Chapter Forty-Five: Heavy Prey

Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K. Rowling. The underlined portions are taken directly from the novel; I do not own those parts. They belong to J.K. Rowling.

Author's Note: This fanfiction is going to be different from my other stories. This picks up where "The Heart of Everything" and "The Heart of Everything: Shallow Bay" left off. The time in the books also changes. So, pay attention the time, so you don't get confused. Some of the chapters are other Marcus Flint/Katie Bell stories, just with more changes and deleted scenes added.

Time: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Genre: Romance, Drama, and Friendship

Rating: PG-13

Katie stared out into the smoke. The Death Eaters had broken through and they had been fighting nonstop for what felt like forever. Ahead of her, Remus was sending curses out into the smoke, with Tonks right behind him. Tonks? When had she gotten here?

"Katie!" Oliver screamed.

Katie whipped around. A Death Eater was charging toward her. Wand out, she pointed it right at the Death Eater. "Petrificus Totalus!" she screamed, just as the Death Eater sent a curse at her. "Protego!" The Death Eater exploded into a thousand flames. His screams made Katie wince, but she didn't have time to worry about his suffering. In fact, she felt that he deserved what he got.

"Nice one," Tonks called back as she sent a wave of purple lights toward a Death Eater.

Thud!
Thud!

Katie and Oliver exchanged looks, panic was in both of their eyes. Katie's blue eyes darted around. She gulped as she realized where the noise was coming from. The biggest pair of feet that she had ever seen was threatening to descend down on them. Grabbing Oliver, she pulled them other out of the line of fire. Ducking behind one of the many trees for safety, Katie peered out. Giants! Between the stepping on people and swinging giant bull hooks at people, they were doing some serious damage, far more damage than wand magic.

Oliver looked over his shoulder back at the castle. "They're pushing us back."
"I know." Katie tightened her grip on her wand. "If they reach the castle, it's probably over for us. The people in the castle don't have as much room to get out of the way."

"I know."
Katie darted out from the safety of the tree. "We just have to make sure that doesn't happen."

She ignored Oliver's cries for her to come back. Sending curses at every Death Eater she could see, she raced toward the centre of the action. Smoke covered most of what was going on, but she didn't let that stop her.

"NO!" a girl screamed as a Death Eater pinned her to the ground. Her wand was just out of reach.

"I'll make it quick because I don't want to see a pretty girl suffer," the Death Eater hissed as he raised his wand.

"Expelliarmus!" Katie yelled.

The Death Eater's wand flew out of his hand.

Katie wanted to do a happy dance, but didn't have time. The Death Eater rounded on and rushed over to her. She took a step back, but the Death Eaters had were hooked like claws that he managed to hook into her arm.

Katie's screams joined the chorus of the other as she fought to get him off of her, but it wasn't doing anything. He was just simple too big for her to fight off on her own. The skin was breaking as the Death Eater dug deeper. Katie pointed her wand at him and sent a hex in his direction, but it simply did not help. He was not going to let go until one of them died!

Screaming, Katie kicked him hard between the legs. He grunted, but instead of letting go, he tightened his grip. Katie looked around for help, but everyone else was too busy with their duel to realize that she was losing her battle.

And to make matters worse, there was no way that she could blast this guy off of her without hitting herself.

She kicked the Death Eater again, this time harder than before. "LET GO!" she screamed in his face.

The Death Eater blinked as his grip let up for a minute. Huh, screaming in someone's face really did get their attention. But, he did not let up for very long and Katie found herself back in his clutches.

Grunting, Katie pointed her wand at him, as his skin tightened and his face became nothing more than a puffy mass. As the eyes narrowed, he was forced to let her go in order to rub them. Seeing her chance, Katie pointed her wand at him again. "Stupefy!"

The Death Eater fell over backwards. His unmoving eyes staring up at the dark sky.

"LOOK OUT!" Alicia screamed as she rushed over to Katie's side, knocking them both of out the way.

The bull hook of a giant swung down where Katie had just been standing. With a sickening crunch, the hook latched into the Death Eater. Katie closed her eyes, but it did not take the image out of her head nor the sounds out her ears.

Katie turned to Alicia. "Thanks for that."

Alicia smiled at Katie. "Don't forget that we will always have each other's backs."

Katie nodded. "Yeah. I was with Oliver, but I'm not sure where he went."

Alicia nodded as she scanned the battle. "This is bad."

"I know."

A body went flying through the air beside them. Katie couldn't tell if the person was on their side or not, but it didn't matter. All around them people were dying.

Crack!

Katie felt something land on her shoulder. She reached up to brush it off, but then stopped. Dust, not blood or the remains of magic, it was simply dust. She looked up and saw something that she did not want to see: the wall above them had a giant crack in it that was threatening to collapse on them.

"MOVE!" Katie pushed Alicia out of the way before throwing her own body out. The stone wall cracked above their heads and fell in a rain of stone to the ground.

Alicia stared up at the towers. "I think one of our one people did that."

Katie nodded as she followed Alicia's eyes. "Probably, but I can't really blame them. There's just simply no way that they would be able to tell that we are on their side."

"Unless, they're not in control anymore."
"Don't think like that. Come on, let's get back in the action."

They charged forward, keeping an eye out for anymore giants and cracking walls. Katie stepped carefully over a dead body, not looking to see who it was. She really didn't want to know who was still alive and who wasn't. Glancing at the Astronomy Tower, she wondered if she could make out what wand sparks were Marcus's. Granted, she did know that it was impossible to tell just based on sparks, but it didn't stop her from looking.

A jet of green light shot out toward her.

"Protego!" Katie screamed. Much to her surprise, the Killing Curse went flying back through the air and toward the Death Eater, who it struck in the chest causing him to fall over backwards with a shocked expression on his face.

Katie gulped. She had just killed someone, granted that person had been trying to kill her, but still. Death was all the same, no matter who was responsible for it.

Oliver appeared by Katie's shoulder. "We have to get out of here!"
"What?" Katie sent a jinx at an approaching Death Eater.

"I said, we have to get out of here!"
"Why?"

"They're pushing us back! We have to get into the castle!"
A student fell to the ground, dead. Katie gulped. The girl couldn't have been more than seventeen or so.

"Come on!" Oliver grabbed Katie and forced her toward the west entrance. All around, people were making a mad dash to the castle. Above them, Death Eaters were flying, sending who knows what kinds of Dark Magic on the people below.

Katie kept sending hexes back behind with the hopes of slowing at least one of the Death Eaters down. People were screaming as the Death Eaters rained down on them. They were losing, losing everything.

She and Oliver raced up the steps to the second floor. Death Eaters were appearing in windows, sending as many Killing Curses as possible. Most them were finding a target, because Katie was stepping over far too many bodies for her liking.

Boom!
 Katie ducked her head just in time. About a metre or so behind was a giant hole that was just about as tall as she was. Keeping low to the ground, she pushed her way through the masses, trying to not to look directly at the bodies. Bodies...She could easy become of them...She didn't want to see who they were...Was Marcus among them?

Curses danced over her head, a few of them coming so close that she could hear their whispers in her ear. She put her hand on the cool wall after one got a little too close for her liking. She had to do something. Just wondering around was going to get her killed, but getting higher would also mean certain death.

Death...Death...Why was it all around her? Oh, yeah, she in the middle of a battle.

A pair of black boots stopped her from going any further. Katie's eyes followed the boots, which turned into a leg, which then turned into a man's body, and found herself staring into the eyes of a masked Death Eater. Oddly, the Death Eater didn't have his wand pointed directly at her, but instead just had it clasped in his fist. Katie pointed her own wand at him, but didn't fire. They both just stood there, looking at each other.

"Katie?" the Death Eater asked, breaking the silence. "Katie Bell? What are you doing here?"
Katie blinked. He knew her name. How did he know her name.

"It's me." He reached up and pulled off his mask. "Adrian Pucey, I was Marcus's friend."

Katie blinked, but she didn't lower her wand. Just because he was one of Marcus's best friends, didn't mean that she trusted him. "What do you want?"

Pucey didn't move or answer right away. "I just wanted you to know that I lost someone too when they killed him. He was one of my oldest friend." The sadness in his voice was just killing Katie. "I can't believe they did that to him. Sure, he was a spy and everything, but still. Draco was his friend and you don't do that to your friends."

Katie slowly her wand, but didn't take it completely off of him. "What are you saying?"
Pucey rubbed the back of his neck, a habit that Marcus also had when he was nervous. "I guess that I miss him a lot too."

Katie gulped. Did she really trust him to tell him the truth? He deserved to know. Secrets weren't supposed to be kept between friends. "He's alive."

Pucey's head jerked up. "What?"

"Marcus, he's alive and here."

"That's impossible," Pucey stuttered. "How?"
"It wasn't easy, but he's alive and is doing okay."
He stepped away from her, with a big smile on his face. "He's alive. He's alive."

Katie nodded. "Yeah."

Pucey nodded as he pulled his mask back on. "We probably should go our own ways before they kill us."
She nodded. "Yeah."
"Be careful," he said as he disappeared back into the battlefield.

Katie watched him until he was out of sight. War did strange things to people, like, for example, that man rushing toward her looked awful close to her father, but it couldn't be. He was missing and this isn't a place he would show up. She looked closer, it did look like him, had the same limp and everything.

"Katie!" he screamed.

She started over to him. It was him, it was him. He was alive.