Chapter 57- Worth fighting for

The members of the Order who were at Phoenix House were organizing themselves quickly.

"Without all the horcruxes being destroyed, we can't kill him for good, but maybe we can see to it that he loses his powers like before. If we can do that, we can buy some time."

"Time to find a way to save Harry," Remus said in agreement. Dumbledore had told them he'd found another horcrux, the Hufflepuff Cup, and with Bill Weasley's help was going to destroy it. That left one more, and then they could focus on how to save Harry. At the moment, there were others the two friends had to worry about.

"Dora, no!" She had come up beside him, ready to go. ""There's no way you're coming. I'm not letting you put yourself in any danger."

"I'm an Order member, Remus. I'm not just going to sit here on my bum while the rest of you fight."

"But you're a mother now," Remus protested. "You have to keep yourself safe for Mila."

"And you're her father just as much as I'm her mother even if you don't have legal papers to back it. Besides, what do you think will happen to Mila if this war is lost? You know better than anyone what would happen to the werewolves. You- know - who is going to use the ones who will serve him and the rest he'll kill. Mila won't have a future if this war is lost. Even if we took her into hiding she'd never have anything but a struggle for survival. If I can help change that at all, I will. Besides, I don't plan on not coming back. I'm an Auror Remus. What is it you think Aurors do? We go after dark wizards for a living for Merlin's sake!"

Remus was stern.

"Dora if I have to tie you to a chair to keep you safe I will!"

"Try it!"

Sirius was going through a similar argument with Alex across the room. It didn't take long for more people to get involved in the argument. Several of the werewolves had overheard and were determined to come. So far the Order had been kept secret from the werewolves, but now that they knew, they all wanted to do their part.

"I'm of age," Seth argued. "I can decide to come if I want."

"But you have no more magical education than a second year," Remus told him.

"In that case, I'm already a year ahead of what your son was when he saved the Sorcerer's Stone, and equal to what he was when he faced the basilisk."

"And he could have been killed both those times."

The other werewolves had stepped behind Seth, backing him. Lawrence was among them. Sirius looked at the group, trying to back his friend.

"Look, there's a group of people that handles these things."

"Since when do you have to belong to a special group to help someone?" Lawrence countered. "We've overheard enough to know you're going to try stopping you know who somehow, and that's something everyone here wants. I can see why you don't want the younger ones involved, but I think everyone of age should have a choice. This is our future being fought for, too."

"Do you have any idea what the Ministry will say if they see so many werewolves together? You know they think all werewolves want to back Voldemort," Remus argued.

"Then it's high time we show them who's side we're really on," Logan, one of the more stubborn werewolves, said.

There was a murmur of agreement.

"Have you all gone insane!" Remus shouted.

"Once a month, yeah," Seth said calmly. The other werewolves all looked at him. Glared would be a better word. While Seth worried as much about the future as any of them, he was the only one so far who was able to joke about their condition. "Now that we've established that, when do we leave?"

"We includes Sirius, Kingsley, and myself."

"And me," Tonks said.

"And if you think I'm staying out of this Sirius Black, "Alex warned "you'll have a duel on your hands before you ever leave the house. So if you want to lose time on that instead of fighting death eaters, be my guest."

"There's no need to have so many there. We'll be fine," Sirius tried to reason with her.

"I'm not staying here and waiting to find out if you did something heroically stupid and got yourself killed or not," Alex told him.

"Don't worry," Sirius told her. "I wouldn't make you a widow before we're even married."

"Who said anything about marriage?"

Suddenly Sirius realized exactly what he said, but he'd meant it. "I'm saying it now."

Alex blinked in surprise before asking "Has anyone ever told you you have the worst timing in the universe?" Then she seemed to debate whether he'd meant it or not. "You want to marry me?"

"More than anything." He smiled. "And that's also a promise that I'll come back to you."

She kissed him. "In case that kiss isn't enough, the answer is yes. And I'm still coming."

Suddenly the moment was gone and they were back to the reality of the war.

"There's no reason for me not to come," Lawrence said.

"I wonder about that," Remus whispered harshly under his breath. Lawrence was a good man, but at times comments the other werewolf had made led Remus to wonder if the other werewolf had a bit of a death wish.

"You have no say whether I go or not," Seth added. "I'm of age." The others nodded. Remus took a good look at the other werewolves. Logan. He was tough, and there was no doubt that in a fight like this he'd do whatever was necessary. Giles, much the same. Those two had spent time in the feral packs and knew how to survive. Claire, a French girl who had been sent to Phoenix House as a new student that year. She hadn't been a werewolf long, and had shown amazing courage. No doubts she would face this bravely too.

Remus and Sirius didn't want any of the werewolves or Tonks and Alex in danger, but short of an all out duel there was no way to stop them from coming. So in the end, they came while Mrs. Francine McCullen, a werewolf Dumbledore had recommended to help at Phoenix House, would watch over the young children. She was a very motherly woman who Remus knew would take the best possible care of them.

Mila was especially hard to leave. Remus, Tonks, and Sirius all took turns hugging her.

"We know you don't want us to go," Remus told his daughter gently. "But we can't afford to lose this war. We can't let the world become the kind of place Voldemort would make it. We want better than that for you and Harry and the other children."

Mila nodded, understanding, then asked "You'll all do your best to stay safe, won't you?"

"We'll be as careful as we can be," Tonks promised. "And there are enough of us together that this shouldn't be a problem."

"Besides," Sirius told her. "We have something none of them do, and advantage they don't have."

Remus nodded. "We have something worth fighting for."

Harry and his friends were setting together waiting for news when the second vision came. Wormtail was speaking to his master.

"My lord? Suppose the boy does not come?"

"Are you hoping for that, my traitorous friend?" There was more danger in the calm tone than if Voldemort had shouted.

"N- n- no, my lord!"

There was an evil, confident smile on Voldemort's face.

"He will come, Wormtail. He can't stop himself from rescuing those he loves." There was a laugh in his voice when he said the word loves, as if it were a joke, and an overconfidence in him that if it weren't for the ambition might have bordered on laziness. "Do you doubt me?"

"Never my lord!"

"That is rare wisdom from you. Now go and fulfill your part of the plan."

The vision faded, and Harry felt Voldemort's satisfaction. The evil wizard knew Harry would come, either because of the trick vision or because he knew his family was in real danger now, and he was prepared to kill Harry and anyone else who came. Harry grabbed the mirror and shouted into it.

"Someone answer! Please! Come on!"

It was Mila who picked up the other mirror.

"Mila, have Dad and the others left?"

"Yes, a couple minuets ago. Harry, what's wrong?"

Harry felt numb. He had to stop them. With barely a word to his sister, he wasn't even completely sure what he was saying, he put the mirror down and turned to his friends.

"We have to stop them. We have to go after them."

"Harry no!" Hermione yelled. "You heard your dad. It's a trap."

"I know it is. And I just sent my family into it! Voldemort's expecting me to come. He'll be ready when they get there. I'm the one he wants, but he won't hesitate to kill them. What would you do if it were your family?"

"My parents are muggles Harry. They wouldn't be able to defend themselves."
"There is no defense from the killing curse, Hermione. You know that."

"So, how do we get there? Ron asked.

"We?" Harry asked, surprised.

"You didn't think we'd let you face You- know- who alone, did you?"

"Ron, no. I have to go alone. I won't put more people in danger.

"Like being in danger is really something new for us."

There was no choice. There was no way to make them stay and no way he couldn't go. There was one solution he thought of. Voldemort enjoyed killing, but he had been willing to let Lily live if she'd have let her son be killed. In the Chamber, Riddle's memory had been draining Ginny, but other than that the memory hadn't been especially interested in her. Harry knew it was him Voldemort was after. He hoped it wouldn't come to that, but if his friends were in too much danger, maybe Harry could use that to give the others a chance to escape.

"So, how do we get there?" Ron asked again.

It was Luna who answered "We fly of course."

It felt like forever had passed since Harry had the second vision, and the battle was already intense by the time Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, and Ginny found the adults. Harry looked desperately for his family, but the battle was spread out over several rooms in the Department of Mysteries. It didn't take long for it to get even harder to find any specific person once the others joined the battle. Finally Harry found Seth.

"Last I saw, your dad was up against Malfoy and Sirius was up against that Lestrange woman. Haven't seen Tonks or Alex for a bit," Seth answered Harry's question. He nodded in the direction Remus and Sirius were last seen fighting, and Harry took off. As he went he saw several of the werewolves doing very well. Giles and Logan were holding up, and Lawrence Talbot was up against McNair, who was taunting him.

"I always knew you were a low down dog, Talbot, but now- Too bad it isn't the full moon, eh? Can't you picture that mounted on my wall with my other trophies? A werewolf head?"

Lawrence didn't use his wand. In fact he lowered his wand and his fist connected hard with McNair's head. The death eater went down, out cold. There was no time to be glad of that small victory though. A jet of light was headed towards Tonks, and Lawrence lost no time getting in between. The light hit him and he crumpled, falling down the stone steps. Harry was relieved that jet of light hadn't been green, but still, it couldn't be good. Harry never saw Luscious Malfoy come up behind him, but someone else did. Harry spun around to see his dad furiously dueling with the death eater.

"Harry get out of here!"

"Dad, I can't!"

"GO!"

But Harry couldn't leave. How could he wait, knowing he could soon hear that he had lost his second family the way he lost his first. He shook his head, and looked to see where everyone was. Sirius was dueling Bellatrix in front of a stone archway, and looking as if he were having one of the best times of his life. He was laughing, taunting his evil cousin.

"Come on, you can do better than that!"

He easily ducked the jet of red light, and took a step that put him directly between Bellatrix and the veil that fluttered in the archway.

The veil-

There's a veil in the Ministry they used to use to try to study the mystery of death, but now it's just used to dispose of the bodies after the Dementors are done with them. They just shove the body through and that's it.

This was that same veil! Harry didn't know how it worked, but he did know that there was no coming back from it. And Bellatrix had her wand aimed squarely at Sirius' chest.

AN: I've borrowed Harry's invisibility cloak so I can hide and write the next chapter without being killed or crucioed around the block for this. I won't keep you wondering for long. The next chapter will be up almost immediately. Also, it felt wrong writing that Remus and Tonks left Mila, although I felt it was true to character. They left Teddy to fight in the original, but I know they did it to give him a chance at a better world.