Chapter Sixty
Bellatrix fell to her knees, shuffling towards where Voldemort was sweeping towards them.
"Master! Master I am sorry! I am so sorry! I didn't mean to, the boy, he had help." Bellatrix begged.
"Children." Voldemort said dismissively.
"They were smart, and slippery! We did injure some!" Bellatrix informed him.
Voldemort let out a cruel laugh, "And how many of my soldiers fell under your command?"
Bellatrix lowered her head, "Jugson is caught under shelves in the Hall of Prophecies, Avery is dead."
Voldemort let out another laugh, "Then I think Mr Potter is right, poor show Bella, I am very disappointed."
Bellatrix let out a wail of sadness and fell to the ground.
"Get up and get gone." Voldemort said, sneering down at her, "There will be Aurors here soon and as you have gotten many of my followers arrested this evening, I'd rather have you free at my command."
Bellatrix nodded and ran for the exit, Harry watched, too busy battling the pain in his head to send even the weakest spells in her direction to try and make her stop.
She made it to the phone box, giving Voldemort one last, heartbroken look before leaving stepping in and rising up through the floor and then she was gone.
Harry glared at Voldemort, his head burning, who was currently looking down at him like Harry was no more than an interesting bug he'd found.
"So… you smashed my prophecy." Voldemort mused.
"No." Harry said stubbornly, "I smashed the prophecy which had my name on it, not Voldemort. It was my prophecy." it was a pathetic argument, he knew that but he was struggling to stay conscious.
Voldemort narrowed his red, snake like eyes and smirked, "Did you hear it?"
Harry shook his head, "No. I was screaming, making sure that they didn't hear it."
Harry wasn't sure what to do right now, keep Voldemort talking was clear, hoping that someone would come and rescue him. He was in no fit state to fight Voldemort, he'd be dead in a second; right now, Harry wasn't sure he'd even be able to stand."
"You are so very self sacrificing, Harry." Voldemort told him, "You never seem to think beyond what will make you look like a hero next."
Harry gritted his teeth, "I wouldn't say that." he spat, "Not many heroes lead all their friends to their deaths."
Voldemort laughed, "Yes, I suppose you're right. Although, from what I hear they're not dead yet and do you really think I would worry myself, show myself here to deal with a few little blood traitors?"
Harry shuffled further back, against the fountain base and shook his head, the movement increased the pain again, so much so that Harry could barely thing straight.
"No, I guess not." Harry said, as strongly as he could, "I would guess you're hear to fight Dumbledore."
Voldemort looked at him and stiffened, "What?"
"Dumbledore? He's here, I guess he'll be here basically any moment." Harry smirked, "Didn't you know?"
Voldemort glared at him, his eyes flicking towards the lifts despite willing himself to focus on Harry.
Harry pulled himself to his feet, his leg aching from the Cruciatus curse Bellatrix had caught him with before, his arm still burning and Harry suspected already showing the beginning of an infection and his head feeling like it would burst open from the pressure at any moment.
"You seem scared." Harry hissed, glaring at Voldemort. If he was going to die, he was going to die on his feet, like James.
Voldemort raised his wand, pointing directly at Harry's chest. Harry braised himself for the killing curse.
"It was foolish of you to come here tonight Tom." Dumbledore's voice echoed across the atrium, as he calmly walked towards them.
Voldemort spun round to face Dumbledore, Harry taking the chance to hobble round to the other side of the fountain and out of the direct line of fire.
"The Aurors are on their way." Dumbledore said calmly.
"And by the time they get here, you will be dead." Voldemort hissed, sending a killing curse towards Dumbledore.
It missed Dumbledore, hitting the security desk which flew backwards from the impact. Dumbledore flicked his own wand, the spell making Harry's hair stand on end even from that distance.
Voldemort brought up a shining silver shield which reflected the spell, although the spell didn't damage the shield it hit with a fierce gong noise that made Harry wince.
"You do not seek to kill me Dumbledore?" Voldemort asked, a note of surprise in his voice, "Above such acts are you?"
Dumbledore looked peacefully at him, "Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit…"
"There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore." Voldemort snarled.
Harry let out a snort of laughter, there were several things worse than death that he'd been very close to that very evening.
"You are quite wrong." said Dumbledore, walking slowly towards him still, "Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been you greatest weakness."
Voldemort had heard enough and sent another jet of green light soaring towards Dumbledore. Dumbledore waved his wand and the centaur from the fountain jumped to light, taking the spell for Dumbledore and shattering into a hundred pieces that rattled across the floor.
Dumbledore swooped his wand over his head, and a long whip flew from the end, wrapping itself tightly around Voldemort, shield and all, holding him firmly.
Harry watched as Voldemort let out a cruel laugh and the whip left Dumbledore's wand, turning into a green hissing snake.
The snake headed quickly for Dumbledore, who remained perfectly still. Fawkes swooped down and opened his beak, swallowing the snake whole; he burst into flames and fell to the ground, tiny, feather and flightless.
Harry took several deep breaths, the snake had been moments from sinking it's fangs into Dumbledore when Fawkes had stopped it. It seemed like Dumbledore had no care and that was worrying Harry.
The other question running through his head was where was everyone else? Several were injured of course and there was no way that any of his friends would be allowed up to help now that there were grown ups to do the fighting for them but Dumbledore had said there were Aurors on their way, how long could it take?
Dumbledore waved his wand to the fountain and swept the water around Voldemort like a fish bowl, Harry could barely see Voldemort trapped within its suffocating mass.
Voldemort managed to turn himself towards Harry for a moment, giving him a vicious smile before vanishing. The water crashed to the floor, soaking Harry but moving around Dumbledore.
Harry took several deep breaths, still holding his wand out; though it seemed Voldemort was gone, run away before he could be out numbered and caught. He started to move slowly around the remains of the fountain; it had taken several nasty spells during the battle.
"Stay where you are Harry!" Dumbledore ordered, for the first time that evening Harry could see a touch of fear in his eyes.
He froze where he was not understanding what had spooked Dumbledore so. Then his scar burned so intensely he fell to the ground with a scream.
He was dead, Harry was sure he was dead, there was no way that someone alive could manage to survive such pain. Although surely if he was dead, the pain would be gone.
Harry forced himself to open his eyes, to look around; half expecting a muggle devil to be standing over him, horn, pitchfork and all. But there wasn't a devil, there wasn't the atrium either just an empty space and Harry himself locked in the coils of the biggest snake he'd ever seen.
The creature spoke, using Harry's mouth and sending more aching pains on top of the burning ones into his jaw.
"If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy!" the voice ordered.
At that moment Harry was begging for death, for the pain to end. He just couldn't deal with it any more; he would go mad.
Then a noise broke through it all. Nikka must of woken up and her scream at seeing Sirius ripped through him, louder than all the pain he was feeling was her pain, she screamed again; calling Sirius's name.
Harry wasn't even sure how he was able to hear her from so far away, but it was there filling his head.
'Let me die' he thought, 'I could deal with this pain, but not the pain of losing him…"
And as quickly as it had started it was gone. Harry found himself, sweating but lying on the floor of the atrium with Dumbledore bent over him.
"Harry? Harry are you all right?" Dumbledore asked, putting a gentle pressure on Harry's shoulders to try and keep him lying down.
Harry shrugged him off and sat up, "I… I'm fine. I think." in truth there was a part of Harry that felt better than he had in at least a year, if not longer but now was not the time to focus on that, "Who are all these people?"
The atrium was filled with people, the green floo powder fires chucking out even more into the already crowded atrium.
"I saw him!" a wizard in dark red robes said, "Minister I saw him here! Right there!"
Fudge looked shocked around him, "I… I… how can this of happened? You-know-who, here? In the MINISTRY!"
"How can it of happened?" Lily hissed as the lift opened and she walked painfully out, her hair matted with blood, "You know what Minister, you are every bit as stupid as you look."
Fudge gasped at her. Lily ignored him and his insulted mutterings behind her and limped over to Harry and threw herself around him in a hug.
"I thought I was going to lose you!" Lily sobbed into Harry's already wet t-shirt, "What were you thinking?! You are grounded for the rest of your life! You could of died!"
"I had to help save Sirius. Kreacher said that my dream was right, that Sirius was with Bellatrix." Harry mumbled, trying not to cry himself and failing miserably.
"Harry, she came to the house." The blond man said, the one that Harry suspected was Severus.
Harry nodded, "I know. But in my dream, they were torturing him and… and they said they would go after Danica. I couldn't take that risk."
Lily nodded and pulled him into another hug before helping him to his feet. Harry looked around at the line of Death Eaters being escorted up and put in chains.
Hermione was propped up between Neville and Ginny, she looked groggy and very unwell but she was at least now awake. Although her head kept lolling to one side, her eyes growing blurry.
William was carrying Pansy, with a very bulky bandage around her leg, Fleur trying to help support her leg so it didn't move to much, Pansy wincing in pain every time it did. Harry had no doubt that Madam Pomfrey would have her fixed in a second. Healing bones was skilled work, and Madam Pomfrey was one of the best in that field.
Harry walked over to where Draco was with Luna, Cho, and Daphne, all bruised and battered but alive and fixable.
"Everyone got out OK?" he asked.
Ginny nodded, "Yeah, I mean, we all need sleep and checking over but we're all OK, apart from…"
Harry looked back to the lift. Tonks, struggling to walk herself was helping Nikka along, the side of her t-shirt drenched in blood, her nose and lip both bleeding as well. Her eyes red and swollen with a tear stained face.
The two dark haired ones that Harry didn't know followed last, floating Sirius between them. Several mediwizards rushed over and muttered spells over him.
"He's alive." one shouted, causing a fresh wave of tears to run down Harry's face.
"We have to get him to the hospital." another said, waving her hand for them to clear the path to the large fires, "NOW!"
"No!" Nikka yelled.
She freed herself from Tonks and fell to the floor before pushing herself back up and staggering to Sirius, "You can't take him, please." She begged.
Remus gently pulled her off Sirius and lowered her to the floor in his arms, still holding tightly to her, "He has to go Nikka, he needs help."
"I can't leave him. Please… he… he might die." She sobbed, her heart breaking; it was taking almost all of her energy not to scream again, she'd never felt so powerless.
"She'll be need attention too." one of the mediwizards said, pointing to the growing blood stain on her top, "I'm assuming that's hers?"
"I can't leave him." Nikka said, as firmly as she could, trying to stand again.
One of the mediwizards came over and gently helped her up, "We'll do our best."
"She needs to be questioned!" Fudge said, blocking their way to the fire, "We need detailed reports of what happened and she is a Ministry employee!"
"No I'm not." Nikka hissed, "You fired me. And while we're talking about that…"
She raised her hand and gave Fudge an impressive slap considering how injured she was. The mediwizard moved the shocked looking Fudge out of the way and moving as quickly as they could to the fire and vanishing to St Mungo's.
Harry glared at Fudge, it was his fault as much as anything, "You!" he hissed, "You put her in charge of Hogwarts! You made sure there was no way for us to talk to home! If you hadn't been so fucking scared of a group of children! This would never of happened!"
"Mr Potter please, I am still Minister for Magic." Fudge said, straightening his robes.
"Not for long." the dark haired male said smoothly.
Fudge's face turned even more pale, "I… I…"
"We need to get the children back to school." Dumbledore said calmly, taking a step forward.
"We need to get the children home!" Lily interjected, holding onto Harry tightly.
Dumbledore gave her a polite smile, "You are of course welcome to join them at school, I just feel that they need to be seen by Madam Pomfrey before anything else."
Lily nodded, "Yes. Yes they do."
"I will call the night bus." one of the many Aurors filling the room said.
"No need." Remus said tightly, "We can Apparate them."
"Apparation is not permitted within the Ministry." Fudge huffed.
Every one from Hogwarts and from the Order turned to glare at him, to the point where Fudge took a worried step back.
"But I suppose this is not normal circumstances." Fudge muttered.
"You mean you don't have dark wizards and battles here everyday then?!" Pansy snapped, "Well I never."
"Comes as a shock to me!" Daphne shrugged, "I mean why else would the place always be a bit grubby?"
"The Ministry is not grubby!" Fudge insisted.
"Maybe it's just the people who work there." Draco smirked, "Or all the hot air they put out."
"That's enough." the blond man said with a smirk, Severus was thoroughly enjoying Fudge being insulted by the children and Fudge turning redder and redder because of it.
"You will give the order for Professor Umbridge to be removed from the school." Dumbledore said, "She has no place or power there any more."
Harry and his friends let out a bark of laughter.
"That might be difficult." Ginny said quietly, "Someone, I don't know who, pushed her into the vanishing cabinet… I think it might be a while before she turns up, I mean those things are pretty dodgy, aren't they?"
Fudge looked horrified and Harry tired not laugh, apart from anything else, laughing was hurting his ribs.
"Well, once Professor Umbridge turns up she will be removed from the school. You will also remove the order to find Hagrid and he will return to his position as Care of Magical Creatures Professor." Dumbledore instructed.
"Come now Dumbledore!" Fudge said, "You can't just…"
Dumbledore took a step towards Fudge and glared down at him, fire burning in his eyes, "Let us make one thing very clear, yes I can. I will give you one hour of my time to fill you in with any knowledge I have of what occurred here this evening and then I must return to my school. You may speak to the students if you have their parents' permission."
"Of course, you might have to let mine back from America first in order to get permission." Pansy hissed.
Fudge gave her a small nod and played with the rim of his bowler hat, "Very well."
Dumbledore smiled and nodded, "Take this Lily." he said, waving his wand over a chunk of broken statue, "It will allow you to apparate to just outside the hospital wing in Hogwarts."
Lily took it and slipped it into her robe pocket. William, Ginny, Draco, Pansy, Fleur, Harry, Luna, Daphne, Cho, Hermione and Neville held tightly to each other, Lily holding tightly to Harry.
"We'll meet you there." Frank said, holding tightly to Alice and turning on the spot to just outside the Hogwarts ground, the three strangers, Tonks and Remus doing the same.
Lily took a deep breath and left the Ministry, landing safely with all the children at the door to the hospital wing.