Harry and Ginny drew their wands and shifted forwards so that they too could see what was going on. For a second Charlie was going to push them back but he thought about it again and turned his attention to the parading Death Eaters. Reading Harry’s mind once more, Ellie frantically summoned them forward and whispered to them urgently. “As soon as they start attacking we fight back. Fire off any spell you can think of and stick together, do not get separated!” They didn’t have to wait too long for the Death Eaters to do something. Harry heard the cool and calm voice of Lucius Malfoy calling above the screaming pandemonium.
“Spread out and look for Potter, the Dark Lord will settle for one of his little friends.” Harry saw the reflection of a hooded figure pointing the others in different directions. After a few seconds the flashing began as curses flew down the street. The Death Eaters had a take-no-prisoners attitude to their search for Harry, and the scattering witches and wizards were hit with a large variety of spells. The instant that the first flash darted through the air, Charlie and Ellie rose from their hiding place and started to fire any spell that came to their minds.
“Expelliarmus!” Ellie shouted and the wand of a nearby Death Eater flew into her hand, she banged it fiercely on the cage shielding her and it snapped in half.
“Dimitto!” Charlie yelled, pointing his wand in the other direction. The attacker he was aiming at shot backwards and his head ricocheted off the wall behind him; he was unconscious. There was furious muttering amongst the black clothed people as they realised where Ellie was.
“Get her!” Malfoy shouted, “The boy will be nearby!”
Confident that they knew roughly where he was, and that they would double the strength of their attack on this section of street, Harry joined the fray. “Flatus!” he bellowed, pointing his wand at the nearest Death Eater who fell backwards through the table of books in front of Flourish and Blotts.
“Incendio!” he heard Ginny calling; he felt her line up with him back to back and saw the robes of the Death Eater she was aiming for burst into flames. In a moment he had to spare in between casting spells he spotted the rest of the Order members taking cover and shooting whatever they could at their opponents. Mad-eye was frantically dodging up and down behind the counter in the Apothecary, with Dung only jumping up when he thought that it was safe enough. Kingsley was darting between the pillars at the front of Gringotts and pointing his wand at just about anything that moved. Emmeline Vance was lying out cold in the doorway of the bookshop, and Hestia Jones was now leaning over her trying to check if she was all right whilst she was fending off another onslaught from Emmeline’s attacker.
“Stupefy!” Ellie roared as a new Death Eater advanced on them, the curse missed its mark, instead hitting an innocent bystander behind him. Harry covered her with a Reductor Curse as she lifted the spell on the unfortunate woman. Their concentration was thrown when Charlie stumbled backwards, he had been hit in the arm with a boil hex, he apologized while Ginny reversed the spell and Ellie covered his side of the street.
Fred, George and Lee rushed out of their shop and joined in the battle. It felt like every time they dealt with one Death Eater another three took their place; in fact they spent what felt like forever creating shields of varying strengths and sizes. Her concern for her husband had drawn Ellie’s attention long enough for a Death Eater to shout “Incarcerous!” Ropes shot out of the end of his wand and began winding their way around her wand arm, Ellie immediately tried to pull out of it, but her efforts were to no avail. She jerked suddenly in an attempt to free her arm but the grip was so tight that her shoulder gave a nauseating pop as her arm came out of its socket. Although her face twisted in pain, no noise escaped her mouth. The ropes continued to creep up her arm and circled round her neck as Harry looked on horror struck.
“Harry!” Ginny shrieked. She gently pushed him out of the way and cast a Severing Spell that cut the ropes; they instantly uncoiled themselves and dropped to the floor limply. Ellie flinched as she tried to move her now dislocated limb, and opted to use her other arm instead; her aim wasn’t as good with it, but it was good enough to keep Lord Voldemort’s servants at bay. Another Death Eater, who was trying to sneak down through the shadows on their right, decided to change tactics and began casting Unforgivables at them. He very nearly caught them, but Ellie cast a spell that Harry hadn’t heard before.
“Validus Contego!” A large green bubble manifested itself on the end of Ellie’s wand and it quickly swelled until it had encompassed her and Harry. The curse that the Death Eater sent at them bounced off it and doubled back on its caster, catching him before he had a chance to move or conjure a shield. When Ellie launched her counter attack the green shield began to fade away, and she only narrowly missed being hit with the Cruciatus Curse when it disappeared entirely. Ginny yelped and it was Harry’s turn to lose concentration.
“Ginny, are you okay?” He knelt back in to the shelter of the cages to attend to his girlfriend. She had a long cut down the side of her face from a Severing Charm.
“I’ll be fine,” she assured him. She lurched into Harry’s chest when their cover was blasted to smithereens. The hooded individual who had destroyed their shelter then threw two Stunning Spells at them in quick succession, with no time to counter act it, Harry braced himself to try and take both blasts but Ellie had a spare second to shout out.
“Excipio Magus!” The two spells were swallowed by a white cloud emitted from Ellie’s wand. Harry pulled Ginny to her feet and they went to work again. Every time someone got to close to their group they were taken out of the battle, the number of Death Eaters was eventually whittled down from thirty or more to ten.
The alley was a catastrophe. Bodies, alive and dead, littered the ground, several shops were on fire after being hit by stray curses, the debris of books, clothes, tables and barrels was scattered every where. An age seemed to pass before Aurors started Apparating into the street and they finally overcame the assault. Those Death Eaters who had escaped harm were quickly captured. Remus and Tonks came rushing towards them with the last Marauder immediately fussing like an old mother hen, he insisted on inspecting Ellie and Harry for any signs of damage.
“Are you both all right?” he asked breathlessly, he grabbed Harry by the shoulders and looked him over.
“I’m fine, Moony,” Harry smiled; Remus’s concern was touching. With Harry’s well being established it was Ellie’s turn and when he grabbed her by the shoulders she let out a single piercing note. He immediately let go of her.
“I’m not quite fine. My shoulder’s dislocated,” Ellie told him through gritted teeth.
“Ellie, I’m sorry,” Remus gushed guiltily.
“It’s okay. Is everybody else is all right?” she asked once she had composed herself.
“None of the family were hurt, but Emmeline has some serious looking injuries and Hestia was subjected to the Cruciatus Curse, other than that there doesn’t appear to be anything life threatening. We managed to capture thirteen of the Death Eaters who were unconscious and seven who were still standing when the Auror’s arrived,” he reported.
“Let’s just get everyone out of here,” she requested. They all headed back up towards the twin’s shop and as they neared it Mrs. Weasley spotted the blood on Ginny’s face.
“Ginny! What happened? Are you feeling okay? Do you need to sit down?” the anxious mother flustered.
“I’m fine, Mum, it’s just a cut.” Ginny allowed her mother to hug her.
“We couldn’t see you properly from where we were. We thought something terrible might have happened,” Molly cried.
“Everyone’s alive, Molly, let’s get them out of here and back home,” Tonks advised.
“Yes, yes, of course. Come on, everybody.” Mrs. Weasley started herding them into the shop. Arthur was setting about making them a Portkey to go home when there was another loud pop at Ellie’s side.
“So you’ve kept Potter out of harm’s way again?” said the steely voice of Lucius Malfoy. He reached out to grab Ellie by the shoulders and pulled her against him so that she became his shield. He knew that none of them would dare fire any curses for fear of hitting the boy’s pretty guardian. She cringed in agony at his tight grip on her injured shoulder. “You foolish girl. When are you going to realize that you can’t save everyone? Make the choice right now; I’ll spare the boy for one of the others. Who would you sacrifice? The werewolf? Your husband?” his voice oozed with loathing. “Perhaps it would be one of the other Weasley fools? Or maybe the Mudblood? Perhaps even that half-blooded filth from the House of Black? Choose,” he demanded. Ellie stayed silent.
“I said CHOOSE. Who will it be?” She still refused to answer him. “The Dark Lord will teach you obedience in the best way possible; sorrow. Take a good look at these faces.” He jabbed his wand at the large group in front of them. “You will see them die one by one, starting with….” In the blink of an eye he had waved his wand at Remus and Disapparated with another loud crack. They all looked on as a deep colour stained the man’s robes; he looked at Ellie with his eyes wide in astonishment. In a matter of seconds Remus John Lupin was deathly pale and collapsed on to the floor.
Harry had never heard Ellie scream the way she did when Remus fell. Ellie was the calmest person that he knew. She had stared straight down the length of Voldemort’s wand as death darted towards her and hadn’t even flinched, but Remus’s injury was too much for her. The cool and composed facade that she normally wore surrendered to overpowering terror as she kneeled at her godfather’s side calling his name in a pitch that sounded almost like a yelp of torture. “Somebody do something!” she yelled. Molly immediately ushered Ellie out of the way and began conjuring dressings and she then had Tonks press these on to Remus’s abdomen.
“We need to get him to St Mungo’s straight away, Alastor,” she said sharply to Mad-Eye.
“Right you are, Molly. Arthur, Bill and Ms. Delacour, you can come with me,” Moody instructed. The four of them then jumped into the fire.
“Fred and George, go and tell Dumbledore what’s happened,” Molly ordered. The twins didn’t hesitate in Apparating. “Charlie, Ron and Hermione, you can keep guard at the front door, wands out!” A second or two later they swept aside to let Kingsley bowl through the entrance.
“What happened?” he asked with grave concern.
“Remus was attacked by Lucius Malfoy, perhaps you should report to the Minister, Kingsley,” Molly advised.
“I was just on my way. Are you sure that you’ll be all right here?”
“We’ll be fine. Alastor, Arthur, Bill and Fleur are checking St Mungo’s. Fred and George are getting Dumbledore, and those three are watching the door.” Molly indicated the three watchmen.
“Good, don’t forget to keep me updated. Tonks, I’m afraid you’ll have to come with me,” he whispered softly to the shell-shocked girl. Poor Tonks was staring at the pool of blood forming at her boyfriend’s side.
“I can’t…I’ve got to stay with him,” she stuttered.
“You go, dear, we’ll take good care of him. If anything happens I’ll send one of the boys along,” Molly assured her. Tonks reluctantly allowed Kingsley to pull her to her feet. She took one last desperate look at the fallen man as she and Kingsley Disapparated with two pops.
It only took a minute or two for Fleur to return with a Portkey for St Mungo’s. When they finally stopped spinning around they were in the middle of a hospital ward and two healers were running towards them. “Let me see,” said the sterner looking female healer while her male companion conjured a stretcher; she began slowly passing her wand over Remus’s still form. “We need to get him up on that bed now,” she said urgently. Her assistant shifted Remus on to the stretcher and up on to the bed.
“You’ll need to wait outside.” The male healer softly tugged Ellie away from Remus. “We’ve got a family room just across the hall. I’ll come and get you the second there is any change in his condition.” He steered the distraught Ellie towards the ward doors and out to a room on the opposite side of the corridor. In the room were several comfortable looking sofas a couple of little tables and hundreds of old copies of Witch Weekly and The Quibbler. Harry spotted his own face amongst the many others, including Gilderoy Lockhart.
Ten minutes later a different healer hurried into the room. She was a short, stout woman with mousy brown hair and a very red face. “Which one of you is the worst?” she asked in a very soft voice. When no one was prepared to say that they were worse than any of the others she immediately reached for Ginny, who still had blood trickling down her face. “Severing Charm, dear?”
“It was yes,” Ginny said quietly. The healer nodded and immediately began to patch her up. It only took a minute and the slash down the side of young Ginny’s face had disappeared all together and the colour was back in her cheeks. Hermione had a nasty gash in the back of her head from where she had been blasted backwards into a window sill, the healer clucked for the several minutes it took her to heal the injury and make sure Hermione wasn’t suffering from a concussion. She dealt with Charlie next; he still had some nasty scars left over from the Boil Hex that had hit him in the arm. Ellie was reluctant to let the other woman touch her sore shoulder but was eventually persuaded.
“Listen here, young lady. If you don’t get that shoulder fixed as soon as possible then you’ll probably lose the use of it. It looks like it’s your wand arm, am I right?”
“Yes,” Ellie replied sulkily.
“Well let me see it then!” the healer said much more firmly. Reluctantly Ellie slid forward in her seat to let the woman see it. “Oh dear, it’s dislocated. Despite all the remedies available in the magical and Muggle worlds there is only one way to fix this and it’s not going to be pleasant. Is this your young man?” She pointed at Charlie who nodded vigorously at her. “You might want to sit on her other side and get a good firm grip of her,” she instructed. Charlie shifted from Ellie’s right to her left and wrapped his arms around her waist tightly so she was pulled in close to his chest. Although this precaution worried the rest of them, Ellie looked completely unperturbed. The woman in lime green gently pulled her arm upwards and Ellie grimaced ever so slightly. She then began to move the arm up and down rhythmically until a sound, similar to that made by a plunger coming away from a sink, bounced around the room. Ellie’s mouth was open in a silent scream but not one note left her mouth. The plump little woman quickly conjured a sling that she eased Ellie’s arm in to. “That should do you for now; keep it in there for a day or two and I’ll give you a potion to help with it. Are we all done?” she asked turning back to the group. When they all nodded she left the room to a chorus of thank you.
They sat in tense silence for a long while before anyone dared to speak. Ellie had almost curled herself in to the foetal position; she had her forehead resting on her knees and her good arm wrapped around her head protectively. Charlie was doing his very best to comfort her but it was to no avail. Harry felt numb, like he had swallowed a Freezing Solution. He remembered only too well the experience of sitting and waiting. It was only a few months ago that he and Remus had sat waiting for Ellie to come around. Yet here were Harry and Ellie, a couple of months later, waiting for him to come around. He hated the way he was always waiting and rarely the injured. He would have given anything to swap places with his former guardian. He was once again subject to an overwhelming feeling of guilt. Malfoy had wanted Ellie to choose, and she was asked to pick someone to take his place. Harry had been spared at Remus’s cost and once again a member of his family was at death’s door because of him.
“This isn’t your fault, Harry, don’t blame yourself,” Ellie mumbled from the depths of her hiding place. She looked up at him with eyes so piercing that had they been a sky blue colour instead of deep brown, he would have been convinced that he was staring in to Dumbledore’s eyes. Even the glistening golden auburn of her hair reminded Harry of the headmaster in his younger days. He had seen a younger version of Dumbledore in Tom Riddle’s diary during his second year. “This was Malfoy and Voldemort. It was down to them and no one else,” she said firmly. “If I catch you thinking that again, I’ll hex you in to the middle of next week.”
“Well said,” cheered Ginny with a smile.
“She’s quite right,” echoed Molly. “Does anyone want some tea?”
“A wonderful idea, Molly,” Arthur replied. He aided his wife in the conjuring of a tea set and the room was quickly filled with conversation. It was a good three hours before the healer returned with any news of Remus’s condition.
“Mrs. Weasley?” he called.
“Yes,” Molly replied.
“I’m sorry, I meant the young lady. You are Mrs. Weasley aren’t you?” he asked Ellie.
“I am yes, it’s just the first time that anyone has asked for me by my married name,” Ellie blushed.
“Ah! A newlywed. My wife told me that it took her months to get used to it. You’re Mr. Lupin’s next of kin?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Would you come with me, you can see him now.” Ellie followed the healer back across the hall and disappeared through the ward doors. The twenty minutes that she was gone felt like the longest minutes of Harry’s life. When she eventually returned she was in tears and he feared the absolute worst.
“No,” he gasped. Ellie’s head whipped around in shock.
“He’s fine, Harry, he’s going to be fine,” she wailed in relief. Harry felt the muscles, which he hadn’t even realised were tensed, relaxing. In the moment of sheer relief he jumped from his seat and hugged Ellie for all that he was worth. When they went through to see Remus, he was sat up in bed looking extremely pale but cheerful all the same.
“You’ve not been crying have you, Ellie? I hate to see you cry,” there was a tiny hint of scolding in Remus’s voice.
“She’s just relieved,” Charlie said. “We all are.”
“You didn’t half give us a fright,” George chimed.
“Are you feeling better?” Mrs. Weasley was smoothing his sheets and straightening his pillows.
“Much better, thank you, Molly. I should be allowed home in a day or two, after I’ve had plenty of the Blood Replenishing Potion.” He pointed to the vials of potion that were lined up neatly on the bedside cabinet.
There was a sudden calamity that caused everyone to pull their wands out and point them at the ward doors. Tonks had tripped over her own feet in her rush to get to Remus. She untangled her limbs and threw herself on him crying hysterically, her words unintelligible. He patted her back soothingly and muttered “There, there,” through her currently long black hair. For some reason though, this didn’t seem to work. In the end Ellie gently prised the young Auror from his chest and gave her a questioning look. Tonks answered by bursting into yet more sobs and bawling incoherently, she waved her arms about wildly and screwed her face up as she continued. Although the meaning of this went beyond the comprehension of the men present, the women understood.
“Oh, Tonks!” Ellie said sympathetically. “We know, we know.” The other females gathered around the crying pair and wrapped their arms around them; they were all whispering and muttering comfortingly.
“Is it some kind of female bonding ritual?” George murmured to Bill.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Bill shook his head in confusion.
“Because there was no news Tonks thought Remus had died,” Arthur told them authoritatively. “I’ve heard Molly cry like that before,” his voice had a very dark quality to it.
“Of course. Is everybody else all right?” Remus quickly changed the subject away from what sounded like painful territory.
“We didn’t lose anybody after your attack; everybody is as you left them.” Bill was looking around for somewhere to perch, not finding anywhere he conjured himself a seat. “Do you think that they’ll be like that for long?” He waggled his head in the direction of the huddle the women were forming, they were all weeping now.
“You can never tell.” Arthur followed his son’s example and conjured chairs for everyone else. All they did was sit and wait for the girls to sort themselves out.
The only reason that Ellie and Tonks agreed to return to the house that night was that an Order meeting had been called. Once again everyone disappeared into the kitchen for an hour and a half. When the meeting was over Ellie came up to the library to find Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione pouring over defence books. They had made a unanimous decision to look up as many curses as possible that way if another attack took place they could do some real damage.
“Well?” Harry prompted his hesitant cousin.
“Emmeline Vance died earlier this evening, Hestia is unconscious and we lost fourteen wizards and eight witches, two of which were only children,” Ellie said in a dejected tone. They stared at her in disbelief; so many people had been lost in such a short space of time. Emmeline had been looking through books this morning and now she was dead. Things looked terribly bleak for wizard kind.
A/N: The spells are as follows: Dimitto “ send away, Flatus “ blast, Validus Contego “ strong shield, Expicio Magus “ capture magic.
The next chapter…The Safest Place.
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