The Third War by dumbledorefluertwins
Chapter Notes: I'm sorry this took so long to get updated guys. It was in the queue for nearly a week and then it got rejected. :( Oh, well. I have the next two chapters ready for the queue, so those should be updated quick enough. By the way, I have a thread in the Duelling club - here's a link: http://www.fanfiction.mugglenet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7105 (If it doesn't work my name on the forums is Apollo13) This is where you can ask me questions about the story & my writing styles. You must be logged in and sorted though.
As always, please R&R!
“The children are willing; we go to the next stage of the plan.” Bella flicked her wand as she spoke, and the ropes which had been binding Severus Snape snapped and the gag fell from his mouth. He stood, smiling unpleasantly.
“Nice acting in there by the way,” she said, her dark eyes glinting maliciously, “You nearly had me fooled.” Snape grinned, and they walked into a large hall, filled with hundreds of witches and wizards, hooded and cloaked in black, evil masks covering their faces.
“I was about to say the same thing to you,” he said. She gave a small, tinkling laugh and stepped up onto a slightly raised section of floor with a single dark podium. She magically magnified her voice, though it was not needed as every set of eyes was focused entirely on her.
“My trusted friends! Tonight you will storm the Ministry of Magic! We will take it for ourselves and kill every wretched person who stands in our way. Be on your guard; it will not be easy, they are prepared for an attack, though not of this magnitude. Tonight, the blood of our enemies will stain the Fountain of Brethren and turn the water crimson!” The Death Eaters cheered loudly, punching their fists into the air. “We shall keep two people alive; Ginny and Harry Potter. We will use Ginny Potter as the sacrifice for the Horcrux that our true master will create in those precious seventy-one minutes and we shall use Harry Potter for the blood that will be used in the resurrection. After that, our master can reclaim his pride by ridding the world of all the Potters forever!” She gave an evil cackle as the Death Eaters roared their approval, cat calling and chanting a ferocious song, the details of which too gruesome to even mention.
“My friends, go now! Go! Kill everyone in your path!” Every person in the hall, save Elisa, Disapparated with an ear splitting crack and was gone.
***
“Warbucks, I need you to check out that village; possible sighting of Bellatrix Lestrange was reported there. Ablett, interview that kid; the one who was friends with Nicolas Taylor. Ackroyd, check the files on every recorded Death Eater for possible grudges against the Taylor’s, the Cutts or the Urquharts, and for Merlins sake everybody, hurry up and find my children.” The Auror department in the Ministry of Magic was in chaos. Everybody was working flat out to retrieve the children, following orders from Harry, who was the most desperate of them all. He barked his orders and snapped at his colleagues for the slightest thing, though no one blamed him or felt hurt by his actions. They all understood how distressed he must be.
“Harry,” a deep voice said. Kingsley walked alongside Harry, carrying a large pile of files. “We’ve just had news, an Unspeakable was found to be under the Imperius curse. A young girl, she was having an affair with that bloke who died, Darren or what ever his name was.”
“So?” Harry snapped, feeling very stressed out. “We’re focusing on the kidnappings, not the murder, that’s Ron’s department, you need to go and talk to M.I.W.”
“Well, the Murder Investigation Wizards already know, but I just thought it might interest you to know that the last thing the Unspeakable remembers is Bellatrix Lestrange.” Harry stopped dead in his tracks, causing the young witch behind him to drop a set of alphabetized records.
“Oh, sorry, Amanda. You’re joking, Kingsley?” Kingsley shook his head, grimly.
“No, I’m not. She was working in the Time room, when Bellatrix Lestrange came up behind her and put her wand to the girls head. The girl turned round, and Lestrange cursed her.”
“Come into my office,” Harry said, turning sharply into said office. “D’you know what she was told to do by Lestrange?”
“No, but she was found brewing a potion at the foot of the veil, a time turner in her hand. They called her name, but she didn’t answer and poured some of the potion into a tiny glass vial. She then vanished the vial to Merlin knows where, and started muttering, ‘The Dark Lord, will come back, seventy-one minutes, he’ll come back, he’ll come back,’ while walking towards the veil, we suspect that she was going to walk into it if the wizard who found her hadn’t pulled her back.”
“Merlin… how do we know she was under the influence of the Imperius curse?”
“Her eyes were glassy and large traces of it were found in her blood. But that’s not our concern; she said that Voldemort would come back for seventy-one minutes, which would give him time to-”
“Create another Horcrux… but there’s no spell that can reawaken the dead, is there?”
“I don’t know, I- what’s that noise?” Harry heard it too, it was muffled through his office walls, but he’d heard that noise enough times to recognise it anywhere.
“Screaming.” They bolted out the door, where a major battle was underway. Jets of green light were flashing in every direction, and Harry could hear a hideous chanting.
Let them scream, Let them fear…
There were hundreds of Death Eaters, many more than there were at the lake, viciously destroying everything standing in their way.
Let them know that their loved ones shall perish here…
Harry jumped to the side to avoid a jet of purple light and rolled over a table, shooting a cutting spell at a random figure in black. He ducked under the table, using it as a temporary shield.
“Harry!” Ginny, ran towards him, her eyes, wide with fear, ducking a nasty looking black jet.
“What are you doing here?! Please, Ginny, go back! Go home!”
“I came to do the tests on Issy, and then I came to find you,” she said, ducking under the desk with him. “I’m going to fight, Harry. You left me behind in the last war, but you can’t leave me out in this one.” He looked into her fiery brown eyes and nodded. They came out from under the table, which was lucky, as three seconds later it erupted into a ball of flame.
Let them hear the cries of their tortured children…
They fought side by side, sending volleys of hexes at a non-stop flow of Death Eaters. The entire building seemed to be on fire, the thick black smoke clogging up people’s throats, suffocating them. Harry could feel a burning on his side, and had to smother the flames caught on his robes. He heard Ginny cry out and saw her cradling a badly burnt hand. He took her by the arm and led her to a corridor that wasn’t engulfed in fire. The smell of death was in the air, and Harry could hear screams, chanting and the cackle of the searing flames.
“We need to get out of here! Where are we?” Harry asked frantically running down the corridor looking for any sign of where they were. But anything that could have told them was badly burnt. Bodies covered the floor, some people unrecognisable. Harry felt sick as he passed people he knew… Amanda… Ernie from the front desk… Peter Warbucks…
“Harry! Oh, Merlin, Kingsley!” Ginny cried, Harry spun around, dread swelling up in his stomach. Ginny was crouching over Kingsley’s body. He seemed to be badly burnt, and bleeding from the stomach. Harry ran to his side and looked into his face. He was mumbling quietly and his dark brown eyes were flickering around madly.
“Can you hear me, Kingsley?” Harry asked, clearly and loudly. There was no reaction and Ginny began to put pressure on his stomach wound.
“Harry, hold down on his stomach while I try and-” Before she could finish her sentence, Kingsley gave a great, shuddering breath, and stopped moving. Harry closed his eyes in sorrow, feeling sick. He opened them again slowly, closed Kingsley’s mouth and stroked two fingers over his eye lids, shutting them, knowing he’d never see those deep brown eyes again. Harry felt a wave of guilt wash over him as he remembered how he’d snapped at Kingsley just ten minutes ago.
“Harry, come on, we can’t stay here, we need to get out before the Death Eaters come back this way.” And, true enough, Harry could hear the faint chant and heavy footsteps of the Death Eaters.
“Goodbye, Kingsley,” Harry said, squeezing Kingsley’s lifeless shoulder. They ran, but even though they both knew the Ministry well, the building was so burnt and damaged that it was completely unrecognisable. They came across a group of four Death Eaters, duelling with a very ferocious looking Moody. Harry shot a stunner and dodged what looked like a Cruciatus curse. Ginny gave a flick of her wand and one of the Death Eaters was sent flying backwards, where he slammed into a wall and fell to the floor with a sickening, yet satisfying crunch. Moody fired a cutting charm at the remaining Death Eater and grinned when he fell to the floor.
Harry ran over to him. Moody gave Harry a grin, that showed he was joking and said,
“That wasn’t needed, Potter, I was managing perfectly fine by myself.” Harry scoffed.
“Sure, Mad-eye. It was obvious that you weren’t really trying,” he said sarcastically, but with a small smile on his face.
“Where’s Kingsley? He’s in charge of security, he’ll know a way out which isn’t locked- what? What’s happened?” Harry found himself unable to speak.
“He fell,” Ginny said, her voice quivering slightly. Moody had stopped smiling, and he blinked slowly, staring at the floor, disbelief apparent in his face. Harry felt great pity for him; he knew that they’d been good friends “ if Ron or Hermione died…
There was silence, except for the quiet chanting in the distance.
“Alastor?” Ginny said, gently. “We need to get out of here; the whole building is overrun-”
“All the doors and windows are locked with a strong spell, there is one way out that I know about that the Death Eaters couldn’t possibly have locked, but it’s on the top floor, and all the Death Eaters are upstair-” There was a flash of blinding green light, which blocked out everything else. Harry heard the awful rushing noise and the dull thunk of a body hitting the floor. He heard Ginny scream, and when the light cleared he could see why. Moody had been murdered from behind, and a large gang of Death Eaters where all grinning evilly at them. They began to chant the bloodthirsty song, stamping their feet, making even more noise.
Harry and Ginny both had their wands out, determined not to go down with out a struggle, glaring at the Death Eaters, blocking the way to the stairs.
Suddenly, a very familiar Death Eater stepped forward, and the evil chants stopped.
“Ahh, Harry! Your children gave their love, well, they would have, but they were gagged at the time.”
“What have you done to them?!” Harry roared at her, the tip of his wand glowing an angry red.
“Harry, Harry, Harry… don’t you remember our last meeting?” He did remember… Why wouldn’t the pain stop? He just wanted to die, he wanted it over and done with, he was screaming so loudly, why wasn’t anyone coming? He needed Ginny, was he dead? He must be dead by now… you couldn’t possibly be in this much pain and still be alive…
“No!” Bella laughed at his outcry, Ginny sobbed, Harry felt rage and horror build up inside him.
“CRUCIO!” Harry yelled, he wanted to give her a taste of her own medicine; he wanted her to feel what he’d felt… but he couldn’t do it. Bella writhed and shrieked on the ground, but Harry lifted the curse almost as soon as he cast it. He felt disgusted with himself for sinking down their level; he’d vowed never to use an Unforgivable again. Taking advantage over Harry’s momentary lapse in concentration and Ginny’s tear filled eyes, the Death Eaters shot thick green ropes out of their wands, which bound Harry and Ginny’s wrists behind their backs. They grabbed them by their arms and no matter how much they struggled; they still managed to keep a vice like grip on their arms. Harry’s eyes widened as he recognised were they were being led to, and he heard Ginny gasp as she recognised the black door that led to the Department of Mysteries as well.
A/N Before you all yell at me, I know that they could have apparated, but for the purpose of this fic let's just say that it's like Hogwarts, eh? :P