An updated version of this is now available for everyone to read! I hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as I love writing it! I'm working on the next installment as we speak, and I'm very interested to hear what you think of the progression so far. If you have a moment after reading this, please leave me a review! I'd love to hear from you guys!

Chapter Four
Fight and Flight

She mounted her broomstick and held her wand tightly in her right hand, eyes glancing to the left as she waited for Mad-Eye to signal to them all. The tension and nervousness she had felt earlier only grew as she stood there waiting, fully aware of the fact that the pending attack was not far off. Before leaving home, Destiny had studied from as many books as possible until she was able to recite dates and events from memory, finding even the smallest of details and storing it away in case it proved of to be of use to her later on. So why was she so apprehensive? Because already things were not going according to plan and she had been forced to meddle in far more of history than she would have liked. And until she discovered exactly what it was that had thrown her own time into a chaotic mess she knew that each step she took would have a direct impact upon something else further down the road. How could she not be nervous?

With the signal from Moody she pushed off hard from the ground and soared into the air above, leaning forward over the handle of her broomstick as the others all made themselves airborne in one way or another. Kyra immediately shot up to hover near Remus and George as they all began their flight, each heading the exact same way before they would be forced to split off and go for their specific Portkeys. Tonight she would follow Mad-Eye and the Mudungus version of "Harry" on their journey. She could see already that there would be an issue as his broomstick did not reach its desired altitude as quickly as the ones ridden by herself and the aging Auror.

Seeing that everyone was still fairly close together she looked about her calling to them in warning, "Wands at the ready! They're coming!"

No sooner had the words escaped her lips when a burst of green light shot past her ear and forced her to lean heavily to the right, dragging her away from Moody and a little closer to the ground they had just left behind. But as she regained her balance and looked behind her, her face fell in horror as she spied nearly twenty masks closing in on their location, each masked figure throwing spells in the direction of someone who was protecting a copycat Harry. As predicted they split up so they could find the real Harry when they realized that there were seven of them in the air. The rewards for finding the right boy and bringing him back to The Dark Lord would be glorious. They would be renown amongst dark wizards everywhere. The Death Eaters descended upon everyone, fighting the Order members as they struggled to try and close distance between them and their quarry. They did not care about the Aurors and Order members standing in their way – in fact, some where hoping to kill as many of them as possible that night. But the real Harry was riding with Hagrid on that same old motorbike that had first brought him to Privet Drive. As she looked further to the right, she could see Harry trying to fight off every attack that came at them.

"Stupefy!"

Her spell hit one Deatheater square in the chest, sending him into a deadly spiral toward the earth below with none of his comrades moving to help him. They were all obsessed with the idea of earning the glory for themselves, proving their loyalty to Voldemort and his cause. It made her sick to think that they were so blinded by the prospect of personal honour that they did not even slow to help their fallen members; one less person to compete with for the final prize. It was clear what the ones chasing her now were thinking; after all, it only made sense that Harry Potter, the real Harry Potter, would travel that night with the best of the lot.

Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody.

Suddenly a figure rose from the dense cover of cloud and fog below and joined the pursuit. It appeared that he needed no broomstick at all, for there was nothing but air to carry him forward as he leered at them with his white, noseless face. Mudungus caught sight of Voldemort raising his wand, seemingly floating on the very same air in which they flew, and panicked. He Disapparated at that very moment, vanishing with a loud cracking sound and leaving his broomstick to tumble down into the silvery, swirling depths below.

Voldemort's upper lip curled into a snarl of rage when he realized that he had chosen to follow the wrong Potter; the real boy would never have left Mad-Eye to fend for himself in such a situation, even if he had been capable of Apparating. In an attempt to save the grizzled warlock from the blast she knew was coming, Destiny threw her body to the left and reached out to grab the collar of Moody's coat, pulling the two of them down quickly until they were once again flying beneath the clouds. The spell shot above them and out of harm's way, but she realized that Voldemort was not interested in pursuing them any longer. Instead, they had been deserted in favour of Hagrid and the real Harry, who was still fighting bravely in the distance.

There were Deatheaters coming at them from all sides - to Kyra greatly it felt like she could already feel their breath on her neck. Spell after vicious spell flew from her wand, stunning any idiot who dared to get close enough for her to reach. They were absolutely relentless in their assault; each of them drawing as near as they could when they saw yet another version of Harry Potter flying through the air on a broomstick. His skills in the sky were not exactly a secret. He had been the youngest Seeker in a century when he had played for his house Quidditch team back at Hogwarts, so why would someone with those kinds of skills use anything other than a broom to escape?

With grit teeth Kyra continued to fling her spells in all directions and wave her wand in order to block the ones that came for her. She could not block every spell that came toward her and she found herself dodging wildly to avoid them, especially the bright bursts of green light that flew her way. She wasn't a fool. Even if she couldn't cast a Killing Curse herself she knew what they were trying to do. All that the Deatheaters wanted was Harry. Anyone else was simply an object that impeded their efforts to get a hold of him.

But then she saw him, his hood flying off his face as he continued to advance. There was another Deatheater close by him as well, but the instant that Kyra saw Snape raise his wand her eyes flew toward George, who was too busy fighting yet another Deatheater to notice the danger he was in. Without a second thought she threw herself sideways and pushed him roughly, forcing the boy to temporarily abandon his own defences so that he could lean forward and regain his balance once more. But as she made contact with the Weasley, another flash of light soared past them and she grabbed at her side with an agonizing scream. Her hands instantly pulled away from her broomstick and flew to press against her side as she toppled over the edge and fell toward the ground below.

He had turned to yell at her and demand to know what she was doing, but all he could see was the rapid descent that her body was making as the distance between them grew. Calling her name George turned his broom into a dive, plunging through the dark clouds of the night and straining against the darkness. His arm jerked in his socket as he finally caught up to her and managed to grab hold of one flailing arm. Only when her limp body was secure in his grasp did he nudge his broom upwards again until he was able to get in close to Remus, who took only one look in his direction before he called out that they needed to hurry.

George dropped his shoulders, using his own body as a shield to protect the young girl from any further attack while Remus took up the solo position of defender. The battle continued for a few more moments before the Deatheaters seemed to disappear completely in favour of another target, leaving the duo to regain their course and head for their assigned Portkey. But as they flew George could feel moisture seeping into the leg of his jeans and looked down to see a dark, viscous liquid dripping from Kyra's side. They needed to get help soon – otherwise he wasn't sure Kyra would make it.

"Get to where you need to be!"

As Destiny jerked her broom sharply to the right she could hear Moody screaming for her to return to his side but she chose to ignore him. The blood was pounding loudly in her ears as she leaned heavily onto the handle of her broom, reaching a speed she didn't think she had ever experienced before. The flashes of red and green grew brighter with every passing second, the battle between the real Harry and Voldemort continuing on now that he had somehow found the correct target. She didn't know what had given him away but the Dark Lord showed no signs of relenting against his prey.

Another curse sparked from the end of Voldemort's wand, but this one did not reach nearly as far as the others had before. This time it came into contact with something else that absorbed it before it could skirt close to either Harry or Hagrid. Having been released from her cage for the journey, Hedwig had placed herself in the way of the curse intended for her master and seized in mid-air with a short screech and plummeted downward.

"Hedwig! NO!"

Between the shock of seeing the death with her own eyes and the agony that rang in Harry's voice as he called out to his fallen companion, Destiny felt the anger begin to bubble within her once more. Her task had not yet truly begun and already it had been marred with failure. To some people she might only have been an owl, a pet that was easily replaced by a quick trip down to Diagon Alley. But to someone like Harry who had spent so many years of his life alone and without a friend in whom to confide, Hedwig had been an irreplaceable part of himself. It was something that she understood all too well, for it was the very same bond that she shared with the pet that she had left behind in her own time.

And Voldemort had just killed her.

"Stupefy!"

The spell erupted from the end of her wand when she pointed it toward Voldemort, missing him by a few inches as the spell zoomed before his eyes. Though it had missed its mark entirely it had been exactly what she needed in order to distract the aerial predator, who turned to her with a snarl at her interference. In that moment Hagrid slammed his large hand down onto a button that sat in the middle of the motorbike, which launched itself forward with such force that even the half-giant who drove it seemed to struggle against the winds that now flew past. And that wasn't the only thing that seemed to struggle.

Perhaps it was the damage that the bike had suffered in the fighting, perhaps it was the speed at which it accelerated, but the bike could not sustain itself for much longer. Destiny watched helplessly as pieces of the bike began to careen off and away from the main structure, disappearing into the darkness. But that darkness was not meant to last long, as a blinding flash of light erupted with such force she almost fell off of her broom in her effort to shield her eyes from the intensity of the blast.

Destiny tightened her grip on her broom and blinked rapidly, attempting to clear her now useless vision. Slowly dark smudges began to break through the wall of white that had fallen in front of her eyes and slowly began to morph into corporal figures. All at once the smaller of the two seemed to disappear entirely from sight while the larger one began to plummet toward the ground at an alarming rate. The sound of Harry's shouts reached her ears as he called out to Hagrid, urging the giant to wake up before it was too late. As her sight returned she pushed her broom into a kamikaze dive that would take her closer to the falling motorbike in a vain effort to reach them in time.

The vibration came first. And than the terrible whoomp of impact reached her.

Pulling sharply upward so as not to plough into the ground herself, Destiny leapt from her broom and hurried in the direction of the crash, running as fast as she could on legs she could no longer feel. As she reached them she dropped to her knees, seeing that while Hagrid was still unconscious from the battle in the sky it looked like Harry was fighting to keep the darkness at bay.

"Stay with me," she murmured softly, taking his hand in her own and squeezing it tightly. "Stay with me, Harry!"

A voice called to them from a distance, the sound sharp as they demanded to know who had crash landed into their yard with such a deafening racket. Destiny looked up and squinted against the shadows to try and make out the figure that hurried toward them, knowing now that they must have crossed the boundaries of magic that had been set up to keep Harry safe as he approached the location of his Portkey. Voldemort was nowhere to be seen, and the man who ran to help them now was no one to be scared of.

"Mr. Tonks, over here!"