B"SD

Neither Assassin's Creed, nor Harry Potter belong to me.

Chapter Fifteen

Harry broke out into a run as he watched three Death Eaters fall, an arrow wound in one, two others felled by the thrown daggers protruding from their chests. Without waiting for preamble, he fired off a blasting curse as he ran. The reducto missed the Death Eater he had been aiming at, but struck the ground at his feet, sending the cobbled stones exploding into the air like shrapnel. The night was suddenly lit with dozens of spells flying from everywhere. Flashes of red, green, purple, white, exploded around them like fireworks. He zigzagged as he ran, dodging the curses flying in every direction. From the corner of his eye, Harry saw Ezio slide out of the fight, pelting to a nearby ladder. The assassin was to navigate the rooftops, try and get around behind the Death Eaters' line. Good.

Harry turned back to the fight, dropping to one knee under the path of blaze of conjured fire. Safe below the inferno, he aimed carefully at the knees of the Death Eater responsible and shouted "Petrificus Totalus!" The fire went out abruptly as the man's limbs snapped to his sides and he fell forward onto the cobbled road, stiff as a board. Harry leapt back to his feet, aiming at the nearest Death Eater. "Stupefy!" The hex was deflected, and Harry was forced to throw up a shield against the next curse. The force of the curse knocked him backwards several feet, but he recovered quickly.

"Sectumsempra!" He shouted, drawing his wand up in a slashing motion. The Death Eater crumpled, blood pouring from the gash that had cut him from hip to shoulder. Harry didn't spare him a second glance as he turned to fire another stunning spell at a Death Eater who had been bearing down on Hermione. His friend smiled in thanks, before her eyes widened. "Duck!" she shouted, and Harry dropped to the ground. Hermione hit the Death Eater behind him in the face with a conjunctivitis curse. Harry jumped back to his feet, nodded in thanks to Hermione and ran after the next opponent.

Meanwhile, Ezio had dropped behind the line of Death Eaters, creeping cat-like up behind his chosen victims. He snuck up behind a Death Eater who had been firing bolts of light at the Ron, and grabbed him, clamping a hand over his mouth and thrusting his hidden-blade into the man's back in a single moment. It was easy to deal with these Death Eaters, he thought absently as the man slid off his knife and collapsed. He turned, aiming a kick at another Death Eater, catching the man in the chest. They didn't even wear armor. He advanced on the gasping Death Eater, following up the kick with a sharp punch to the chest as well. The unsheathed hidden blade stabbed deep between the man's upper ribs and he collapsed.

All around him, the battle seemed to be turning their way. Harry, Ron and Hermione were all fighting furiously against the Death Eaters, slowly overcoming the majority. Desmond was still firing arrows intermittently onto the street below. They were pushing back. The Assassin couldn't help but smile as he head-butted one of the shorter Death Eaters. The bearded man stumbled back and Ezio, pressing his advantage, brought his leg up in a kick that connected with the man's temple, knocking him unconscious.

Ezio turned to find another opponent, but was caught off guard by a woman's voice: "CRUCIO!" Pain like he had never known before, arced through his body. Every inch of his body seemed to burn, stabbed with a thousand knives. Someone was screaming in agony.

All at once, the pain stopped as a nearby blast distracted the witch who had been holding the wand over him. How had he ended up on the ground? He scrambled, shaking, to his feet. Harry stood between him and the woman who had cursed him. "Bellatrix," the younger boy snarled, hatred evident in his every syllable. The woman-Bellatrix- smiled widely, her heavily lidded eyes gleaming. She looked half mad as she replied.

"If it isn't the little half-blood ," She sneered. "I look forward to bringing you back to the Dark Lord, Potter." With a sudden movement of her wand, she swept the bodies of the fallen Death Eaters around her out of the way. "Let's play, shall we? You and I." Harry fired a stunning spell at her. She deflected it so fast that he barely had time to raise a shield as it rebounded back at him. He shot off another three spells in quick succession, all of which were deflected, almost carelessly. Her next spell sent a white hot slash of pain across his face.

"I seem to recall our last match, Harry," She said, calmly taking a step toward him, which he matched with a step backwards. "You stood no chance against me then, either. And look," She swept her arm out at the street around them, still advancing. "There is no Dumbledore to save you now. I was so sorry to have missed the old fool's funeral by the way." she added, putting up a shield against his Sectumsempra curse, which rebounded, slashing across his shoulder. "Might I offer my condolences?" With that, she swept her wand up, letting off a string of Dark curses and hexes.

Meanwhile, Hermione and Ron had both conquered the remaining Death Eaters with a paralyzing jinx and a stunning spell respectively. "Ron." Hermione said, terror evident in her voice as she watched Harry twist and dodge out of the way of Bellatrixes' curses. He was being forced back, too busy to do more than shielding spells or duck. He fell. The two Gryffindors pelted forward to help. The flashes of the spells bearing down on Harry lit up the street, illuminating the dark form of the Assassin. Ezio had grabbed a nearby beam of wood, creeping silently behind Bellatrix, who was focused entirely on Harry. "Crucio!" she crowed, and in that instant, Ezio struck, bringing the makeshift club down across the back of the woman's head. It was only due to his residual weakness that the witch did not collapse immediately. But she was knocked forwards, nearly falling. Harry didn't waste a second.

"SECTUMSEMPRA!" He shouted, catching her across the face. Bellatrix shrieked as blood spattered the road. The witch glared at him with loathing out of her remaining eye, then, before anyone could move, she disapparated with a crack that echoed through the ruined street.

The four remained transfixed for almost half a minute, surrounded by the silence, the bodies and debris of the fight. The ghost of the lights that had flashed and flared seemed burned into the insides of his eyelids as Harry lay crouched on the ground, gasping. Ron was the first to pull himself together.

"We need to clean up," he said, his voice echoing in the darkness. All at once the Lucy, Desmond, Shaun, and Rebecca came bursting out of the Inn door, startling them all.

"Are you okay?" Demanded Rebecca as she skidded to a halt where the four fighters had leapt to their feet. "That was…are you hurt?"

"Let's get inside," Lucy suggested, staring up and down the dark street. "They might come back."

"No," Harry said, swaying where he stood. Hermione put a hand out to steady him. "Bellatrix is the one who was leading everything. If she's wounded, they won't be coming back tonight."

"Okay," Lucy said, "but you guys were hurt- you need to be taken care of." With that, she grasped Ezio's arm and, ignoring his grimace, pulled him back into the Inn, while the rest followed. They collapsed in the boy's room, sitting on the edges of the beds. Shaun handed around glasses of red wine, to help with the shock and the pain of their various injuries, saying, "Well, it's not scotch, but it'll have to do."

"We need to clean up the Death Eaters outside," Harry insisted as Lucy inspected the cut which ran from his shoulder almost halfway down his arm. She ignored him in favor of muttering, "We're going to need something to bandage this."

"Oh for Heaven's Sake," Harry said, annoyed with her fussing, the fading adrenaline fraying his nerves. "Get me Hermione's bag." When Lucy opened her mouth to protest, he added, "She has a healing potion in there."

"Why didn't you say so?" Rebecca muttered, grabbing Hermione's bag from off the bed beside the bushy-haired girl and tossed it to Harry, who made the mistake of catching it with his injured arm.

"Argh." He gasped in pain, dropping the beaded bag, which hit the floor with the familiar disproportionate THUMP. "It's in there," he said through gritted teeth, as Lucy snatched it up and rifled through it. "Labeled Essence of Dittany."

The vial was passed around the room, as each person tended to their various injuries. It was easy to see how tired and anxious the group was; there was barely any exclamation of wonder as the potion sealed cuts and scrapes instantly. Thankfully, none of them had suffered any broken bones; the Dittany would have been useless against them. Ezio was still shaking and sore from the aftereffects of the Cruciatus curse, however. Hermione wasn't sure whether the Dittany would be of any use against the tremors. She suggested that the Assassin get some sleep.

"That's probably the best way. I mean, when Harry was kidnapped by Voldemort, he was just given a sleeping potion. When he got back to the hospital wing," she explained as the Assassin looked confused. "Look, I don't think there is any potion for curing the Cruciatus Curse."

Ezio swore under his breath, but lay back on the bed. "We're going to need to assign watch," was all he said before he dropped off to sleep. Hermione watched him sympathetically for a few seconds before moving to the window.

"Ron? Desmond? Shaun?" She asked, looking down onto the wreckage below. "Could you three go down and take care of the Death Eaters below? And Ron? Can you try to fix up the street?"

"Sure," Ron said quietly, coming over to drop a kiss onto her forehead, before marching out the door.

"He must be upset," she said with a small smile as she watched him go. She turned back to Harry. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," He insisted, trying to push Lucy away. The blond was still hovering over him, trying to see if he'd been injured anywhere else. "Are you?"

"Nothing serious," She said, moving to sit down next to him on the bed, leaning against him. Harry laid an arm across her shoulders. "Were any of you injured?" she added to Rebecca and Lucy.

"We didn't have time to get hurt," Rebecca said, shaking her head. "They barely bothered with us. We saw the whole thing though." She shook her head again. "Nasty."

"Hmm," Hermione agreed, closing her eyes. Tired as she was, she had fallen asleep before Rebecca's next words reached her.

"Still," the engineer said, with a shrug of her shoulders, "we survived. Go us."