A/N: Well, several 60 hours weeks at work helped to delay this one. I can see this is becoming a bit of a pattern for me. I think a chapter a month sucks, but what can a poor sap do? *shrugs*
The Growing Darkness & the Fading Light
Chapter 10
"Are you sure you're okay with this?"
"Harry, Harry, Harry," Tonks said dramatically, "it's an honest mistake. I just conveniently forgot to tell Remus that you would be here too when he drops Hermione off." Tonks put on her sweetest smile, cocked her head sheepishly, and batted her eyes. "Whoops! Silly me."
Harry grinned despite himself. "All right," he said, forcing down the smile, "I just don't want to get you in trouble because of us."
Tonks tossed her hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it, lover boy. I can handle Dumbledore and Remus just fine, thank you very much. Now, let's get a move on or we'll be late."
"Thanks, Tonks. I owe you one." Harry said, resuming the walk to the Underground.
"Oh, I'll collect, Harry." Tonks replied, falling in step beside him. "Don't you worry one bit. One of these days, I'll definitely be calling this favor in."
After a short walk and some easy conversation, they reached the platform for the London Underground. Tonks took a moment to find a dark corner, disappeared for a moment before emerging as an elderly woman. She pretended not to recognize Harry, choosing instead to amble along and take up residence a few feet behind him where they waited in silence for the train to arrive. Harry casually looked around every so often and despite her withered appearance, he noticed Tonks' eyes remained youthful looking and alert, scrutinizing each new person as they arrived on the platform.
Several more minutes passed before the distant rumbling of the train grew louder from the tunnel to Harry's right. It drew to a stop and Harry was looking for a seat when a feeble old voice called to him.
"'Scuse me, son. Could you help an old lady with her bag?"
Harry turned around and saw the ripened Tonks leaning heavily on a railing and looking at him hopefully. Harry followed her outstretched arm to the bag that had seemingly appeared at her feet.
"It's my back, you see," she said, as Harry fought to hide his smirk, "I have trouble bending over when I've dropped something."
Harry scooped up her bag, grimacing at the weight she seemed to have conjured into it. With a grunt, he offered his elbow to her, saying in a strained, but saccharine voice, "Can I help you find a seat as well, maam?"
She took his arm leaned heavily on it. "My, aren't you a sweet young man?" she said, patting him none too gently on the side of the face.
Harry led her down the aisle and helped her into a seat, taking a spot across the aisle from her. Moments later the doors slid shut, the train pulled out, and began rattling down the tunnel.
Tonks allowed her head to fall to her chest, feigning sleep. She even went so far as to allow a long tendril of drool to fall onto to the shawl draped across her shoulders. Despite her sagging head and soggy wrap, Harry could barely see her eyes opened into narrow slits. He smiled inwardly; no one would ever suspect that she was an Auror, what with how well she played the part of the crazy old bat.
Under Tonks "watchful" gaze, Harry let his head fall back against the train window. The glass was cool against his scalp and he allowed himself a few moments to relax, enjoying the rhythmic sway and bounce of the train as it trundled along.
He soon found himself in a wonderfully detached kind of trance as he lazily stared at the blank train roof. Several blissful minutes slipped past before he first felt it; it was so subtle that it seemed no more than a passing, random chill dancing along the ridges of his spine. The sensation grew and fear entrenched itself in his brain, shattering the rare moment of mental relaxation.
Harry sat up quickly. In the fraction of a second it took for him to press his eyes shut against the violation, he saw Tonks' wide eyes focused on him. The drumming heartbeat quaked through his mind and before he could begin to put in place the walls as Dumbledore had instructed him just this morning, Voldemort was there, sifting through his thoughts and emotions like one would casually thumb through the Daily Prophet.
Desperate for control, Harry fought to focus on a topic, any topic, in his haste to lead Voldemort away from his upcoming meeting with Hermione. A groan of pure desperation escaped his throat, tinged with a strain of effort as he struggled to recap the various Quidditch matches of the last school year.
He remembered the fight in the first match of the year and the raw pleasure he felt when his hand struck Malfoy's cheek. He was sensing Voldemort struggling to bring forth information from Harry's psyche. Emboldened, he moved on to the next match, recalling sitting with Hermione and watching Ron fumbling to stop goal after goal. But then, in the midst of a breath, Harry's concentration faltered. A lapse occurred and Voldemort snatched control of Harry's thoughts from his tenuous grasp.
With no further handle on his mental processes, Harry was cast into the role of a spectator. He was mired in some freakish abyss and the roar of Voldemort's heartbeat pounded into his skull. His memories of the last year flashed across the horizon of his consciousness, accelerating before his mind's eye like a home movie stuck on fast forward…he and Hermione leaving the Quidditch final to help Hagrid with Grawp… Hermione's fall at the Department of Mysteries… the kiss Voldemort didn't witness... the incident with the mirrors.
Harry exhaled, his shoulders slumping in defeat. He's gone.
The thundering in his head faded to its usual dull pulsing and Harry cracked his eyes to see Tonks poorly veiled panic. He gave her a subtle shake of his head and Tonks eyes returned to narrow slits. Harry stared at her for a moment longer and noticed that her eyes didn't dart around as frequently, spending much of their time focused on him.
The rest of the ride was thankfully uneventful, though Tonks appeared to be running low on drool halfway through the trip and took to making periodic snorts instead, jarring her from her "sleep." Each snort was punctuated with her head snapping up suddenly and resettling into a new position, followed closely by more drooling when she could manage it. However, with the Dark Lord's intrusion so fresh, Harry couldn't find the humor in her antics anymore.
Finally, their stop pulled into view and Harry exited the train with Tonks stifling a coughing fit closely behind him. The walk to the muggle side of the Leaky Cauldron was short and the two young wizards were able to slip in unnoticed by the crowds passing by.
"Go find a table in the back," Tonks muttered, as she shuffled past him on the way to the bar. Harry began a sullen march towards the rear of the pub, but not without overhearing her ordering a Firewhiskey. "-and make it strong! None of that namby-pamby, watered down rubbish you served me last week!"
Harry shook his head in disbelief at the scene she was making, but was grateful that the pub's attention was fully on her, allowing him to go unnoticed as he took a seat at a dimly lit booth. His head fell into his hands of its own accord and repeatedly ran the full length of his scalp, from his forehead to the nape of his neck. It was a motion conducive to lessening the strain.
What could Voldemort have learned?
Seems like nothing significant.
Everything happened so fast, though.
Did I miss something?
His thoughts, worries, and frustration over Voldemort's violation hammered down on his shoulders with each passing moment. They sheer weight of it brought his torso closer to the tabletop and stilled the soothing rake of his fingers across his scalp.
Immersed so deeply in the failure to keep his walls up, Harry did not hear Hermione's footsteps approaching. He only looked up once she had slipped into the seat opposite of him. For her benefit, he consciously dropped his hands from his head, relaxed the tightness in his jaw, and tried to hide the sadness from his welcoming smile. His concerns need not weigh her down as well; they should be set aside and be dealt with another time.
"Hi."
"Hi."
That single, simple syllable conveyed much between them. With it, he unintentionally conveyed the sentiment of the burden he was carrying, but asked her not to interrogate him about it. Her response was filled with concern, telling him she was here when he was ready, but that the reprieve was not limitless.
Harry stretched his hand out across the tabletop and linked it with hers, relishing in the reassurance of her skin against his.
"I've missed you."
"Honestly, Harry, we talk just about every day."
"I know," he said unsteadily, "its just…the mirrors aren't enough."
She pulled his hand to her lips and pressed a warm kiss into the back of it. "Then let's get out of here. We've only a couple hours."
Harry nodded and looked over to see Tonks and Remus sitting next to one another at the bar. From where he was sitting, the two seemed to be playing the part of perfect strangers, but Harry could just see the subtle move of Tonks lips followed by an even subtler nod of Remus' head. She made a show of readjusting her shawl and for a moment her eyes met Harry's. Harry inclined his head towards the rear of the pub and slid out of the booth.
"I'll go now so Lupin doesn't see me," he said to Hermione. "Leave with Tonks as soon as she can shake him."
Harry walked through the gateway to Diagon Alley and squatted on the other side, waiting for Hermione and Tonks. He pressed his back into the cool brick of the building and allowed the worries of Voldemort to return. Racking his brain, Harry fought to recall the unfocused, fading images of what the Dark Lord had forced through him mind. He turned over each memory again and again before they slipped away, but nothing seemed to stand out as dangerous.
What was he looking for?
What's his angle?
The frustration of it was maddening.
Is this what he wants? To torment me?
Harry slid his eyes shut and took a few calming breaths. Habitually, he fell into his usual Occlumency routine and began to concentrate on his heartbeat. Readily, the echo of Voldemort's heartbeat sprung to the forefront of his mind.
It wasn't even a thought, merely an instinctive response. Maybe it was his anger at the Dark Lord's earlier assault. Maybe he just wanted to prove he wasn't weak, but he found himself wrapping his thoughts around the palpitations of the Voldemort's heart. Each beat rang louder and louder and Harry was able to sense the thoughts and feeling of the Dark Lord with increasing clarity.
He knew Tonks and Hermione would be coming soon, but brushed aside the distracting thought as images were coming to his mind's eye now. The rank and file of the Death Eaters stood before Voldemort. They seemed to getting instructions, though Harry couldn't here what was being said.
Voldemort completed his instructions and, as one, the assembled Death Eaters bent at the waist and began filtering from the chamber. Ecstasy filled Voldemort's mind. Good things were about-
"Harry!"
Harry started and opened his eyes to find Hermione's face a few inches from his own. She was worried. Her hands brushed his damp hair from his eyes; he was sweating from the exertion of pushing into Voldemort's thoughts.
"I'm all right, Hermione," Harry said quietly, pushing himself to his feet. "I was just practicing Occlumency while I waited."
Hermione remained skeptical. Her face made that painfully clear. "You were breathing awfully hard."
"It's nothing," he said, extending his hand for her to take. "C'mon. We're supposed to be on a date."
Hermione took his hand, but her lips were pursed and her brow knitted in concentration. They walked into Diagon Alley past Tonks who was studying him as she pretended to be examining a crate of dragon dung. As they passed, her voice carried to his ear.
"Strike two, Potter. One more and this show's over." Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, but Harry pretended not to see.
Together, they began browsing the shops. Initially, they walked in an evasive silence. Not only could they not help but notice Tonks following at a distance, there was still the matter of Hermione's ill-disguised worry over Harry's peculiar behavior.
The sight of Flourish and Blott's changed that. Once they entered the dusty shop, Hermione's eyes lit up and she tugged Harry from section to section pointing out spell books she was planning to purchase when she had the money.
The tension resurfaced momentarily when they passed the stacks dedicated to Defense Against the Dark Arts. This time, it was Harry's turn to tug on Hermione's hand, claiming interest in an animal transfiguration text two rows over. Hermione sluggishly relented and seemed to about to say something before thinking better and started challenging Harry's statements on the mechanics of cross-species transfiguration.
Almost wishing he was back in the Dark Arts section, Harry was grateful when a rather loud rumbling from his stomach finally managed to get Hermione's attention and gave Harry the out from her lecture that he had been looking for. Hermione smiled and agreed to a private meal in one of the more secluded eateries in Diagon Alley.
On the way out, they brushed past the elderly Tonks, Harry discreetly whispering their destination to her.
"Get the fish" was her hushed reply.
Harry was thankful for Hermione's assent to eat somewhere inconspicuous. Upon entering the café, there were only a handful of other patrons and they were able to get a table away from the glass window separating the restaurant from the rest of Diagon Alley.
They ordered (Hermione got the chicken, Harry got an obvious glance to the forehead and the fish) and were soon talking about how best to handle Ron.
"I dunno, Hermione. I've not seen him like that since fourth year. He ran the whole gambit of emotions after he found out. I thought he was going to take my head off one second, the next minute, he was sulking like I'd just stepped on Pig."
Hermione pried Harry's hand apart from one another where they were working themselves into knots and held each in hers.
"Harry, I think it'll just take him some time to get used to this. He's probably feeling everything there is to feel about this situation: betrayal, isolation, self-pity, jealousy…" she trailed off, looking away Harry.
Harry wasn't certain what to make of that reaction. The words spilled out before he could restrain himself. "Did you ever fancy him? 'Cause if you did or still do, I…I think I should know."
It was Harry's turn to look away. He knew he didn't deserve her. She deserved someone who could focus on her alone. Someone who had grown up in a loving home and didn't need to stumble about trying to figure out what the hell love really was. She deserved someone whose life didn't hang in the balance and hadn't dragged her into the same mess knowingly.
Hermione released his hands and slid around the table to sit in the bench beside him, lacing her fingers in his and dropped her chin to his shoulder. The feel of her palm against his was reassuring.
"I've never fancied him, Harry; he's just a good friend."
Despite the reassurance of her words and intimacy of her closeness, his doubts still lingered.
"Wasn't I 'just a good friend' until a couple of weeks ago?"
"No, Harry," she said simply. "You were my boyfriend waiting to happen."
Harry smiled at that. "Oh really? Pretty sure of yourself, aren't you Miss Granger?"
Hermione lifted her head and looked at him poignantly, her face serious.
"It's not that at all, Harry. It's just… I don't think either of us has ever had nor will ever experience again a connection like what you and I have together. It goes beyond friendship. We have an intimacy that I haven't seen anywhere else. And besides, I can't think of one other person that would take on a mountain troll for a nagging, bossy little witch."
Harry smiled again at the memory. Hermione laughed softly.
"Now, I'm not going to be so pretentious as to say I'd fall in love with anyone who might have saved me from that troll, but it definitely made me take notice of the kind of person you were. The rest of the pieces fell in over the years."
"Ron says you were mothering," Harry teased, forgetting his paranoia. It just didn't hold water in light of Hermione's words. "He still does actually," he added thoughtfully.
She leaned forward and kissed him. "I call it something much more than that."
A few moments of comfortable silence passed as each kept thought over the conversation. It was Hermione that broke the silence.
"Do you think he'll come tonight?"
Harry sighed heavily. "I really don't know. I gave him a portkey to activate whenever he wants. I guess we'll have to wait and see."
Hermione nodded in response and their conversation drifted to other things, enjoying the simple pleasure of the other's company. It lasted through much of the meal when the serenity of their time together was broken by chaotic screams and from outside the café.
Intending to see what was happening, Harry and Hermione rushed to the window of the café with the other customers and staff, where they met Tonks as she burst into the restaurant. She had returned to her normal body and had her Auror badge displayed prominently on her robes.
"You two get to the back and don't come out for anything!" she said quickly, turning to leave again.
Harry grabbed her by the arm, stopping her. "What is it? What's going on?"
"A group of Death Eaters came out of Knockturn Alley."
At the mention of the Death Eaters, the staff and other customers ran to the back of the café. Harry, though, pulled his wand from his pocket, starting to move past Tonks.
"No way, Harry!" Tonks said firmly, stepping in front of him. "I've already alerted the other Aurors and the Order. You two lie low here until I come back for you."
"Is Voldemort out there?" Hermione asked, her voice full of fear.
"No." It was Harry that answered. "But he's close."
"I can't waste any more time here," Tonks said shortly, turning to go. Harry grabbed her arm again, stopping her progress.
"Are you alone out there?"
There was a heartbeat of hesitation in her response and Harry recognized the truth of the situation. "No." She wrenched her arm from Harry's grasp and disappeared into the mass of people fleeing from the Death Eaters.
Harry paused momentarily before starting after Tonks. Hermione caught his wrist spinning him around to face her.
"No chance, Harry!" she said, her voice stern. "Let the Aurors and the Order handle this."
"There is no way I am going to stand by while Tonks is out there alo-"
"Christ, what is it with you three?"
Tonks had returned towing a pale, but determined looking Ron behind her. She shoved him roughly through the door and disappeared again.
"Are you all right, Ron?"
"I'm fine, Hermione. It's just…" His face was ashen, "it's not good out there."
That sealed it for Harry. "I'm going. Ron, you and Hermione stay here. I'm-"
"You're not going anywhere without me."
"You know I have to do this, Hermione. What do you think this whole summer's been about?"
"I don't give a damn what some prophecy says, Harry. This is a trap. You are not going without me."
"You guys know what the prophecy said?"
"Hermione will explain everything to you." Harry said, turning to leave.
"Harry! No!"
"Hermione! Do you hear that screaming?"
Hermione was silent. Ron merely watched the two with his mouth slightly ajar.
"It's because of me! People are dying because Voldemort wants to get at me! I know Voldemort's trying to lure me out, but it doesn't matter!"
"You don't know what they're doing out there, Harry! It's not worth the risk!"
Harry turned to look at Ron, knowing full well the answer to his question. "You were out there, Ron. What's happening?"
Ron looked surprised for a moment at being included in the conversation before nodding sadly. "They're using the Killing Curse, Hermione."
"I don't care! You're not leaving without me, Harry!"
Harry stepped into her space, grasping her shoulders. Ron turned away.
"I have to go alone. You know I have to do this and I won't be able to fight them if you're there. I need to know you're safe here, so I can focus on them. This time you can't come. I'm sorry."
Hermione eyes began to fill with angry tears and her mouth was drawn tight. Harry cringed inwardly at the pain written across her face, but she needed to understand. He couldn't fight Voldemort or the Death Eaters if she was there. He couldn't risk her. If nothing else, her fall in the Department of Mysteries taught him that.
"I'll be back, Hermione. If it's just Death Eaters, they can't kill me. The prophecy told us that much for certain."
Harry squeezed her arms and turned to leave. Hermione let him get out the door before moving to follow, but Harry was one step ahead of her, using a mild slicing charm to cut his palm. A small, angry line of blood formed there and he pressed his palm to the glass, muttering an archaic incantation. The perimeter of the café door and windows glowed a faint crimson before fading away.
"It's blood magic, Hermione," Harry shouted through the glass, "found only in Dark Arts texts. You won't be able to counter it. I'm sorry."
She began throwing spell after spell at the door in a frantic effort to break the charm. Harry tried to forget the mixture of anger and fear he saw on her face as he began fighting the way through the crowd. He felt bad for trapping her like that, but his guilt was soon forgotten as the crowd finally thinned out and he was able to appreciate the full impact of the Death Eaters appearance.
He saw people writhing on the ground, trampled by the fleeing crowds and calling for him to help them escape. Beyond those people in his immediate vicinity, he saw a concentrated assortment of bodies littering the street, near the entrance to Knockturn Alley. Some were clearly dead, others dying, many were simply laying still, leaving Harry unable to judge their condition.
About fifty yards down the street, a wall of darkness was slowly creeping down the alley like an inky black fog. Tonks was nowhere to be seen, but Harry could hear the thundering of spells echoing from the beyond the veil dividing the bright evening from the magically induced night. He suspected Tonks was somewhere within and tried in vain to tame the thundering panic in his head and heart as he sprinted towards the blackness.
Harry rushed into the dark, enchanting his eyesight as he entered. He saw the Death Eaters moving as a group away from Harry. With his enhanced sight, he could make out what appeared to be Tonks form hunched behind a wall with a faintly glowing body at her feet; it wasn't dead, but appeared to be nearly so. A bright red line across her wand arm showed she had been injured and the wound would be serious if not attended to immediately.
Harry silenced his footsteps, picking his way among the corpses as he moved toward Tonks. If she was unable to see in the magical darkness, she might very well stupefy him when she heard him approach. He couldn't call out to her either, for fear of alerting the Death Eaters in so doing.
Confident that he wouldn't be heard, Harry rushed as quickly as he could towards her. As he neared her, he realized that she was stooped over Mr. Weasley's body. His body temperature appeared so low that if they didn't get him out of here soon, he wouldn't survive.
Harry was within five feet of Tonks. "Tonks!" he whispered as loud as he dared.
Tonks reacted to the sound with instincts brought on by her Auror training. Her wand arm whipped to point at Harry and he was saved from her stunner only by the fact that her injury prevented her from aiming her wand properly.
Harry dove behind the corner, avoiding the spell. "It's Harry, Tonks!"
"I told you to stay put!"
"It's too late for lectures now! You and Mr. Weasley need to get to St. Mungo's."
"I am an Auror, Harry. I am not going anywhere."
"Listen, Tonks, you can't even properly hold your wand. You'll get killed if you go out there again and Mr. Weasley doesn't have that much time. He's getting colder by the moment."
"Make a portkey, Harry, and take him to St. Mungo's. I'm staying!"
"Fine!" Harry snapped. "Let me fix your arm though."
Tonks held out her arm for Harry.
"I'm no healer so this is going to hurt," he said.
Tonks nodded and set her jaw determinedly. Harry placed his wand tip to her wound, muttered a burning charm and drew the wand along the length of her injury. Tonks grunted against the pain, but didn't cry out.
"How's that?" Harry asked.
Tonks attempted to tighten her grip around the shaft of her wand, but Harry could see her fingers struggling with effort to hold the thin piece of wood steady.
"At least it's not bleeding anymore," she said darkly, using her other arm to push herself to her feet.
"Where are the other Aurors and the Order?"
"I think they're on the other side of the Death Eaters. I only caught sight of Kingsley and Remus before Arthur and I were hit."
Harry decided then and there to take Tonks out of the battle. She wouldn't survive thirty seconds without the use of her wand; especially if she was separated from the others. He tucked his wand into his pocket and stooped to lift Mr. Weasley.
"Help me get him to his feet."
Tonks squatted down and threw one of Mr. Weasley's arms around her neck as she and Harry struggled to lift the dead weight Ron's father. In the process of lifting him up, Harry made a show of struggling against the weight and used the diversion to sneak his hand back into his pocket. He fished out his wand and a galleon, stepping out from underneath Mr. Weasley's arm when they were upright and forcing Tonks to bear all of the weight. Tonks looked at him angrily, but Harry ignored her, wedging the galleon between her body and Mr. Weasley's.
"Portus," he whispered and turned to leave.
"Har-" Tonks shouted, but she was cut off by the activation of the portkey.
Guilt was beginning to become a larger and larger part of his thoughts as he had now forced both Hermione and Tonks out of the fight and didn't look forward to the repercussions of doing so. Once again, he forced the emotion aside in an effort to keep his mind clear and maintain his focus.
He rounded the corner they had been sheltering behind to find two Death Eaters had separated from the group; apparently sent to investigate the sound of Tonks' spell.
At the sight of Harry emerging from behind the building, both Death Eaters hurled spells at him. Harry sidestepped the clumsily cast Killing Curse and used a shielding charm to block the stunner from the second wizard. The spell ricocheted off his defenses and Harry was able to cast a powerful banishing charm on the first before having to dodge another stunner from the second. The first Death Eater flew heavily end over end before hitting a building wall headfirst. There was sickening crack, a splatter of red, and the mask he was wearing slipped away. Harry was unable to dwell on what he had done as the second wizard was on top of him quickly, but in the flash in which he saw the familiar features between the lines of blood cascading down the Death Eater's face, he knew having unintentionally killed Goyle's father would have serious repercussions.
The second wizard seemed enraged at the fall of the first and became even more reckless, concentrating on casting as many spells as he could in rapid succession. His focus was clearly off as the spells were weak and poorly aimed. Harry merely deflected them giving ground until he spotted an opening. A well-placed full body bind settled the matter and Harry set off towards the remaining Death Eaters.
Harry moved quickly along one side of Diagon Alley, keeping close to the storefront displays in case he needed quick cover. From what he could estimate, there were about twenty Death Eaters ahead of them, packed in tight formation. They appeared to be engaged with another group of wizards, but Harry couldn't tell how many were in their opponents' ranks or whether they were Order members or Aurors.
A surprise to all, a powerful column of light emerged from the center of the Death Eaters and shot towards the sky. Harry hid behind a barrel of potion ingredients, crushing his eyelids shut against the burn in them. A minute or so passed before the burn dissipated and Harry slowly opened his eyes to see that the darkness had been dispelled. He removed the enhancement on his vision and peeked around the barrel to see the pack of Death Eaters scattered along both sides of the alley, sheltering from the wedge of Aurors forcing their way down the center.
The Death Eaters began a strategic withdrawal towards Knockturn Alley, attempting to create as much carnage as possible as they withdrew. With their focus on the advancing Aurors, Harry was able to subdue several wizards easily as they came close enough to him until his eyes fell on the familiar, distinctive features of the Black family. Bellatrix Lestrange had cast her mask away and was making a poignantly slow withdrawal amidst a whirlwind of acid green smoke.
The sight didn't inspire the rage that he had felt when he saw her defeat Sirius, but rather a cold, grim fury and determination to exact revenge for Sirius' loss.
She will not escape again.
He moved to intercept her retreat, beating her to the entrance to Knockturn Alley. Harry put his wand through a complex series of motions, forcing a myriad of stones free from the buildings on either side of the slender opening. They assembled themselves in a sturdy wall, blocking any route of escape from Diagon Alley.
The Aurors began pressing their advantage in numbers, causing the Death Eaters to break ranks and run towards Knockturn Alley. Seeing the entrance barred and the situation rapidly deteriorating, many chose to disapparate while others dashed down side streets rather than get caught in a skirmish with Harry and the Aurors.
Bellatrix had picked up the pace of her retreat, sensing the breakdown of the Death Eaters around her. Her wild eyes began searching the wizards and witches closing in around her, looking for something. She finally turned towards Knockturn Alley and met Harry's fierce glare. She smiled satisfactorily at him and dashed down a street about twenty yards from Harry.
The Aurors had separated into groups to pursue the Death Eaters. Harry fell into stride behind the pair chasing Bellatrix. He was gaining on the pair when they turned a corner, going out of sight. Harry heard the rumble of an Avada Kadavra and saw the brick reflect the acid green light of the spell. He hesitated at the corner, before peeking his head around to find Bellatrix gone and her victim's faces frozen in shock. Both men were young, too young; younger, perhaps, than even Tonks was.
Harry moved a little slower and took the twists and turns of the passageway carefully not wanting to stumble upon another ambush. He froze in his tracks when he heard Bellatrix's mad giggling echoing around him.
"Just a bit further, boy," she said in her girlish, mocking voice. "Come avenge my dear cousin's death."
Harry crept along the corridor slowly as Bellatrix's maniacal laughter taunted him from every direction. The passageway opened into a courtyard about the size of Hogwarts' Great Hall. Bellatrix was sitting casually with her legs crossed atop a carved marble bench near the fountain adorning the center of the courtyard.
She smiled warmly at him as if he were an old friend come to call after so many years apart.
"Come to play with Bella?" she asked. Gone was the babyish quality to her voice, replaced by a more seductive tone. "The Dark Lord says you've had a taste of the Dark Arts. Keep it up and you might make a fine Death Eater. You are maturing into quite the dashing young wizard."
Harry ignored the game she was trying to play. He shifted his weight to the balls of his feet and bent his knees slightly, preparing to move quickly.
"How about a midterm exam?" she teased, rising and advancing on him slowly, her wand casually at her side. "No theory or long essays on this one, dear Harry. You'll need only your wand."
Her skill with the Dark Arts was superb; Harry never saw her wand move beyond the sway of her arm as strolled towards him. Nor did he see her lips utter an incantation, but she was quickly enveloped into the same whirlwind of acid green vapor. Her raven hair wrapped itself across her face like a death shroud as the vapor encircled her, still ambling his way as if to like she was seduce him as a lover.
Harry snapped his wand at her, launching a stunner towards her. It cut through the vapor, but Bellatrix blocked it casually as if swatting a fly.
"Now, now, Harry," she said sweetly, "this is a Dark Arts exam. You'll need to dig into those vast reserves of guilt, hate, and anger you hold so tightly if you want to get proper credit. Stunners and flimsy defensive spells don't count."
Harry began circling her to prevent being trapped in a corner. Whatever that green haze was, he suspected he wouldn't fare well inside of its clutches.
Bellatrix had given up her graceful chase and began purposefully stalking him like a predator. The rounded one another in the space between the fountain and the exit to the courtyard.
"Well then, Harry," she said, stopping suddenly, "Let see if I can't help you along a bit."
Harry leapt out of the way of the Killing Curse and rolled back to his feet, summoning a defensive wall between him and the second Killing Curse Bellatrix cast behind the first. The wall shook as the spell struck it, but held firm despite the power Bellatrix had put into the curse.
"That's an impressive bit of work there, Harry," she said from behind the wall, "but still not quite the Dark Arts I was so looking forward to."
She darted from behind Harry's wall, getting a decent angle on him and thrust her wand out. "Crucio!"
Harry ducked further behind the wall and felt it shudder again as Bellatrix's spell impacted on it. Seeking a quick resolution to this battle, he slashed his wand diagonally in front of him, forcing a large cracked through the pavers. The severed wall remained elusively still for a moment before Harry banished the upper half of it towards Bellatrix, hearing her gasp in surprise. She was only able to get a weak shielding charm up and much of the wall struck her directly, the wall crumbling around her. She fell in a heap and lay very still.
Harry let his head sag, resting his hands on his knees in exhaustion. The intensity of the Death Eater encounter finally settled around his shoulders as the adrenaline that had been coursing through his veins faded, leaving his muscles twitching from the withdrawal of the stimulant.
He pulled off his glasses to wipe the sweat and dirt from his face. Even in the fuzziness that pervaded his sight, he could tell that Bellatrix had him exactly where she wanted him, his guard down, his thoughts moving away from their duel.
Her wand trained on his heart.
"Crucio." It was a whisper so soft, it was almost endearing. The power the curse held was anything but endearing.
The ground rushed up to meet Harry as the full force of the spell swept his feet from underneath him. His wand was lost and forgotten as he instinctively contracted his limbs, pulling his body into a tight ball. Each thunder of his heart against his chest was a lifetime; an eternity that was solely created for and defined by the sensation of pain. His flesh felt as if it was being peeled off, layer by layer. Every bone in his skeleton seemed to fold in half without the sweet relief that accompanies the telltale snap of them breaking. Each organ in his torso swelled to the point of rupture.
Simple death would have been trivial compared to this suffering and yet there was no relief from the agony spawned by Bellatrix's wand. The torment was ceaseless and Harry was on the brink of losing consciousness when Bellatrix finally relented.
In the aftermath of the curse, his body sank into the ground, ready to be swallowed whole by it. He ached all over and didn't dare move for his wand; another bout with the spell might well destroy his sanity.
"You're a fool, Potter, to avoid using the Dark Arts."
Harry painfully cracked an eye and saw her pulling herself from the pile of stone he had buried her in. A steady stream of blood graced her forehead, flowing down her temple and onto her cheek. She seemed to take pleasure in the injury, not bothering to wipe the stain from her skin.
"In the Dark Arts lies the power to destroy an opponent with a breath," she was squatting in front of him now, looking at him as if he were a lost puppy, "or to make them suffer an eternity and beg you for death."
She reached forward and tenderly brushed a lock of Harry's hair aside, revealing his scar.
"You had the power to win this duel. All those wonderful spells dear Severus has been teaching you and you let the opportunity slip away. How unfortunate."
She rose and walked casually back to the stone bench she had been sitting on when Harry entered the courtyard. She had prattled on long enough that his mind was beginning to lose its fogginess and began to seek a means of escape.
Bellatrix took her seat on the stone bench and regarded him curiously. "You still haven't learned have you, Potter. If you neglect to use the power given to you, there will be consequences. For instance," she said, turning her wand over in her hand, "your mudblood girlfriend will not leave Diagon Alley alive."
Harry's muscles instantly recovered as the adrenaline returned to them with a vengeance. He was on his feet and ready to make a move for his wand when Bellatrix summoned it to her waiting hand.
"Ooh, struck a nerve, did I?" she mocked. "Yes, my dear Harry, the mudblood is awaiting me like a caged bird, isn't she? You did, after all, manage to do indulge yourself in some blood magic for her benefit, didn't you?" She trailed a finger through the line of blood on her cheek and brought the tip to her mouth, kissing away the crimson liquid. "I guess I'll have to give you partial credit for that," she said sadly, "but it just won't be enough to pass your exam, I'm afraid."
She stood up abruptly and Harry tensed. "Well, the Dark Lord will be wanting to see the both of you now." She flicked her wand at the building to her left and a group of bricks resorted themselves into a doorway that seemed filled with a silvery fluid. It was some means of magical gateway. "After you, Harry."
Harry didn't move, focusing instead on the rubble from which Bellatrix had extracted herself. It can be done.
"Letum Alutus," he breathed, feeling the magic from every inch of his body coalesce into his wand arm.
The rubble shifted a bit drawing Bellatrix's attention from Harry, when a cluster of the shattered stones glowed faintly and leapt into the air in response to the movements of Harry hand. Bellatrix gasped in shock at seeing such a powerful display of wandless magic and brought both wands up in front of her defensively.
Harry drew back his arm and snapped it forward. The stones accelerated toward Bellatrix and transfigured into a cloud of midnight black crows. Their cries echoed off the surrounding buildings as they enveloped Bellatrix in a maelstrom of snapping beaks and raking claws.
Much like Snape had done, Bellatrix attempted to kill off the crows one by one, but was unable to make much progress. Harry began closing the fingers of his hand and the crows responded by condensing into a tightly wound storm around Bellatrix. Their proximity was so close and their speed so great that she was struggling to make her spells connect. She was soon on her knees and the end was near. Harry could smell it in the air.
"Release the crows, Harry."
At the sound of Dumbledore's voice, Harry relaxed the fingers of his wand arm and the crows scattered into the evening sky. Bellatrix slumped to the ground in defeat. The Aurors that had accompanied the headmaster surrounded her and placed wards on the area to prevent her escape or rescue. One of them retrieved Harry's wand and returned it to him, his eyes wide and fearful.
The worn handle of his wand fell into his hand eagerly. The phoenix feather in its core seemed eager to finish the task he had started. Harry would be free from her, reborn without the weight of her existence around his neck.
"I believe Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger are waiting for you to return, Harry." Harry started and looked at the headmaster through the red haze clouding his vision. His blue eyes were stern and unyielding. "Say your good-byes to them then return immediately to Hogwarts. I expect to see you in my office in thirty minutes."
Harry nodded mutely and set off towards the café where Hermione and Ron were sheltered.
Where I imprisoned them, rather.
Harry worked his way past the Aurors and back out to Diagon Alley proper. A few more Aurors were scattered here and there, interrogating captured Death Eaters or gathering bodies. None had made it as far as the small restaurant in which Harry and Hermione had been having a pleasant meal just a short half hour ago.
When he reached the café, Harry could still see the smear of blood staining the door where he had touched it. He looked in the window and saw Hermione sitting on the floor with her knees pulled up to her chest and her folded arms resting atop her knees. His insides burned with jealousy as he saw Ron's arm wrapped around her in an awkward attempt to comfort her.
Seeing Harry at the window, Hermione leapt to her feet and ran to the door. Harry could tell by her face that he didn't look too good. He swallowed hard and looked from Hermione to his palm where the previous cut was still leaking blood. Harry drew another line across his palm and pressed his hand to the glass. As before, the whole front of the café glowed momentarily. Hermione thrust the door open and Harry was forced to step back to keep from being struck by it.
In the space of a few short seconds, Hermione had hugged him so hard, he thought his head was going to pop off, slapped him hard across the face, and slumped down to the ground, crying incoherently and not letting him or Ron touch her.
Harry looked up to see Ron standing in the doorway. His face was hard despite the attempt at remaining calm. Jealousy burned behind those eyes and Harry knew that things were going to be worse before they got better.
"Big mistake, running off like that," the red head ground out.
He pushed past Harry and began walking down the Alley.
"Ron!" Harry called.
Ron stopped and turned to face Harry, clearly not happy at being addressed again.
"Your dad," Harry said. "He's hurt pretty bad. He's at St. Mungo's"
Ron quickly fished something out of his pocket and held it out to Harry.
"Send me there. Now."
Harry held out his wand and charmed the black knight again. Ron disappeared immediately, on his way to St. Mungo's.
A/N: I'm off to work on Chapter 11 now. Cross your fingers tightly for me. Maybe with a little bit of mojo, I'll be able to get it out in less than a month.