Resolutions

By Neurotica

Forty-Six

After Ginny's announcement to the Order, and Molly's subsequent near-breakdown, Dumbledore asked Dedalus Diggle to contact the rest of the Order, Auror Proudfoot and his team, and a few other people Dumbledore trusted—Dedalus was supposed to know who they were. Meanwhile, he would be returning to Hogwarts, where the entire group of witches and wizards were to meet him.

"He knew about this," Naomi said quietly to Emmeline as they led those already in the cottage beyond the area where the Fidelius Charm protected so they could Apparate. "He knew Harry was up to something, and that's why he let Mad-Eye form that bogus plan."

"Maybe he did," Emmeline said. "Maybe this was Dumbledore's way of forcing us all to listen to Harry."

"And what if Harry and his friends go there, then they get captured?" Naomi whispered loudly. "Then we'd have to rescue them, Sirius, and Remus, and fight loads of Death Eaters and probably Voldemort."

"You don't know they'll be captured. I'm sure they're just fine." Emmeline reached into her cloak pocket and pulled out the two-way mirror Ginny had handed over to her before they left. "There's one way to find out for sure."

Naomi glanced over and grinned. "And I always told James those had no real use."

Chuckling, Emmeline raised the mirror closer to her face. "Harry Potter," she said to it, waiting for a response.

It took a moment before Harry's face came into view. Harry raised an eyebrow. "You're not Ginny," he said.

"Well spotted," Emmeline said, grinning. "I'm just checking to see if you lot are okay."

"We're fine," Harry said. "We got Remus..." he trailed off, looking away from the mirror. "Hang on a second, Emmeline."

The mirror was blank for a moment, and Emmeline thought maybe their connection had been broken. Then she saw Remus' face, and she felt her heart flutter up to her throat. "Are you all right?" she asked before he could even open his mouth.

Remus smiled painfully, but genuinely. "I'm all right," he confirmed. "A few broken bones; Hermione's working on them now. Other than that, I'm fine. Are you on your way?" he asked, talking as if they were just meeting up for lunch.

"Yes," Emmeline said. "We have to go to Hogwarts to meet up with everyone else, then we'll be right there."

"Good," Remus said, nodding. "We'll be waiting."

"What about Sirius?" Naomi asked over Emmeline's shoulder. "Where is he?"

Emmeline looked back at her husband, who cringed a little. She hoped that it was at least partly from whatever Hermione was doing to mend his broken bones. "Remus? Is he all right?"

"I don't know," Remus said regretfully. "Just after Harry took me out of the room I was in, we looked at the map, and Voldemort had just entered the room Sirius was in. We don't know what's happened to him."

"Oh god," Naomi whispered, bringing her hands to her mouth.

Emmeline took Naomi's arm to keep her steady. "How far from him are you?" she asked Remus, who was looking somber.

"Just across the hall," Remus replied heavily. "But I can't make it over there right now, and I'm not letting Harry or any of his friends do it, either. Not until we have backup," he added as Harry probably opened his mouth to argue.

"We'll be there as soon as we can," Emmeline said. "I love you."

Remus smiled a little. "I love you too."

Remus' face disappeared from the mirror and Emmeline pocketed it again. She turned to face the rest of the group, walking backwards. "We've got to speed up," she said to them. "We can't waste any more time." She turned to Naomi. "You going to be okay, or do you want to turn back to the cottage and help Molly with the kids instead?"

"No, I'm going," Naomi said firmly. "I'm not letting that bastard kill my husband. And if he does, he's going to have to deal with me."

There was something in Naomi's voice Emmeline had only heard when the two of them had argued over Remus in the past—arguments mostly instigated by Emmeline. It was something that told Emmeline that if something were to happen to Sirius, Naomi wouldn't rest until Voldemort was worse than dead. Emmeline didn't speak to her friend anymore until they reached the Apparition spot.

"Are you okay to Apparate?" Emmeline asked her quietly.

"I'm fine," Naomi replied shortly. She was the first to Disapparate and Emmeline was honestly a little surprised she hadn't left behind an arm or a leg.

Emmeline gave a quick smile to the rest of the group before Disapparating herself, reappearing just outside the Hogwarts gates. All the wards and charms preventing Apparition nearer to that had been taken down a few days after the students had left, since there was no longer any need to protect the castle so thoroughly.

The gates were already open and Emmeline spotted Naomi already halfway across the grounds, heading towards the steps leading to the castle doors. As Emmeline approached, she saw Dumbledore standing with the last person she'd expected to join the rescue group, not to mention the last person she wanted to see right now under these circumstances. She didn't think there was anyone in the world besides Voldemort who cared any less about Sirius' and Remus' fates. It seemed Naomi agreed.

"You've got to be kidding me!" she screamed at Dumbledore. "You can't let him go along with us! He'd rather kill them than rescue them."

Dumbledore stared calmly at her. "Naomi, I must ask you to calm yourself," he said quietly. "I promise you, Severus and I have prepared a plan, and it will succeed."

"What plan is that?" Emmeline asked skeptically.

"Severus will be our prisoner," Dumbledore said to the witches as the Order members and Aurors came across the grounds. "Should any questions arise, I will say I caught him preparing to leave for Lord Voldemort's castle and captured him."

Emmeline looked and found Severus' hands were bound magically.

Naomi's lips twitched. "Sirius and Remus would have loved to see this," she whispered to Emmeline.

Emmeline snorted, trying to hold back her laugh. When she got herself under control, she told Dumbledore about the conversation with Remus on the two-way mirrors.

Dumbledore nodded. "Very well," he said as the rest of the group reached them. "We will Apparate to the designated spot. You all know of which I speak. Do not act until everyone arrives. Is that clear?" He looked pointedly at Naomi.

The witch glared, but nodded.

It had been a little over ten minutes since speaking with Emmeline, and Harry was now pacing around the room. He wanted nothing more than to rush over to the next room and save Sirius, regardless of the fact Voldemort was there. If he did nothing else before he died than kept Voldemort from casting the Killing Curse on his godfather, Harry thought it would be well worth it. But as he glanced around, he knew rushing in there alone would do nothing to help. He had to stay with Remus right now and make sure he was going to be okay. Remus' eyes were beginning to look a little glazed again, but no one thought it was the same glazed look as when Bill was under the Imperius Curse. Remus hadn't said anything for a few minutes, and he looked like he was falling asleep.

"I still can't hear anything," Fred said, removing his ear from the door. "There's no screaming..."

"Okay, you can stop that now," Hermione said shortly, looking at Harry's face. "Remus' charm is probably keeping you from hearing anything..."

Remus suddenly raised his head. "Prongs... Padfoot... y'gotta go... quick!" he was muttering wildly again. "Not safe... Go... Save yourselves..."

Harry's friends looked at him strangely. "What's wrong with him?" Ron asked slowly.

"He said he'd been forced to take some potion," Harry replied. "He kept calling me Prongs..."

"Prongs is your dad, right?" George asked.

Harry nodded, still focused on Remus. "Remus, Prongs and Padfoot aren't here... They're... er, safe," he lied, trying to comfort the werewolf. "You have to beat this. You were fine before... Please?"

"Prongs... y'hafta save Naomi'n'Wormtail—they're gonna be killed!"

"What's he talking about?" Hermione asked.

Harry shook his head. "Dunno... He seems to be a bit delusional..."

"You think?" Ron asked sarcastically. "How'd you get him out of this before?"

"I think he came out of it himself when he saw me..."

"I know they're in there, but there isn't a door," someone said.

Harry turned around and raised an eyebrow at his friends. "Who said that?"

Ron and George shrugged. But Fred moved over to the door and pulled a flesh-colored string out from under the gap in the doorway. He grinned. "Extendable Ears. On sale at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes for only—"

"I really don't think this is the time to advertise your merchandise," Hermione said coldly.

"Sorry, habit," Fred said, grinning a little.

"There is a door here," said another voice, one that made the five Gryffindors raise their eyebrows and their eyes widen.

"Snape!" Ron whispered. "What's he doing here?"

Harry's heart was beating wildly. "He's a Death Eater... He's probably leading the others to find us! Voldemort probably told him I was here."

"How? Voldemort hasn't left the room Sirius is in," Hermione said, looking over the map they'd placed on the floor in front of Remus.

"He had to have known before," Harry said. The only problem with his theory was that Voldemort would have come to find them personally if he'd known Harry was there...

"It's been charmed," said another voice, one that made Harry sigh in relief. "They must have used it to confuse Voldemort. He can't know every door in this place, right?"

"It's Emmeline!" Hermione said in relief. "Can we open the door?"

George went over to said door, turned the knob, and opened it easily, startling the group that was standing just outside. "Evening," he said cheerfully but quietly. "Glad you could join us!"

Naomi glared at him, pushed him back inside, and waited for everyone to enter before closing it. "You're lucky we didn't get caught..."

"Voldemort's busy with Sirius," Harry said darkly. "He's not paying attention to anything else."

Emmeline had gone over to Remus who was still muttering. "What's happened to him?" she asked Hermione.

"We're not sure," she replied. "Harry said he'd been forced to take some potion, and he just started talking about Padfoot and Prongs going to save Naomi and Wormtail, because they were going to die." Naomi gasped, but said nothing. "We don't know how to counter it."

Just as she said this, Remus began convulsing and foaming at the mouth. Snape moved forward, reaching into his pocket, and pulled Emmeline back by her shoulder. He pulled out a small stone, forced Remus' mouth open, and pushed the stone into the werewolf's mouth, forcing him to swallow. Remus stopped convulsing almost immediately and started to fall off his chair; both Emmeline and Snape caught him before he fell and sat him up.

Naomi raised an eyebrow at Snape as the potions master moved to the back of the room. "You carry a bezoar everywhere you go?" she asked rather sardonically

Snape pursed his lips at her. "You of all people should know, Naomi, that one who spends a great deal of time in the Dark Lord's company needs as much protection as they can carry."

"Touché," Naomi said lightly.

Harry stood up and turned to the Order members who'd arrived. "These are the only people you brought?" he asked Emmeline, looking from Dung to Tonks to Snape to Naomi.

"Of course not," she said. "Everyone else is preparing to ambush the Death Eaters."

Harry nodded, then hesitated a moment. "Could I talk to you and Naomi alone for a moment?" he asked quietly.

Emmeline furrowed her brow. "Sure," she said, waving Naomi over to a corner of the room. "What's up?"

Harry bit his lip a bit. "Well, I doubt either of you will agree with what I'm about to say, but I need to say it."

"Go on..." Naomi said slowly, intrigued.

"Well, er..." Harry paused for a moment, hanging his head and sighed heavily. When he looked up, his eyes were serious and resolute, if a little uneasy. "I think you should take these people, my friends included, and go join the others. I need to face Voldemort on my own... I think this is it—the Final Battle. And even if it's not... well, I get a chance to kill that bastard."

Emmeline and Naomi stared at him. "You're not going alone," Naomi said firmly. "Em and I will go with you. Don't argue," she added over Harry's words. "My husband is in that room and I have to be involved in this."

"And after what I just saw," Emmeline said resolutely, looking back at Remus, "there is no way I'm going off to fight random Death Eaters."

Harry shook his head a little. He didn't want either of them hurt, which he would surely happen if they went with him, but then he started remembering every time Remus, Sirius, and Dumbledore had told him he wouldn't have to fight Voldemort alone. Naomi had promised she'd be with him, and Emmeline had said she would as well. He sighed. "All right, but everyone else has to go..."

Naomi smiled a little at him. "Okay, here's the plan," she said to everyone, turning to the small crowd. "You lot carefully and quietly head back out of the castle, where you'll find Dumbledore, the rest of the Order, and about a dozen Aurors waiting."

"Nonsense," Snape spat. "I've been preparing myself for this moment for months. I will fight."

"On whose side?" Harry blurted out.

Snape glared at him. "Whether you believe it or not, Potter, I wish for this war to be ended just as much as the rest of you. Even though your feeble little mind fails to comprehend it, I am not as loyal to the Dark Lord as your imbecile of a godfather believes—"

"Enough, Severus, Harry!" Emmeline yelled, silencing them both. "Severus, we need you to go to the other Death Eaters and pretend you were summoned for whatever reason you decide to make up. After that, improvise."

Just like every other time Harry had seen Emmeline and Snape interact, Snape didn't glare or argue with the witch. Instead, he left the room silently, closing the door behind him.

"We're not leaving," Hermione said. "We're going to fight with you, Harry."

Harry stared at her and his other friends. "No way," he said like they were absolutely mental. "Go!"

"Now isn't the time to argue," Ron said. "We've got to save Sirius."

Growling in frustration, Harry looked at the other Dung and Tonks. "I suppose you two want to stay as well?"

"Nope," Tonks said lightly, even grinning a little. "Our orders were to make sure Emmeline and Naomi got here safely, then work as decoys. See you."

Tonks and Dung left before anyone could ask what being a decoy meant.

"Fine, whatever," Harry said, grumbling a little. "All of you are welcome to see me fight Lord bloody Voldemort, even though you all know damn well there's a chance some of us won't make it out."

Naomi raised an eyebrow. "Stop sounding like Remus," she chided him. "Let's go; I want to see my husband."

"Wait, what about Remus?" Hermione asked.

"Well, it looks like he's finally waking up," Emmeline said, watching her husband.

Indeed, Remus' head was lifting away from his shoulder and his eyes were opening. He looked around the room, spotting Emmeline and smiled lopsidedly. "Hey, beautiful," he said a bit groggily. "Glad you could make it."

"Why is everyone saying that?" Naomi asked rhetorically as Emmeline went to her husband.

"We've gotta go save Sirius," he said, wobbling to his feet. "What're we waiting for?"

Emmeline tried to push him back to his chair. "You should stay here," she said. "You're not well."

"I'm fine!" he insisted firmly, snatching up her hands and looking intently into her eyes. "And I'm saving my best friend."

Nobody argued as Remus led the way out of the room and down the hall. He blasted the door open, Harry on one side of him, Naomi on the other. They were staring at Voldemort's back. Slowly the Dark Lord turned around, his red eyes glowing angrily. Sirius was sitting against a wall, a grin forming on his face when he spotted them.

"Avada Kedavra!" he shouted without ado.

Everyone anticipated this response and jumped out of the way before the spell was completely out of Voldemort's mouth. As they hit the ground, Remus called that they should perform Disillusionment Charms on themselves and run down the halls, around the corners of the corridors. Everyone did as they were told and scrambled away. Harry ducked behind a protrusion of wall and waited with baited breath for Voldemort to pass them and consequentially find them, but there was no more sign of the wizard.

Harry had a bad feeling. "Remus," he whispered, squinting as he tried to see his surrogate godfather.

"What?" Remus asked. "You need to keep quiet."

Harry shook his head, knowing Remus couldn't see him. "I have to find Sirius," he said. "You lot do what you have to do..."

Before Remus could say anything else, Harry took the Invisibility Cloak out of his pocket, quickly shrank it, and placed it on top of his head before transformed into the golden snidget (I really need a nickname... he thought randomly), and flew up towards the ceiling, heading to Sirius' room. When he reached his destination, he found the door was still open, and Voldemort was nowhere to be seen. Sirius, however, was there, lying on his side in obvious pain.

Harry landed and transformed back. "Hey, Sirius, how's it going?" he asked softly.

Still wincing, Sirius tried to grin again. "I've been worse, kiddo," he said hoarsely. "Where's everyone else?"

"Down the hall," Harry answered, going over to his godfather. "Where's Voldemort?"

"No idea," Sirius replied. "He Disapparated."

Harry nodded and tried to get his godfather into a sitting position. "How badly are you hurt?"

"Broken ribs, broken wrist, I think my face may be broken, too... Voldemort used the Cruciatus curseon me before he took off. And Voldemort's Cruciatus Curse is a might worse than a Death Eater's."

"I can imagine." Harry looked around, trying to figure out a way to get his godfather out of there. Not finding anything, he turned back to Sirius. But his godfather was looking over his shoulder, grinning again. Harry turned and found Dumbledore, Ted Tonks, and Nymphadora Tonks at the door. "Thank Merlin you lot are here... I don't know any healing spells other than Ferula."

Ted entered the room and began examining all of Sirius' injuries. It took about ten minutes, but once Ted finished waving his wand over Sirius, the Head Auror already looked ten times better. "All we need now," Ted said, "is Sirius' wheelchair."

"It is taken care of," Dumbledore said. He waved his own wand, and a wheelchair exactly like Sirius' materialized out of thin air.

"Convenient," Harry said, impressed.

Tonks, Harry, and Ted moved to physically lift Sirius—he hated being lifted magically—and set him in his chair. "How're you feeling, Sirius?" Tonks asked.

"Brilliant," Sirius replied, "thanks to Ted."

"Don't mention it, mate," Ted said. "Now, I believe, there is a battle to be fought."

Dumbledore smiled a little. "Indeed there is. Harry, would you care to lead the way?"

"Er," Harry said, glancing at Sirius. His godfather gulped, but nodded and even tried to smile encouragingly. "Absolutely, sir," he told the Headmaster.

Trying not to let his nerves show on the outside, Harry walked towards the door, knowing Sirius was just behind him, followed by Dumbledore, Tonks, and Ted. As they walked down the corridor, Harry wanted to ask Dumbledore how he knew Voldemort wasn't going to jump out at them, but trusted that the Headmaster wasn't leading them all into an ambush. As they reached the corridor where Harry had left his friends and Remus, Harry waited for one of them to call out to them, but they met nothing but silence.

Must have moved on, Harry thought anxiously, still watching for curses to start flying at them, his wand at the ready.

A little further down, Harry started hearing noises. As they approached, Harry could distinguish the different curses being called out. He stopped. This was it. He knew it. If he continued down this corridor, he would be that much closer to fulfilling the prophecy. He'd have to fight Voldemort, no matter whether he was truly ready or not. He'd known it would happen sometime, but deep down, he hadn't expected it to actually happen tonight...

"Harry," Sirius said quietly. "You'll be fine. I'm with you. Remus is with you... Your parents are with you."

Harry looked down at his godfather, grinning a little. "You do realize that was corny, right?"

"Yeah, but it seemed like the right thing to say to make you feel better. Did it work?"

Harry thought. "Yeah, it helped a little. Thanks."

"Don't mention it, kid," Sirius said fondly. "I'd ruffle your hair, but you're too bloody tall."

Harry rolled his eyes and bent down a little. Laughing, Sirius ruffled his hair.

"If you all would please wait here, I have something that needs to be handled," Dumbledore said in that mysterious voice that annoyed so many people.

The Headmaster went to a pair of large oak arch doors covered in carved snakes. He opened it easily and entered the chamber within, the door closing behind him. Dumbledore was gone for five minutes. When he returned, he held two wands. "I believe this is yours, Sirius," he said, handing one of the wands to Sirius. "And unless I am mistaken, the other belongs to Remus."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "So if that's Remus' wand, whose wand is he using?"

"Probably stunned a Death Eater and stole a wand," Harry said.

"Sounds fun," Sirius replied. "I want to do that too."

"Sirius, you have a wand," Tonks said.

Sirius turned to her. "What's your point?"

Tonks stared at him. "Nothing," she said. "Nothing at all. Can we go fight now? I'm itching to take down some Death Eaters."

Ted chuckled. "That's my little girl. Unfortunately, I'm not too good when it comes to fighting. I think I may need to leave and wait at St. Mungo's, just in case someone needs healing."

"Thanks for the confidence, Dad," Tonks muttered as her father entered through the door Dumbledore held open.

"There is a closet in Voldemort's chamber; you can Apparate from there. We will see you soon, Ted," the Headmaster said.

Ted winked. "Good luck to all of you. And Nymphadora, your mother will be quite disappointed to miss your wedding, so get home as soon as you can."

Tonks rolled her eyes but smiled. "See you as soon as I can, Pops," she said, waving at her father.

Dumbledore let the door close and looked at the three others in the corridor. "You are probably worried about the location of Lord Voldemort," he said. "It may comfort you to know that Voldemort is no longer within the castle."

"What?" Harry and Sirius asked at the same time. Tonks just stared with her jaw dropped.

"He disappeared when you appeared in the doorway of the room where Sirius was being held. I do not know where he has gone, but he will be back at any moment, I am certain," Dumbledore said. "Therefore, we must disable as many Death Eaters as possible. Let us join our friends."

The Headmaster led the way down the corridor where the shouts grew louder. They turned a corner and found another pair of double doors wide open. Through the doors, Harry could see wandfire and Death Eaters shooting at Order members, and vice versa. Harry took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. Before they made it to the doors, Sirius threw out an arm, hitting Harry in his stomach. Harry looked down.

"You'll be okay, kid," his godfather said earnestly. "Just do what comes to you. Don't hesitate. Remember what I've always told you: stun first, ask questions later."

Harry nodded. "Okay," he said, his throat starting to lock up. He sighed heavily and nodded to Dumbledore. The Headmaster nodded back, and Harry, Tonks, and Sirius rushed into the room, sending spells and jinxes at every Death Eater they could.

Harry didn't see where Dumbledore went. He was too busy dueling with a wizard that looked like he was from one of the "noble" pureblood families. Harry didn't care about the wizard's name; he was just worried about winning the duel. After hitting the wizard with a boil hex, causing his hands to fly to his face, Harry stunned him, summoned his wand, snapped it as Sirius told him was proper protocol during a duel against deadly foes, and threw it on his chest, then he moved on to the next Death Eater.

Sirius knew the Death Eaters would think he was weaker since he was stuck on the wheelchair, which was perfectly true, physically speaking. What they didn't know was that Sirius was still a perfect shot with his wand, and he could take them down just as well as he could before he was paralyzed. His current opponent, a young wizard, probably only a year or so older than Harry, looked nervous to be facing the Head Auror, but confident that the wheelchair Sirius was in would provide him the advantage he would need. Sirius wanted to laugh at the fact that it only took him two spells to hit the young man, but he resisted, summoning the boy's wand and pocketing it for his Death Eater wand collection—it currently held one of Lucius Malfoy's wands, Bellatrix's wand, and a few lesser known Death Eaters.

"You need to learn to aim, kid," Sirius said, moving past the wizard as he joined a fight with Proudfoot against three wizards.

Every single Order member had a function to the group. For instance, who would have known that Sturgis Podmore had once been in Healer training, but left after his first year? As it happened, Sturgis was able to heal all of Remus' injuries when he, Emmeline, Naomi, and the others met up with the rest of the Order, though he never looked the werewolf in the eye. Before he'd finished, he'd looked around to make sure no one was listening or watching. When he found no one was around, he said, very quietly, "Sorry about what I said to you." He'd said it so quickly and walked away that it had taken Remus a few moments to realize what he'd said.

Once the real fighting began, Remus and Sturgis had paired up to take on a group of Death Eaters who were ready to attack Naomi and Emmeline while the witches' backs were turned. When the Death Eaters had been stunned some fifteen minutes later, Remus turned to Sturgis and said, "Thank you." Sturgis nodded, managed a quick smile, and rushed off to continue fighting.

Remus had seen Harry, Sirius, and Tonks enter the room, and he'd wanted to call out to them, but he'd been far too busy with a Death Eater who seemed to be able to read Remus' mind—he blocked every spell Remus sent at him. The two wizards had been busy with their duel that neither saw someone come up behind the Death Eater and stun him.

Remus' wand arm dropped to his side and smiled at his wife. "Nice one," he said.

"Thanks," she said, smiling back. "You doing all right?"

"I'm doing brilliantly so far, but I don't want to jinx myself. How about you?"

"Between the two of us, Naomi and I have stunned twenty Death Eaters."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "Not bad," he said, impressed, then his eyes widened. "DUCK!"

Emmeline fell to the ground, and Remus sent a shock jinx at the Death Eater's arm as he started speaking the Killing Curse. The wizard's arm jerked away, and the curse hit the wall, causing it to explode. Remus quickly stunned the Death Eater.

As he helped his wife off the floor, Remus said, "No more chatting during battle."

Emmeline nodded and dusted herself off. "Agreed." She pointed her wand over Remus' shoulder and shouted, "Diffindo!"

Remus turned around and saw a Death Eater now had a gash in his stomach. "That was a little harsh."

"I wasn't going to let him curse you. What happened to no chatting?"

"Right," Remus said. "Well, off we go, my love."

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Naomi spun around after she'd hit her opponent and looked around wildly for her husband. She'd seen a glimpse of him a few minutes ago, but now he was missing in the crowd of bad guys versus good guys. She had to see him. She had to see that he was all right. She had to hear his voice tell her he was all right.

She fought her way through the crowd, stunning and jinxing every Death Eater that got in her way—she'd known most of them, and they'd recognized her. A few had started speaking the Killing Curse, but Naomi was quick enough to incapacitate the offending wizards before they'd finished their words.

Finally, she found Sirius fighting with Harry and Proudfoot against a group of Death Eaters. She smiled when she saw him, and the battle was momentarily forgotten. That was, until he spotted her and roared, "NAOMI! DOWN!"

She dropped to the ground and felt a spell speed past her—as it passed, strands of her blonde hair stood up for a second or two. She looked up, hoping it hadn't been a Killing Curse, because she'd heard Sirius' yell of pain. Then she realized victims of the Killing Curse never had a chance to yell in pain. Finally she looked up and found it had to have been a cutting curse, something Death Eaters enjoyed using on Sirius. It had hit his arm, and the arm was now bleeding rather profusely. Before Naomi stood, she let Sirius stun the Death Eater and summon his wand. Probably on accident, the summoning spell also grabbed Naomi's wand.

She glared at Sirius, who grinned back a little. When she reached her husband she knelt to kiss him boldly on the lips while Harry and Proudfoot held off the Death Eaters they were still battling. Naomi pulled back and found her husband with a goofy look on his face.

"I believe this is yours, my love," he said dopily, holding out her wand.

She chuckled. "You should probably concentrate on fighting, dear," she said.

"Right. Care to join us?"

"I'd love to."

Everything Ron had learned from Mad-Eye Moody and Naomi during their defense training at Hogwarts was coming back quickly. He attributed this to the fact that it hadn't been books he'd learned the curses and jinxes, but from practical lessons. They had dueled in their lessons, using the jinxes that wouldn't actually harm the opponent, but would disable him enough for the one who used the jinx to win the duel. The other curses and jinxes, the more serious and damaging ones, were used exclusively on targets. Ron had seemed to excel at them at the time, behind only Harry in the trials, and now Ron was doing quite well against real, living targets. Everything that had happened to him during his captivity in this very castle was fueling his desire to win every duel he was involved with. He didn't come out of every duel unscathed, of course; looking around, all his friends had a few cuts or bruises, and Ron wasn't an exception; he'd been hit with a few punching jinxes, a cut hex, and a short Cruciatus Curse. George had come behind the Death Eater and stunned him. Luckily, it had only lasted a second or two, and as soon as George had helped Ron up, Ron was ready to fight again.

He hadn't seen Hermione since they'd entered the room with everyone else, but tried not to think too much. Thinking too much and letting your guard down could mean death. Ron teamed up with the twins, all fighting a Death Eater each.

"Not bad, little brother," Fred called over his shoulder before shouting, "STUPEFY!" at the Death Eater he'd been fighting. The stunning spell hit and the Death Eater went down to the ground.

"Not bad yourself, Freddy," Ron called back, grinning a little.

Fred paused in his fighting. "If you ever call me that again, I'll use some of these spells on you."

Laughing, Ron yelled, "EXPELLIARMUS! STUPEFY!" in quick succession, disarming and stunning his Death Eater.

"Shall we move on, Weasleys?" George asked his brothers.

They joined yet another fight and battled on, still looking for their friends.

Remus had lost Emmeline in the many duels happening in this room—Remus was actually surprised a battle this size could take place in this room. When they'd first entered, it hadn't seemed nearly so big, but the more he considered it, the conclusion that came to him was that it was charmed to increase in size as the number of people increased.

That'd be good for parties in the cottage, he thought, stunning and disarming his fifteenth Death Eater. If Emmeline and Naomi can keep count, so can I.

"Padfoot!" he yelled, finally finding his best friend. "Move!"

Sirius' chair automatically glided to the side, something Muggle chairs could never manage without turning, and the stunning spell that had been aimed at him hit another Death Eater Tonks had been battling. "All right, Moony?" Sirius called over the noise.

"All right. You?" Remus called back.

"Never better!"

Remus grinned and started towards his best friend. Before he could, a vaguely familiar voice screamed. "MOONY!"

Before Remus could look around for the source of the voice, he was knocked to the ground and saw a jet of green light hit whoever had called for him. He felt weight fall on him and looked over at Sirius, whose jaw was nearly touching the floor. "Sirius! Behind you!"

Sirius spun around. "PROTEGO! PERTRIFICUS TOTALUS!" Now busy with another batch of Death Eaters, Sirius had no more time to spare for his best friend.

Something told Remus suddenly that he had to play dead. For a few moments, after conjuring up some fake blood on the floor, the weight of a dead man still on him, Remus lay his head down and waited. There was a boot to his side, and it took Remus every bit of discipline he had not to yell in pain. Whoever had kicked him moved on, and Remus was finally able to push the weight on him to the ground and look at the person who'd saved him. When he saw the man's face, his jaw dropped just as far as Sirius' had.

It was Wormtail.

Harry was dueling fiercely with a long, pale, twisted face the back of his mind had told him was Antonin Dolohov—the man who'd murdered Mrs. Weasley's twin brothers, Gideon and Fabian Prewitt. It occurred to him that the only way he could have known this was by reading the Daily Prophet every day after the breakout from Azkaban.

Please tell me I'm not turning into Hermione, he thought jokingly as he blocked Dolohov's cutting curse. He sent back a stunning spell, but the other wizard blocked this as well.

Something behind Dolohov caught the wizard's attention and he glanced very briefly over his shoulder. Harry took the chance. "IMPEDIMENTA!" he shouted, knocking Dolohov into another group of Death Eaters being fought by Emmeline and Naomi together.

"Nice one!" Naomi shouted before she started stunning the Death Eaters who'd become tangled in one another.

"Thanks," Harry said, helping her and Emmeline with the stunning and summoning of wands.

"I say we keep these for Sirius' collection instead of snapping them," Naomi said, pocketing all the wands she summoned.

"That's the strangest hobby I've ever heard of," Emmeline said, pausing just for a moment to look at her friend. "Is he aware of that?"

"Yeah, but he doesn't care," Harry replied, grinning and handing all the wands he'd summoned to Naomi, watching her shrink all of them and put spells over them to ensure they couldn't be taken by a disarming spell.

"Back to work, then?" Naomi asked once she'd finished.

The three immediately started fighting more Death Eaters, but before Harry could finish stunning the wizard he'd been dueling, a horrible pain erupted in his head, a pain he hadn't felt since his fourth year at Hogwarts. He knew instinctively what it was immediately, but he couldn't think; he was sure this time his head really was going to split open, and his scar would be the tearing point.

He was back, and he was angry beyond anything he'd ever been. Not only were the Mudblood-lovers here, but the Potter boy was there as well. While that made him a slight happier—now he'd be able to destroy the worthless, half-blood brat—the Mudblood-lovers and blood traitors were winning the battle against his Death Eaters. Well, they would do so no longer. He would destroy them all, including the Potter boy and his abomination of a family...

Harry shook himself a little, getting his mind back to himself. Voldemort was coming this way. Harry had to head him off. He had to end this. He wouldn't let Voldemort harm his family any more than he already had...

"Harry! Where are you going?" Naomi shouted after him as he ran through different duels, pushing Death Eaters, Order members, and Aurors aside equally.

Vaguely, he noticed he was passing Remus, who stared after him. Harry didn't stop to explain what he was doing. He couldn't wait. He had to go. This could have been what the Dark Lord wanted: to lure Harry away from his family, his protectors. But Harry didn't care. He was sick of seeing his family and friends suffer. If Harry could be the way to end all this, he wasn't going to pass up his chance—

"Harry Potter," said a silky voice. "How wonderful to see you again."