Roxy looked in the floor length mirror in her palace bedroom, brushing out her hair before going to bed.
Artu was already in his dog bed, snoozing as she knelt down to pat him and she sighed.
"Today was a rough day, Artu. Tomorrow may be even rougher. They completely drained every bit of information out of those two Death Eaters I helped capture today. When they were done, they looked like how Harry described victims of the Dementor's Kiss. Then one of them actually died from it..." Roxy shuddered at the memory.
She tied her hair into a ponytail and slid into bed, staring up at the ceiling.
"They're going to move in tomorrow to rescue those prisoners. Right into enemy territory. My aunt doesn't want me anywhere near this fight though. Said it would be much more dangerous than the one I was in today..." She pulled her blankets further up around herself.
"Harry's going though. He, my aunt, the Warrior Fairies, some of the British Fairies... Then there's some other fairies on standby here to help with any healing or casualties. Even Sibylla is coming early tomorrow morning since her group's healing magic and knowledge is some of the best..."
Roxy sighed and closed her eyes, willing herself to attempt to sleep.
"I can only hope that tomorrow goes well..."
"You'll be okay?" Roxy watched Harry as he slid on a thick, magically reinforced jacket that Nebula had provided him with the next morning as they stood alone in a room not far from the throne room.
"I will be, Roxy. I'm fighting alongside some of the best warriors your realm has to offer. Your aunt has provided me with excellent protective gear," Harry gestured to himself; his outfit looking like he was a member of an American SWAT team, though Roxy could feel the protective magic running through the fabric of it. "she's been training me personally and she is the Fairy of War and Peace after all. Plus my own knowledge and training from Red Fountain and Hogwarts..." His wand was in a holster around his waist, while several pouches of magical substances hung around his waist in different pouches, as well as his butterfly swords, safely sheathed.
"Doesn't stop me from worrying about you, though. From what you've told me... how many things in your life have gone the way you wanted them to? The way you planned them?" Roxy took his hands in hers. "I'm honestly scared for you, Harry. You're the Boy-Who-Lived, but you're not immortal. You could still die there!"
"I will be careful, Roxy. I'm going to come back from this mission." Harry took her in his embrace and kissed her.
"You'd better." Roxy spoke softly. "We've known each other for just a little over a year and have been dating for only a few months. I'm not ready to lose you just yet. Plus I'm sure your friends Ron, Hermione and the others aren't ready to lose you yet either..."
Harry kissed her again, and this time, their kiss was longer.
"Then I'll just have to be sure that none of you lose me then." He smiled slightly at her as they broke apart.
Roxy laughed lightly. "Go. I can't come with you this time, so you'd better do a damn good job without me or I'll bring you back from the dead and kill you again myself!"
Harry chuckled. "Somehow, I don't doubt that." He kissed her again lightly before turning to leave. "I really must go now. I promise I'll see you later. Please try not to worry too much..."
As Harry left the room, Roxy sunk into a chair. "You know that's not going to happen, Harry. You know I'm going to be worried sick about you..."
After a few minutes, she stood up again.
"I'll go spend the time with Artu and Hedwig. They might make me feel better about all of this..."
"There's the target location, Your Majesty." a green-haired Warrior Fairy noted.
Harry, crouched down near a pair of twin British Fairies that he vaguely remembered from the Hogsmeade attack and some distance away from the queen, heard her talking with the others around her, as all of them took in the sight of the building just over the slope where they were.
"Status of wards and other protective spells?" Nebula asked.
"Full house. It seems as if they put up every single spell they could think of to protect this place. It is just as the information from the Carrows suggested, Your Majesty..." another fairy spoke up.
An image of the Carrows, lying bound in those chairs, looking as if their souls had been sucked out flashed though Harry's mind and he shook his head to clear it.
"It takes time for us to demolish such wards and even then, if we don't get them down quickly enough, they would have too much warning. If we did that and they moved the prisoners- or worse..." Nebula mused.
"Your Majesty... perhaps a Blood Sacrifice is in order here?" the lilac-haired fairy Harry had fought alongside just yesterday suggested.
Harry tensed up.
Blood Sacrifice.
He'd seen something like that in one of the spell books in the royal collection.
He knew the Earth Fairies weren't hesitant to resort to Dark Magic if they felt the need, but for such a spell...
It involved spilling the blood of someone- killing someone that was keyed into the wards of the place they wanted to break into. The magic used in that spell would then instantly break down all the wards around the place. It had rarely been used, according to the book, but every single time it had been done, it worked...
Harry shuddered.
"Yes. Yes it is. A small payment to free Dana and the others inside..." Nebula straightened up.
Waving her hands, the still insensate form of Alecto Carrow fell unceremoniously to the ground at her feet, with a thud.
Alecto groaned.
"Belinda! Come draw the runic circle!" Nebula motioned for a fairy with dark purple- almost black- hair to step forward.
"Yes, Your Majesty." the fairy- who was apparently another British one (English, in particular, judging by her accent) stepped forward and summoned a wooden staff with a dark red, pointed ruby attached to one end.
Around Alecto's form, she drew a circle of intricate looking runes that glowed red with the point of the ruby, as she spoke some incantations.
Tendrils of dark red energy snaked up from the runes and took hold of various parts of Alecto.
Nebula's eyes flashed as she summoned a silver bladed dagger with a black hilt with a flick of her right hand.
The Queen of Tir Nan Og brought the dagger down into Alecto's chest as she chanted something and Harry watched without (externally) flinching as blood began to flow out of the now dead Death Eater's body.
Energy from the runes burned so fiercely, that Harry could feel it from where he was as it reached up into the air and slammed into the now visible protective shields around the target compound.
It exploded with a near deafening bang, nearly throwing Harry off his feet.
"Now! Forward!" Nebula gestured forward, summoning a battle staff as Alecto's body faded out of existence. "We have allies to save and Death Eaters to destroy!"
Harry pulled out his wand and brandished it as he moved forward with the group, some of whom were flying, others running and even a few teleporting forward towards their target.
Bellatrix Lestrange strode down the corridors of the building, heading down towards the dungeons.
She felt like playing today and one of the prisoners present was sure to make a fine plaything.
"Not the Blood Traitor Healer though." Bellatrix thought. "The Dark Lord needs her skills. And she is a Pure Blood, after all..."
"Ollivander... no. We will need someone to make the wands for our forces."
A sinister grin spread across her face.
"Then again, who says I can't play with them? All I have to do is make sure they don't die or turn into a blubbering mess!"
The building shook violently and loud bangs filled the air, throwing her off her feet.
"What-?" Her eyes widened as she narrowly rolled out of the way of a piece of falling ceiling.
More loud bangs and more shaking filled the air as yet another chunk of ceiling fell- though this time, she was able to blast it to pieces.
She ran, wand brandished, up some stairs and through another set of corridors, where she came across a group of fairies battling some Death Eaters, with some of the Death Eaters already scattered around the grounds (in some cases literally) and not moving.
"Not you pests!" Bellatrix snarled. "I have had enough of the likes of you Magix freaks!"
"They're not from Magix. They're from Earth, just like us!"
Bellatrix dodged a red energy blast and her eyes widened when she saw who the voice was coming from.
"Potter! You!" she snarled, instantly throwing out a deadly curse, which Harry swiftly dodged.
Another curse with a dark orange light missed him and hit a fairy's wing, singeing it off.
Other fairies immediately jumped in to fight Bellatrix in his stead.
Harry turned around to face Macnair, who was grinning madly at him.
"Potter," he sneered. "How nice of you to drop in for a visit..."
Harry reached for one of the substances in his waist belt, all the while firing jinx after jinx at the former executioner.
"I'd say it was nice meeting you, but really, it's not..." Harry threw a black, marble-sized orb at Macnair which exploded on impact, covering him in hot, thick tar.
The Death Eater screamed as his skin practically melted away with it.
"Come on, come on! They've got to be down on a lower level!" one of the Warrior Fairies called out, motioning for some of them to follow her.
Harry and the twin fairies followed them, fighting their way through the building.
Harry used a combination of the magical substances in his belt and spells from his wand to both attack and defend, but then the building shook violently again and part of the wall ahead of them caved in.
"Shadow Blast!" One of the twins called out.
"Sunshine Strike!" The other shouted.
Black and gold blasts of energy radiated from their outstretched hands blasted a hole clean through the rubble, allowing them all to past through with only the slightest delay.
Harry turned for a moment and flung out a curse that swept a pair of Death Eaters behind them off their feet and into the ceiling, them falling back down to the ground with two large thumps.
Screams were heard from a down a stairway just ahead of them.
"This way!" Harry called out, running for the stairs.
The building shook again, nearly throwing him off his feet as he scrambled down the stairs.
"Anyone in there?!"
"Yes! Please help us!" Harry recognised Andrina's voice.
"Step back from the door! Help is coming!" Harry brandished his wand and cast a blasting hex, reducing the door to smithereens, helped by the energy blasts of the fairies who had followed him down.
"How the bloody hell did you break down that door so quickly?" Andrina looked half terrified, half in awe as she held up a weak looking Ollivander and someone he vaguely recognised as the Muggle Studies teacher at Hogwarts, looking as if the Death Eaters had used her as a knife sharpener. "They had all sorts of wards and enchantments on the door!"
Dana was in the background, her expression completely glazed over.
"We've got some prisoners down here! Four, including Dana and Healer Springsteen! We've got Ollivander and a Hogwarts professor here as well!" Harry called out.
"That Imperius Curse has Dana completely bonkers!" the sunlight twin exclaimed as she examined her.
"Overexposure to that curse will do that!" Harry exclaimed.
"We'll need to get her back to Tir Nan Og for a shot of Fairy Dust and some regular treatment!" Sunlight Twin suggested.
"Let's make a portal and get out of here then, before Big V shows up!" the Shadow Twin exclaimed.
"You two take them. We'll handle the hostiles!" one of the Warrior Fairies turned back to the entrance, where a group of Death Eaters were charging them.
"GO! We'll hold them off!" one of the Warrior Fairies threw up a shield, followed by several others.
The twins nodded, forming a portal between them.
Andrina helped Ollivander and the professor through the portal and the shadow twin carried Dana through, followed by her twin, just before the portal closed off.
"They're all clear!" Harry called out.
The fairies holding up the shield nodded and dropped it, moving forward to fight their attackers.
"Our purpose is served. Let's go!" the leader of their group motioned for them to go.
Harry followed them to an upper level, but the sight that greeted him in the room he first arrived at nearly made him stop in his tracks.
Nebula, the Fairy Queen of Tir Nan Og, locked in a fierce duel with Lord Voldemort himself.
It was an awe inducing sight.
Harry hadn't even sensed his approach, his anger, nothing.
"Does this have to do with him accidentally destroying the me-Horcrux?" Harry thought. "We don't have any mental link whatsoever anymore?!"
Voldemort dodged a curse from Nebula and it was then that he noticed Harry.
"You. You really turned against your own kind and sided with these other worlders!" Voldemort flung a curse at him, which Harry narrowly managed to dodge.
"You're hardly one to talk about being a traitor, Voldemort. Falsum Tormentis!" Harry moved his wand as if he were throwing a whip and a ray of sickly yellow light emanated from the wand, narrowly missing the dark lord.
Voldemort's face showed the barest hint of surprise at the spell as it whizzed past him and fizzled out against the opposite wall.
Around them, the other fairies were fighting against the Death Eaters, with Nebula's attention now on Bellatrix Lestrange and her brother in law simultaneously.
"Dark magic, Potter? And a spell I don't know at that? You must be learning something worthwhile in Magix. But it won't help you against me! Crucio!"
Harry dodged the torture curse. "Perhaps it's the power you know not?" the younger wizard taunted.
He reached into his belt and threw another magic marble at Voldemort's feet, where it burst into a cloud of thick, black smoke that seemed to have multiple arms that reached for the dark lord.
Voldemort banished it with a wave of his wand and looked even more pissed off than before.
"Avada Kedavra!" Voldemort screamed the killing curse, but Harry managed to conjure a large slab of stone to block it, which shattered into pieces when the green light made impact with it.
Harry then summoned those pieces to him and banished them back at Voldemort all at once.
Voldemort waved his wand and all the pieces combined and turned into a flaming serpent that lunged for Harry.
Harry's eyes widened.
"That, I do not know how to counter..." He narrowly managed to roll out of the way of the flaming serpent.
"We've got what we've come for!" a Warrior Fairy exclaimed. "Let's go!"
"I don't know how I'm going to do that!" Harry shouted out.
A fairy with short black hair with scarlet highlights swooped in front of him and absorbed the fire, then redirected it at Voldemort.
"Fire is my specialty!" she cried out, speaking with an Irish accent."I'll take care of this thing for you!"
She twirled around in the air and unleashed some fire whips at Voldemort, who barely managed to throw up a shield against them.
The building shook violently again with an explosion of magic.
"Let's go! We've achieved today's objective!" Nebula threw a conjured dagger at another Death Eater and got him through the shoulder.
Harry emptied his belt of the magic marbles, throwing them at every Death Eater he could and even at Voldemort himself.
The various effects began to take hold as the fairies began making portals to go back home.
"Come! The fight is over for today!" Nebula guided him to a portal. "We've done enough damage and you know you can't kill him outright yet!"
The last thing Harry saw of the location was Voldemort and Bellatrix fighting off a pack of ghouls.
Roxy paced up and down anxiously as she awaited the return of her aunt and her boyfriend.
The prisoners had already been brought through and were being seen to by some of the healers, but no sign of Harry or Aunt Nebula yet.
Stephania and Ceridwen- another Welsh fairy, as well as Erin- a fairy from Northern Ireland, were also rather talented at healing and they too were busy helping out.
And here she, Roxy was, only able to wait and do nothing.
Juliana and Clara, the only two British fairies left that weren't fighting or healing, had gone out with others to seek out the families of the prisoners before Death Eaters could get to them for some form of revenge.
Yet, here she was.
The princess of this place, was unable to do anything to help.
"Roxy," Morgana put a hand on her restless and worried daughter's shoulder. "Calm down. Pacing up and down like this will not help matters. Nebula and Harry will return soon."
"How do you know that, Mom?" Roxy whipped around to look her mother in the eye. "How do you know that they won't be hurt or worse from this fight? They're fighting him and the Death Eaters on their territory! It's not like before where at least the fights were on some sort of neutral ground!"
Morgana closed her eyes and sighed. "They will make it back."
"In what condition?" Roxy retorted.
Another portal opened in front of them and from it, emerged the very two people that Roxy was currently very concerned about.
"Aunt Nebula! Harry!" Roxy exclaimed in joy. "You're alive!" the younger fairy looked ready to jump up and down in excitement.
She stopped as she took in Harry's condition.
"You look like hell, though! What did they do to you in there?!" Roxy suddenly looked extremely worried.
Harry was limping; his leg at an odd angle, gashes in his side and on his forehead were bleeding, he had what looked like a burn mark on his right hand and he was developing what looked quite a shiner on his left eye, beneath broken glasses.
"I do?" Harry wondered aloud.
Then all the adrenaline left him and he would have collapsed to the ground, were it not for Nebula and Roxy catching him on time.
"I guess I do. I'm certainly feeling it now..." Harry hissed in pain.
"Come on. We'll get you some help. The best healers of all the Earth Fairies are here. You'll be fine, Harry." Roxy refused to let him go until they brought him over to the receiving area, where he was immediately taken into the fairies care.
"Feeling better yet?" Roxy asked softly as she stepped into Harry's makeshift hospital room.
"Yes and no. The worst of it is gone, but it still hurts like a bitch all over..." Harry muttered.
"They tell me you'll be better in time for the start of the school year in Magix..." Roxy conjured a chair and set it down next to him.
"Oh good. Though I must say, after this summer, going back to school seems rather dull. Growing up, it was always the opposite..." Harry commented.
"For me school was always fun. Summers too. It was when magic came into my life that things got more interesting..." Roxy smiled down at him.
Harry smiled back up at her. "Magic made my life more interesting too. It was more interesting than I would have liked at times, but still..."
Roxy chuckled slightly.
Unnoticed by the pair, Morgana and Nebula stood in the doorway watching them, hidden by concealment charms.
"What do you think of them together like this?" Nebula asked her sister.
"They appear to work well together and Harry is a brave, polite and intelligent young man, despite the childhood he had and certain events during his Hogwarts schooling. I cannot honestly say that I disapprove of him." Morgana smiled slightly.
"Do you think it's love then?"
Morgana paused. "No... not quite. There's affection certainly, but I don't think it's really progressed to that stage. They're still young..."
Nebula shrugged. "If you say so, Morgana. Now come. Let's go see how the other patients and our... refugees so to speak, are doing."
The two older fairies turned away from the doorway and left the two teenagers to talk in peace.