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@SaphireStark @Missy Clara Oswald
Chapter Four: Fallen Warrior
(This is the first chapter where I got to add some big changes and hint to upcoming events, to those that read this chapter I hope you enjoy it and if you do please leave a comment with your thoughts.)
‘Hagrid?’
Harry struggled to raise himself out of the layers of mud that engulfed him: his hands continued to sink into inches of muddy water as he tried to stand. He could not understand where Voldemort had gone and expected him to swoop out of the darkness at any moment.
Something hot and wet was trickling down his chin and from his forehead. He crawled out of the pond and stumbled toward the great dark mass on the ground that was Hagrid.
‘Hagrid? Hagrid. Talk to me—‘
But the dark mass did not stir.
‘Who’s there? Is it Harry? Are you there Harry?’
Harry recognized the voice, but in his dazed state and his ears still ringing from the Bombarda Maxima cast in front of him and Buckbeak, he could not place it.
Then the voice of a familiar woman shouted, ‘They’ve crashed, Ted! Crashed in the garden!’
Harry’s head was swimming.
‘Hagrid,’ he repeated stupidly, and his knees buckled.
The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back on what felt like cushions, with a burning sensation in his ribs and right arm.
His cut up chin and forehead had been regrown. The scar on his forehead was still throbbing.
‘Hagrid?’
He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on a sofa in a familiar, lamplit sitting room that his scrambled mind couldn’t quite place. His rucksack lay on the floor a short distance away, wet and muddy. That was when he noticed a woman was watching over him. Harry sat up too quickly: Lights popped in front of his eyes and he felt sick and giddy, but still he tried to draw his wand as he swore before him stood the woman who killed his beloved godfather and guardian.
‘You!’ he shouted, trying to find his wand but his pocket was empty.
‘Harry, it’s me, you’re safe,’ said not Bellatrix Lestrange, but his loving aunt Andromeda Tonks. He now remembered the house he was heading to was hers and his uncle Ted’s. ‘If you really need your wand though, Ted put it on the coffee table next to you.’
‘Oh, I’m—I’m sorry. Er, where’s Hagrid?’
As she moved closer to him, the resemblance to her sister Bellatrix became much less pronounced. Andromeda’s hair was a light, soft brown and her eyes were wider and kinder. Nevertheless, she looked a little haughty after Harry’s exclamation.
‘Hagrid is going to be just fine, dear,’ she said calmly, ‘I just finished healing him and Ted is watching over him as he comes to. Your Hippogriff is resting in the gazebo out back. Harry dear, are you hurt anywhere else? Anything else broken? Ted healed your ribs, arm, and those nasty cuts. Were they all from the crash or did—‘
Harry tried to sit more upright, but once again got dizzy.
‘Voldemort—‘
‘Slowly, love,’ said Andromeda, placing a hand on Harry’s shoulder and pushing him back against the cushions. ‘You’re still suffering from that nasty landing. How did it happen? Did the Feather-light charm were off and the poor Hippogriff couldn’t take Hagrid’s weight?’
‘No,’ said Harry, as his scar pulsed like an open wound. ‘Death Eaters, loads of them—we were chased—‘
‘Death Eaters…no?’ said Andromeda in disbelief. ‘How could that be, we were told they thought you wouldn’t be transported for another three days. They weren’t supposed to know it was—‘
‘They knew,’ said Harry.
That was when his uncle came into the room, he was a fair-haired, big-bellied man, but his face was white with fear.
‘Hagrid’s getting up, but he just told me that all of you were ambushed, is this true?’ he asked both Harry and his wife.
The fact that Hagrid had also said they were ambushed by Death Eaters seemed to snap Andromeda out of any denial she was experiencing.
‘What happened to our daughter?’ she asked. ‘Where is Nymphadora?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Harry. ‘We don’t know what happened to anyone else. I’m sorry.’
She and Ted exchanged looks. A mixture of fear and guilt gripped Harry at the sight of their expressions; if any of the other had died, it was his fault, all his fault. He had consented to the plan, given them his hair…
Ted Tonks looked up at the ceiling as though he could see through to the sky above.
‘Well, we know our protective charms are holding, then, don’t we? They shouldn’t be able to get within a hundred yards of the place in any direction.’
Now Harry understood why Voldemort had vanished: it had been at the point when the Buckbeak crossed the barrier of the Order’s charms. He only hoped they would continue to work: He imagined Voldemort, a hundred yards above them as they spoke, looking for a way to penetrate what Harry visualized as a great transparent bubble.
He swung his legs off the sofa; he needed to see Hagrid with his own eyes before he would believe that he was alive. He had barely stood up, however, when a door opened and Hagrid squeezed through it, his face covered in mud and blood, limping a little but miraculously alive.
‘Harry!’ he said knocking over two delicate tables and an aspidistra, he covered the floor between them in two strides and pulled Harry into a hug that nearly cracked his newly repaired ribs. ‘Blimey, Harry, how did yeh get out o’ that? I thought we were both goners.’
‘Yeah, me too. I can’t believe it either. I think Buckbeak saved me.’
‘Will ya take care of him til he’s healed enough ter leave?’ Hagrid’s asked the Tonks.
‘Of course, we’ll keep the Hippogriff safe and help him recover,’ said Andromeda.
‘Speaking of birds, we were told you’d be arriving with Hedwig,’ said Ted, ‘but we couldn’t find her or her cage, did you—‘
But the drop in Harry’s face told them all they needed to know. The realization crashed over him: He felt ashamed of himself as the tears stung his eyes. The owl had been his companion, one of his only links with the magical world whenever he had been forced to return to the Dursleys. Andromeda gave him a hug.
‘Oh Harry, she was a good bird, I’m very sorry.’
‘She had a great old life,’ said Hagrid.
Harry appreciated the hug, but than pulled away.
‘The Portkey,’ he said, remembering all of a sudden. ‘We’ve got to get back to the Burrow and find out—then we’ll be able to send word, or—or Tonks will, once she’s—‘
‘Dora’ll be okay, Dromeda,’ said Ted. ‘She knows her stuff, she’s been in plenty of tight spots with the Aurors. The Portkey’s through here,’ he added to Harry. ‘But it’s not supposed to leave for several more minutes. Please take a second to catch your breath.’
Since the Portkey couldn’t leave earlier than its scheduled time, Harry reluctantly sat back down on the sofa, though Hagrid decided to remain standing. After looking around awkwardly not knowing what to do or say, Harry spotted a new photograph on the Tonks’ mantle piece, it was encased in a silver frame.
‘Is that from…’ started Harry as he pointed at the picture.
‘—What? Oh, yes,’ said Andromeda, picking up the picture and handing it to him. ‘It was taken fifteen days ago. Because it was all so spontaneous be all were in just random nice clothes. I think that Runcorn girl was technically in a Christmas robe.’
Mentioning his girlfriend Allison’s name sent a pang through Harry’s heart and we quickly looked down at the photograph. Sure enough Allison, with her black short spiky bobbed hair and several silver piercing, was wearing the same black and red dress she had worn to a Christmas party the previous school year. Next to her were Ted and Andromeda, both in formal robes. In the center of the photo was Tonks and Tulip sharing a kiss, Tonks was wearing the knee length light blue dress she had worn to her graduation celebration after completing her seventh year at Hogwarts, and Tulip was wearing a red and gold dress of Turkish design that paired well with her apple red hair. Finally, standing next to Tulip was a woman in her late forties with dark brown hair and even darker brown eyes that Harry assumed to be Tulip’s mother. Ted noticed Harry looking at her.
‘That’s Kiraz Karasu, Tulip’s mum. She was the only member of Tulip’s family who could attend. Her father, Asahi, was killed a couple months ago by Death Eaters, as was her last paternal grandmother Mary. Because of these deaths and then Dumbledore’s, her maternal grandparents in Tokat and her extended parental family in Japan wouldn’t come in fear of their safety. It’s quite sad, maybe if they waited to get married more could have—‘
‘Dromeda, we got married within a month of our graduation during the last war, it’s been nearly thirty years and we’re still happy,’ said Ted. ‘People are dying and disappearing every day, no one knows how long they’ve got, and they’ve known each other for over a decade. I don’t think they should have waited.’
‘You’re probably right, love,’ sighed Andromeda. ‘I guess I just imagined Dora would have this big ceremony with a large white gown. Harry wasn’t even there for goodness sake.’
‘I’d have loved to be at a nice wedding for Tonks,’ said Harry, ‘but given everything that is going on I’m just glad she found someone she wants to spend her life with and got to be with as many friends and family as she could.’
‘You truly are becoming so wise my dear,’ said Andromeda with a smile.
‘Harry, it’s nearly time for da Portkey ter go,’ announced Hagrid.
‘Yeah, ok,’ said Harry. He stood back up and quickly gave his aunt and uncle a hug before he seized his rucksack and swung it onto his shoulders. ‘I—‘
He wanted to thank them for taking care of all of them, he also wanted to say goodbye, but Harry wasn’t sure how to do so when his path forward seemed so uncertain. Anything he thought of seemed hollow and insincere.
‘I’ll tell Tonks to send word, when she...Thanks for patching us up, thanks for everything. I—‘
He was glad to leave the room and follow Ted Tonks along a short hallway and into a bedroom. Hagrid came after them, bending low to avoid hitting his head on the door lintel.
‘There you go, my boy. That’s the Portkey.’
Ted was pointing to a small, silver-backed hairbrush lying on the dressing table.
‘Thanks,’ said Harry, reaching out to place a finger on it, ready to leave. A moment later placed his forefinger on the brush, it glowed bright blue, and with a jerk behind the navel as though an invisible hook and line had dragged him forward, Harry was pulled into nothingness, spinning uncontrollably, his finger glued to the Portkey as he and Hagrid hurtled away from Ted Tonks.
Seconds later Harry’s feet slammed into hard ground and he fell onto his hands and knees in the yard of the Burrow. He heard screams.
Throwing aside the no longer glowing hairbrush, Harry stood up, swaying slightly, and saw Mrs Weasley, Ron, Ginny, Allison, and to his surprise Hermione Granger and Tulip Karasu running down the steps by the back door as Hagrid, who had also collapsed on landing, clambered laboriously to his feet.
‘Harry? You are the real Harry? What happened? Where are the others?’ cried Mrs Weasley.
‘What d’you mean? Isn’t anyone else back?’ Harry panted. The answer was clearly etched in Mrs Weasley’s pale face.
Before he could say another word, Allison wrapped her arms around him for a quick hug, and whispered in his ear, ‘I’m really glad you’re safe,’ to which he nodded before she pulled away so he could continue.
‘The Death Eaters were waiting for us,’ Harry told the group. ‘We were surrounded the moment we took off—they knew it was tonight—I don’t know what has happened to anyone else, four of them chased us, it was all we could do to get away, and then Voldemort caught up with us—‘
He could hear the self-justifying note in his voice, the pleas for Mrs Weasley to understand why he did not know what had happened to her sons and soon to be daughter-in-law, but—
‘Thank goodness you’re all right,’ said Mrs Weasley.
Just as Mrs Weasley was about to also pull Harry into a hug, from the doorway came a yell.
‘Harry!’ called the voice of his adopted younger sister Canini, it had only been a month since he had seen her and yet it was clear she had grown and matured a lot in that time, Harry still couldn’t believe she’d be fifteen in just a couple months. She ran down the steps and across the yard so fast that by the time Mrs Weasley had started to hug Harry, Canini’s arms were also wrapped around him. He knew that these hugs brought them comfort, but Harry felt he didn’t quite deserve them.
‘You had me so worried,’ said his sister. ‘Thank goodness you’re back. Where’s Theo?’
‘I don’t know, we’re the first ones back. We were all ambushed by an army of Death Eaters,’ as he said this her face went white with fear. ‘But I’m sure Theodore’s ok, he’s taken on Death Eaters by himself before, and this time he has Kingsley with him.’
This seemed to not take any of the worry or panic in the room away. Everyone stayed quiet until Hagrid’s cleared his throat.
‘Haven’t go’ any brandy, have yeh, Molly?’ asked Hagrid a little shakily. ‘Fer medicinal purposes?’
She could have summoned it by magic, but as she hurried back towards the crooked house, Harry knew that she wanted to hide her face. He turned to Allison and she stoically answered his unspoken plea for information at once.
‘The first group that was supposed to arrive here was Tracey and Tonks, but their Portkey arrived back empty,’ she said, pointing at a rusty oil can lying on the ground nearby. ‘Then that one showed up empty too,’ she pointed at an ancient sneaker, ‘it was meant to be Fred and Mr Weasley’s. Yours was third. The next set to arrive is George with Chiara from the Mould-On-The-Wold safe house.’
This really tore at Harry’s heart. He had no idea the current status of his cousin or brother, Tracey is one of his closest friends in the world and he barely got to say hi before she took off, he had known the twins and Mr Weasley as long as he could remember but now didn’t know if they were ok, and while he didn’t know the rest of the Order as much or for as long he knew they were all good people who probably had friends and family somewhere worried about them and Harry had no idea who was dead or alive now.
‘I should have never allowed Tonks to do this mission, it was too big of a risk,’ said Tulip, twisting her new ring.
‘She’s a trained auror, she can handle herself,’ said Harry, mostly believing his own words.
‘It’s not just her I’m worried about…’ said Tulip, but before she could elaborate, Mrs Weasley returned.
She came back out the front door carrying a bottle of brandy, which she handed to Hagrid. He uncorked it and drank it straight down in one.
‘Mum!’ shouted Ginny, pointing to a spot several feet away.
A blue light had appeared in the darkness; It grew larger and brighter, and George, Chiara, and to Harry’s brief relief, Remus appeared, spinning and then falling. It took Harry only an additional second for his relief to fade as he realized that there was something wrong: Remus was supporting George, who was unconscious and whose face was covered in blood, and Chiara had her wand pointed at the side of George’s face while seemingly muttering an incantation.
Harry ran forward and seized George’s legs. Together, he and Remus carried George into the house and through the kitchen to the sitting room, where they laid him on the sofa. As the lamplight fell across George’s head, Ron yelped and Harry’s stomach lurched; One of George’s ears was missing. The side of his head and neck was drenched in wet, shockingly scarlet blood.
‘I need Wound Cleaning Potion, and Blood-Replenishing Potion now!’ ordered Chiara in between incantations, Harry had forgotten she was a Healer for St. Mungo’s hospital. ‘And then either Essence of Dittany, Murtlap Essence, or Wiggenweld Potion. It’s too late to save the ear but I can probably stop the bleeding and mitigate the scarring and pain.’
And with the demand made Hermione ran into the kitchen to find as much of the potions as possible while Chiara resumed her spell casting.
No sooner had Mrs Weasley bent over her son than Harry’s only remaining parent Remus Lupin grabbed him by the upper arm and dragged him, none too gently, back into the foyer, Canini followed in confusion.
‘Moony?! What are you doing?!’ Canini begged in confusion. Remus ignored this plea.
‘Before Sirius’ funeral Harry Potter gave me his wand, how did he come to possess it?’ he said, giving Harry a small shake. ‘Answer me!’
‘I said Allison risked her life to retrieve it, that she didn’t want it to be destroyed or become a prize of a Death Eater!’
Remus released Harry and fell back against the door.
‘I’m sorry Harry, but I had to check’ said Remus tersely. ‘We’ve been betrayed. Voldemort knew that you were being moved tonight and the only people who could have told him were directly involved in the plan. You might have been an impostor.’
'Why aren't you interrogating Hagrid as well?' asked Canini.
'Hagrid's half-giant,' said Remus looking up at her. 'The Polyjuice Potion is designed for human use only.'
After a moment of them all calming down slightly Remus stood up straighter and outreached his arms.
'Come here you two,' he said and both siblings went in for a quick hug with their father, that while it didn't relieve any of their worry, did bring a small amount of comfort. Before they all broke up Harry could hear Remus mumble under his breath, 'I hope Theo is ok...'
To change the subject away from Harry and Canini's currently missing brother, Harry decided to explain what happened to him in the battle.
'None of the Order would have told Voldemort we were moving tonight,' said Harry. The idea was dreadful to him, he could not believe it of any of them. 'Voldemort only caught up with me toward the end, he didn’t know which one I was in the beginning. If he’d been in on the plan he’d have known from the start I was the one with Hagrid.'
'Voldemort caught up with you? He was there?' said Remus sharply. 'What happened? How did you escape?'
Harry explained briefly how the Death Eaters pursuing them had seemed to recognize him as the true Harry, how they had abandoned the chase, how they must have summoned Voldemort, who had appeared just before he and Hagrid had reached the sanctuary of the Tonks’.
'They recognized you? But how? What had you done?'
'I...' Harry tried to remember; the whole journey seemed like a blur of panic and confusion. 'I saw Stan Shunpike...You know, the bloke who was the conductor on the Knight Bus? And I tried to Disarm him—well, he doesn’t know what he’s doing, does he? He must be Imperiused!'
Remus looked at Harry with both pride and pity.
'Harry, my dear, I have and always will admire how kind your heart is, but the time for Disarming is past! These people are trying to capture and kill you! At least Stun if you aren’t prepared to kill!'
'We were hundreds of feet up! Stan’s not himself and if I stunned him and he’d fallen, he’d have died the same as if I’d used Avada Kedavra! Expelliarmus saved me from Voldemort two years ago,' Harry added defiantly. He did not like how the war was changing his adoptive father to be less caring and empathetic, causing him to be more like the numb and tired auror he had once been in the last war.
'Yes, Harry,' said Remus with painful restraint, 'and a great number of Death Eaters witnessed that happening! Forgive me, but it was a very unusual move then, under imminent threat of death. Repeating it tonight in front of Death Eaters who either witnessed or heard about the first occasion was close to suicidal!'
'So you think I should have killed Stan Shunpike?' said Harry angrily.
'Of course not,' said Remus, 'but the Death Eaters—frankly, most people!—would have expected you to attack back! Expelliarmus is a useful spell, that's why Sirius taught you it in your very first year, but the Death Eaters seem to think it is your signature move, and I urge you not to let it become so!'
Remus was making Harry feel idiotic, and yet there was still a grain of defiance inside him.
‘I won’t blast people out of my way just because they’re there.’ said Harry. ‘That’s Voldemort’s job.’
‘Please,’ said the sudden upset voice of Canini, ‘can we just appreciate that Harry survived that battle even though Voldemort himself was there. Can we not fight for just this night?’
And this seemed to snap them out of it. She was right, he survived and at least for the moment he was safe. After a couple more moments of silence, Harry addressed Remus again.
‘Will George be okay?’
‘I think so, Chiara is a very skilled Healer, although there’s no chance of regrowing his ear, not when it’s been cursed off—‘
There was a scuffling from outside. Remus dived for the back door; Harry leapt after him and sprinted into the yard, Canini close behind him.
Two figures had appeared in the yard, and as Harry ran toward them he realized they were Theodore, now returning to his normal appearance, and Kingsley, both clutching a bent coat hanger.
'Theo!' called out Canini in a cry of relief.
Theodore quickly ran to give Remus a hug, but Remus only hugged back with one arm and didn’t remove his eyes from Kingsley, and Kingsley showed no pleasure at the sight of any of them. Harry then witnessed both men point their wands at each other’s chest.
‘The last words Albus Dumbledore spoke to the pair of us!’ said Kingsley in the scariest voice Harry had ever heard him use.
‘Harry is the best hope we have. Trust him,’ said Remus calmly.
Kingsley turned his wand on Harry, but Remus said, ‘It’s him, I’ve checked!’
‘All right, all right!’ said Kingsley, stowing his wand back beneath his cloak, as he did so he finally gave Theodore a proper hug, to which Harry and Canini immediately joined in to take in the slight relief that all four of their little household was ok. The moment didn’t last long though as Kingsley had business to attend to. ‘But somebody betrayed us! They knew, they knew it was tonight!’
‘So it seems,’ replied Remus, slowly letting go of his kids, ‘but apparently they did not realize that there would be seven Harrys.’
‘Small comfort!’ snarled Kingsley. ‘Who else is back?’
‘Only Harry, Hagrid, Chiara, George, and me.’
‘No?’ said Theodore in disbelief, ‘but what about the others..?’
But he had to be temporarily ignored.
‘What happened to you?’ Remus asked Kingsley.
‘Followed by five, injured two, might’ve killed one,’ Kingsley reeled off, ‘and we saw You-Know-Who as well, he joined the chase halfway through but vanished pretty quickly. Remus, he can—‘
‘Fly,’ supplied Harry. ‘I saw him too, he came after Hagrid and me.’
‘So that’s why he left, to follow you!’ said Kingsley. ‘I couldn’t understand why he’d vanished. But what made him change targets?’
‘Harry behaved a little too kindly to Stan Shunpike,’ said Remus.
‘Poor Stan, he’s a nice bloke, the Death Eaters are playing a cruel game with him,’ responded Theodore. ‘However I thought he was in Azkaban?’
Kingsley let out a mirthless laugh.
‘Mr Nott, there’s obviously been a mass breakout which the Ministry has hushed up. Traver’s hood fell off when I cursed him, he’s supposed to be inside too. But what happened that you’re here too, Remus? You were supposed to stay at your home incase another group couldn’t make it to their destination and tried going to yours. Where’s Chiara and George?’
‘Chiara needed my help,’ said Remus. ‘George lost an ear.’
‘Lost an—?’ repeated Theodore in a nauseated voice.
‘Snape’s work according to Chiara,’ said Remus.
‘Snape?’ shouted Harry, ‘You didn’t say—‘
‘He lost his hood during the chase. She didn’t say what curse was used by I recognize its effects, Sectumsempra was always a specialty of Snape’s. She wanted to curse him back, but she had to focus both on flying and keep her Stamina Charm on George going as without being able to close the wound or replenish his blood in midair it was probably what helped him survive the rest of the flight.’
Silence fell between the five of them as they looked up at the sky. There was no sign of movement; the stars stared back, unblinking, indifferent, unobscured by flying friends. Where was Tracey? Where were Fred and Mr Weasley? Where were Bill, Fleur, Tonks, Mad-Eye, and Mundungus?
With nothing else to do, Harry headed through the empty kitchen and back into the sitting room, where Chiara had staunched his bleeding now, and Mrs Weasley was gently cleaning it all off his face. Ron was standing next to George but he couldn't look directly at him, Allison was comforting Ginny. Harry then saw by the lamplight Harry saw a clean, gaping hole where George’s ear had been.
'How is he?'
Mrs Weasley looked around and said, 'He'll be alright.'
