed his grandfather's arm.
With a nod to Harry, Voldemort dissapparated them out of Grimmauld Place with a crack. When they landed they were in a vast office which Harry didn't recognise. While Harry looked around, quickly realising they were at the Ministry in Nott's office, Voldemort secured Sirius to a chair. Harry wasn't sure if they were going to hang around for Nott to arrive, but they'd only been in the office for a few minutes before the fire lit up and Bernard Nott strode from the flames.
"Ah Bernard, I have a little gift for you," Voldemort said with a flourish as he showed the Minister a badly bruised and bloody Sirius Black.
"Thank you, My Lord," Bernard replied with an incline of his head. "I'll make sure Mr Black is returned to his rightful place."
"I'm sure you will, Minister," Voldemort replied with an evil cackle. "And do me a favour, make sure he receives daily additions of the paper, we don't want him missing out on anything, do we?"
"This isn't the end for me," Sirius spat, although it was clearly a struggle for him to talk he'd been through so much recently. "I escaped once, I can do it again. Watch your back, Harry, I'm coming for you."
"You're wrong, Sirius," Harry said calmly. "This is the end. You're going to spend the rest of your days rotting in Azkaban, and there's not a thing you can do about it."
"I think it's time we were off now, Harry," Voldemort said, placing a hand on his grandson's shoulder.
Leaving Sirius with the Minister, Voldemort apparated he and Harry back home. At home they dropped the bag of stuff they'd removed into Voldemort's study, while he took the time to find out where Narcissa had been taken. Once he had the name of the private hospital, he connected the floo and he and Harry headed off to check on Narcissa.
When the pair arrived in the waiting room, Beth was back from Hogwarts and she was sitting next to Lucius, who looked pale and distracted. Draco didn't look much better, and he was sitting clutching Hermione's hand as she had her spare arm wrapped tightly around him. Severus was sitting next to Beth looking just as worried as everyone else and Harry immediately thought the worst had happened and that Narcissa hadn't made it.
"She's still alive," Lucius whispered when he spotted Voldemort and Harry. "Right now they're doing all they can to try and save her arm."
"Her arm?" Harry questioned as he sat down next to Draco and gave his friend a reassuring smile.
"She was hit by a pretty nasty fireball and it's done major damage to her left side," Severus explained. "A lot of the damage was concentrated on her upper arm, and when we arrived the magic was still eating through her skin. If it's too far advanced she may lose her arm, but the healers were hopeful they could slow the magic down."
Not knowing what to say, Harry lapsed into silence as he and his grandfather joined the group anxiously waiting for news. Half an hour later a healer in his mid-fifties with little round glasses entered the room.
"How is she?" Lucius immediately demanded.
"Sleeping," The healer replied. "Her arm is safe. We've stopped the burns from doing too much damage. However, your wife will have heavy scarring on the top of her left arm and partway down her left side."
"But she'll live?" Lucius checked. He didn't care how scarred Narcissa was, as long as she was alive.
"She'll live," The healer confirmed, causing relieved sighs all around.
Lucius dropped his head into his hands at the news while Draco buried his head in Hermione's shoulder and Harry suspected both Malfoys were shedding a few tears at the news Narcissa was going to live. Beth and Hermione both had tears coming from their eyes, and everyone else, including Harry, was choked up by the news.
"Can we see her?" Lucius asked as he lifted his head.
"She'll be sleeping until tomorrow," The healer said. "But I see no reason why you and your son can't sit with her. Although, for now, I have to insist on family only."
"It's okay, we should get back anyway," Beth said. "Lucius, get in touch if there's any change."
"I will," Lucius vowed. "And thank you for everything you've done, Beth. And you too, Hermione. I'll never forget what you've done for my wife."
"Neither will I," Draco said, giving his girlfriend a kiss. "I love you even more for saving my mother's life."
"You would have done the same," Hermione replied with a small smile. "Now go and sit with Narcissa, and give her my love."
When Hermione and Draco shared another kiss before he headed off with Lucius, Harry didn't even roll his eyes at the pair. After everything that had happened, he didn't resent them taking comfort in each other.
"Let's get back to Hogwarts," Severus said.
"I need to get back to deal with things at home," Voldemort said. "I need to find out what happened to Bellatrix."
While Beth decided to accompany Voldemort back home to deal with events of the evening, Severus escorted Harry and Hermione back to Hogwarts. Instead of sending them both off to Gryffindor Tower, he sent for an elf and had three cups of hot chocolate brought to his private quarters. The trio then sat talking for another hour as they filled each other in on their experiences of the evening. Harry and Severus heard all about Hermione potentially killing Tonks and stopping her from killing Narcissa, while Harry told his father and aunt everything that had happened with Sirius after they left. Finally, Harry and Hermione headed back to Gryffindor Tower, although they were both too edgy to sleep so they spent the rest of the night settled beside the fire, talking and hoping that everything was okay at the hospital and that Narcissa hadn't taken a turn for the worse.
