Alexandrite wasn't any larger than the dragon Voldemort was riding, but from the moment she appeared it dominated the battlefield. A giant bow appeared in her hand and she send a bolt of energy arching toward the dragon Voldemort was riding.
Before the bolt even had time to reach Voldemort, she was already sending bolts arching out across the field. The remaining two cerberi went down in the space of a moment, followed by the few remaining ogres.
Although Voldemort managed to avoid the bolt, pulling hard on the reins of the dragon, the Forbidden Forest behind him exploded, a line of trees a hundred yards deep suddenly gone. Even from here Harry could hear screams of pain from those at the back of the army; shrapnel had injured many of them and some of the injured began to apparate away.
Voldemort tried to blast the giant fusion with his wand, but she wasn't there. Harry wasn't sure even Voldemort's spells would have much of an effect even if he hit her. Steven was at least as magic resistant as Hagrid, and he was half human. His spell resistance came from his gem, and Harry assumed that full blooded gems had to be even more resistant to magic than he was.
However, from the distance Voldemort was trying to cast his spells, even Harry could have dodged. Alexandrite didn't even try to dodge spells. Instead she simply began to race across the battlefield, too quick for anyone to target it even given her massive size.
A giant whip lashed out as she ran nimbly across the battlefield; everywhere it hit a monster exploded and died. Viscera exploded from trolls and other non-human creatures, leaving the Wizards around them looking shocked and shaken.
It took Harry a moment to realize that the fusion was only targeting monsters. Not once did she target a human being. Even as she ran nimbly across the field, she was careful of her footing. She didn't step on a single human, or even any bodies that might still be clinging to life.
Most of the wizards she passed didn't even try to cast spells after her. They simply stared.
Harry scowled. Most of Voldemort's army was composed of wizards. There weren't many monsters left on the field. Steven had once told him that the crystal gems considered themselves the protectors of humanity, but if they refused to attack humans he didn't see what good they were going to be.
Peridot hadn't had any trouble attacking humans, and neither had the fusion of Steven and Hermione, although Harry suspected that the willingness to kill had come from Hermione. Harry wasn't sure that Steven by himself or his "aunts" would be willing to kill humans.
Fortunately, Voldemort no longer appeared to be human.
Voldemort's dragon was racing directly for the huge fusion, fire blasting from it's mouth. The fire washed over the fusion, and Harry stared, horrified. The fusion kept moving though, ignoring the fire as though it didn't even exist.
Voldemort cast spell after spell, but casting from dragonback wasn't conducive to aiming, even when the target was thirty feet tall and should have been lumbering and slow. Instead, Alexandrite was at least as fast as the dragon.
Before the dragon could reach her, Alexandrite was already forming another weapon...this time a giant wrecking ball composed of two hands and a familiar looking whip.
Voldemort apparated away the moment he saw what was going to happen. The moment after he left
the ball slammed into the dragon, which simply exploded.
As blood and gore rained across the battlefield, everyone stopped and stared for a long moment. Their leader had fled, and their most dangerous beast hadn't just been killed in a single blow, it had been annihilated.
All over the battlefield wizards began to apparate away, apparently afraid that without any more nonhuman targets, the giant creature would turn on them.
A third of the remaining wizards vanished; probably those who had joined the ranks recently and weren't really all that loyal. Harry wondered how many of those were already lying on the battlefield, but he couldn't find it within himself to feel too sorry for them. They were attacking a school filled with children after all, and although the gems had mercy, Harry himself didn't.
Only three wizards remained for every twenty wizards in Voldemort's army. Many had fallen or fled, but those who remained were the most dedicated and the most skilled. They began firing at the giant fusion, randomly at first, but quickly with greater precision.
Alexandrite responded by swinging her wrecking ball. It landed on a patch of bare earth, but the impact knocked several wizards off their feet.
A familiar figure appeared at the base of the tower. Dumbledore was there, and behind him were a dozen others, including Lupin, Sirius and Molly Weasley. They had grim looks on their faces, and they too moved like a single organism. For some reason they all seemed to be wearing what looked like wizarding versions of muggle sunglasses.
The enemy wizards had turned to attack Alexandrite, and Dumbledore and his twelve followers took quick advantage of that. In a handful of seconds almost twenty enemy wizards fell dead. As they realized their danger, they turned, and light suddenly exploded from Dumbledore's wand.
It was light brighter than the sun, and Harry felt himself falling back, blinded by the brightness of it. Even when his vision returned, there were bright white spots obscuring parts of his vision.
He looked quickly around him and he saw that Hermione and Steven had been just as blinded as he was. When he looked back at the battlefield he saw that the situation had changed. The enemy forces were in disarray, and Dumbledore's men were using their enemies temporary blindness to good effect.
There were less than sixty enemy wizards left, and they had lost the discipline that had made them so terrifying.
However, they still outnumbered Dumbledore and his men five to one.
Spells began to fly from the enemy again, lashing out toward Dumbledore and his men. It was only a matter of time before some of them hit and men began to drop. As skilled as Dumbledore was, he couldn't take on an army by himself.
Something flashed by Harry, and it took him a moment to realize what it was. Mandrakes still in the pots were flying across the battlefield, headed for the back of Voldemort's army. Alexandrite had somehow disappeared, and Harry wasn't certain when she'd gone missing.
As the pots landed, they exploded, and the mandrakes inside began screaming. Harry winced and clapped his hands over his ears. Even at this distance the mandrakes' cries were painful; from up close they would be lethal.
He looked over at Steven and Hermione, both of whom looked dazed.
Looking down at the castle walls, he was startled to see Neville and Professor sprout and a dozen members of the defense association. They all had protective earmuffs, and they were preparing more pots to levitate across the battlefield.
Looking back, Harry saw that almost a dozen of the enemy were dead. He knew that the supply of mandrakes were limited, and green light winked across the battlements as Death eaters tried to fire at those who were attacking them.
They blinked out of the battlefield and began to apparate onto the battlements. Harry stiffened; his friends wouldn't be any match for fully trained Death Eaters.
A dozen Death eaters appeared on the battlements, wands outstretched.
Looking pale, but determined, Neville and Professor Sprout and the others pulled their mandrakes from the pots.
The Death Eaters dropped where they stood, but Harry didn't see it. He felt his vision darkening and he felt himself falling. Keeping his eyes open was difficult, and he saw Hermione on the tower floor three feet away. Blood was coming out of her ears.
Steven was still somehow conscious, and before Harry knew it he felt himself being thrown over Steven's shoulder as they were dragged deeper inside the tower.
Harry's mind wouldn't work for what seemed like an eternity, and when it did, the realization struck him. If the mandrakes had been even a little bit closer he and Hermione would be dead.
As he was becoming more aware, there was still a shrill ringing in his ears and everything seemed muffled. He could hear the sounds of explosions from outside; the remaining Death Eaters were putting up a fight even with most of their army whittled away to nothing.
Steven was muttering something that Harry couldn't make out as he walked down the long flights of stairs. If Peridot had still been around they could have used her radio to summon Dobby and Winky. They could have apparated out.
Harry wondered if there was some other way to summon the house elves, but as they passed by a window he looked out and saw that the house elves were busy.
Dozens of house elves were on the battlefield riding in the heads of makeshift robots, riding in clear transparent domes where the heads should have been. They didn't look as though they were very good at piloting, but simply by flailing around with superhuman strength they were damaging the enemy.
The domes seemed resistant to enemy spells too, although Harry saw three suits go down as their armor was cracked before the house elves inside could disappear.
More of the wizards were apparating off the battlefield in self defense if nothing else, but Harry worried that meant they were inside the castle. The last thing they needed was Death eaters facing defenseless students.
They were halfway down the tower, facing a window that did not face the battle when Harry saw a shadow flash by at the corner of his vision.
Steven didn't see it, whatever it was. He simply kept plodding down the stairs. He was puffing by this time; his superhuman strength still wasn't matched with superhuman endurance, and the only exercise he got during the school year was Quidditch.
Harry tried to open his mouth to warn ste4ven, but he was still too stunned from the screams of the mandrakes to do more than move helplessly.
As they passed by the next window, Harry realized what he'd seen before.
The black robed figure of Voldemort was floating in empty space outside the window. Harry tried to open his mouth to warn Steven, but it was too late.
"Accio abomination!" Voldemort said in a firm, clear voice.
Steven was jerked off his feet, pulled by the power of Voldemort's magic out into open air. He still clutched Hermione over one shoulder, but Harry found himself landing painfully onto the stairs, his glasses flying off his face as he landed with his face to the floor pointed downwards.
He could hear Steven screaming as he fell, and a moment later he saw the edge of a robe landing on the staircase slightly below him. He found himself staring at the tip of Voldemort's boot.
A hand grabbed the back of his hair and lifted his head so that he was facing Voldemort, his ghastly pale face only inches from Harry's own.
"It didn't have to come to this," Voldemort said. "All this death and destruction. A generation of wizards died today so that you could avoid the fate that was always going to happen."
"I'm going to take your head and parade it around every wizarding community in England," Voldemort hissed in his ear," So that everyone knows that resistance is ultimately futile."
Harry tried to say something, anything, but before he could say anything Voldemort pointed a wand at his face.
"Avada Kedavra."
The last thing Harry saw was a flash of green.