Edited by the mighty pazed!
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Chapter 23
"Tony!" yelled Harry, as he watched the Ironman suit falling into the waters of Black Lake, dodging the one remaining tentacle and two remaining arms as they thrashed. "Accio Ironman!" Was his first thought, only for nothing to happen. "Tony's down! I'm going to need help dealing with this thing!"
The voice of Hermione came back to him over his earpiece. "I'm coming Harry! The trolls are running, and the Hulk is taking care of the last of the Giants."
"Hurry Hermione! I-I can't seem to summon him…" he said blasting off one of the remaining arms with a cutting curse. "Either that thing has rolled over on him, he's too heavy or something has hold of him!"
"Alright Harry!" said her voice, "I can see the lake now!"
Harry continued to dance around the creature firing spells at it. "Fire isn't working! It's too soaked with water!"
There was a pause then Hermione's voice shouted, "ICE! Ice Harry! Use ice!"
Knowing that she was rarely wrong he pointed his wand and shouted, "Albeodo Crystalli!" And a jet of super cooled air and mist shot from his wand towards the undead creature.
When Hermione had found the spell, back when Harry was preparing for the Tri-Wizard cup, they had underestimated the effects by quite a bit, and ending up sealed in a classroom on the fifth floor for the better part of a weekend together (thankfully no one had come looking for them due to most of the castle still believing that Harry put his name in at the time, wouldn't Rita have had fun with that tidbit!). As near as Hermione could figure, it was the equivalent of spraying something as cold as liquid nitrogen at a target and adding an Aguamenti, the water creation spell, as it went.
A white sheen of ice immediately began to coat wherever the jet touched. Seconds later, as the creature attempted to move, those areas began to crack and shatter.
Harry kept the spell spraying as he dodged closer to the body, trying to use the effects to the greatest advantage as he did.
"You dare to think yourself a knight? And pit your sword and shield against the like of me? Lord Voldemort?" The pale man screamed, "Reducto!"
Dane Whitman smiled, hidden behind his black and gold helm as the energy beam leapt from the madman's wand and lanced its way toward him. He gripped his shield tighter, bringing it solidly between him and the caster, bracing for an impact.
None came.
"What…? How?" screamed Voldemort. "Avada Kedavra!"
The green bolt crossed the intervening ground in a flash impacting the shield without so much as a shudder as it splashed across the red star emblem in its center.
"How can this be!" yelled the angry man glancing between the two men now advancing on him.
Dane chuckled. "It is called the 'Shield of Night', a gift to my family by Avalon itself! Now let me introduce you to its companion in arms 'the 'Sword of Light'!" he said, moving so the point of the now brightly shining blade was facing the man.
A bolt of white energy leapt from the blade and flashed towards the madman, shattering the ground at the monster's feet flinging him backwards into the air.
"Your magic is useless against them!" Dane said taking a step forward as he did. "These gifts were given to my family to help protect the realm from someone such as you! Or did you never learn the legend of the Black Knight!"
"My family may have failed in the past, and been tempted into the use of the Ebony Blade for a time, because we forgot our pledge to Avalon, but no more! Once more the Black Knight stands to protect Great Britain from the likes of you until Arthur returns to the throne, and commands otherwise!" the man said, still advancing.
"Avalon…" Voldemort said under his breath, as he struggled to stand. "The Black Knight… those… they can't be! Those lines are lost!"
"Not lost entirely!" Dane said, as he crouched again. "My family just lost its way. It will not happen again!"
"We will just see about that!" Voldemort said pointing his wand, not at the knight but rather at the Star Spangled Avenger. "You have no defenses against some of my magic despite that curious shield unlike the knight! But I know that he is pledged not to harm an innocent! 'Imperio!'"
A fog descended on the mind of Steve Rogers, and one thought drifted to his mind 'defend my escape'.
Natasha shucked the bolt on her rifle again and fired. The head of the final vampire exploded in a mist of red. "Take what's left of its head! And make sure they are all down!"
Spitfire replied in the affinitive, and began making quick work of the vampires' bodies.
"I'm almost out Clint!" she said as he popped the clip on the rifle to check the number of shells remaining. She had been keeping a running count but the action had been rather intense and she could have miscounted. Better safe than sorry. "Four, and one clip."
"I'm about out too," he said firing an arrow towards the darkness of the forest, towards where the spiders had retreated too. "I'm down to flares, two broad heads and my grapple."
She nodded and watched as the flare ignited in the woods and pale shapes skittered away from it. "Damn it! We need more firepower, Fury!"
"Vectoring in your Quinjet now," said a voice over the radio.
"I'll fly, you shoot," she said grabbing her rifle and standing.
"Deal," he said, stepping close to her and clipping three D-rings to spaces in her weapons harness.
"Reminds me of Singapore…" she said with a grin.
"I keep telling you, you remember things a lot different from the way I do," he said, drawing his bow and firing his grapple towards the passing Quinjet.
Seconds later the line drew taut and the pair were swept into the air trailing behind the speeding jet.
Hermione landed at the foot of the mountains beside Black Lake and immediately leapt again, headed towards the bank on the southern side, only to bound again as she hit, this time towards the squid.
She shifted in the air to fly feet first, bringing her knees in ready to thrust when she came in contact with the gigantic beast.
The impact shoved the creature further down the shore, breaking several of the now frozen limbs from the main body. As Hermione stood she shrugged several of the inferi loose and brushed the wet hair out of her face just as easily.
A woman's voice came over her earpiece. "Hermione, if you can lift it, get it out of the water. That may slow it down or cause it to crack further."
"Got it Spitfire!" Hermione said leaning over to get a grip under the massive beast. "Which way is clear?"
Spitfire was suddenly just feet from her, glancing around, as her suit and sword glittered in the moonlight. "The hut! It is the only direction clear!"
She grunted as she dug deeper under the monster and began rolling it onto her back for better leverage. "Sorry Hagrid…" she said as she hoisted the squid skyward then, with her feet sinking into the soft bottom of the lake to her knees, hurled it in the direction Spitfire had suggested.
She smiled at Harry, as he made short work of the remaining inferi around her with flame charms as she pulled herself loose from the mud. "Thanks 'Mione," he said.
"No problem Harry. You would have handled it, even without my help…" she said, slogging deeper into the water, as her wand slid forward into her palm. "I think we may owe Hagrid a new house now." she said, nodding toward the now slowly thrashing squid.
"Point Me, Ironman!" she intoned, then watched as the wand spun in her hand, till it settled pointing off to the left and downward. "I'll get Tony, you help with Tom!"
Harry nodded, and took off at a run, as Hermione dove into the water. "Alright… Spitfire, keep an eye on her please," he said as he passed the woman in gold.
"Sure thing Harry," she replied. "I'll watch your girl's back."
"She's not my girl!" he said over his shoulder as he ran.
The Black Knight looked on in horror as Captain America's eyes glazed over and he turned towards him. "Captain?" he said quietly.
"He can no longer hear you knight!" Voldemort spat the last word like a curse. "He is under my thrall now, and now he will defend me to the death!" Spinning on his heel and cackling loudly he made his way toward the gates of Hogwarts, his cloak billowing around him.
Dane cursed under his breath, he couldn't use the Sword of Light to its fullest against someone like the Captain! He would be restricted to defensive maneuvers and the flat of his blade, and even if he could go all out he doubted that he could last more than a few minutes against WWII's finest soldier.
He shifted his grip on his sword slightly, to keep the cutting edge as safe as possible, and began to shift around his opponent, trying to get the man off the flagstones and onto softer ground.
"Captain, you don't need to fight me!" he said, as the warrior gathered himself and launched his assault, leading with his famous shield.
Natasha wheeled the Quinjet around and brought the front end to bear and flared the engines to settle into a hover. "Got them?"
Clint didn't answer; he just depressed the trigger on the auto cannon, strafing the area, with one hand while flipping a switch with the other. "Missiles hot, prepping to fire… Firing!" yelled Hawkeye.
Missiles shot away from the Quinjet, and into the forest blowing dirt and trees into the air along with pieces of spider.
Natasha's fingers danced across the controls, even as she kept the hovering jet stable, using the advanced optics of the jet to feed the spiders' positions to Clint as the scene below them exploded, chasing the spiders deeper and deeper into the Forest, till they began to see fire start spreading among the giant webbing nests.
She watched closely as the motion around the area began to lessen. "I think that has it, Clint."
Hawkeye made one more pass with the autogun, then nodded. "Take us back Natasha."
Voldemort was still cackling loudly as he reached the gate, only for half the massive wrought iron structure to slam forward and smash into his face, knocking him backwards and onto the ground.
"Don't know who ya are," said a woman's voice from someplace beyond the stars now dancing before his eyes. "But I figure I owe the guy in black for saving me so you just keep lay'n there and bleed till he's done. 'Kay asshole? And don't give me any trouble!"
Voldemort's eyes began to clear and his eyes focused on the woman now standing between him and the edge of the wards. She wasn't tall, sporting snow white hair with a shock of black in the front, and wearing a short skirt and what looked like a leather bra with a leather jacket with metal studs.
"You dare!" he growled, as he began to move, wiping blood from the split skin on his forehead.
"O' shut up! You noseless fuck!" she said. "You're lucky I didn't-"
She sprang to the side, dodging a blast of angry red energy that made the gates ring behind her when it hit them.
"God damn it!" she yelled rolling across the ground and back to her feet. "I was trying to be nice!"
She ducked under another blast, this time in green, changing the direction of her dodge as if she knew exactly where the next blast of energy was going to be.
"You want to play! Fine!" She opened her mouth wide, and a scream erupted from her that impacted Voldemort like a runaway train, sending him tumbling away like a reed tossed in a hurricane. "Take that you sack of shit! Be glad I didn't have my pulse rifle!" she said.
Harry was running flat out when he saw the pair of shield wielders clash again. "Keep holding him Steve, I'm going after Tom!"
Only to have the first Avenger disengage from the dark colored knight with a back flip and sling his shield toward Harry at an alarming speed.
Reacting without thinking Harry made use of his seeker reflexes, dropping to his knees and sliding under the flying disk. His hand flashed up and grabbed hold of one of the straps effectively snatching it from the air. "What the hell?" he exclaimed.
"The Dark Wizard!" the knight exclaimed. "He bespelled the Captain! He is controlling him somehow!"
Harry was already back on his feet and now standing shoulder to shoulder with the knight, facing off against the Avenger.
"Merlin!" Harry said under his breath. "Steve… It's me Harry! You need to concentrate! You can beat this! Ignore what the voice is saying, your will is stronger than his!"
Steve's motions slowed, and his brow furrowed. "Come on Steve, you can do this!" Harry yelled. "Don't let the bastard win!"
"H-Harry…" Steve said slowly, than shook his head. "Wh-What? What am I…?" He looked up at the pair "What? Why am I…?"
Harry smiled. "I'll explain later," he said tossing the man his shield. "Let's finish this."
Before they could make it to the crest of the hill, an earth shattering sound broke through the night.
Harry stood looking down at the twisted body of Lord Voldemort, aka Tom Riddle. "Ouch! That had to hurt!" he said, as he leaned down and rolled pulverized form of the man over.
"You bet your ass it hurt!" said the oddly dressed woman. "I took this thing off him," she said, handing the wand he had been using to the Knight. "A-and I wanted to tha…" She took a deep breath. "I wanted to say thank you, for saving me." Grimacing as if saying the words hurt her in some way,
Dane took the wand from her, and placed it in the pouch at his waist. "Think nothing of it," he replied, as he removed his helmet. "You have repaid any debt you could have owed by stopping this man," he said, indicating the broken mass at his feet.
Harry stood. "He's dead… again." He shook his head. "It looks like the ritual holding his body together is falling apart." he said, indicating the now deflated set of robes.
Steve nodded, as he put his hand to his ear "Any word on Tony?" he asked.
"Hermione is dragging him out now, he looks like he's ok… His faceplate is off, and it looks like he's talking to her." said Natasha. "I'm setting down near the lake."
Steve gave his affirmative, and turned to the others. "Steve Rodgers," he said, pulling off his helmet and offering his hand.
Dane's face broke out in a wide grin. "It's an honor sir… I saw your exhibit at the Smithsonian. It's a pleasure to meet you. Dane Whitman, my family is holder of the title Black Knight."
The girl shrugged, and looked uncomfortable when he offered her his hand. "Shit… Harley Davis… But most people call me Motormouth…"
Steve's eyebrow rose. "Motormouth?"
"Yeah, well…" she began, blew out a breath, then shrugged again. "Aww… Fuck it! I cuss a lot, alright! The name kind of stuck because of it!" she said angrily.
"Ms. Davis?" Harry asked. "Did you see anything after you hit him?"
She shook her head, and looked at him oddly then at the now empty robes. "What the hell happened to him anyway? You said ritual…"
Harry shook his head and cut off the rest of her question. "That's a long story… Harry Potter, by the way," he said taking their hands in turn. "We need to get out of here before more of them come."
Steve nodded. "Load up people. Harry, grab that stuff and collect any wands or other things you can. Mr. Whitman , Ms. Davis, we need you to come with us. It won't be safe here once we leave."
Dane nodded, placed his helm back on his head and whistled. Seconds later the pegasus appeared, landing next to its master. "Strider, go home and await my return," he told the steed. It shook its head once then took to the air, flying into the distance.
"It's not even like I know where the fuck here is anyway…." Harley said, quietly, joining them. "Till I do, and figure out how to get back, I guess one way is as good as another."
Just as the first rays of dawn peeked over the mountains, the lone Quinjet rose into the air and turned toward the west and sped away.