As promised, another chapter. Again, I apologize for the seven month wait. Since new book coming out this weekend, it may be awhile for the next chapter. It will largely factor in the timing of the outcome. So whether the ending of the book is bad or good will largely influence when the next chapter will be posted. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 23: Bellatrix's Blunder

By tojot

Harry shut his eyes. Leo's strong arm wrapped around Harry's body and picked him up. He then felt apparation. Only this time, there was lot of pressure all over his body.

"Ooff." Harry sounded he landed unceremoniously in a heap in the snow.

"Shh. Look." Leo told him. Harry opened his eyes and saw that he was surrounded by a cluster of trees. He turned around and saw a sight that he wished he not seen. As a Dark mark hung in the sky, the houses burned and the inhabitants where being tortured and killed. He could hear screams from the villagers and laughter from the black cloaked figures. He felt the bile and the stew rise to his throat.

"How many of ours are out there so far?" Harry heard Leo ask another who was obscured by the trees.

"The Fourth went in two minutes ago." The tree shadowed figure answered.

"Good. Keep following protocol." Leo ordered.

"Yes sir!" and the shadow disappeared.

"Young Lad!" Leo called to Harry. "We are entering the village at intervals of three minutes. Ye will be going in with me in Si…Fifteen minutes."

"Why only three minute intervals and not all together?" Harry's voice cracked. Leo cast a white light toward him, which engulfed him and dissipated.

"That charm should protect you for a while. The Three-Minute tactic is a tactic of deception." Leo whispered. "It fools the enemy into thinking that he is dealing with less than there really is until it is too late.

"Wow, so basically your forces just seemingly multiplying as the battle progresses?"

"Aye…" They both heard a bang coming from center of the village followed by shouting and the Deatheaters on the edge of the village left their victims to go investigate. "It seems that the turn around has started and we only have seven of us out there. We are next to go in, lad. Come here? Now, as soon as I get us in there, I want thee to get as many survivors out of there, ye are to bring them back here and ye are to stay here until we return. We will do our best to keep the evil at bay, Alright?"

"Got it." Harry said.

"Good!" Leo directed his focus on the tree in front of them. Harry realized just how they were getting into the village even though he hadn't seen any Alljandre go in. The trees. "On three, One!- Two!- Three!" Leo hurled them both at the tree and all went dark. He felt the squirmy feeling that he had felt before go through him. Within the instant he was out in open air once again. Leo's whispered, "Go!" in his ear prompted him to run to start directing muggles from their houses and into the safety of the trees out side the village. Looking around desperately Harry found himself in chaos. Deatheaters had put the trolls to destroying everything. Stores lay in rubble, homes were torn down, small trees and shrubs were ripped from the ground. Telephone poles and street lamps where snapped in half. The bodies of whole families littered the ground, men, women, children and pets. Crimson colored the white snow. At the horrific sight, his constitution couldn't take it anymore and he lost the contents of his stomach. Feeling weak and drained, Harry got up and regrouped his wits about him knowing full well that if he didn't act quickly, more lives would be lost. Harry found a huddling group behind a tree.

"I need to get you out of here." He said.

"W-Who are you?" A girl not much older than Harry asked.

"A friend." Harry answered as he saw a troll approach. He quickly put a levitation charm on the troll's club and clubbed it with it's own club. It fell with a great thud.

Several people started to back away from him. A man burst from the crowd and tried to take his wand away.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked bewildered as the man pried his wand from his fingers. The man being bigger than Harry, overpowered him.

With a triumphant 'Ha' the man backed away from Harry and pointed Harry's wand at him. "I knew it, you are one of them that are attacking us with these sticks." The man indicated the wand in his hand. Harry realized that he had let his constant vigilance ebb only letting those he was saving approach him.

"No! I am not associated with the wizards that are attacking you!" Harry said in his defense. He knew that time was getting away from them fast.

"You tell that to my dead wife and daughter that your friends killed." The man said maliciously. Harry could see the fanatical vengeance illuminating the man's eyes.

"Look we're wasting time here, no one is safe from these people…" Harry said trying to get them to understand.

"It's time you monsters got a taste of your own medicine." The man interrupted. "I heard the spell that stole the lives of my loved ones. I think I'll try it out on you and see how you like it." A dangerous thought entered into Harry's mind. Seriously, what could a man with no magical ability do?

"Avada Kedavra!" The man shouted whilst waving Harry's wand about. Nothing happened.

"Ha ha ha!" A female voice laughed. It was a voice that Harry despised. Harry, the man and everyone turned towards that voice. Harry glared at the Heavy-lidded, black-haired woman who was responsible for his godfather's death. "I have never seen anything so pathetic in my life!" Bellatrix mused, "Muggle trying to perform magic, and the Killing Curse no less!"

Harry tried to pull his wand from his pocket out of reflex but remembered that he didn't have the needed wand. He cursed himself mentally for letting himself be disarmed in such a dangerous situation.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the whittle baby Potter. And wandless too." Bellatrix chortled malevolently. She looked around. "No professor here either, just a bunch of muggles that can't do a thing against us. How fortunate."

"Go away you Hag!" Harry shouted.

"No, no, no. We can't have that attitude can we?" Bellatrix chided as she pointed her wand at him. "Imperio!"

Harry felt his mind dull for a moment, then fought back and then everything came back into focus. He gave her an annoyed expression.

"What! Imperio!" Bellatrix tried again. Harry's mind didn't even fog up this time.

"I forgot to tell you that the Imperious Curse doesn't work against me anymore." Harry spat. "Not since I learned how to block Crouch Jr. Fourth year."

Bellatrix's nostrils flared and without warning she sent a Cruciatus curse at Harry. He dodged it and told everyone to run. In the confusion, the man dropped Harry's wand, and Harry quickly scooped it up and sent a stunner Bellatrix's way. She blocked it and sent a yellow mist at him. Harry had seen this spell before but didn't know what it was for, since Hermione had cast a Protection spell before it hit.

'Protego!' Harry thought. Most of the mist was blocked but he felt almost overwhelming pressure all over his body causing him to fall to the ground.

"Crucio!" Bellatrix shouted before Harry had a chance to recover. He felt great pain, but Harry knew that this wasn't as bad as Voldemort's. She let up and then cast it again.

"Whittle Potter forgot that I am a relentless person, great at torturing nitwits who annoy me. Crucio!"

Harry didn't know how much longer he could keep taking these curses. Hot tears were streaming from his eyes and blood was dripping from his nose from the strain she was giving him. A feeling of hopelessness was overtaking him.

"Harry."

"Harry." He heard it. It was almost a whisper, the voice familiar.

"Sirius." Harry cried.

"Harry, give your body to unconsciousness, you can't defeat her this way."

'What?' He thought.

"Just do it!"

He didn't argue again and closed his eyes and gave himself over to oblivion and fell into unconsciousness. The pain ended and he found himself looking at Bellatrix again. The malevolent grin that she had plastered to her face before was gone, replaced with a look of fear. Harry then noticed that he was standing on four feet and saw the white glow coming from his fur. He was a Roaming panther again. He growled at Bellatrix.

"'Green eyes'." She said in horrified awe. He suddenly pounced on her taking her wand hand into his jaws and biting down hard. He knew he had hit the main nerve when her hand went limp, dropping her wand. He then went for the throat but didn't get far when he felt something snap under his big paw. Realizing really quickly what happened last time he jumped back and ran hearing Bellatrix screaming when the ooze from her wand attacked her. He turned when he figured he was far enough away and spat out the blood that had seeped into his mouth when he clamped down on her arm. It was just as horrible to watch as it had been the last time with Dantez. The ooze was greenish yellow in color. Harry wondered if the color varied with every wand or if it was like a levels system of corruption. He knew he needed to talk to Hermione about this. Harry turned away from the awful sight and found his body laying three meters away in the snow, with the muggles crowded around him. Harry got himself back on the task Leo had set out for him. He pushed his large panther form through the crowd to his mortal shell. It was odd to be looking at himself from this perspective, his body looked weak and beaten. Looking around, he saw that the muggles had backed up a bit. Did they fear him? He then used his teeth and hooked the large gray shirt his body was wearing and used it to pull his limp body up. He realized then that he could only drag his body this way when he had hoped to get it on his back. Looking around again he saw a strong man, the same man who had disarmed him in the first place, approached him slowly and laid his body in front of him and then did a quick jerk of his head indicating his back.

"I think he wants you to put the boy on his back." An old woman suggested. Without any more question the man picked up Harry's body and draped him across the panther's back. Harry was amazed at how light his body actually was, he didn't feel weighted down at all. He then hooked the man's sleeve in his mouth and pulled him along.

"What is he doing?" the man said in alarm.

After some thinking from the old woman as she looked from the boy on the back of the panther to the panther, she said, "I think he wants us to follow him, just as the boy originally wanted us to."

Harry tried to say 'yes' but a happy noise came out.

"Is he…purring?" the man asked.

"I do believe he is." The woman said. There was a large explosion at the center of town. Several deatheaters went flying from the blast. "It looks like the boy brought his friends. But let's go, it's cold and I don't want to be around here if the fight ever spreads to this area." The old woman finished sagely.

Harry led the group of muggles in a trotting gait so they could keep up with him. The group behind him was slowly growing as other muggles saw and joined the group. Harry could hear their whispers sharply as the newcomers asked those in the group what was happening.

Harry felt something. He felt a familiar magic. It was just swirling around a house. This house remained unharmed. It was rather plain in appearance with its yellow siding and white shudders. He could hear whispers from the group behind him. "Why is he looking at the Granger's house?"

That is when he realized why the Deatheaters were attacking this small town. This was Hermione's hometown. He also realized that this magic he felt was Hermione's as well.

Another explosion from the center of town brought Harry back to the task at hand. With renewed focus he led them to the edge of town and to the trees that stood just a bit further. Even in this form Harry felt himself weaken quickly even though his original body lay across his back. The Cruciatus curses that Bellatrix had hit him with had weakened him in several ways. He could no longer see the glow from his fur. Looking down at his front paws as they sank into the snow with each step, he could see that the physical form his soul had taken on was slowly flickering in transparency. The group behind him had grown considerably to over a hundred people. Harry was thankful that they hadn't run into anymore trouble. Having finished the task that Leo had assigned him to do, Harry closed his eyes and drifted back into full unconsciousness.

There was no light, Harry just floated there only moving with the ripples of the substance he was in. He couldn't tell what it was, but it was warm and serene and rather restful. He couldn't tell how long he floated here but it seemed almost timeless and unmoving. After being in this state for a while, a conscious thought came to Harry's blank mind. The ripples, what was causing them? He focused his senses to the ripple in the substance. One. Two…… Three. Four……He eventually deducted that the ripples came in a rhythmic pattern. It was a pattern that was similar to that of a heartbeat. But it wasn't coming from him. He focused his ears, straining them to hear. Heartbeat was indeed the right guess. The faint thumps were coming up beneath him. He heard a voice, A faint humming. The tune he recognized all too well. It was Fur Elise. The tune lulled him back into a deep rest.

Author's note: See top message for info on next chapter. Now for this chapter, I ask to know what you nice readers thought of it.