Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged deep looks of dread and knew what each other were thinking: Death Eaters…or worse. They automatically took out their wands and pointed them at the stairs. Suddenly, the foundation of the house shook and a battle erupted downstairs.
A man dressed in black robes then came up the stairs and the three of them reacted. “Stupefy!” they cried in unison.
The Death Eater caught the three stunning spells in the right in the chest, was blown back to the wall and toppled back down the stairs.
“It’s still in the morning!” said Harry in disbelief.
“Why would that matter?” Ron said darkly.
“Are we going to just stand here, or are we going to fight!” yelled Hermione.
Not waiting another moment they dashed back through the corridor and down the stairs, where they found the unconscious Death Eater. From the foot of the stairs they saw that a large portion of the Order had arrived and were already fighting the countless Death Eaters. Most of the walls had already been blown down and the furniture was being used as shields. The battle was even raging outside.
Harry saw that Moody was fighting a Death Eater and was being starting to be overtaken. Harry pointed his wand and yelled, “Relashio!” He caught the Death Eater in the side of the head, and was finished off by Moody.
“I owe you one, Potter,” he growled, and hobbled off out of sight.
Harry turned to Ron and Hermione. “Stay alive,” he ordered, and ran off and joined the fray.
He jumped into the living room to try and find his first opponent. Harry then heard the incantation of a spell, and moved just in time to avoid being hit by a jet of blue light, which melted through the wall like acid.
“Stupefy!” he heard.
“Protego!” A shield appeared around Harry, and the spell thrown at him was deflected. He immediately turned to his black hooded adversary, and they began to throw spells and curses at one another. The Death Eater was fast, but not fast enough.
“Incendio!” the Death Eater shouted.
Harry didn’t know why, but he countered by yelling, “Aguamenti!” The water shot out of Harry’s wand to meet with the fire, and produced a large amount of steam. It then covered the fighting area, and fogged up Harry’s glasses.
He tried to wipe them, but that did no good since they just fogged up again. And even if they didn’t, the stream would have been too thick to see through. Harry was feeling very exposed, and that wasn’t pleasurable.
Harry was about to cast a wind charm, when the Death Eater yelled, “Reducto!” He immediately ducked, and thought he heard about a dozen of the spells within the surrounding walls. But one managed to strike Harry right in his side.
Along with considerable damage that would have to be taken care of later on, the air was knocked out of Harry, and he couldn’t stand. It was then that the steam lifted, and the Death Eater spotted him. Harry cursed himself for not using another Shield Charm.
“Expelliarmus!” Harry managed to cry. He managed to disarm the Death Eater, but he retaliated by kicking the wand out of his hand.
Ignoring his wand, the Death Eater lunged down at Harry, and grabbed him around the throat choking him.
“Your…boss…wants…me…alive,” Harry struggled to say, while trying to pull away the Death Eater’s fingers.
“I don’t plan on killing you, Potter,” he said evilly through his mask. “I’ll just let you struggle until you pass out.”
And struggle he did. Harry flailed as much as possible, trying to escape, but with his already depleted oxygen level, it seemed impossible. Finally, Harry managed to free one of his pinned down legs, and knee the Death Eater in the groin.
When the Death Eater released him in his immense discomfort, Harry pushed his body off, and reached for his wand.
Harry pointed, and shouted, “Stupefy!” But his enemy dodged, ran, and got his wand back.
He was about to throw another spell, but the Death Eater beat him to the draw: “Silencio!” Harry tried to cast a curse on reflex, but was met with silence. He saw that the Death Eater was about to throw another spell, so Harry bolted for the upturned couch, and dove behind it. The couch then ripped open, and the stuffing flew in all directions, causing another sight obstruction.
“You can’t hide from me again, Potter! You’re defenseless. Severus told us all about your ineptitude with nonverbal spells!”
Rage and hate filled up Harry so that it almost felt like he could burst. So apparently Snape had been giving pointers to the Death Eaters on how to get him. And if they were using things they learned from him, why couldn’t Harry do the same? Especially since his voice was now out.
Raising his wand over the couch, Harry thought, Levicorpus!
There was a yell of surprise from the Death Eater, and Harry prepared himself to finish the job. Harry put his wand to his throat, and desperately said in his mind, Sonorus! He opened his mouth, and was surprised to hear himself make a sound. Now he pointed his wand at the Death Eater, yelling, “Stupefy!” Harry then flicked his wand to let the now unconscious body drop.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to catch his breath, and heard a spell being cast from behind, but wasn’t able to dodge in time. The spell hit Harry’s left shoulder and there was a burning sensation. Harry ignored the pain and turned on the spot ready to do battle again.
Harry and the Death Eater exchanged many spells for a few minutes, all of which were deflected or dodged. Finally, Harry was able to get past his defenses and hit him on the leg.
Harry saw the Death Eater contort with pain and fury, and point his wand. “Cruc””
“Dextrata!” he yelled faster. The Death Eater’s movements were now at the mercy of Harry’s wand. Harry lifted his wand up in one swift motion, and the Death Eater hit the ceiling hard. Harry brought down his wand again, and the Death Eater hit the floor. Harry continued the same cycle five times and finally threw him against the wall unconscious. Harry lifted the spell and Death Eater’s hood came off as he slid down the wall to reveal a bruised and bloody face.
Knowing his opponent was knocked out of commission, Harry inspected his left shoulder and saw that his shirt was burned through and that his flesh was blackened. He rotated it once and it hurt, but decided to continue to ignore it. He also checked his side, which was bruised from the first Death Eater.
“Just die already!”
The source of that voice came from a large hole in the wall that led into the dining room. Through it was a duel between a Death Eater and a pale looking man Harry had never seen before. As the match progressed, it was evident that it wouldn’t end any time soon. The Death Eater kept on sending curses and jinxes, while the pale man was only dodging and using the Shield Charm all the time.
Finally, the pale man took the offensive, and caught the Death Eater right on the shoulder with a spell, but it didn’t do any good. The Death Eater stood right up again, and shot another spell at the man, who looked horrified. It hit him in the stomach, and he hacked up blood. Harry had enough.
“Stupefy!”
The Death Eater heard this, and ducked with plenty of time. “Impedimenta!”
“Protego!” The spell was deflected, but more came immediately after. Harry tried to side step, but was grazed by two of the attacks. He was brought down to his knee, and the Death Eater loomed over him, intending to finish the job.
“Stupefy!” There was a burst of red light as a Stunning Spell hit the Death Eater right in his back. When he fell, it was revealed the spell caster was a woman with black hair, and with a face hidden behind sweat and some blood.
“Thanks,” the pale man said to the woman.
But the woman went over to the man, picked him up by the neck of his robes, and shook him. “What the heck is going on, Geoffrey? I get an owl telling me to get over here because all hell broke loose. How did this happen?”
Why is she asking him? Harry thought. There had to be others that knew the answer. Then the woman dragged the man named Geoffrey to where Harry was.
“Get back to work,” she said, helping Harry up. “This fight isn’t over yet.” Then she and Geoffrey went and took off.
Inside the kitchen there were many duels going on at once”one of them involving a lone person trying to take on two at once. Harry jumped right in to give him a hand.
“Petrificus Totalus!” The body of the Death Eater he was pointing at snapped together, and fell to the floor. His dueling partner didn’t even notice, and continued to fight the man Harry just helped.
“Expelliarmus!” the man yelled. The Death Eater was disarmed.
Harry took over. “Impedimenta!” He caught him right in the face, and went down just like the other.
“Good one,” the man said, acknowledging Harry.
“Thanks, I””
Harry didn’t get to finish because the man suddenly shoved Harry out of the way, was caught in the chest by a red jet of light, and collapsed. Before Harry registered this, there was a sharp pain on his injured shoulder, as if somebody was thrusting a pitchfork through it.
“The Dark Lord would like to see you, Potter,” came the voice of Fenrir Greyback. Harry then felt his hair being pulled back to crane his neck, and there the werewolf was staring down at him. He now understood: what felt like the pitchfork must have been Greyback’s nails digging into Harry.
Harry was filled with dread and tried to struggle to get away, but that only amused Greyback. Harry then tried to position his wand to take him down, but Greyback grabbed the wand from his hand, cast it away and started to make for the exit.
Suddenly, a spell hit Greyback from behind, and he hunched over in pain and loosened his grip on Harry slightly. He turned to see who cast the spell and saw Moody standing close by with a fresh cut across his face that would undoubtedly leave another scar.
“Let him go,” ordered Moody.
“You think you can make me, Mad-Eye?” Greyback snarled.
Harry took advantage of the momentary distraction and elbowed him as hard as he could in the gut, but only to hit what felt like stone. Still, Greyback completely let go of his grip in surprise and Harry dashed for his wand.
“NO YOU DON’T!” shouted Greyback, going after Harry.
Harry scooped up his wand just in time and turned back to face the werewolf getting a point-blank shot of the face. “Reducto!”
Greyback was blown away and skidded back several feet.
“We’re even,” said Moody, hobbling away to the man that was knocked out by the curse earlier to check if he was still alive.
But Harry went over to Greyback, who was still growling weakly and bleeding freely through his broken nose. He pointed his wand at Greyback’s face again. “Stupefy!” he yelled, totally knocking out the werewolf. “That was for Bill.”
The fighting inside of the house was now starting to filter away, and being taken outside where there was more room to take advantage of by both sides. Kingsley Shacklebolt was fighting three Death Eaters at once; Dedalus Diggle magnificently took down the one he was fighting; and Hagrid was trying to bash Death Eaters with his bare hands.
Once Harry got to the backyard he saw Sturgis Podmore sprawled on the ground. Then he heard the sound of a spell being cast and deflected. He saw the source of the spell and his blood boiled with pure loathing. Bellatrix Lestrange, Sirius’ killer, was having a duel with Tonks.
He immediately pointed his wand at her. “Avada””
But he was stopped by Lupin coming out of nowhere and putting down the wand.
“Don’t, Harry!” he pleaded. “You might hit Tonks. Just make sure she’s okay”Hagrid! Watch out!” Lupin pushed Harry out of the way, and Stunned one of the six Death Eaters that were trying to ambush Hagrid from behind. Lupin then left Harry’s side to further help Hagrid, who was only able to take out one more with a swing of his arm.
Bellatrix Lestrange may have been a very formidable opponent, but she still couldn’t have been tougher than six Death Eaters. And, Harry knew, that was why Lupin had to go help Hagrid, and left Harry to try and overtake Bellatrix with Tonks.
“Expelliarmus!” Harry cried, directing his spell at Bellatrix. It was blocked easily, and she kept on fighting.
“Crandore!” Tonks shouted.
Bellatrix flicked her wand, and shield appeared around her. Tonk’s spell was deflected, but instead of flying off somewhere it came right at Harry, who was taken by surprise and totally unprepared.
Tonks ran up, and for the second time Harry was
pushed out of the way of a spell. As it zoomed over them, Harry heard a squeal of immense pain, and Tonks cringed.
“Avada Kedavra!”
Harry and Tonks both instinctively dove in opposite directions just as the Killing Curse hit the spot they were just on.
“Tell me you have a plan,” Harry asked of Tonks, while keeping his eyes on Bellatrix.
“I would, but I’d be lying,” she responded.
Bellatrix then started to laugh. “You won’t avenge my cousin by flailing around, Potter!” she taunted.
“You’re not even worthy enough to mention Sirius!” Harry shouted back, his anger rising again. She wasn’t going to get away this time”he would make sure of it.
“Don’t use Dark magic, Harry,” Tonks said to him. “You’d still be a better person than her, but not by enough.”
“Fine”Protego!” The curse aimed at Harry deflected just in time, and Harry started to throw every curse and jinx he knew at Bellatrix.
After only a minute more of fighting her, it became more evident to Harry and Tonks that Bellatrix had somehow gotten better at dueling. And no matter how badly he wanted to hurt her, he couldn’t get past her defenses.
Finally, Harry wasn’t able to block one of Bellatrix’s attacks, and was hit on the chest. He landed on his back, and started to scream his lungs out, and clawing at where he was hit. Whatever the curse did, it made Harry feel immense pain that was focused in one spot. It felt like fire ants were making a meal of him.
He rolled all over trying to get the pain to stop, but it didn’t. Then a wall of fire appeared between him and Bellatrix, and Tonks appeared in his line of sight.
“Harry, what’s wrong?” she asked desperately.
“It hurts!” Harry screeched, continuing to claw at his chest.
Tonks raised her wand, and muttered, “Finite!” And the pain went away.
Harry stopped clawing, and breathed in heavily. Tonks then pulled him up to his feet, and shoved his wand back his hands.
“What did she use?” Harry asked, the memory of the pain still obviously fresh in his mind.
“Let’s just say it’ll get you a year or two in Azkaban,” she said, turning her attention back to the wall of fire. “Now get ready. This won’t hold her much longer.”
And sure enough, the fire fizzled out, and Bellatrix stood there with an angry face covered in soot.
“Thought you would have ran away by now,” she growled.
“Try to use the Cruciatus Curse,” Tonks whispered to Harry.
Harry's eyes widened. “What! You told me””
“Just do it!” she hissed.
Still confused, Harry looked back at Bellatrix. She deserves it, Harry thought angrily.
“Avada Kedavra!” Bellatrix shouted, sending another Killing Curse at Tonks, who dove out of the way, and sent her own spell.
After Harry fired a Stunning Spell at Bellatrix, not seeing an opening for the Cruciatus Cruse, and the duel flared up once more. And just as it was back in the Ministry of Magic, Bellatrix was more formidable when she was mad. What would happen if Harry tried and failed again at the Unforgivable Curse?
“Torrentel!” Tonks shouted. A brilliant yellow light speeded towards Bellatrix, who had a tougher time deflecting it. Now was Harry’s chance.
“Crucio!”
And just like before, Bellartix screeched and fell backward in pain. “You still can’t do it properly?” she yelled, her voice resonating extreme anger. She would be an even harder opponent. “You’ll pay, Potter!”
And while all her focus was on Harry, Tonks shouted, “Caecus!”
It then appeared as if some sort of black gunk attached itself to Bellatrix’s face, and was completely covering her eyes. Her hands went to her eyes, trying desperately to get it off.
“What did you to me?” she yelled, staggering about in sheer terror.
“Stupefy!” Harry and Tonks cried together. Both their Stunning Spells hit Bellatrix, and she went down without a word.
Tonks went over, kicked the body, and grinned. “Nice,” she complimented to Harry.
“Sorry I couldn’t do the Cruciatus Curse right,” Harry apologized.
Tonks waved it off. “Don’t. I knew you wouldn’t be able to pull it””
Harry and Tonks went stiff as boards and fell to the ground. It then dawned on him that in their euphoria of finally having taken down Bellatrix, they had momentarily forgotten about the battle around them. A Death Eater had come up from behind and used the Freezing Charm on both of them.
How could I be so stupid? Harry thought as the Death Eater came up to them to inspect his work.
“Well, well,” he sneered, “the famous Harry Potter. Oh, the Dark Lord will be very happy with me when I deliver you to him myself.”
Harry was completely defenseless and at the mercy of the Death Eater, who now started to drag him by the neck of his shirt. Harry desperately tried to shout for help, but it was no use. And everybody else had to be too busy to come to his aid.
The Death Eater stepped forward to Apparate, but nothing happened. Harry heard a large explosion and a cloud of dust floated above him. The Death Eater then dropped Harry, and started to run away from something that he could not see.
The Death Eater that was carrying Harry dropped him and followed the rest. At the corner of his eye Harry saw that those running were being picked off by a bombardment of stunning spells. Then, witches and wizards that were giving them a chase and shooting the spells replaced the retreating Death Eaters.
Harry’s heart skipped a beat with excitement and was consumed by joy. They were being saved by Aurors from the Ministry.
One of the Aurors stopped at the sight of Harry and Tonks on the ground. He muttered an incantation, and Harry was free.
“What took you so long, Drew?” asked Tonks, as she got up. “Harry here was almost taken captive!”
“Sorry, Tonks,” said the Auror named Drew. “Some idiot down at the Ministry took his sweet time getting word to the Auror office. Anyway, we put an Anti-Disapparation Jinx around the whole area, that’s why they’re all running away.” He then turned to Harry enthusiastically. “Mr. Potter! It is great to finally meet you,” he said, shaking his hand. “I’ll have you know that I never believed that filth the Prophet said about you.”
“Appreciate that,” said Harry stiffly, taking back his hand and trying to nurse the spot on his back where he fell.
"That looks nasty,” said Drew, looking at Harry’s shoulder. “You should go to the front yard. We have some Healers there.”
“That sounds good.” In the distance he could hear the faint sounds of Appartion and stunning spells being shot.
Harry left them and turned to leave. He saw that the Aurors had completely blown off the wall at the back of the house. It seemed that the reason the house wasn’t falling apart was because of magic. The Aurors that stayed behind were either taking away the a few captured Death Eaters, or helping the injured.
As he went through the house, Harry was surprised that see that it was still standing. The wall at the front of the house was also blasted away, and the only ones left were at the side of the house. A clock that was lying on the ground, but still working, told him that it was almost noon.
At what used to be the front door Harry was extremely relieved to find Ron and Hermione. Each of them had already been treated for their injuries. They both were covered in dust that came from the demolition, and looked extremely tired. Ron had on a bandage on his arm and head, and the bottom of Hermione’s hair was partially singed.
When Hermione saw Harry she sprang up and hugged him. She squeezed a little bit too tight and Harry curled up in pain.
“Sorry! Are you seriously hurt?” she asked anxiously.
“No, just aching all over.”
“I don’t blame you, mate,” said Ron. “We saw part of your fight with Lestrange.”
A Healer then came up to Harry with a case. “Excuse me,” he said, conjuring up a chair and forcing Harry down into it. The Healer inspected Harry all over to discover most of the injuries sustained, and came up with a solution. He reached into the case and pulled out a bottle of liquid, he poured all over the burn on Harry’s left shoulder, and tapped it with his wand. It instantly healed and then he took out another bottle and gave it to Harry. “Drink this and you should feel a lot better.”
After the Healer left to check on more people, Harry drank the potion and he felt coolness run throughout his body and the aches and bruises vanish. He lifted his shirt to see the marks left were gone. Harry sighed in relief that this part was now over, that Ron and Hermione had both made it through as well.
“Better?” asked Ron.
“Loads. What happened to you two?”
“Well, we were doing fine at first,” started Hermione. “We helped out a couple of members of the Order and injured some Death Eaters.”
“Then,” continued Ron, “I was caught off guard and hit by a nasty curse.” He indicated to the bandage on his arm. “The healers said that it’ll clear up in a few day if I keep this on.”
“Anyway, I tried to buy a little time so Ron could recover, but for some reason the Death Eater was more intent than usual to try and kill me. He obviously didn’t get to,” she added with a satisfied tone.
“That’s because I finally was able to help again. He wasn’t able to take the both of us on.” He shrugged and continued, “Then, seeing as he couldn’t handle fighting two-on-one, another Death Eater came to help him out. After a while I think that they were planning to take me down first.”
“What makes you say that?” asked Harry.
“Because they both pointed their wands at me and cast curses. I blocked one, but the other got me on the head.” He indicated to the bandages on his head. “Knocked me right out.”
“I took over from there,” said Hermione, a dark look passing her face. “You don’t want to know what I did to them. They only managed to do this,” she said, grabbing a handful of her singed hair.
“I came to a few minutes after they were taken down and saw what she did,” said Ron. “I don’t reckon those welts will ever fully heal. So after that was done we continued to fight.”
“That’s when we caught a glimpse of you fighting Bellatrix. We would have helped, but that’s when the front walls of the house were blasted and the Aurors came in. The Death Eaters started to run like mad. The back walls of the house were taken down by Death Eaters trying to make their own exit, and that’s how we got covered in all this.” She raised her arms and turned around for Harry to get a better look at the dust she and Ron were covered in.
“And why didn’t you help me after I was petrified?” asked Harry.
“You were petrified?” exclaimed Ron.
“Yes! A Death Eater almost took me back to Voldemort.”
“Sorry, Harry,” said Hermione in horror. “But an Auror took us to the front of the house to get treated, and we couldn’t do anything about it.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, knowing it wasn’t their fault. “Lucky the Aurors came when they did. I should really blame that person at the Ministry who delayed getting word to them about this fight.”
“A person at the Ministry did that?” asked Hermione, disbelieving.
“Harry!” cried a voice that belonged to Lupin. “You three all right?”
“We’re okay,” answered Harry, as Lupin came up.
However, Lupin still gave them all a quick look over. “Good. Listen, everybody from the Order who isn’t hurt is now leaving. I suggest that you three do the same. Unless, of course, you want to be swamped by reporters.”
At that moment, the Order started to go past them to leave the area and Apparate away. Then the pale man Harry had to help appeared among them, looking distraught.
“That’s Geoffrey Baxer,” said Lupin, following Harry’s gaze. “You never met him, he only joined at the beginning of the year.”
“Doesn’t seem much of a fighter, does he?”
Lupin shrugged. “We figure that he’s seen a lot since he joined and that shook him up. Poor guy. Didn’t seem to think this was what he was getting into.” Lupin sighed heavily and changed the subject. “Now, I assume that you three are staying at the Witch’s Wand, so you should go back there, get your things, and leave this town. I have to go. An emergency meeting was just called.”
Hermione pointed her wand at herself and sent a jet of air that blew away the dust and did the same thing to Ron.
“Hey!” he said, being taken by surprise and trying to shield his face. When Hermione stopped, Ron checked his clothes. “Thanks.”
“No problem.”
The three of them didn’t want to stay any longer, and made their way out of the area as quickly as possible to Apparate back to the Witch’s Wand. For some reason, the inside was completely empty, but they didn’t dwell on it. They just gathered their things, left the room keys on the bar, and left Godric’s Hollow.
Harry Potter and the Secret Spell by Phoenix 86
Chapter Notes: Reviews would really be nice.