One by one, each child came through the veil, which has ceased its roaring and was now as silent. Each child was sobbing.
“We’re sorry, Dad! We didn’t mean to!” wailed Lillian, fear written all over her face. Harry sent her a comforting look, but didn’t dare move. He held the wand at face level, fighting to stop his hand shaking, glaring at the veil. Camilla came out, her cheeks wet with tears, bawling like an infant. A dark haired, handsome young man with a superior smirk on his face followed.
“Harry… so nice to see you again…”
“Wish I could say the same.”
“My Lord!” Bella rushed forwards and fell at Voldemort’s feet. She kissed the hem of his robes and Voldemort grinned down at her.
“You have done well, Bellatrix. You will be rewarded greatly. Now, Shea said that you had something for me? To use as a Horcrux?” Bella nodded slowly.
“Yes, Master… it’s here, along with your wand…” Bella reached inside her robes and brought out a long wand and a pocket watch. Harry’s heart skipped a beat when he recognised the familiar face of moving stars and planets…
“Severus Snape took it from Dumbledore’s tomb, my Lord… it was the best we could find…” Voldemort nodded as he took the objects from her, and examined the watch approvingly.
Then, gripping the watch in his left hand and his wand in right, Voldemort slowly turned on the spot to face Harry. “I’m going to kill you now, Harry.”
Harry smirked, swallowing his fear and ignoring the children’s squeals of terror. “I’ve heard that one before. Only… last time I met you, I ended up killing you, and I was only seventeen.”
Voldemort’s face screwed up in anger. “Crucio! ”
Harry ducked down underneath the beam of red, and shot a stunner, which Voldemort blocked easily.
“Just a stunner, Harry? You’ve killed before, why not do it now?” sneered Voldemort, sending a nasty looking orange hex. Dodging said hex, Harry sent another stunner.
“Well, Tom-” Voldemort snarled in anger and sent another hex, “-I don’t feel it necessary to kill you myself. I can wait seventy-two minutes.”
“No, you can’t. I’ll have killed you by then, and created a Horcrux. I don’t intend to go back, Harry, but someone needs to take my place.” The Death Eaters had moved around from behind the mirrors and were now creating a small huddle, watching the fierce duel. Lillian tapped Jamie on the shoulder, who was staring, horrified, at said duel.
“What?” he whispered at her, not taking his eyes off his father.
“Look at those mirrors.”
“Now’s not the time to admire yourself, Lily!” he hissed at her.
“But, don’t you remember Uncle Ron’s stories? He never once told us about mirrors in the veil room. And all the Death Eaters came from behind them, which means that there must be something behind ‘em they don’t want us to see.”
“Yeah, well, from what I’ve seen tonight, I’m not sure I want to see. Besides “ I’m not leaving Dad!”
“He can look after himself “ he’s killed that piece of shit once before, he can do it again.”
“Yeah, but most pieces of shit stay dead when you kill them “ I’m staying here, Dad might need me!”
“Oh, yeah? What are you going to do? Kill Voldemort yourself? C’mon.” Lily pulled on his arm and they slunk silently away from the battle, unseen by any of the Death Eaters, who were jeering and heckling. They crept around the mirrors.
“Mum!”
Ginny was kneeling on the painfully hard stone floor, her wrists and feet bound, clearly sobbing, but completely silent. Lillian ran forward, but found that she could not touch her mother “ there seemed to be some sort of force field around her.
“Oh, Mum… we’re so sorry… we didn’t mean for this to happen…” Ginny was trying to say something to them “ but they couldn’t hear her.
“How do we get you out of here, Mum?” asked Jamie, hoping that she might be able to give some clue, even if she couldn’t be heard. But Ginny just shook her head and shrugged her shoulders helplessly, tears splashing down her cheeks.
“Can’t you just… walk through it?” suggested Lillian, even though she knew Ginny couldn’t. Ginny shook her head and bit her lip. Suddenly, she paled and a look of terror came across her face. Lillian followed her gaze. Through the mirrors, she could see the duel. Her father was losing, badly.
***
Harry slammed painfully onto the ground once again, while the Death Eaters laughed and the children sobbed.
“Why, Harry…you appear to have gotten a little rusty at this,” Voldemort sneered, his eyes glinting. Harry, blood oozing from a cut on his lip, raised his head, groaning slightly as he did so. He immediately found himself bound with thick green ropes. He struggled against them, making the Death Eaters laugh even harder. They cut painfully into his wrists and cut off the blood circulation in his feet. He looked up at Voldemort, who stood towering above him, his thin lips pulled into a grotesque smile.
“I could kill you now, Harry, but where would be the fun in that?” Voldemort thrust out a long, skeletal hand to his left, his fingers held in a claw like position. To Harry’s horror, Sirius was summoned into Voldemort’s steely grasp. Sirius yelled, kicked, bit, and fought, but Voldemort paid no attention. He continued to stare into Harry’s fearful eyes as he slowly raised his wand to Sirius’s head, who was struggling too much to realise.
“Merlin… please, no…,” pleaded Harry weakly.
“Crucio!” Sirius writhed and screamed on the ground, drowning out Harry’s frantic plea’s and cries, and the Death Eater’s raucous laughter.
“Expelliarmus!” Sirius stopped jerking and twitching, and lay on the ground, breathing heavily and shaking as Voldemort’s wand flew out of his hand, to be caught by a fierce looking Jamie, who stood next to Lillian. Voldemort stared at him, and Harry saw his red eyes go wide with astonishment as he slowly approached the eleven-year-old boy, who looked defiantly up at Voldemort’s face, with out flinching. Lillian also looked defiant, and she only raised her wand higher when Voldemort approached.
Sirius pulled himself over to Harry, and quickly untied the ropes binding his hands and feet. Harry hugged him briefly and kissed him on the forehead, before standing up and picking up his wand, which was just a few meters away.
“Don’t be silly, children… drop your wands and let me kill you quickly, without hassle…” Voldemort was saying to Jamie.
“Get lost, you evil bas-” Jamie let out a string of insults and swear words at Voldemort, who looked rather amused at Jamie’s apparent lack of fear. Lillian was shaking her head, wondering what on earth Jamie was doing this for, and vaguely contemplating interrupting and asking him why he seemed to be inviting Voldemort to kill him. She soon realised however “ it was a distraction.
BAM!
Harry had slammed into Voldemort, ramming him with his shoulder. He yelled out a cry of pain as his scar burned white hot at the contact, but it had done the trick. Voldemort stumbled, and Harry launched himself into another duel, only this time he had the advantage of surprise as Voldemort struggled to get up and fight at the same time. Voldemort clawed at the ground for his wand, Jamie having just dropped it. As he grabbed it, he straightened up, and he and Harry were locked in a duel once again.
Sirius came running, up, tugging his siblings desperately away from the violent duel. They obliged and dashed to the other side, dodging the Death Eaters that grabbed out, trying to restrain them.
“Where do we go?” screeched Lillian as they darted about in between the Death Eaters, skidding around on the floor and avoiding spells.
“Don’t go through any of the doors!” yelled Danny, “Remember the stories? Don’t get lost in here!”
But where could they go? It seemed like there was no escape except for through the doors. Nevertheless, there was no way they’d go through them. They knew that the Department of Mysteries was a labyrinth of unknown, dangerous rooms, and that it would be very easy to be lost forever.
“Gotcha!” A Death Eater grabbed Sirius with strong, almost gorilla-like arms from behind, wrapping them tightly around Sirius’ arms and chest.
“Let- ughr- go of me!” growled Sirius as he struggled. Lillian whipped around.
“Hey! Get off my brother-” However, before she could continue, Sirius had sunk his teeth into the Death Eater’s arm, and brought his right foot up behind him, hard. The Death Eater gave a muffled grunt and sank to the floor, doubled up in pain. Sirius finished with a good kick in the head. Lillian stared at her younger brother in shock.
“What? I can look after myself, you know,” he said hotly. She gave a shrug and a jerk of the head, before joining up with the other five children. They grouped together, watching more Death Eaters run towards them.
“What do we do? What do we do?” Camilla shrieked frantically.
“We can fight them!” shouted Nicolas, his eyes blazing and his wand held high. The Death Eaters laughed, but the children stood defiantly, facing their opponents with their wands held high.
***
Harry shot spell after spell at Voldemort, who, in turn, sent a volley back. Harry was spurred on by a new hate for Voldemort. Sirius was only a boy - only nine-years-old “ and Voldemort had stood there and tortured him, with an evil smirk across his handsome, pale face.
Voldemort snarled in fury as he sent curse after curse at Harry, his hand gripping Dumbledore’s pocket watch, the long chain trailing over his unnaturally long and slender fingers.
It was difficult to say who was winning the duel “ both seemed very cut-up, but if anyone had wanted to look into Voldemort’s eyes, they would have seen desperation beginning to form… forty precious minutes had already passed…
The children were duelling away at the Death Eaters, and, although they weren’t very good, were winning, as they were much smaller and were able to dodge. Lillian looked over at her father and Voldemort.
She could see that they were both beginning to tire, though neither showed any signs of giving up. The duel had moved to the veil, which, contrary to forty minutes ago, was now silent, and only fluttering slightly.
Both Harry and Voldemort were ducking about the veil, using it as a shield against one another, moving around it in a bizarre dance.
Then Lillian knew what she had to do.
Ignoring the horrific scenes of violence, and the flashes of coloured light all around her, she ran, as Voldemort stepped in front of the veil. Everything seemed to go silent; all she could hear was the heavy thumping of her own heart and the pounding of her feet as she ran. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as she sprinted over. Voldemort turned around at the last minute, probably hearing her coming up behind him, and held up his arms. It didn’t matter. She pushed into him anyway and, with a cry of fury, he fell backwards through the veil, taking her with him.
The last thing she remembered was the cry of her father, and a strange pressure on her right foot. Then she was in utter darkness.
The Third War by dumbledorefluertwins
Chapter Notes: **Huggles beta**
Please please please review - We're getting near the end of the fic ( two more chapters!) and I'd really love some CONSTRUCTIVE critique - eg, what you liked, what you didn't like, why not, how I could improve. That is the equation for the perfect review, guys, and if you leave a really good one, I will give you a free imaginary cookie. (Yes, the bribe of cookies is back...)
As you all know, I can't write battle scenes, which was why this took forever to post, and, unfortunately, it may take a while to update again. So, I'm very very very sorry, especially after the evil cliffie at the end. **hides**
~Evie