Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Harry Potter story or characters. I do, however, reserve the rights for any characters I develop and the plot of this story.
AN: A lot of readers have said that if Sirius dies they will stop reading. So I will give a massive spoiler alert here and say that Sirius will NOT, I repeat NOT be dying during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, although it may appear that way.
AN 2: I think that the major revelation at the end of this chapter will make up for that spoiler. It's something that I have been planning for a long time.
Harry Potter and the Veela Life Debts
By Jojobevco
Chapter 21
The Ambush in the Death Chamber and The Race to the Atrium
Fleur was 'looking around' while actually looking for the proper prophecy, "Master, have you seen this?"
Harry looked at the prophecy she was gesturing to: SPT to APWBD, Dark Lord and (?) Harry Potter. He reached out to grab it, before Gabrielle stopped him.
"I don't think you should touch it, Harry."
"Why not, it's got my name on it?" It was time to spring the trap. Harry grabbed it waiting, sensing the silenced and disillusioned movement as a Death Eater came up right behind them.
"Very good, Potter," Lucius Malfoy drawled, "Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me."
Harry Potter allowed himself a brief smirk, before turning around to put on a performance that would earn him an Oscar in Hollywood.
Meanwhile…
October 31, 1995
5:50 PM
Entrance to Department of Mysteries
Level 9, Ministry of Magic
London, United Kingdom
Hermione and Luna looked at each other, Hermione thought that Luna thought that she was here to help Harry and not act as a massive diversion to get the French inside the Department of Mysteries.
Luna, however, could see through invisibility cloaks.
Hermione remembered the plan Tonks had gone over a few short days ago.
"Meanwhile, Advisor Granger and the two youngest Weasley children, will enter along path Alpha to Objective 2 codenamed, 'Mousetrap.' They are going to act as a diversion for any remaining Death Eaters not at Cheese. Accompanying them will be Colonel Black and two squads of French Aurors under invisibility cloaks and disillusionment charms. As the Aurors get into position, Harry and his group will retreat to Mousetrap. When the Death Eaters have entered the room, we will spring the trap and engage the enemy.
Hermione honestly had no idea how Luna had tagged along, just that she had. As Hermione and the Weasleys were paying the role of the "Come on we've got to find Harry," being surrounded by invisible Aurors, Luna just impassively looked around. Finally they arrived at the Death Chamber, codenamed "Mousetrap," took up positions, and waited.
Back with Harry in the Hall of Prophecy.
Before this summer, Harry would have panicked at being outnumbered three to one by some of the most evil wizards and witches alive. Now, he was pretending to panic, while calmly taking in the situation
"To me, Potter." Lucius stood there hand outstretched.
Harry looked around dumbly, "Where's Sirius?"
The Death Eaters laughed, Bellatrix Lestrange (Harry didn't know any other Death Eater with, ahem, assets like that) gave a triumphant fist pump, "The Dark Lord always knows."
Malfoy nodded, "He does."
Harry growled, "I want to know where Sirius is!"
Bellatrix mocked him, "I want to know where Sirius is!"
Harry introduced a bit of panic into his tone, as if he was realizing it was a trap, "You've got him! He's here! I know he is!"
"The wittle baby woke up fwightened and fort what it dweamed was twoo."
Harry actively resisted rolling his eyes, bit too much, Bella. He then began giving instructions to his team. Completely unnecessary instructions. The situation was clearly a 12-6 with an objective variation, textbook.
He muttered, "Don't do anything, not yet."
Bella caught on and started jumping and pointing like a crazy woman would, "You hear him? Giving instructions to the others as if he thinks of fighting us?"
Malfoy shook his head, "Oh, you don't know Potter as I do, Bellatrix, he has a great weakness for heroics. Now give us the prophecy. Potter!"
Harry was starting to run out of lines, so he decided to reuse a few, "I know Sirius is here, I know you have him!"
The death eaters started laughing, and Malfoy regained his composure, It's time you learned the difference between life and dreams, Potter. Now give us the prophecy or we'll start using wands."
"Woofer to Flyer, we're in position!"
Harry almost simultaneously sighed with relief and smirked as he heard Sirius's voice in his ear. He turned and looked Bellatrix dead in the eye, daring her, "Go on, then." He cradled the prophecy in one hand and rose his wand, pointing at the Death Eaters, adding a touch of a wobble to it.
The Death Eaters did not strike. Harry's forces had undercalculated the importance of the prophecy to them. This could be useful, there was only one thing left to do. "NOW!"
The four of them fired off verbalized Reductos at specific pre-targeted points. These spells would deploy prophecies and blow up shelves, causing mass confusion, but not actually hindering the Death Eaters.
Harry shouted, "Run!" They ran, in what appeared to be a disorganized manner. They were firing spells at the group. Tonks, the 'most experienced' of them was bringing up the rear, firing spells over her shoulder and shielding some of the more major hexes.
As they exited the hall of prophecy, at row one (intentionally) with the Death Eaters right on their heels, Gabrielle sealed the door with a basic locking charm, "Colloportus!" as they ran. They ran in a straight line to make sure the Death Eaters could follow. They were halfway through the Planet Room when the door burst open and Bellatrix fired an "Avada Kedavra."
It sailed harmlessly over their heads. However, Lucius, started scolding her for trying to kill Potter. Harry didn't have time for this, he did a 360, snapping off a, "Reducto!" at the 180 before continuing on his previous path.
The Death Eaters were too far away to notice that he was an inch off the ground when he did this.
The quickly entered the Brain Room. As they passed the tank of brains, Gabrielle shot a Reducto at it, causing it to rupture and tentacled brains to fly everywhere. As they were running through the closing door, Harry noticed one of the minor Death Eaters slipping on a brain.
The Death Chamber looked exactly the same as it had a few minutes ago. Only the trained eyes of Harry and his team could detect the minor distortions that were given off by the French Aurors. Harry took up a position in the middle of the arena like room, about three-quarters of the way between the door and the Death Veil. He turned to face the door, just as the Death Eaters entered and formed up in front of him.
Lucius smirked, "End of the line, Potter, give us the prophecy."
Harry smiled genially, as he pulled the prophecy out of his cloak pocket, "Do you mean this prophecy?" Harry tossed it up in the air like a baseball before catching it and spinning to throw it.
Right into the Death Veil.
The accompanying thunder sound was enough to make Harry's eyes widen, and the Death Eaters jump.
Except Malfoy. "POTTER!"
Harry smiled again and activated his twinkle, he calmly flicked his wand, transforming his robes into his custom made Dumbledore inspired ones. Harry then injected a touch of power into his voice, "Lucius Malfoy, and assorted Death Eaters, By order of the Joint Magical Counterterrorism Task Force, and with the power vested in me by the International Confederation of Wizards, the Ministry for Magic of France, and Her Majesty's Government, you are under arrest. So, drop your wands and reach for the sky."
Jugson, a low level Death Eater, laughed, "Potter, you can't be serious. There's twelve of us, and what four of you?" The rest of the Death Eaters laughed as well. All of them except Malfoy.
Lucius had seen that twinkle and those robes before, there was something wrong about this, something very wrong, he just couldn't…
"Very well, then, if that is your decision." Harry took an opening stance.
Which Lucius immediately recognized. Only one other wizard in the world could pull off that stance, and that was Albus Dumbledore. As Harry waved his wand in a wide arc and brought his head up, Lucius had enough time to think, 'bugger' before all hell broke loose.
Harry started by Rockin' It, a series of spells designed to cause massive wide area effect damage and take down enemies. In Epic Class Dueling, it was the standard opening move against a group of less powerful opponents. Harry wanted them to know exactly who they were dealing with and snub them at the same time.
The Death Eaters, now that they knew what they were up against and how thoroughly they had been tricked, responded with Wrath of the Dark Lord, a series of spells designed to be used against a single, powerful, opponent.
Harry anticipated this move and countered, blocked, dodged, and shielded perfectly. He was about to respond with the next spell series for this situation, Light's Might, when he took a moment to reevaluate his position. This was a perfect opportunity to use his Signature Move.
Harry had developed it over the course of a week with Dumbledore. Harry moved his wand in a corkscrew manner, casting a Spongify on the ground. He leapt on the designated spot and flew high into the air over the Death Eaters, casting piercing hexes, Reductos, Bombardias, and other spells at high speed. Harry performed a backflip and landed behind the main Death Eater force, casting Sectumsempra on the Death Eater that had tripped over the brain earlier. Harry spun to survey the damage, he had frazzled the Death Eaters and managed to incapacitate one or two of them. The True Flight of Death was a success.
Sirius took advantage of the Death Eater's shock, once he got over his own. He whispered into his sleeve, "Execute."
One of the squads removed their invisibility cloaks and disillusionment charms and broke off to engage the enemy. They broke off and engaged the Death Eaters in single, or in some cases, double combat. Gabrielle was engaging one of the Lestrange brothers, while Tonks handled the other. It was a close fight, until one of the Aurors, who had just defeated a minor Death Eater, started helping out. Ron and Hermione were pushing one Death Eater back into the Brain room.
Fleur was dueling with McNair, who smirked as he taunted her during a lull in their duel, "When we are done here, I am going to have so much fun with you."
A few months ago, Fleur would have been frozen into inaction, a few weeks ago, she would have ran. Now though, Fleur blinked twice, and then…
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
If McNair had watched in slow motion, he would have seen Fleur drawing her Walther and leveling it with his chest while clicking off the safety, before discharging it four times.
He started bleeding out as he hit the floor. Fleur stepped on his wand, breaking it, before turning her nose up, giving a little, "hmmph!" and then walking off to engage Lucius Malfoy.
Harry had withdrew to the exit, to trap any of the death eaters trying to escape. so far, he had blown Jugston's head off and put a hole the size of a cannonball through Mulciber's stomach. Harry was barely resisting vomiting his guts out, before his attention was drawn away by a loud blast.
Bellatrix and Sirius had been fighting since the beginning. Both had sought the other out. If any of the other combatants had bothered to watch their fight it would have looked more like an elegant ballet, set on the Dais of the Death Veil. Both had scratches and bruises, but they had avoided debilitating injuries. Sirius had just brought his head down and his wand up in preparation for an anvil drop when a loud BOOM, oddly reminiscent of a 155mm Howitzer, echoed through the room. The sound was from an overpowered spell of some sort, no one could exactly identify it.
Sirius went flying backwards spread eagle, landing in the seats surrounding the Death Veil with a loud WHUMP! A minute passed and he didn't move.
"NOOOO!" Harry screamed, just as Bellatrix Lestrange ran past him. Harry let out another, "SIRUS, NOOO!" before giving chase.
The moment Sirius went down, the second squad of Aurors emerged from hiding. They were now bringing down Death Eaters like hotels in Las Vegas. The lower level ones were being dealt with in swift, harsh, and lethal methods. The higher level ones…
Harry looked down at the report, briefly, "Rules of Engagement?"
"Lethal force only on lower ranked Death Eaters."
"What, why?"
Intelligence. The French were lacking in intelligence on Voldemort.
Harry chased Bellatrix through the Depatment of Mysteries, past a few smaller labs (in one of which, Harry swore he could see Luna Lovegood talking to a red triceratops-like creature). Harry was shooting at Bellatrix the whole time, however she kept dodging or blocking his spells. They left the department through the circular room that led to the exit. Then Bellatrix took the stairs up a level to the Atrium, Harry right on her heels. She kept running until she reached the Fountain of Magical Brethren.
Gabrielle asked, "Endgame?"
Dumbledore answered, "At some point, we hope that Mr. Riddle will come to reinforce his Death Eaters; we will allow one or two of them to escape to the Atrium, codenamed 'Arena' where we hope Riddle will join them. Harry and I will pursue and engage."
Then she turned to Harry who looked at her, "So, Bellatrix, now what? The prophecy you came for is gone, your troops were ambushed, and YOU KILLED MY GODFATHER!"
"You lie! Accio Prophecy!"
"Are you really that much of a nutcase that you missed the part where I threw it through the Death Veil!"
"No," she started shouting to the ceiling, "It isn't true, Master, I tried, I tried! Please do not punish me!"
Harry cackled, pointing his wand at her, "Don't waste your breath! He can't hear you from here!"
"Can't I, Potter?"
Harry heard the voice behind him, instinctively he took a step to the left and executed a half turn, before withdrawing at a 120 degree angle to Voldemort and a 45 degree angle to Bellatrix.
Bellatrix, for her part, smiled manically, pointed her wand toward Harry, and screamed, "Avada Kedavra."
To her credit, he almost missed it. Instinctively, he stepped to the side and was halfway through a counter before his mind caught up with his training. He blinked and looked back at Bellatrix. He was expecting to see a formerly attractive crazy bitch, like he had a moment ago.
Instead, Lord Voldemort was faced with a much younger-looking, much hotter, and very much sane Bellatrix Lestrange.
Who was wearing the uniform of a Commandant in the French Auror Corps and had rather clearly not 'accidently' thrown a killing curse at the Dark Lord.
Even for a very eloquent and evil man, there was only one thing to say, "What in the name of Merlin's Saggy Left Buttock?!"
AN: Please review! Thanks to those who have.
AN2: It's not Tonks, so don't think that.