kbinnz - Harry's New Home

The massed Death Eaters, initially dumbfounded by Harry's recovery, were now further horrified by this proof of their Master's vulnerability. As one, they took a step backwards. If Potter could do that to the Dark Lord, what could he do to them? The fact that they were dealing with a lone 12 year old didn't really register тАУ they were all too busy gawking at the sight of a bleeding Voldemort and a breathing Potter.

Even Snape was frozen, still staring at The Boy Who Really Should Be Dead By Now. His brain seemed stuck on the whole "He's alive? How can he possibly be alive?" idea, though his heart had apparently made the unilateral decision to ignore the how and why and released a flood of transcendental joy that was surging through his form. "Harry," he breathed.

Before Voldemort or any of his minions could quite recover from the shock of Harry's attack, a loud series of popping noises broke the stillness of the night, and a group of house elves, accompanied by Sirius, Remus, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, Bones, Moody, and three Weasleys, appeared en masse just outside the Death Eaters' circle.

With one shouted spell and a massive surge of magic, Dumbledore broke through the wards and almost simultaneously grabbed Remus' shoulder, staggering as he did so. The next instant, a re-energized Dumbledore was back on his feet, his blue eyes blazing, while a fully transformed werewolf roared with hunger at his side. Then Remus leapt for the nearest Death Eater, and pandemonium ensued.

Voldemort frantically spun around, trying to sort out friend from foe, even as he was simultaneously hit by an Avada Kedavra, Diffindo, Entrail Exploding curse, and at least five other deadly spells from Harry and everyone else. Shield charms, and even Bellatrix LeStrange's great skill as a duelist, proved of limited use when attacked at once from multiple sides by numerous, lethal assaults. The Dark Lord тАУ all of his horcruxes destroyed тАУ fell to the ground and did not rise again.

Dobby, delirious with joy at finding his Master Potion Master Sir still alive, hurtled into the tall man's knees, hugging him with all his strength. Since a house elf's strength is considerable and Snape's ankles were still bound, Dobby's well-intentioned greeting caused Snape to fall over backwards. As he tumbled to the ground, he saw Dolohov's AK pass harmlessly overhead, and his brain realized this would be a very good time to start working again. He shouted at the little house elf. "Wand, Dobby! My wand!"

"Oooh, yes, Master Potion Master Sir!" In a flash, Snape was unbound, his wand in his hand, and he was viciously returning the hexes and curses that came flying at him.

Molly dodged in and used a well-placed Protego to save Lucius from Alecto Carrrow's vicious Sectumsempra тАУ thereby creating a Life Debt between the Malfoys and Weasleys тАУ while Filius dealt with Amycus. Molly then hit Alecto with a modified bat-bogey hex that distracted the squat witch long enough for Molly's bone crushing curse to catch her in the neck.

"Nice shot, partner!" Filius crowed, leaping over Amycus' bloody form.

Molly grimaced in annoyance. "I was aiming for her wand arm," she admitted, stepping past the witch's body. "I'm a bit out of practice."

"You'll get plenty of chances," Flitwick warned, and then they were into the next group of Death Eaters.

Meanwhile, the instant they caught sight of an alive and well Harry, Bill and Charlie had grabbed him and stuck him between them, much to the 12 year old's annoyance. Hadn't he been the one to draw first blood on old Voldesnort?

Unfortunately for Harry, the Weasley brothers were unimpressed with his past accomplishments, and an attempt to wiggle out from behind their sheltering bulk resulted in two very hard smacks on his rear тАУ one from each. Harry immediately realized why Ron preferred to be punished by Professor Snape than by his brothers, and he hurriedly abandoned further attempts to escape. Instead, he rather grumpily made do with shooting the odd curse from between the redheads whenever he got the chance.

One of the Death Eaters used Serpentsoria against them, and Harry calmly ordered the snake to go away. To his surprise, the snake didn't respond, and Charlie had to blast it before it got close enough to bite. "Harry, snakes don't usually respond to voice commands," the big dragon handler called over his shoulder, rather exasperated at what he saw as the boy's foolish behavior.

Harry blinked in confusion, then belatedly remembered what his mum had said. His parseltongue was from the horcrux. It was gone, and so was the ability to speak to serpents. Harry felt a bit of a pang. He had rather liked his Speaker status.

But then he shrugged and sent a Conjunctivitis Curse at a Death Eater who was targeting Bill. There was still plenty of magic left for him, and he'd rather have the Dark Loon out of his head, no matter what the cost.

Fenrir Greyback was among the Death Eaters, fighting in his human form. He still retained his werewolf strength, however, and he grabbed Amelia Bones while the Minister was fighting off three others. He grabbed her chin in preparation to snapping her neck, but then he froze, hearing a low, rolling growl behind him. He cautiously turned his head to look over his shoulder and had just enough time to recognize Remus before the werewolf was upon him, tearing his throat out.

Sirius, now fighting as a wizard, went down under a Crucio. Even through his agony, he saw McGonagall's cat form leap onto another Death Eater who was readying an AK for him. She shredded through the man's robes and mask, and his screams distracted the one using the Cruciatus on Sirius, breaking the spell. Sirius managed to get to his knees just as the Death Eater flung Minerva off.

She gracefully converted the fall to a roll and came out of it already in her human form. She snapped out "Castrato Explosivo!" just as the other Death Eater hit her from behind with a bone blasting curse.

Sirius dispatched her assailant and rushed to Minerva's side, where he was relieved to see that the curse had caught her in the lower leg, not the spine. She was in great pain, but the injury was not life threatening. Then Sirius turned to the first Death Eater, wanting to ensure that the wizard was no longer a threat.

When he had finished sicking up, Sirius turned a pained look onto Minerva. "That's just evil," he managed to gasp.

Despite her pain, she smirked at him. "Let that be a lesson to you, Mr Black. Always be a gentleman when dealing with witches."

Sirius shuddered and turned to look for the next threat, but to his mingled relief and disappointment, Shacklebolt and a detachment of Aurors had already arrived, and the remaining Death Eaters were either trying to flee or cowering in a fetal position.

-##-

The mopping up operation was over relatively quickly. On the side of the Light, Mad Eye Moody was dead тАУ mortally wounded by Rabastan LeStrange even as he uttered his own killing curse. There were other injuries as well: Bones' arm had been nearly severed; McGonagall's leg was badly damaged; Bill Weasley had been knocked down by a blasting curse while protecting his brothers, and he was concussed and temporarily deafened; Flitwick suffered some nasty burns while dealing with a transfigured salamander, and Lucius had been in bad shape from prolonged torture even before the battle began. Sirius and Molly each had some ugly cuts and bruises, but those were the worst of their injuries. The house elves, despite having been very firmly instructed ahead of time not to stay and fight, had of course done so. They had all escaped harm in the dim light, being so low to the ground, and while it was unclear how much actual damage they had done to the Death Eaters, their high pitched shrieks of fury had served to unnerve the already demoralized foe.