Harry ducks and weaves, pulling up shields, simple ones just so he can feel them break. He shoves himself behind a tree, thinks for a moment about how Sirius is so accurate and throws out a homenum revelio and the darkness lights up around six other bodies.
James is still dancing, holding Remus' hand and having to duck low to spin under the arm since Remus is still sitting, it's clumsy since neither can see. Harry catches the exact moment Gellert goes down but Albus comes up ready with a strong shield.
Harry is so conflicted about what's happening because he doesn't want to fight Sirius but doesn't want to get obliviated either so maybe he can talk it out but the Marauders are uncontrollable, with not even Remus stepping in to stop this.
It's out of Harry's hands though when he sees Tom outlined in glowing light circling around behind James, already back up because of course he put a self-defense mechanism in place for if he was attacked.
Harry throws out the strongest finite incantatem he can and the darkness snaps away so fast he's left blinking in the sudden light.
Several things happen very fast;
James steps back and raises his wand to cast the darkness again, Remus tries to grab for James' hand, Harry throws out an expelliarmus over James' shoulder, Sirius turns and his shout is drowned out by the music, Albus hits Sirius with a spell in his distraction.
And Tom gets James in a choke hold with a wand to his temple.
Sirius goes down, the spell sails past Tom as he ducks behind James as a shield, the music cuts out with James' distraction and Remus stands sharply with his eyes blazing gold.
Tom stands pressed against James' back with one arm hooked under James', hand around the Gryffindor's throat. "Sit down, werewolf," he orders, wand pressing into James' hair.
Remus grits his teeth but slowly sits down again, his thermos spilled on the ground when he stood up.
"You don't want to do this," Harry warns, hand steady where he holds his wand up, wondering what his chances are of triggering their wands into locking with spellfire so James can make a run for it.
"Drop your wand, James," Tom whispers into the boy's temple.
James drops it. "Sirius?" he calls. He can't see, not when Tom is holding his throat like this.
"That was quite the first meeting," Albus muses, helping Gellert back up with a hand, the blond still a bit dazed.
"Tom," Harry grits out, stepping closer slowly. "Let him go. You don't know enough about the situation, just think for a moment."
"I know enough so how about you toss your wand over here, Harry, and then we can negotiate your father's life," Tom assures with narrowed eyes.
Harry's breath hitches. "Let him go."
"Siri?" James calls again, worried as he presses his hands to his stomach. "Remi, is he okay?"
"He's just been knocked out," Remus soothes without taking his eyes off Tom, shifting his feet in preparation.
Harry takes another quick step, makes sure to keep the attention. "Tom!"
"Harry, drop your fucking wand!" Tom roars and a red glow builds, making James cry out, hands coming up to try and shove Tom's wand away.
Harry drops his wand, hands up and shoulders slumping.
Tom lets out a slow breath and the red glow stops. "Thank you," he says, perfectly polite. He summons all the discarded wands to his feet, a second coming from Sirius' direction because he'd grabbed Gellert's.
And then Tom hits Albus with a stunner. Gellert catches Albus and grabs for his wand because Gellert doesn't have his but Tom hits Gellert with a stunner too, then turns on Remus who gets half out of the chair before he slumps back down.
"What the actual fuck is happening right now?" James blurts out.
Tom shushes him condescendingly. "Harry, I think we need to have a talk."
Harry only laughs.
Peter hits Tom in the back with a stunner.
.
A/N: You all want Harry to kick ass but oh no, Tom's already got him labelled as a threat. Don't worry though, Harry will have his time next chapter, exuding big pre-school teacher energy as he tries to herd these idiots.
This is going downhill real fast lmao.