Chapter Twenty: Draconic Motives
The Dark wizard approached Harry slowly, drawing his gaze away from the departing group of Death Eaters and Stan Shunpike.
“Such hatred is not becoming of the Wizarding world’s great champion,” the shadowy figure said quietly. “Besides, it is wasted on him. He is a useful servant, but more for his connections to you than for any powers of intellect. You shall soon have cause to hate me far more than him. Once the head of your son is brought to us, I will proceed to kill each of your family members until you will beg me to allow you to join them. Then I will oblige you.”
“Why?” Harry asked in a hoarse whisper. In all his life he had never been so scared; when he’d fought Voldemort he hadn’t known how much he had to lose until he was trapped in the Mind’s Eye, and by the time he was free his victory had been achieved. Now he knew exactly what he had to lose; they were staring at him with confidence at that moment, sure that their father would be able to find a way to save them. Ginny looked dazed still coming to grips with the fact that thirty dark wizards were even now trying to hunt and kill one of their children.
“Why? Because that’s what you did to me!” the Dark wizard spat angrily. “You killed my father, and you were the reason my mother died! I’m merely returning the favor!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Harry said sincerely. “There has to be some mistake…”
“There is no mistake!” the shadowy figure screamed. “You tortured me into revealing my father’s location, and then you went and murdered him. I was set free on the grounds that I was too young to understand what I had done at the time, but my mother found out what I had done, and when it led to my father’s death she lost the will to live. She wasted away, refusing even to speak to me! I swore that my family would be avenged, and I have spent my life preparing for this moment. How sweet this vengeance will be, believe me.”
Harry’s eyes slowly widened in recognition; only one person fit this twisted description.
“Then you’re…” he began slowly.
“Draco Malfoy,” the evil man stated before throwing back the hood of the Shadow Cloak. The face that was revealed was familiar; pointed features, pale skin and hair, and an arrogance that surpassed belief. There was no mistaking the older version of Harry’s boyhood nemesis, and yet there were differences. In the place of the arrogant sneer of old was a cold, deadened expression, as if no emotion would alter his calm visage. At the same time, his eyes belied that thought with their burning intensity; a harsh, cruel light of hatred burned bright and hot. In all, Draco Malfoy appeared to be insane.
“I did not kill your father, Draco,” Harry said calmly, while everyone else was still trying to get over the shock. “Voldemort killed him with a carelessly thrown curse. He didn’t care about his followers and laughed at me when I suggested he’d killed one of his favorites.”
“Don’t lie to me, Potter!” Malfoy shrieked, stalking up to Harry and backhanding him viciously across the face. Harry’s head snapped back with the force of the blow and his children cried out at seeing their father hurt. Harry shook his head and spat out blood, trying to clear his vision.
“You haven’t changed at all, Malfoy,” Ginny said venomously. “Your still the cowardly little ferret we knew in school; you don’t even have the guts to face any of us on fair grounds. At least Voldemort was willing to prove that he was the greatest by trying to destroy his enemies in duels.”
Harry felt a surge of hope; Ginny was obviously trying to shame Malfoy into a duel, and he knew her and her skills well enough to know that she wouldn’t lose to the likes of Draco Malfoy, even if the rat-faced Slytherin had spent all of the intervening years in hate-filled training.
Malfoy was looking at Ginny with the same deadened expression and then stalked forward. Without another word, Malfoy balled up his fist and punched Ginny in the face, knocking her head back into the post. Hermione called out in alarm, and all of the Weasley men were shouting in anger. The Potter children were stunned, and Lillian, Muriel, and Samantha were crying at what was being done. Harry’s reaction was far different; like a man possessed he lunged against his chains, furiously trying to get at the man who would dare to harm Ginny. He hit the limit of his bonds and kept moving; slowly, inexorably, he began to pull the stake that he was chained to out of the ground. Malfoy paid him no heed at first, intent on answering Ginny.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for the opportunity to teach you filthy blood-traitors a lesson. Voldemort is dead! I will not repeat his mistakes; he could have killed all of you any number of times, but he had to prove that he was the better wizard. In the end, his foolishness led to his downfall. If I kill you then I prove that I am the better wizard. I don’t have to do it honorably, and truthfully I don’t care to.”
Malfoy finally noticed Harry’s Herculean efforts to get to him, and merely laughed. It was a terrifying sight, truthfully, for the mirth touched nothing but his eyes; he didn’t even attempt to smile.
“I think some of the wind should be taken from Mr. Potters sails. You and you,” Malfoy said, pointing to two of the many Death Eaters left waiting outside of the circle, “make sure he doesn’t have so much excess energy.”
The two Death Eaters began to beat Harry savagely, punching and kicking the famous wizard they had been taught to hate until he couldn’t even stand on his own. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to Harry and those who cared for him, the two dark wizards were called off.
“You see, I’ve grown more conservative over the years. Sometimes it is more fun to do things by hand rather than to use magic. Still, let us see if I can’t improve on their efforts.”
Harry lost track of what was going on, remaining conscious only because he refused to let himself pass out while his family was in danger. By the time he could think again, he was bleeding from a dozen minor cutting hexes and both of his legs were broken. He ached everywhere from his time under the Cruciatus curse, and he was having trouble focusing on anything around him.
“The Wizarding world’s mighty champion doesn’t appear so great now, does he?” Malfoy said softly, his voice edged with glee. In a whisper that no one but Harry could hear, he added, “That’s what I’m going to do to the others before I kill them. Don’t worry, I’ll let you watch.”
That brought Harry’s mind fully back to the present, and he looked around the circle at his loved-ones. All of them had tears in their eyes at the torture they had just seen Harry put through. Fred and George looked positively murderous in their impotent rage, while Ron and Hermione seemed to be trying to draw strength from each other. Ginny’s eyes held love and sympathy, and worst of all, resignation. She had accepted that they were all going to die.
The look in his wife’s eyes, combined with the sounds of his sobbing children and Samantha pushed Harry into action, into the use of a spell so powerful that no magical chains would be able to stop it. Harry focused entirely on his family, willing all of his anger and hatred out of his mind, as he reached into the very core of his being to draw out all not only the entirety of his magical powers, but his life force as well. This was the spell that had defeated Voldemort; a construct of love and a soul willingly given to a greater purpose, a sacrifice that would destroy evil, but only if done completely without malice. As Harry reached for this power, an orb of incredibly white light grew in his hands, filling the clearing with its comforting glow.
Malfoy began shouting in consternation, and tried casting several spells at Harry, all to no avail. No one in the circle but Ginny knew what this magic was or what it would do; she was the only one Harry had told about it. Harry couldn’t help one last look into his wife’s eyes, knowing that this magic would claim his life. She was looking at him with sorrow and love, knowing that his sacrifice would buy their children’s lives. She gave him one final tremulous smile, as though wishing him goodbye. Then her eyes focused past him and a look of utter horror came over her face. Harry couldn’t help but turn and look and the sight that he beheld filled him with such anger that the magic building between his hands dissipated instantly. The Death Eaters sent after his son had returned.
Harry collapsed against his chains, his body overcome by pain, his strength, both physical and emotional, spent. Stan Shunpike walked into the clearing with four shorter Death Eaters, leaving the rest of the group outside of the ring. Each of the five wizards carried a large round object which they casually tossed to the ground.
Ginny and Fred both screamed for their children, while everyone else stared in shock. The heads came rolling to a rest, and Harry found himself looking into his son’s face, which was, impossibly, grinning happily. Harry’s brow furrowed in confusion, which was only deepened when the face winked at him. Then a familiar voice spoke in his mind.
Dad? the voice asked through the mental communication of a phoenix.
***
Sirius and the quadruplets worked quickly, making sure all of the Death Eaters were unconscious and then animating as many of them as possible. They found they could only control fifteen of them at once, and so they left the rest of them tied up and stunned.
“Maybe he won’t notice that not as many came back if most of them hang back a bit,” Lee suggested hopefully while donning one of the black Death Eater robes.
“We’ll have to distract him from that,” Chris answered, adjusting his new mask.
“We’ll bring back the heads he wanted,” Sirius told them as he watched them getting ready. Sirius was the only one not going dressed as a Death Eater, since he would be able to talk to his dad as the phoenix. Instead he was working on transfiguring a bunch of rocks into heads.
Jack came over and watched him work, shaking his head in disgust at the tormented looks on the transfigured heads. “That is really gruesome, Sirius. You want your mother to see that?”
“What am I supposed to do?” Sirius asked curiously.
“Put a little Weasley flair on it,” Brian suggested, and waved his wand at the head that bore his resemblance. The features altered slowly until the eyes were wide and the cheeks puffed up with the tongue sticking out.
Everyone burst into laughter at the sight; it was exactly the kind of face that someone would make to get a baby to laugh.
“That dark wizard will never notice, and it might get everyone else ready for the fight,” Lee reasoned, looking at Sirius hopefully.
“Alright,” Sirius said, thinking what he wanted his own head to look like. All of the Weasleys were using their own vast repertoires of humorous faces, and there didn’t seem to be any way Sirius could match them. Finally he decided on the cheeriest grin imaginable, and was delighted with just how incongruous it looked.
“Very delightful,” Brian said in admiration.
“Okay, let’s get back and bust up the Death Eater party,” Sirius said, motioning for the others to get ready. “Wait for the signal and send our little marionettes charging into the other Death Eaters. That will buy us some time from them. You guys try and get everyone free while I try and distract the Dark wizard until you can get more of the adults free. Then everything else should take care of itself, right?”
“I would imagine so,” Jack said confidently.
“I imagine everyone will feel pretty angry about being tricked into this, so they’ll be ready to get some payback,” Chris added.
“Alright then,” Sirius said with as much confidence as he could muster. “Let’s go.”
The procession moved off with Sirius flying ahead, staying invisible to make sure their plan wasn’t given away. It was far from a perfect plan, but the surprise element would give them a huge advantage.
Sirius flew to the clearing and perched high in a tree on the very edge. What he saw was incredible.
His father looked like he had been beaten and tortured extensively; he was bleeding from a dozen different wounds and his legs were bent at odd angles, leaving him leaning against the post to which he was chained to stay upright. At the same time, his dad’s head was held high and power like Sirius had never seen before gathered between his hands. It was incredible, and Sirius felt certain that his dad would end the conflict before he could even get involved. Then the masked quadruplets and the animated Stan Shunpike marched into the clearing and Harry seemed to deflate, and the magical energy he had gathered dissipated quickly, as the heads rolled to a stop on the ground.
Sirius groaned, thinking that their timing couldn’t have been worse; they’d distracted his dad right when he was about to do something.
Sirius felt his dad’s confusion as one of the Weasleys triggered the winking charm on the transfigured heads. The dark lord seemed to be laughing triumphantly at the sight of his new trophies, so Sirius used his mental connection to his father to speak.
Dad? Are you okay? he asked in concern.
Sirius? What is going on? How are you talking to me like this? Harry asked in return.
It’s too long of a story to tell right now, Sirius said quickly, seeing that the Dark Wizard was winding down with his triumphant gloating. I learned the Animagus transformation, but it didn’t work the way it was supposed to and now I can change into a phoenix. In a minute or two, we’re going to create a diversion and start a huge row. The quadruplets will set all of you free. Will you be able to fight?
I’ll manage, Harry said in amazement and gratitude, before preparing himself for the ordeal to come. No matter what happens, son, I want you to know that I’m proud of you. I love you.
I love you too, dad, Sirius said, touched at his father’s pride and determined not to let his family down.
***
Harry heard his son’s parting words in his mind just before Malfoy slapped him and shouted, “Pay attention to me, Potter! I want you to see what I am about to do! I want you to see everyone you love destroyed because of your own actions so many years ago!”
Malfoy slapped Harry once more to make certain he had his attention before stalking around the circle, tapping his chin thoughtfully.
“Who shall be first? These two imbeciles that tortured me into giving up my family?” he asked, looking vengefully at Fred and George. The twins merely stared at him angrily, determined not to give him the least amount of satisfaction.
“No,” Malfoy said, shaking his head, “I think I will make the biggest impact if I start with the children. Yes, I’ll start with the deceased Sirius’ girlfriend and work my way down, oldest to youngest.”
James held his head high, despite the fear in his eyes. Lillian was trying to comfort both Samantha and Muriel who appeared to be too dazed to respond to the situation.
Malfoy began stalking forward, lifting his wand, when the music came out of the night. All of the adults present knew it for what it was; the song of a phoenix. The hauntingly beautiful, trilling melody filled the Weasleys and Potters with hope and confidence, and the Death Eaters around the clearing began looking around in fear. Malfoy, his eyes narrowed in hatred at the sound, looked around in the sky trying to locate its source. The music seemed to echo around the clearing, however, making it impossible to determine where it was coming from.
Then the four shorter Death Eaters raised their arms as one and the fifteen Death Eaters behind them and Stan Shunpike beside them rushed over to the rest of the Death Eaters, punching and kicking their shocked comrades. At the same time Sirius became visible in a blaze of fire and streaked into battle against the Dark Lord.
A/N: Here it is, much faster than usual of late. I would have gone even faster yet, but as much as my wife wants me to finish the story, I'm sure she wants a well planned Valentine's Day even more. (That's why it's done now) =) I hope you all enjoy it, because there won't be many more chapters!