AN: Alright, here's the next chapter. Cheers - MB

Hours later, Harry was standing in the HMIS Elizabeth I, looking down at a map, as the holographic representations of Staples and Sulu looked on.

Harry had been replaced as the Queen's companion by a hastily-gathered protocol team, including the Prime Minister, and he was now on his way back to Harrisburg. On the way, however, Staples and Sulu had hailed him, giving him reports on minor skirmishes all over their holdings. Like Harry, they had felt that the situation was unusual, since many of the skirmishes made no sense.

Harry was currently glancing at the reported areas, and found himself confused and concerned.

None of the attacked areas were of any major importance. That was very unlike the Death Eaters' normal modus operandi of hitting everything vital in one major blitz. What was even more worrisome was that, despite the fact that most of the targets were mere outposts, none took losses or were captured.

Harry briefly heard a dim bell sound through the intercom, telling them it was 3:00 PM. They'd been in the air for an hour and a half, already. Harrisburg would be plainly visible in about fifteen minutes.

Looking up to Sulu and Staples, Harry sighed. "Anything else?" he gave up the raids as a bad job. Or, at least, he would postpone a more in-depth analysis until he was in his office, where he could take his time and stare at the wall-covering map that took up his west wall.

Sulu shook his head, while Staples grunted in the negative. Harry nodded. "Good. Now then, what can you tell me about the—"

Whatever he'd been about to ask was drowned out as an alarm klaxon went off shrilly. Harry looked around wildly as the room was bathed in a red light, while Sulu and Staples immediately started shouting for explanations.

"Report!" barked Harry.

One of the crewmen turned to him slightly from his post at the Radar. "Sir, incoming Code Red transmission from Panama City!"

Harry paled. Was the Queen alright? "Patch it through!"

As the crewman did so, Harry heard the tell-tale explosions and whizzes of spells and bullets being exchanged.

"Repeat, Code Red!" the transmission went static for a moment.

"Have…ambushed…overwhelmed…forces…Queen…secure…Requesting…safety!"

Harry watched in horror as a scream ripped through the channel, before it finally went dead.

'Dear god…' he thought. 'NO!'

Spinning on his heel, Harry pointed to the steering crew. "Turn this ship around! Have all units return to Panama City! Full speed ahead!"

Elizabeth screamed as her two Crown Guardsmen were cut down as they bravely tried to block their aggressors' path to the Queen.

She watched the two red-cloaked men fall limply to the ground as a gush of blood erupted from both men's front.

She watched in horror as the black-clad Death Eaters advanced menacingly, and was further shocked when the two Crown Guards tried to hold back the Death Eaters by grabbing at their robes. One of the duo afforded himself a look towards Elizabeth.

"Your Majesty! RUN!" he yelled, shortly before the Death Eater he was holding back sent a Cutting Curse at his head, decapitating him.

The man's shout seemed to bring Elizabeth out of her shock, and the young Queen turned and fled as the Death Eaters swore aloud and ran after her. They swore as three more Guardsmen jumped into their path, having just arrived at the scene.

"Stand and die, Death Eater scum!" shouted the leader of the newly arrived trio, waving his magic-enhanced Beetle Pike, marking him as a Sergeant.

As the Sergeant and one of his men surged forward, the remaining man turned quickly towards Elizabeth. "Quickly, Your Majesty! Get towards the Airfield!"

Elizabeth had tears running down her cheeks as she nodded and watched the brave Guardsmen rush blindly into the enemy, all of them knowing they had no chance of surviving.

Elizabeth turned and ran once more, trying to ignore the screams of pain she knew came from her brave, if suicidal, Guardsmen.

As she ran down the streets, she took in the chaos that was afflicting the city. Somehow, the Death Eaters had managed to pull off a total attack on the Confederate capital, and the Confederate Army, the police, and even the very citizens of the city were now in the streets, fighting the Death Eaters, who seemed to be able to stand their ground.

She quickly jumped out of the way as a building was hit with a Reductor, causing large chunks of cement to fall down. She watched, helplessly, as Death Eaters surrounded and butchered five policemen. It was chaos; it was carnage.

It was the Death Eaters' revenge for the Confederacy rejecting their offer of an alliance.

Severus Snape was currently doing away with two Death Eaters when he saw the young, redheaded woman run past him. He'd been shocked at seeing her in this dismal hell, and had momentarily wondered if he could have mistaken her, but immediately shot that idea down. He was an ex-spy. He was trained to observe and remember. And he remembered that face.

Elizabeth III, Queen of the British Empire.

Snape idly wondered what she was doing in the middle of the Confederate capital, which was currently undergoing its first siege ever.

Casting two Sectumsempra spells, he didn't even bother to look as the two Death Eaters fell, huge gashes going from shoulder to opposite thigh. He turned to watch Elizabeth, eyes narrowing as she went into an alley. Digging through his memories, he tried to remember where that particular alley led. His eyes widened as he saw numerous Death Eaters follow her into the alley, and suddenly remembered that it was a dead end.

"SHITE!" He cursed as he ran towards Dumbledore, whom he saw stunning three Death Eaters.

"DUMBLEDORE!" he yelled. Once he'd grasped the man's attention, he quickly explained what was going on.

However, the ex-Headmaster of Hogwarts shocked Snape with his decision.

"Let them kill her," he told his ex-Potions Teacher, who looked horrified and shocked at such an order. "Without the Queen, the Empire crumbles, and we can become, once more, the leading faction of the Light."

Snape swelled with rage at this. "This is no time to play politics, Dumbledore!" he raged. "We're talking about a teenage girl!"

Dumbledore hardened his stare at Snape. "You will not interfere, Severus. I will not allow this faction to keep existing. The British Empire should have died the same day its Muggle counterpart did."

Snape glared furiously at the man, cursing him silently for his power plays. Not for the first or last time, he deeply regretted ever entering into his service.

She panicked when she saw her pursuers gaining on her and, in a wild attempt to get away, ducked into an alley. She immediately knew she'd made a mistake when she saw the wall at the end of the alley. A dead end.

Still, she ran right for it and turned to see the Death Eaters reaching the alleyway's mouth. Even though they were masked, she could tell they were smiling evilly. It practically radiated from them.

"No more running, girl," hissed the leader. "Now, give up and you won't be hurt as much, or you can fight back and I promise you we'll hurt you as much as possible."

Elizabeth's answer was direct, informative, and very descriptive, if anatomically impossible.

"Why you little whore!," seethed the leader. "Fine! You want to hurt? I'll show you hurt! CRUCIO!"

Elizabeth screamed as the vivid red curse hit her, overloading her nerves with pain. To her credit, however, she did not scream wildly, or twitched that much, having been put under the Cruciatus back in prison.

This, however, seemed to irritate the leader, who'd wanted her to scream herself hoarse.

He snarled as he cut off the spell and, taking a minute to have a breather, prepared to launch the curse at the Queen once more.

"CRUCIO!"

Elizabeth watched in morbid fascination as the red beam came right at her, and promptly shut her eyes, preparing herself mentally for the newest onslaught.

But it never came.

"What in the world…—" she heard the leader cry, making her open her eyes slightly in order to see what was going on.

She felt her jaw drop.

Standing protectively over her battered body was a woman with flowing, waist-length red hair. Though she couldn't see her face, she did see that she was wearing a black, sleeveless leather vest, a flowing, black, tail garment that was tucked into her belt, and wore leather gloves.

"Who are you?" demanded the leader of the Death Eaters, seething. "How dare you interrupt?"

The redheaded woman ignored him and turned her head slightly towards the Queen, allowing Elizabeth to see kindly brown eyes looking back at her.

"Are you alright, Your Majesty?" asked the woman. Elizabeth felt herself holding her breath. The voice was musical. She merely nodded, and was rewarded with a smile that made her heart skip a beat. "Good."

The redheaded woman then turned her attention back onto the leader, who was fuming at being ignored. "Leave," she ordered them simply.

The leader gaped at her before breaking into laughter. "You can't be serious? A woman? Telling me to leave?" he asked incredulously. "You must not know your place!"

Elizabeth watched as the redheaded woman did nothing but simply stand there.

"I'll give you one last chance," warned the woman. "Leave now."

"Or else what?" sneered the man.

"Or else you get to share the fate of your friends," came a low, dangerous, male voice from behind him.

The leader whirled around to see two men, dressed in similar black Victorian attire. One of them had dark hair and was twirling his wand in one hand, while the other was holding up a deceased Death Eater by the back of his robes. The leader could see the blood dripping from his comrade's mask. The other man, with fair hair, on the other hand, had no wand out, which surprised him, until he noticed that the man's hands were fully drenched in blood, with drops falling every few seconds onto the floor eerily.

The leader was momentarily scared, but crushed it under his need to return successful and shot his free hand into his robes. Instantly, about thirty Death Eaters appeared between him and the duo, with five more appearing before the redheaded woman.

Sneering, the man ordered, "ATTACK!"

Almost as one, the Death Eaters surged forward silently, wands high as they prepared to shoot off spells.

Most of them never got such a chance.

Instantly, the manly duo moved to meet the Death Eaters head on. The fair-haired one jumped right at the Death Eaters, his mouth twisted into a feral smile as he punched out.

The dark haired one, on the other hand, merely used excellent footwork in order to dodge the incoming spells at the last minute, while always keeping up a steady stream of curses that Elizabeth was sure had to be questionable in legality.

Almost within five seconds of the fight having started, nearly fifteen Death Eaters lay dead or incapacitated at the duo's feet.

The five who dealt with the redheaded woman, on the other hand, were all simply dead, their heads and different limbs twisted at impossible angles. Elizabeth had watched, horrified, as the woman she'd regarded as an angel simply killed them by breaking their bones with her bare hands. What had surprised her more, however, was the fact that none of the Death Eaters had screamed.

The leader of the Death Eaters, for his part, merely sneered and shot his hand back into his robes, causing double the amount of Death Eaters from before to appear. Elizabeth could see the worry on the redhead's face and decided that this was most definitely not good.

The redhead seemed to agree, as she dashed back to Elizabeth and grabbed her by the arm. "Come on!" she urged urgently. "We can't take on this many in such closed space."

Elizabeth nodded absently and allowed herself to be quite unceremoniously dragged through the crowd of Death Eaters as her redhead companion tore a path through.

Midway through the crowd of silent, yet still dangerous Death Eaters, the two women met up with the male duo, who were also working their way towards them.

"Sirius, Remus! We need to get out of here!" cried the redhead as they came into view.

"Agreed," answered the man called Sirius, dryly. "Problem is, luv, how?"

The fair headed man looked around him for a minute before turning his attention back to his comrades. "I could tear a way through," he suggested.

His two companions nodded and grabbed Elizabeth, all the while shooting spells to keep the Death Eaters back. They all found it somewhat eerie that none had made a sound so far.

The two fighters carried Elizabeth between them as the man called Remus apparently used his bare hands to cause massive damage to the Death Eaters, astounding Elizabeth with his sheer strength.

"How does he do that?" she asked, amazed.

Sirius stayed quiet, eyes firmly to the front, but the woman smiled at her. "Remus is a werewolf," she explained as they kept running after their comrade. Elizabeth felt her jaw drop at this. She'd heard of them from her tutors, but she'd never actually thought she'd meet one!

The trio slowly made their way towards the alley's mouth, and could hear the leader raging at his men to capture the foursome. The man called Remus finally broke through, however, when he plunged his stiff, upright hand into one of the Death Eaters' stomachs.

As the man keeled over, Remus led his three companions out of the alley, only to be lifted off their feet as a stray Reductor from one of the many other duels hit the ground near them.

Initially, Elizabeth felt disoriented and thought she'd gone death, with how little she could hear. To her relief, however, the deafness went away after a bit, but she still couldn't help coughing as debris fell around her. A large cloud of dust pervaded the area, and yet still she could hear the fighting going on around her.

"Your Majesty!" she heard. She recognized it as the woman's voice. "Your Majesty, where are you?"

"O-Over here!" replied Elizabeth, coughing.

Slowly, a figure crawled towards her, and Elizabeth recognized the woman by her dark, red hair.

"Your Majesty!" exclaimed the woman in relief. "Are you alright?"

"Not for long," came a chillingly evil voice.

Elizabeth and her companion turned their eyes to the front, where they saw one Death Eater approach them, wand pointed at Elizabeth.

Elizabeth saw the woman try to get to her feet, and was horrified to see a large gash go along the length of her left tibia. She ultimately failed, however, and fell back to the ground heavily. Not relenting for a moment, she began crawling towards Elizabeth, her eyes desperate.

"Stay away from her!" shouted the woman as she tried to come nearer to Elizabeth.

The Death Eater looked at her for a moment before shrugging. "Fine. I don't need distance, anyway," he told them nonchalantly, raising his wand in the process. "Sectumsempra!"

Elizabeth dimly heard the woman scream as she watched the jet of purple light hurtle towards her, coming nearer with every second. She slowly closed her eyes, trying to prepare herself mentally for the pain that was to come, and her subsequent death.

For a moment, Elizabeth regretted ever being born as the child of the Prince of Wales. If she'd been given a choice, she would have rather been born to a family of farmers, or even police officers. But not Royalty. Never Royalty.

Just as quickly as the thought came, however, it was rapidly replaced by the memory of seeing her Guardsmen die for her. All had looked at her with a similar expression before running to stall the Death Eaters futilely. It was an expression she needed no words of explanation to recognize. She knew exactly what they were telling her.

Earn this.

In a unified, silent cry, her dead Guardsmen had all agreed on this. They had given their lives up for a throne that had stood empty for five years, tormenting them with its vacancy. None had gone reluctantly against the Death Eaters. They had completely and totally agreed to fight to the death out of their own volition.

Honour us.

She could practically hear the Guardsmen talking to her and, for a moment, she could have sworn she'd seen their ghostly images appear before her, protecting her as always, defiant to the end against her enemies.

Just as quickly as the ghostly apparitions showed up, however, they disappeared as her vision cleared, and were replaced by a familiar red coat, whose coattails were flapping in the wind.

The soldier before her had his wand outstretched in his right hand, while his left held a rifle. However, what identified him to her was the very familiar sabre hanging at the man's belt.

"Harry!" she cried in relief.

Harry allowed himself a sigh of relief as he saw the Queen alive and well, and turned quickly back to his opponent, who'd managed to dodge the reflected Sectumsempra.

Raising his left arm, Harry allowed his wand to slide back into his sleeve as he brought up the rifle single-handedly. Taking quick, casual aim, Harry fired off the rifle at the Death Eater, who was knocked onto his back as the bullet hit him straight in the forehead. The Reductor spell blew the man back.

Unfortunately, the mask seemed to do its job, as the Death Eater got back onto his feet, Harry's bullet lodged firmly in the mask.

"Damn," muttered Harry. He dropped the rifle and drew his rapier, as well as his wand.

Harry saw the Death Eater slowly raise his hand to his mask, and soon had it off.

Harry raised an eyebrow as the face of Rodolphus Lestrange came into view. He now knew why the mask had been stronger than the typical ones—he was an Inner Circle Death Eater. One Harry was very familiar with.

Almost subconsciously, Harry slid his feet into an appropriate stance as Rodolphus touched his forehead lightly and then drew back his hand, looking curiously at the blood on it. Even if it hadn't penetrated the mask, the indentation had been enough to pierce superficial skin.

Raising his eyes back towards Harry, the Lestrange patriarch grinned insanely as he brought out his tongue and licked his own blood off his fingers, as one would lick ice cream on a cone. While Elizabeth looked sick, Harry remained impassive.

"It's been a while, Potter," remarked Rodolphus as he brought up his wand. "Three years?"

"Two years, you lunatic," corrected Harry.

Rodolphus merely smiled evilly. "How's the leg?" he asked nastily.

Harry forced himself to not remember that particular duel, where Rodolphus had managed to send a bone-breaking curse at his left femur. The break had been so bad that Harry had been evacuated from the field, and there'd been a moment where the possibility of him losing his leg became very real. Fortunately, they'd managed to repair the damage, but Harry still had a nasty scar near the middle, where one fragment had ripped through the skin.

"Better," was all that Harry replied. He then returned the smile as he asked, "How's the family?"

Rodolphus glared furiously at the question. Just before he'd been evacuated, Harry had sent a Castrating hex against Rodolphus, allowing the Imperials to flee while the Death Eaters tended to their wounded leader.

"You'll pay dearly for that, Potter!" spat Rodolphus.

Harry shrugged uncaringly. "It's not my fault you can't get it up," he remarked absently, before giving the Death Eater a sudden, surprised look. "Oh, wait, yes it is!" he mocked.

Howling in rage, Rodolphus sent a Reductor curse at Harry, who expertly side-stepped it and sent back his own Reductor.

Rodolphus wordlessly batted away the spell with a glare. Once more, their fight had started as a deadlock. For a moment, Elizabeth swore they would simply walk away, before Rodolphus suddenly took a step forward, spun on his foot, and snapped his wand towards Harry, letting loose a slicing curse.

Expertly, Harry put up a shield, which took care of the curse, and threw back a heavily powered bludgeoning hex. Rodolphus quickly put up a shield, but the hex was powerful enough that it blasted right through, knocking the Lestrange patriarch back.

Harry watched, impassively, as Rodolphus hurtled into a pile of debris. His impact caused quite a stir of dust to rise, so he wasn't exactly sure whether that had been the end of it.

"Is he dead?"

Harry stayed impassive, despite hearing his Queen's question. Just then, Harry swore he saw some movement within the dust cloud, and squinted to see what was going on.

His eyes widened as he saw a sickly green jet of light rushing towards him. "Get down!" he shouted at Elizabeth as he put up his sword in a guard. The Killing Curse hit the sword dead on, causing it to crumble to pieces. Harry sighed in exasperation. Why did the blade of this sword always shatter? This was the seventh time!

"Damn," Harry heard Rodolphus state as the Death Eater walked out of the dust cloud. "Got your sword again."

Harry glared. "Obviously, your aim hasn't improved in two years, Lestrange. Syphilis finally screw with your head?"

Rodolphus shrugged off the insult before breaking into a run, heading for Harry. The young Duke got into an appropriate stance and, wand aloft, quickly muttered four spells, each affecting a separate limb.

It was just in time, too, because Rodolphus had closed the distance impossibly fast. Harry knew better, however, as he blocked Rodolphus' two fists. He'd fought Rodolphus before, and thus knew that the Lestrange patriarch was an avid user of the Curro Charm, also known as the Speed-Enhancing Charm. With it, the Death Eater would increase his limb speed tenfold, with the only consequences being numbed pain in his limbs afterwards.

Holstering his wand, so as to make sure it wouldn't get broken, Harry used his own fists to deflect Rodolphus' barrage of punches. Like his previous duel against Lestrange, Harry was initially being pushed back, with the young Duke merely acting on the defensive.

Harry, however, knew Rodolphus' greatest flaw—lack of endurance. For all the man's use of the Curro Charm, his body had not been conditioned for its extended use. And, while a magnificent duellist, Rodolphus knew Harry was one as well, and so banked on getting through the Duke's significantly weaker physical defences.

Unfortunately for the Lestrange patriarch, Harry had learned his lesson from their previous duel. While Rodolphus had managed to break through his defences two years ago, Harry had conditioned himself enough to use the Curro Charm for at least the same amount of time as Rodolphus.

Thus, the two found themselves locked in a close-quarters fist fight, with Harry deflecting and delivering just as many punches as Rodolphus was.

The Death Eater managed to break the deadlock, however, by suddenly bringing up his leg in a kick that got Harry in his left side. Flinching and grunting in pain, Rodolphus used the opportunity to bring down a fist into Harry's back, knocking the Duke onto his knees, before ramming up his knee into Harry's face.

Elizabeth watched in horror as Harry was flipped onto his back by the intensity of that last attack, his forehead bleeding as the skin cracked from the intensity of the blow. She was relieved, however, when the Field Marshall rolled out of the way as Rodolphus' foot came down, narrowly avoiding getting his throat crushed.

Getting back to his feet, Harry drew his wand and angrily fired off four Cutting Curses, two of which struck home, causing Rodolphus to bleed severely on his right arm and left leg.

Rodolphus howled in pain as the curses hit him, and tried to fire of his own counterattack. Harry expertly ducked underneath the blood red spells that hurtled above him and fired back another Cutting Curse, this time striking Rodolphus' stomach.

Rodolphus gasped in pain as the curse struck him, but quickly turned it into a glare as he looked at the equally battered Harry.

"This isn't over, Potter," spat Rodolphus. Harry returned the sneer.

"Definitely. Next time, I'll see you in a body bag, Lestrange."

With a final glare, Rodolphus tapped his left arm with his wand, where the Dark Mark usually was, and soon disappeared in a black explosion of light.