Chapter 10: Flamel's Escape

Harry Potter was working tirelessly to prepare a meager defense for the tomb. He had pocketed the Death Eater's wand, but had kept his own out. It had been a half hour since Voldemort had called a retreat. Fleur had wanted to maintain the outer perimeter defense, but Harry had insisted on pulling everything back to the tomb. He believed that Voldemort would not attack from both sides again and splitting their forces was a bad idea. Since they didn't know which way he would choose to come from, the tomb was their only option. Fleur had disagreed, and finally they had agreed to allow the British to hang back at the tomb while the French brought up the outer perimeter. Harry thought that Fleur was a little angered by this arrangement but he had chosen to ignore that.

"Any news?" Ron asked, looking at Hermione magically arching the river over the tomb. She had ensured Harry that she would magically seal the river to ensure that the Death Eaters couldn't use it for transport.

"No," Harry said.

"Don't tell Hermione I said this but try the vision thingy," Ron said.

"The what?" Harry asked.

"You know, seeing You-Know-Who's thoughts and stuff," Ron said.

Harry tried. "I can't," he said. "He must be blocking me."

"There's no need," Luna said.

Harry looked up.

It looked like a large cloud of flies was parading down the main street in Paris. Harry watched as the French defenders sent spells at the cloud, but each one was blocked by an unseen force field which was preceding it. With Voldemort, Harry could only guess what that could be. The French began to panic as the cloud approached. Some turned and ran toward the tomb. Others stayed to fight, ducking into the side alleys when the cloud arrived.

Harry watched as the cloud passed by the outer defenses which the French had abandoned. Whips dropped off the cloud and formed into Death Eaters as the cloud passed each alleyway. Some went straight into the alley, and were met with French spells. Others stopped to help the Death Eaters who had been stunned earlier in the battle before either heading for an alley or heading for the tomb.

Fleur appeared next to Harry just as the French who had run from the cloud arrived at the tomb. She scolded them and brought them into formation next to Harry. Defenders from the other side joined them after hearing the noise.

"You can say 'et, you told me so," Fleur said.

"You get us out of this and I might consider it," Harry said.

She cursed in French as the cloud passed through a nearby building and sent it tumbling to the ground. Suddenly Harry got an idea. He pointed his wand at the river above him, magically grabbing hold of the current. Then he brought the wand down and pointed it toward the cloud. The river separated and arced over the tomb and straight down in front and then into the cloud.

Whatever force field had protected them from previous spells did not apparently work on water as the cloud seemed to dissipate into about thirty Death Eaters just a few feet from the tomb. Harry pulled out his second wand and shouted "Expelliarmus!" as several other defenders sent spells at them and the Death Eaters sent their own spells back.

"'Es that?" Fleur asked, looking at someone on the right flank of the Death Eater line. Harry looked and immediately knew why Fleur had suddenly looked overcome by anger. He was staring at the smiling face of Fenrir Greyback. "'E 'es supposed to be dead!" Fleur said, charging after him.

Harry turned, looking for Voldemort, but he couldn't find him anywhere. Instead he was attacked by the Death Eater whose wand he was using. Harry felt kind of bad about stunning him again. He then turned and stunned two unsuspecting Death Eaters who had previously been fighting against Ron. Ron dispatched a third before turning and thanking Harry. Harry didn't hear him though because he had just spotted the pale, tall man he had been searching for.

Voldemort was casually walking down the street, a group of about ten Death Eaters with him. He looked at Harry and smiled. Harry pointed both wands at him and yelled, "Stupefy!" The spells arrived and Voldemort went to block them. But Harry was smarter than that. His two spells hit the two Death Eaters next to Voldemort and successfully downed them both. Voldemort smiled and stopped, motioning for his cronies to attack.

Fleur rejoined Harry. Her face was a mess, badly scraped all over as if someone had taken several bites, going for her eyes. Blood was dripping from her wounds, but she turned to Harry and asked, "What's next?"

"What happened?" Harry asked. "Where's Greyback?"

Fleur smiled, or at least that's what it looked like. "Dead, and 'e es not comeng back anytime soon," she said.

Harry smiled too. "Go home, get your wounds looked at. I'll meet you in London win or lose." She seemed to be waiting for that. She told a Frenchman nearby that Harry was now in charge and that she would be at the ministry. The man nodded and offered to escort her there. Harry motioned for his friends to retreat into the tomb.

They set up behind the coffins facing the door, with all wands pointed at it. As soon as the first Death Eater stepped through the door, they all sent their spells, flooding the door with a multicolored display which made any light show jealous. But eventually the Death Eaters found their way in, moving around the room with a speed that Harry only vaguely remembered from the Second Wizarding War. Every time he stunned one, another was there to take its place. But his friends had set up in good position and were not easily attacked.

Harry knew that something had to be done. They didn't stand a chance if Voldemort actually came in the room. They had to regroup. He stood up, pointed his wand at two Death Eaters and yelled "Imperio!" They stood dazed for a couple seconds before turning and firing on the other Death Eaters in the room. Harry took advantage of the confusion, pointing his wands at the two caskets he knew contained the Flamels and saying "Portus." The caskets briefly glowed a bright, blinding blue before returning to their mundane, concrete look. Harry swiped his wand at their base, sending them to the floor. "On three," he said, and each of his friends understood. "One, Two, Three!"

He grabbed the nearest casket. Immediately his least favorite feeling in the world came to him: a hook had grabbed him just behind his navel and began pulling him irresistibly forward. He looked up at the last second and saw Voldemort step through the door to the tomb. Just too late. The look of anger on his face was all Harry needed to see to know that the plan had worked and he had saved Flamel for now. Harry couldn't take his hand off the casket, even if he had wanted to, as he, Neville and Luna felt their feet leave the ground and felt themselves pulled forward by that hook behind the navel into a howling wind and swirling color.

Then just as quickly as it had started, it stopped. Harry, Neville, Luna, Hermione, Ron and Ginny staggered away from the caskets which were sitting at the bottom of what appeared to be a large, empty amphitheater with stone seats all around.

"Where are we?" Ron asked.

"Harry, what are you thinking?" Hermione asked. She was shifting her gaze between him and a large stone dais which was standing in the middle of the room. The curtain which hung from it was swaying in the breeze.

"Not what you are," Harry said, unaware of what she was thinking. "I wanted the Department of Mysteries; this is what came to mind."

"That would be the Gervywarts," Luna said. Everyone looked at her. "They give you bad thoughts," she said as if everyone should know this.

Harry shook his head. "Come on," he said. "I have to go talk some sense into Percy. I think he'll accept my source now."