ONLY A WEEK UNTIL HBP!!!! SQUEEEEEEE!!!!
And I get a nice mini-vacation to Montreal for the first three days of next week to help pass the time. One quick note before we get underway. I'm not entirely sure whether or not I'll be able to keep my tradition and make the last chapter 10,000 words. There's a lot that needs to be said, but I'm not sure exactly how much. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess ::wink:: .
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Chapter 11: The Death Eaters
Harry gazed at the flames and smoke rising from the nearby village with wide eyes. The rank smell of burnt flesh continued to waft from Hogsmeade, while the Dark Mark hung lazily in the sky above it.
In truth, the shock Harry experienced at seeing the destruction evaporated quickly. Dumbledore had predicted, after all, the Voldemort was going to strike very quickly. The only thing truly bothering Harry was that there wasn't a sound in the air aside from the heavy breathing of himself and Hermione. There were no screams, no cries of spells being cast, not even the flames that rose fifteen feet into the air made a sound as they consumed the wood and thatch the buildings were made of. In fact, it was because there was so little noise that when Harry heard the doors to the Entrance Hall open, he whipped around (giving Hermione quite a scare), and drew his wand at the approaching person, who just happened to be Snape.
"Watch where you're pointing that thing, Potter," Snape snarled before he realised what was happening in the background. Harry swore that had there been any color in Snape's pasty face to begin with, it would've disappeared upon his seeing the village in flames. Harry was about to open his mouth say something when Snape's eyes flicked up to the Dark Mark and he collapsed to the ground, clutching his left arm.
"Snape?" Harry asked, approaching him tentatively. The potions master was breathing heavily and from the grinding sound that Harry heard, probably gnashing his teeth as well.
"I remember," Snape ground out. "I remember everything."
"Well that's nice," Harry said sarcastically. "And as much as I'd like to reminisce right now, we have to decide what to do about this."
"We have to go down there and see if there are any survivors," Hermione said.
"There won't be," Snape interjected. "He'll have killed everyone already. He's just trying to draw you down there."
"Well what if there are people who're alive?" Harry asked. "Listen." He paused for a second to let the unnatural silence be heard. "Hear that? That's not right. It's not right for it to be that quiet. I'll bet anything that death eaters put up silencing charms around the perimeter in order to keep everything quiet while they rampaged through the village. There could be a fight down there right now that we should be helping."
"Listen to me," Snape said. "I may hate you as much as I hated your father, but your death won't solve anything right now. The Dark Lord wants you do go down in that village. There's no other reason for him to fire the Mark into the sky. And the last thing you do in war is what your enemy wants."
"Well, what do you suggest then, oh supremely intelligent one?" Harry spat.
"Talk to Fawkes."
A considerable pause came after these words, partially from the shock that not only had Snape made a good suggestion, he had made it to Harry.
"He's right," Hermione said. "We should go talk to him. Find out what he thinks we should do."
"Fine," Harry said. "Snape, go back inside and warn the other teachers of what's happening. Merlin knows I'm no great shakes with large-crowd security, but get the students safe."
"Thank you, Potter. I suddenly remembered that I have no idea what to do in times of emergency."
"You're welcome," Harry said. "Let's go."
Harry and Hermione sprinted past Snape into the Entrance Hall and up the stairs that would take them to the teachers' quarters. They were almost halfway there when they saw Fawkes flying towards them at an alarming rate of speed.
"Fawkes!" Harry shouted in order to get the phoenix to slow down. Surprisingly, just as it seemed that Fawkes was about to barrel headlong into Hermione, the bird halted in mid-air and fluttered down to the ground.
"I've been looking for you," he said to Harry. "I take it you know what's going on?"
"Yeah," Harry replied. "How do you know?"
"Traethis alerted me of the attack about ten minutes ago," Fawkes said. "I would've come after you sooner, but I had to alert Dumbledore."
"So the attack's only begun?" Harry asked, to which Fawkes nodded. "We've got no time to lose then, let's go."
"Hold on to my tail," Fawkes said, flying up to Harry shoulder height. Harry promptly grabbed Fawkes' tail and turned to Hermione.
"Grab on," he said, which Hermione did immediately without question. The three of them disappeared with a bang.
They reappeared in one of the back alleys of Hogsmeade and Harry found immediately that his hypothesis of a silencing charm around the village was a good one. Shouts and bangs could be heard coming from several different directions, and Harry quickly backed against the nearest wall, trying to form a good plan of attack.
"We should move around to the right," Fawkes said. "My brother said that they would be attacking from the south end."
"Explain to me how your brother knows all of the death eaters' plans," Harry said looking at his surroundings for ideas.
"He's been living with Bellatrix Lestrange for the past six months," Fawkes said. At Harry's stunned expression he continued. "I will explain in greater detail later. Now is not the time for such a conversation."
"Can we figure out what we're going to do here?" Hermione asked.
"Tell her that Dumbledore should be arriving momentarily," Fawkes instructed Harry.
"Fawkes says that Dumbledore will be here any minute -"
The words were barely out of Harry's mouth when a huge bang was heard from what he guessed to be about three hundred yards to their right, followed a moment later by a bright, silver flash.
"That's our cue," Fawkes said. "Move into the street, and curse anything that moves." Harry turned and repeated the instructions to Hermione
"What about villagers?" she asked.
"They won't be moving," Fawkes replied as they began to move towards the end of the alley. "That bright flashed immobilized everyone except for those bearing the Dark Mark or conveniently standing within five feet of a phoenix."
"They'll be frozen in place," Harry said as they reached the end. Without wasting time, they hurtled out into the street, firing curses at the first black cloaks they saw. Harry saw another death eater out of the corner of his eye and spun to meet the person head on, but froze when he saw the familiar black hair cascading down from underneath the person's hood.
"Well, well, if it isn't wee little Potty and his mudblood," Bellatrix said, taking off her mask. "And a phoenix...I have a phoenix too, you know." There was a sharp crack and a phoenix appeared on her shoulder, though this one was distinctly different from Fawkes.
Although it was quite obvious that this bird was a phoenix (and Fawkes' brother, at that, given how similar they looked physically), instead of the traditional red and gold plumage, this bird was mainly black with purple markings. It emitted a soft cry upon gaining balance on Bellatrix's shoulder.
"That's Traethis," Fawkes said to Harry softly.
"I figured," Harry replied.
"You can speak phoenix?" Bellatrix asked as three cloaked figures walked up behind her. "How very disinteresting. Though I should've expected you'd learn a pointless ability such as that." Traethis squawked loudly at this. "You see, he agrees with me."
"He said that Voldemort is here, that he doesn't know where he is," Fawkes said. "But you can kill LeStrange."
"How?" Harry asked.
"We will create a diversion," Fawkes said, eyeing his brother carefully. "Go."
Fawkes and Traethis sped into the air at each other and a fiery shockwave was created when they collided. Harry (and Hermione, as she had deduced what was going on) quickly cast flame freezing charms to protect themselves, but Bellatrix had been distracted by the sudden fight between the birds and failed to do anything in time. While she was physically unharmed, her robe and the other three death eaters' robes had caught fire. Using the distraction to their advantage, Harry and Hermione unleashed a barrage of spells at the four of them, while the two phoenixes, seeing their opening, flew at breakneck speed towards the death eaters.
Unfortunately, one of the death eaters managed to extinguish his flames just in time to see Fawkes and Traethis barreling at them, and, using the first spell that came to his head, cast a severing charm at Traethis.
Everyone was surprised when the spell connected, and even more surprised when the bird's head was severed from his shoulders. Fawkes took one look at his fallen brother at let out a cry (though some would call it more of a roar) and suddenly glowing orange, threw his magical energy at the death eater, who promptly erupted in a shower of flames. Wasting no time, Fawkes grabbed the head of his brother in one talon, his body in the other, and disappeared with a large crack.
By this time Harry and Hermione were upon the remaining death eaters. They quickly stunned the two that were not Bellatrix, and Harry kicked her to the ground, pinning her by planting his foot on her chest. Hermione quickly grabbed her wand from beside her.
"Whatcha gonna do, Potty?" she spat. "Kill me like I killed Sirius?"
"You act like I don't have it in me," Harry replied, no humor in his words.
"I know you don't have it in you," she said. "You couldn't Crucio me in the Ministry, what makes you think you can Avada Kedavra me now?"
"Who says I have to kill you using that particular curse?" Harry asked with a evil laugh. "Your henchman gave me a rather good idea, if I don't mind saying so." Bella's eyes widened when she figured out what Harry meant, but before she could utter so much as a plea, Harry had raised his wand and shouted, "Parsius!" effectively doing the same to Bellatrix as what happened to Traethis. Hermione groaned and turned away from the blood, but gasped when she saw what was at the other end of the street.
"Harry..." she said slowly.
"What?" he asked, he eyes trained on the severed head of Bellatrix lying a little ways away from her body.
"Look behind you."
He turned and froze.
"Oh balls."
About a hundred death eaters were packed into the little street, each looking at Harry as though he were some form of small-game animal that was being cornered by a lion.
"How the hell did he bolster his ranks so fast?" Harry asked aloud. There was no time for anyone to answer him though, as a large crack permeated the quiet and Dumbledore appeared between the death eaters and Harry and Hermione.
"Hide!" Dumbledore yelled as a barrage of spells flew at him. Harry briefly saw them hit an invisible wall, which pulsed white as each spell hit, before turning and running with Hermione back into the alley they first appeared in.
"What do we do?" Hermione asked, peeking out around the corner. "He won't be able to hold them off forever."
Harry glanced down at the ground and saw a knut lying at his feet. An idea struck him and he looked up.
"Hermione...you're good at Transfiguration," he said. "Could you turn something small like a knut into something large like a boulder?"
"I couldn't do a knut, because currency is magically protected," she said. "But something else, yes, I could probably do that. Why?"
"Because I just had a great idea," he said, picking up a small pebble from the ground. "Conjurus!" Instantly, a ladder to the roof of the building they were leaning against appeared. Harry quickly started to climb it, Hermione close behind him, sensing his plan.
Once on the roof, Harry and Hermione quickly jumped from building to building until they were near where the wave of death eaters was slowly advancing toward Dumbledore.
"How good's your aim?" Harry asked.
"If you mean to throw that pebble in the air and have me transfigure it while it's moving, not good," she replied. "I don't think many people, if any, could do that."
"We'll have to do it the old fashioned way then," Harry said, placing the pebble on the edge of the roof. Hermione, catching on, transfigured the pebble into a solid stone slab that was standing on its side and ran the length of the building.
"Bludgeoning curses on three then," Hermione said. "Aim for the top." Harry nodded. "One, two, three!"
Harry and Hermione simultaneously cast their curses at the top of the stone slab, which, upon impact, teetered precariously on the edge for a moment before falling over and landing on the street below with an extremely loud thud.
They chanced a glance over the edge and saw a thick cloud of dust covering the stone, but could make out several crushed bodies in black cloaks along the sides of the stone. Down the street, Dumbledore lowered his wand and apparated in front of the building that Harry and Hermione were on top of.
"That was a rather clever idea, if I do say so myself," Dumbledore said thoughtfully, looking around at destruction. "And very little collateral damage too."
Harry conjured a large foam pad on top of the slab of stone and jumped from the roof onto it, followed a moment thereafter by Hermione.
"Good work," Dumbledore said. "But where is Fawkes?"
"Traethis got beheaded by a death eater," Harry said. "Fawkes disappeared with him." Dumbledore's face fell considerably at this.
"Won't Traethis be okay though?" Hermione asked. "I mean, I didn't think phoenixes could die."
"They can only die if their mind is separated from their soul," Dumbledore said. "And unfortunately, the soul resides in the heart, and the mind resides...well, in the mind."
"So, his brother's dead, then?" Harry asked. "Like, dead permanently?"
"I'm afraid so," Dumbledore said sadly. They were all quiet for a moment until a crash in one of the nearby buildings brought them back to their senses. "It appears we haven't dealt with everyone yet," he said. "Let's go."
"Albus," Harry asked as the jogged towards the building, which happened to be the Three Broomsticks, "how did Voldemort get so many followers so quickly?"
"From what I've been told, Bellatrix and the other death eaters in Tom's inner circle did a lot of recruiting before they brought him back," Dumbledore said as they neared the pub. "Nothing to the extent of actually initiating people, but opening them to the ideals that they held and such. All they needed before they could act was a leader."
They reached the Three Broomsticks and Dumbledore wasted no time in blowing down the door with a small flick of his wand and walking inside, Harry and Hermione close behind him.
The sight inside was one that made Harry's eyes bug. There were several hostages bound and gagged behind which four or five death eaters were hiding. Harry didn't know most of the people, but he did recognise three immediately. Madam Rosemerta was tied firmly next to Luna, who was beside Ron.
"Well, well," a sinister voice said. "If it isn't the champion of muggles and wonder boy themselves."
"Macnair," Dumbledore said calmly. "I suggest you relinquish the hostages and give yourselves up. The penalties will be less harsh."
"Like we'd give anyone up," Macnair said. "You fire a single spell at me, and I'll kill everyone here."
Harry's mind was racing. He had to do something and fast. All of a sudden he caught sight of Ron shaking his foot at him. Macnair, involved in his heated arguing match with Dumbledore failed to notice.
Harry looked at Ron and saw the redhead move his eyes to Harry's left. He followed his gaze and saw a several empty bottles residing on the counter-top of the bar. Getting an idea, Harry silently levitated the bottles over the heads of each of the death eaters, with the exception of Macnair. When they were in position, he brought them down on the hooded figures with a resounding crash, knocking them unconscious. This caused Macnair to divert his attention for a split second and Dumbledore took advantage of that momentary lapse to throw Macnair against the wall. He had him pinned with his right forearm a moment later.
"Get everyone out of here, Harry," Dumbledore said, his gaze not leaving his captive's. Harry and Hermione quickly undid the bonds of everyone, who fled from the building. When they got to Ron and Luna, the two quickly undid the bonds and pulled them to their feet.
"What took you guys so long?" Ron asked.
"Your welcome, Ron," Hermione said.
"Get back to the castle," Dumbledore said. "Get help, I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of the death eaters yet."
Harry and Hermione wasted no time in flying from the pub, closely followed by Ron and Luna.
"What were you two doing there anyway?" Harry asked as they were running towards the castle.
"I told Luna to meet me there for lunch to discuss everything you told me about," Ron said. "We heard a commotion outside and were about to go check it out when those nutters came in and took us captive."
"What do we do now?" Hermione asked as they reached the castle.
"We start looking for teachers," Harry said. "We'll check the Great Hall to see if anyone's left there, then search the rest of the school by house."
He flung open the doors to the entrance hall and was surprised by two things. The first was that all the students and faculty were still there. The second was the voice that sounded upon their entrance.
"Took, you long enough, Potter."
Voldemort was seated at the head table, flanked by Peter Pettigrew and Lucius Malfoy.
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Well there it is. At this point in time, I would ask that everyone reading this take a moment and pray for the people in London who were affected by the bombings yesterday morning. It is truly a sad story to see such harm come to people, no matter the nationality. So just give a thought to our friends from Great Britain, and don't forget that if it hadn't been for a certain very special one of them, we wouldn't have this wonderful world to write fanfiction about.
Next week, the exciting conclusion of the story, and (more importantly)...HBP!! See you around.