The foundations of the manor trembled as explosions rocked the skies, striking an invisible barrier that stopped the explosions from reaching the manor itself. Susan Bones was crouched beside the window in her bedroom, peering out at the small army forming just outside the grounds of her manor. In the garden in between her and the army, a dozen brave Aurors readied themselves for combat.
The Death Eaters had come in the dead of night, just as Susan's Aunt Amelia told her they would. Cloaked in their black robes and bone-white masks, the Death Eaters were a formidable force, even for trained Aurors. But none of them compared with the man at the head of the group.
Most hadn't believed Harry Potter when he'd told everyone that Voldemort had returned. They'd derided him, attempted to discredit him in the press, and even tried to bully him at school over it. That last one hadn't lasted long though, not when Harry wasn't willing to roll over and deal with it like so many expected he would. Instead, he fought back and clung to his truth: Voldemort had returned.
Susan had been one of the first ones to believe him. Why wouldn't she? Ever since third year, when she'd first really started to notice him, she'd realised that Harry didn't care about his fame like most people assumed he did. He seemed happy to be a quiet, unassuming boy in school. Even now that he was an adult, he'd grown much more confident in himself and his abilities, but he never let his name or reputation go to his head. No, he was sweet and kind and strong, and Susan never doubted his claims for a second. She'd even been one of the first to join the D.A., Dumbledore's Army—a group dedicated to learning defensive and combat magic that was headed by Harry—and she'd helped convince others to join because she knew that these skills might be needed one day.
The proof of Voldemort's return had happened barely a month ago at the Ministry of Magic. Harry and his friends had slipped away to do something, something secret that hadn't been announced publicly, and they'd fought Voldemort and his Death Eaters there. Ever since then, Voldemort had begun to operate openly again, killing those who opposed him and destroying families that he deemed unworthy.
And now he'd come for her and her family. Again.
Susan tightened her grip on her wand, wishing so desperately that she could be down there right now fighting Voldemort herself. He'd killed her parents, grandparents, and everyone else in her family besides her Aunt Amelia. They'd been leaning on each other for support ever since then, but they were both determined to put a stop to this madman. Amelia was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and Susan hoped to join her there one day. Now that she was an adult, she'd signed up for the volunteer trainee program over the summer break too, but she wouldn't become a real Auror until she graduated from Hogwarts.
"Susan!"
Susan whirled on her heels as her door slammed inward. Amelia was there, dressed in battle robes with her wand drawn as well. Her eyes immediately landed on her niece, and her expression softened for a moment.
"I know," Susan replied quietly. "They've already put up wards blocking all travel, even brooms."
The pain that flashed across Amelia's face was palpable. "I'm sorry—"
"Don't be," Susan interrupted her. "I wasn't going to run and hide away, even if you tried to force me. We're gonna stick together through this, through thick or thin."
Amelia froze, looking so terribly proud of her and so heartbroken at the same time. "Through thick or thin," she nodded before gulping. "We might get an opening to escape. There are some good Aurors down there."
Susan glanced back out the window. The numbers were stacked in favour of the Death Eaters. Each Auror would be fighting against three or four Death Eaters if they divided their numbers equally, and that didn't even factor in the threat that Voldemort posed. "Have you tried getting a letter out?" She asked.
"They shot down all of the owls," Amelia answered regretfully. "I did send out a patronus message, but it's going to take a while before it'll reach the Ministry."
Susan grimaced. "So, we're all we've got."
"Unfortunately," Amelia confirmed.
Susan hadn't expected to die today when she'd gone to sleep. It had been a nice, fun day by the pool with her friends Hannah, Megan, Justin, Ernie, and Wayne that had left her happy but exhausted. When she'd gone to sleep, she'd dreamed of a beautiful pair of emerald green eyes watching over her. And then the attack had begun.
The manor rattled as another flurry of spells from the Death Eaters struck their wards. The invisible shield was starting to become partially visible as spider web-like cracks formed along its surface.
"I should get down there," Amelia said to Susan. "I won't abandon everyone while they're risking their lives for us. I won't ask you to stay inside—I know you wouldn't listen to me even if I begged you—but I do want you to take any chance you get to run away. Our family line can't end here tonight, not at the hands of a monster like Voldemort."
"I won't leave without you," Susan replied passionately. There was no way she was going to leave behind the last connection she had to her family under any circumstances.
"You will," Amelia said with finality. "I will try to get away too, but if it comes down to it, I want you to be safe."
Tears started to trickle down Susan's cheeks. "I want you to be safe too."
Amelia crouched down beside her niece and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I know, and I'll do all I can to make sure that we both walk out of this unscathed."
Susan wished that Amelia could promise that they'd both be alive come morning, but she knew that was an impossible ask. They were trapped without any reinforcements. All lines of communication had been cut, and—
Wait!
Susan's eyes widened as she hopped up and rushed to her bedside.
"What is it?" Amelia frowned in confusion.
"This!" Susan exclaimed as she pulled out a familiar gold Galleon. "I just hope it works!"
Susan's fingers worked quickly to activate the coin just the way Hermione said it'd work. She'd told them that if anyone got into any trouble over the summer, they could activate the Galleon that they used to arrange D.A. meetings with and that it'd alert others. Susan just hoped that the Death Eaters hadn't blocked the Protean Charm from working.
The Galleon heated up in her palm, and Susan felt her heart soar. It worked! Now, she just had to hope that someone received her message. And she knew just who could be the one to save her.
PAGE BREAK
Flashes of bright light shone in Harry's mind as he slept. Feelings of adulation, excitement, and hunger all coursed through his veins. He was so close! All he needed was just a few more pushes, and finally he'd kill that bitch Bones and put an end to his biggest threat within the Ministry.
There was a bubble of excitement at that thought. He was close, so desperately close to achieving what he'd failed to complete during his first war. If it hadn't been for that damned prophecy, he would already have Britain under his control. Well, at least his foresight had granted him a second chance at things. And this time, he wouldn't fail. He'd crush Potter beneath his heel and subjugate Britain to his will.
Harry squirmed awkwardly in bed as these emotions pulsed beneath his skin. Even though he was unconscious, that didn't stop his body from reacting to the foreign influence in his mind.
Beside him, Tonks stirred awake. "Harry?" She murmured sleepily. For a moment, she thought that he was humping her leg, desperate for another round of action before morning, but then she saw the pained expression on his face and realised what was happening. "Damn it."
Tonks tossed the sheets aside and climbed out of bed, completely naked. She stumbled around in the dark, tripping over the discarded clothes on the floor and stubbing her toe against Harry's trunk as she flailed blindly for the change of clothes she'd left out for herself on his dresser. When she finally found them, she quickly dressed herself and sat down in the nearby chair and watched over her love.
It had been quite the shock the first time she'd seen him like this. It'd happened during the summer after his fourth year at Hogwarts when she and several others had been assigned by Dumbledore to watch over him. She'd taken many of the night shifts, and she'd seen Harry stir in his sleep like this more than once. At first, she'd been deeply concerned and brought it up with Dumbledore, but he'd assured her that he was fine. While it ended up being technically true, that hadn't assuaged her fears at the time. She'd ended up breaking into his room at the Dursley's and holding him at night whenever he had one of these fits to stop him from accidentally hurting himself. He'd caught her that first time when he suddenly woke up, screaming. Her explanation had been awkward and embarrassing, but Harry had thought it was sweet, thankfully.
Ever since then, he'd let her watch over him at night. Eventually, over the last Christmas break just a few months ago, after months of getting to know each other, she'd kissed him when he woke up. She didn't know what possessed her to kiss him right then. Maybe it was because he looked like he'd needed some comfort in one of his painful moments, or maybe it was because she couldn't handle the growing attraction that they'd both obviously felt towards one another ever since they'd first started talking. Regardless, he'd kissed her back, and the rest had been history.
No matter how many times she saw him like this, it still hurt her to watch. All of his limbs were locked stiff and he thrashed around with jerky movements. It looked painful, but Tonks knew that the real pain was experiencing what Voldemort was feeling and doing. More than once, Harry had woken up in tears, telling her after a significant amount of prodding about what evils Voldemort and his followers had done that night.
She wondered what Voldemort was up to now. Was he off slaughtering another magical family? Or was he letting his followers loose on some muggles? Maybe he was torturing prisoners again?
Harry's limbs finally relaxed as his body settled down on the bed. Tonks leaned forward in her chair, knowing that his state was about to come to an end.
In Harry's mind, he felt Voldemort's emotions retreat from him. Those dark tendrils that had pierced his brain receded, leaving him feeling like he had just taken a bludger to the head. He waited to see if he was going to wake up, but when it didn't happen right away, he knew that he was in store for visions instead.
This was the part that Harry hated the most. He'd seen visions of the most deplorable acts anyone could commit dozens of times since Voldemort's return, and he hated every second of it. He'd been sick on more than one occasion after waking up from them, and he was never able to fully scrub those dark images from his mind.
The inky blackness of Harry's mind gently brightened as a night sky came into view. There were spiderweb cracks forming in the air in front of him, and a dark manor sat behind it. He felt the name "Bones" ringing in his ears as he looked upon the manor and the two figures silhouetted behind one of the windows on the top floor of the manor.
Harry shot straight up in bed, gasping for air, and his girlfriend was by his side in an instant.
"It's okay," she soothed him, rubbing his back softly as his mind caught up with the fact that he was awake again.
"Bones," Harry repeated in between breaths. "Bones."
Tonks had a puzzled expression on her face. For a moment, annoyance surged within Harry that she didn't know what he was saying, but he knew that he needed to calm down first so that he could explain fully.
"He's at Bones Manor," Harry finally said when he stopped gasping.
Harry didn't need to explain who "he" was. "Director Bones's Manor has some of the strongest wards in Britain on it," she muttered. "And she had a contingent of Aurors watching over her."
"It's not enough," Harry replied as he forced himself to his feet. His skin felt clammy, but a simple cleaning charm would deal with that. "We need to go help."
"Alright," Tonks agreed. "But not until you've got yourself back under control."
A tremor wracked Harry's body, nearly bringing him to his knees. He hated how weak these visions made him, but the aftereffects didn't last too long. "Okay," Harry agreed reluctantly. "Can you help—"
Tonks was already grabbing his clothes for him.
Harry hurriedly got dressed, feeling better with each passing second. Suddenly, Harry felt a tug of magic in his room. A gentle, golden glow suddenly appeared atop his desk. He knew what it meant: someone in the D.A. had activated their Galleon.
As Harry snatched the Galleon, he felt a brief pulse of information magically enter his mind. "It's Susan," Harry murmured, quickly stuffing the Galleon in his robes.
For months, he'd tried to get her out of his mind, but she seemed insistent on always being around, always being helpful. It was hard being at Hogwarts away from Tonks, and while he wasn't going to cheat on her, he also couldn't ignore his attraction towards Susan or her interest in him. He did his best to keep his distance, but it was hard to avoid her when she was in the D.A.
"We'll go help your little girlfriend," Tonks teased him lightly.
Naturally, after he told Tonks about his growing feelings for Susan and his plan to limit his interactions with her to help quell those feelings, she'd started teasing him about it. He supposed that he should be grateful that she found the situation funny instead of worrying. She'd even changed into Susan once when they were in the middle of having sex, but Harry shut that down fast.
Harry rolled his eyes at her. "At least I'm not the one with a crush on my boss."
Tonks just grinned in reply. "You've seen Amelia. She's quite the looker, and her domineering personality." Tonks sighed dreamily. "We can't let her die before I've had a go at her."
Harry shook his head as he stepped beside his girlfriend. "Save your horny thoughts for after we've fought."
Tonks wrapped an arm around Harry's waist and held on tight to him. "I'm expecting a thorough fuck once we're done."
"Insatiable witch," Harry muttered teasingly as he apparated them away.
PAGE BREAK
"Are you ready?" Amelia asked Susan as she double checked that her extra wand was still strapped to her hip.
Susan spun around in front of the mirror, making sure her protective robes were on right. The tight belt around the black leather robe kept it from flaring out much without restricting her range of motion. It was perfect, and it'd hold up against a myriad of combat spells. It wouldn't last forever, nor would it protect against the unforgivables, but it might just save her if she ended up in a rough spot.
"Ready," Susan confirmed.
"Then let's—" Amelia paused in the middle of her sentence as another explosion rocked the manor.
A blinding light suddenly illuminated Susan's bedroom as the wards around the manor collapsed. The cascading destruction tore layer after layer of protection off of the building, making it groan and creak unnaturally as it struggled to not be torn apart along with the wards. The sheer blast of magical energy that came from the cascading failure was enough to knock Susan off of her feet, but Amelia held steady as she braced herself against the wall.
Susan felt like she was in a daze as she got back onto her unsteady feet. With the wards down around the manor, the fighting was about to break out in earnest as the Death Eaters clashed with the Aurors. Susan and her aunt wouldn't be safe inside anymore. The manor could very easily become a death trap if it were to be used against them.
"We need to go!" Susan shouted at her grim-looking aunt, who was still staring out the window. Susan gave one final glance outside too, but something moving in the darkness of the night held her gaze.
Suddenly, a bright flash of orange light erupted as a massive phoenix swept through the crowd of Death Eaters. "What in the . . ." Susan trailed off.
The Aurors below looked just as dumbfounded as her aunt as they watched the amassing force of Death Eaters break into a panic as cursed flames swept through their ranks. Spells were being fired wildly around, but Susan couldn't tell if they were targeting someone or if they were just hoping to get lucky by randomly hitting whatever had caused this mess. Water-based spells tried to hose down the flames, but none were able to stop the raging inferno.
"Fiendfyre," Amelia said darkly. Susan knew her aunt's opinion on all forms of dark magic was quite low, but Susan wasn't going to complain if it meant that they'd be safe.
Voldemort seemed to be the only person unperturbed by the fiendfyre around him. He batted the phoenix away with a translucent, magical shield he summoned in front of himself. The phoenix's beak smashed off of the shield and it quickly reoriented itself back into the crowd of panicking Death Eaters. Voldemort instantly dropped his shield and dragged the tip of his wand downward in a sharp motion. The fiendfyre phoenix suddenly plummeted towards the ground as though a great weight had just been dropped on its back. The magical creation screeched and flapped its fiery wings helplessly as it tried to move.
The moment that the fiendfyre phoenix struck the ground, the Aurors attacked. From their defensive position in the garden in front of Bones Manor, they sent off a flurry of spellfire at the Death Eaters and Voldemort. Voldemort batted away any that came close to him with a terrifying ease, but the rest of his forces weren't so lucky.
"We need to go add our wands to the fight," Amelia declared.
Susan nodded her head in agreement, and the two of them took off at a run through the manor.
As they descended down the main staircase, more explosions rocked the manor's foundations. Susan wondered what was going out there to cause all of this mess, and, more importantly, who was the mysterious force helping them to fight back against Voldemort. She wondered if it was help from the Ministry, but her heart screamed that it was a green-eyed hero who'd come to save her.
The thought of Harry's handsome face covered in blood and soot as he defended her and her aunt made Susan's knees go weak. She didn't know exactly when her crush started on Harry, but it had grown immeasurably throughout their fifth year at Hogwarts. There were times that she thought he felt the same way about her, but then he'd pull away. It'd left Susan confused and filled with conflicting emotions over whether or not she should confront him directly about it, but the timing never seemed right.
Well, if he was here tonight, then there was no way she was going to let him leave afterwards without hearing out her true feelings first.
The front door to the manor blasted open as a stray killing curse sent it flying off of its hinges. The wooden door warped and twisted as it flew through the air. Susan hit it with a quick banishing spell, sending it tumbling to the opposite corner of the foyer.
"You've gotten faster," Amelia commented proudly.
"It's all thanks to Harry, really," Susan replied as they stepped outside.
"Well, I'll be sure to thank him the next time I see him," Amelia replied.
A flurry of movement on the other side of the garden caught Susan's gaze. Her jaw dropped as she saw Voldemort being forced onto the back foot as he blocked half a dozen spells in as many seconds. Then, as the attacking figure stepped into view around a hedge, Susan saw him.
"I think it'll happen sooner than you expected," Susan beamed.
PAGE BREAK
"Be careful not to accidentally burn down the manor with that," Tonks gently warned Harry as she blocked another stray spell coming their way.
Harry made no sign of hearing her; he was too busy focusing on the task at hand. Maintaining fiendfyre was a monumental task. He looked like a conductor organising a symphony as he directed the fiendfyre phoenix through the Death Eater lines. They were falling quickly to him, but Voldemort was the one Harry was really concerned about.
When he saw an opportunity, Harry sent the fiendfyre phoenix at the man, but he blocked it with incredible ease. Harry tried to direct it back towards the Death Eaters, but Voldemort did something that forced the phoenix to the ground. Harry dropped his control of the spell then, trusting that without his magic or any other strong source of magic to sustain it, the fiendfyre would soon die out.
Harry felt the burst of rage before he saw the green spell flying towards him. Tonks was quick in conjuring a stone slab in front of him, but she wasn't able to stop the shattered debris from striking him after the killing curse reduced the shield to smithereens. The jagged stone shards sliced through his skin freely, but the wounds were only superficial.
Amid the fire and smoke, Voldemort strode towards Harry in a rage. His unnaturally pale skin almost seemed to absorb the firelight as he passed by the burning bodies of his Death Eaters. His rage was palpable, like it was emanating from his body in a haze. Every muscle in Harry's body screamed at him to run, but he forced himself to relax. He wasn't going to run from Voldemort. Not again.
"Go deal with the stragglers," Harry told Tonks sharply. "I'll handle him."
Tonks knew better than to argue with him. She nodded in reply and disappeared into the smoke. Within seconds, new cries of pain joined the low moans of the Death Eaters who were dying from Harry's fiendfyre.
"Potter!" Voldemort hissed as he came to a stop a couple dozen feet away.
"Tom," Harry replied evenly. It satisfied him to see the tic in Voldemort's face upon hearing his true name.
"You may have escaped me at the graveyard and the Ministry, but you will die here tonight," Voldemort spat.
"Maybe you'll be the one to die," Harry retorted.
Harry didn't like the smirk that came across Voldemort's lips. It looked wrong on his serpentine face, but there was something else there too that was bothering him. It was like he found Harry's assertion that he could die amusing. Was he so self-assured to think that Harry couldn't best him?
"We'll just have to see," Voldemort replied before he suddenly jabbed his wand forward.
Harry reacted on instinct, leaping to the side as a blood-red curse travelled through the space he'd occupied barely a second earlier. Once again, he was thankful that he had the foresight to train his reactions in the Room of Requirement over the last two years. He could easily dodge spells from any direction, even fast ones like Voldemort threw, but doing so would tire him out eventually. He'd get sloppy and a spell would clip his shoulder. It was fine if that happened in training, but it could mean death in the real world. Harry knew that Voldemort had better stamina than him, so he couldn't let this fight drag out.
Jets of multicoloured light crashed against each other with a deafening roar as Harry and Voldemort unleashed their arsenals. Even though the initial exchange barely lasted a few seconds, it felt so much longer than that to Harry. Every twirl of his wand, every step forward he took, every spell that zoomed past his face by a hair's breadth, all of it seemed to be in slow motion. His feet were steady as he cast spell after spell that he'd spent countless hours memorising, knowing that he'd need to use them in a situation like this one day.
Harry had come far in his training. He didn't begin properly until his fourth year, but it didn't feel like he really started to master his spellwork until his fifth year. It was a completely different thing to teach others how to cast spells, point out their flaws, and then recognise aspects of those flaws in his own casting. It was those tiny refinements that he made in his own spellwork that truly made the difference. Looking back on his skill level in the graveyard, it was like Harry was a completely different wizard.
Even compared to his spellwork during the battle at the Ministry, he'd grown leaps and bounds during his summer training with Tonks. He supposed that it helped that she motivated him by saying that every time he won a duel, she'd let him do whatever he wanted to her. He was currently on a twenty-three duel win streak, and Tonks had stopped letting him win after the second one when she realised that he didn't need the help.
Voldemort bristled as a hastily-deflected explosive hex struck the ground and temporarily blinded him with dirt and dust. Harry could feel the man's rage at Harry's magical prowess. Voldemort had to be terribly confused as to how Harry got so strong in such a short period of time. Well, he'd never understand the drive to succeed that love gave someone.
Harry pressed Voldemort back to the edge of the Bones Manor garden. The smoke and flames from the fiendfyre were finally starting to dissipate, and it revealed that Tonks had done well to finish off a lot of the injured Death Eaters. There were still a little under two dozen of them left, though several were sporting burns. Harry couldn't see Tonks, but he trusted that she was safe somewhere planning her next string of attacks.
A flurry of stunners came from the garden, and Harry stepped back just in time to let them crash into Voldemort's shield. He glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw a dozen Aurors pressing the advance through the garden towards the Death Eaters.
"Kill them!" Voldemort shouted at his followers as he fired off another killing curse at Harry.
Harry leapt aside, and the curse struck one of Voldemort's charging followers. Voldemort raged, releasing an unearthly screech that rang inside of Harry's head. It was disorienting, like someone had just hit him hard in the ear and left his head ringing, and it nearly got him killed. Voldemort's bone-breaker curse had been going straight for his ribs, but Harry managed to dodge just in time so that it hit his non-dominant arm instead. He felt his humerus snap and shatter. The pain didn't hit until a second later when he saw a shard of bone come flying straight out of his arm.
"Fuck!" Harry spat as he angrily fired off some of the vilest curses he knew.
Voldemort grinned as he dodged them, but that grin slipped off of his face when something pounced on his back.
"Didn't expect that, huh?" Harry muttered to himself as he watched the transfigured lion maul Voldemort's back. He'd purposefully used spells that all had the same colour and had shouted out their incantations, but he'd slipped one extra transfiguration spell in there for good measure.
He really did need to thank Dumbledore for that book on battle transfiguration he'd bought him for Christmas.
Voldemort struck a mortal blow on the transfigured lion by blowing a hole straight through its belly, but the damage had already been done. The back of his robes had been torn to shreds and he was bleeding freely. Harry tried to catch the man with another curse as he quickly got to his feet, but Voldemort blocked every one. At least Harry was happy to see that the man was blocking instead of dodging—it would drain his magical reserves faster.
Harry followed up his curses viciously, not giving Voldemort so much as a chance to react. The man was forced to constantly give ground as Harry started pushing him back towards the garden.
The Aurors and the Death Eaters clashed. Harry could see them over Voldemort's shoulder. Amelia Bones was leading the charge with her niece, Susan, at her side. Harry was ecstatic to see that she was alive, unhurt, and holding her own against the Death Eaters. The Death Eaters were trying to encircle them, but then Tonks arrived, having hidden along the hedges that lined the garden, and took down three Death Eaters from behind in an instant.
It was clear the way the battle was going. The Death Eaters weren't going to last long fighting a battle on two fronts, and they'd already lost so many. Voldemort was panting as he stared down Harry with a baleful look, and he recognised the same.
"This is your end, Tom!" Harry announced loudly. "Bombarda! Reducto! Reducto!"
Verbalising the spells made them easier to cast, but they also had the added bonus of making Voldemort focus on them. Knowing what they were and hearing the spell's names prepared him for what was to come, and that was what Harry was banking on.
"Confringo!" Harry shouted, but that wasn't the spell he cast. Instead, it was a dark cutting curse that smashed through the shield Voldemort created. It opened a gash straight down Voldemort's chest.
Voldemort screamed in anger and fired a killing curse in reply, taking the real blasting curse Harry sent right after head on. He buckled against the blow, nearly getting blown off his feet. Harry was forced to throw himself out of the way of the killing curse, ending his chain of spells.
Just as Harry was scrambling to his feet, Voldemort turned to his followers. "Retreat!" Voldemort shouted angrily.
He apparated away before Harry's next spell could reach him.
There was a flurry of disapparations as the Death Eaters fled, but several were struck down before they could escape. After a few seconds, the garden fell into silence.
A/N: Hey, thanks for reading! If you are interested in reading more or supporting me, check out at p atreon .com(slash) ashox