Mothers

⁂

Hey you all, I know its been a long time since I posted and I promise I wasn't trying to ghost you or something like that. The thing is, I actually got a new job as a teacher and I have been very busy thses few days, so now I don't have much time to write. But I'm still trying to balance all of this and post. The next chapter will be out as soon as possible.

Thanks.

Love you all.

⁂⁂⁂

Despite what Graham had done previously when Voldemort raised his wand to finish him off, Harry wanted nothing more than to rush there and stop Voldemort. But Sirius beat him to it. Sirius and Aurelia attacked Voldemort back to back and after a moment McGonagall joined them. And for the first time, Voldemort seemed to realize that this fight was far from over and he might not win today.

Voldemort dodged the raining spells and fire from above by the dragons and dragon riders while keeping a safe distance from the vampires standing inside the castle. Voldemort dueled Sirius, Aurelia, and McGonagall all at once, and there was a cold hatred on his face as they wove and ducked around him, unable to finish him. There was also this struggle and irritation in his eyes that Harry noticed and he knew the reason for it. Voldemort's army was dying but he couldn't show fear or weakness to the enemies, so he struggled to give out orders to his people. But eventually, some of them caught on and decided to fight without entering the castle while the others simply tried to flee.

However, as expected, Bellatrix was still fighting, fifty yards away from Voldemort, and like her master, she dueled three at once: Hermione, Ginny and Draco, all battling their hardest, but Bellatrix was equal to them, and Harry's attention was diverted as a Killing Curse shot so close to Hermione that she missed death by an inch and the next Curse slightly missed Draco as he jumped out of the way in time.

"Die, you filthy traitor! Die!" Bellatrix shouted before launching another set of Killing curses at Draco.

Harry changed course, running at Bellatrix rather than Voldemort, realizing that Sirius, Aurelia, and McGonagall could hold off Voldemort a few more minutes but Bellatrix would actually kill Hermione, Ginny, and Draco if this continued. But before he had gone a few steps a voice thundered behind Bellatrix.

"Bellatrix! How dare you touch my son!"

Bellatrix spun on her heels just as two curses came flying towards her and her face twisted into a disgusted frown.

"You are still weak, Cissy. Your spells haven't improved at all and that's why you all will die," Bellatrix said glaring at her sister Narcissa Malfoy. "Because your son and husband are traitors just like you. I will kill your entire family and finally annihilate the dirty traitor blood from two true pure bloodline. Avada Kedavra!"

"Mother!" Draco screamed jumping to save his mother but Narcissa Malfoy had already dodged her sister's killing curse. The initial shock of her sister's cruelty turned to hurt and anger in Narcissa's eyes and she raised her wand to dwell Bellatrix.

Bellatrix didn't hold back at all as she shot Unforgivable curses one after another and Harry was having a deja vu from the time he watched Bellatrix kill her other sister Andromeda Tonks. Not to mention, Narcissa was far less experienced fighter than Andromeda and wasn't exactly a match for Bellatrix in dwell. However, this time Bellatrix's opponent wasn't alone.

Draco quickly joined in the fight and was helping his mother. Draco was a much better dweller compared to his mother but Bellatrix still easily dodged and deflected their attacks. Unlike Narcissa, who was still trying not to use the killing curse on her sister, Bellatrix's all attempts seemed to be thrown with killing intent. That was why Draco didn't hesitate either. He went head to head with Bellatrix to save his mother but one of Bellatrix's spell almost grazed Narcissa. Luckily Ginny jumped in and pulled away Narcissa just in the nick of time and counterattacked Bellatrix with a powerful jinx. Bellatrix stubbled back with the sheet force of Ginny's spell, which had caught her off guard.

"You brat!" Bellatrix thundered absolutely furious and launched a killing curse at Ginny.

Ginny ducked down just as the curse flew over her head and hit the wall. However, before Ginny could recover, Bellatrix sent two more curses flying at her and Ginny barely managed to avoid it by rolling over at the ground.

Harry instinctively stepped forward to stop Bellatrix but before he could reach them, he was knocked sideways.

"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"

Mrs. Weasley threw off her cloak as she ran, freeing her arms, Bellatrix spun on the spot, roaring with laughter at the sight of the new challenger.

"OUT OF MY WAY!" shouted Mrs. Weasley to Ginny and Draco, and with a simple swipe of her wand she began to duel. Harry watched with terror and elation as Molly Weasley's wand slashed and twisted, and Bellatrix Lestrange's smile faltered and became a snarl. Jets of light flew from both wands, the floor around the witches' feet became bot and cracked; both woman were fighting to kill.

"No!" Mrs. Weasley cried as Ginny and Draco tried to join, trying to come to her aid. "Get back! Get back! She is mine!"

Hundreds of people now lined the walls, watching the two fights, Voldemort and his three opponents, Bellatrix and Molly, and Harry stood, invisible, torn between both, wanting to attack and yet to protect, unable to be sure that he would not hit the innocent.

"What will happen to your children when I've killed you?" taunted Bellatrix, as mad as her master, capering as Molly's curses danced around her. "When Mummy's gone who will save your little blood traitors? Should I just kill them next like I finished off your entire family before."

"You - will - never - touch - my - family - again!" screamed Mrs. Weasley.

Molly's curse soared beneath Bellatrix's streched arm and hit her squarely in the chest, directly over her heart.

Bellatrix's gloating smile froze, her eyes seemd to bulge: For the tiniest space of time she knew what had happened, and then she toppled, and the watching crowd roared, and Voldemort screamed.

Harry felt as though he turned into slow motin: he saw Sirius, Aurelia and McGonagall blasted backward, flailing and writhing through the air, as Voldemort's fury at the fall of his last, best lieutenant exploded with the force of a bomb, Voldemort raised his wand and directed it at Molly Weasley.

"Protego!" roared Harry, and the Shield Charm expanded in the middle of the fight, and Voldemort stared around for the source as Harry pulled off the Invisibility Cloak at last.

The yell of shock, the cheers, the screams on every side of :"Harry!" "HE'S ALIVE!" were stifled at once. The crowd was afraid, and silence fell abruptly and completely as Voldemort and Harry looked at each other, and began, at the same moment, to circle each other. Everything and everyone stopped, all eyes turning to look at Harry and Voldemort while a few glanced back at Chris still floating in front a frozen Maligno.

"I don't want anyone else to help," Harry said loudly, and in the total silence his voice carried like a trumpet call. "It's got to be like this. It's got to be me."

Voldemort hissed.

"Potter doesn't mean that," he said, his red eyes wide. "This isn't how he works, is it? Who are you going to use as a shield today, Potter?"

"Nobody," said Harry simply. "There are no more Horcruxes. It's just you and me. Neither can live while the other survives, and one of us is about to leave for good. . . ."

"One of us?" jeered Voldemort, and his wholy body was taut and his red eyes stared, a snake that was about to strike. "You think it will be you, do you, the boy who has survived by accident, and because Dumbledore was pulling the strings?"

"Accident, was it, when my mother died to save me?" asked Harry. They were still moving sideways, both of them, in that perfect circle, maintaining the same distance from each other, and for Harry no face existed but Voldemort's. "Accident, when I decided to fight in that graveyard? Accident, that I didn't defend myself tonight, and still survived, and returned to fight again?"

"Accidents!" screamed Voldemort, but still he did not strike, and the watching crowd was frozen as if Petrified, and of the hundreds in there, nobody seemed to breathe but they two. "Accident and chance and the fact that you crouched and sniveled behind the skirts of greater men and women, and permitted me to kill them for you!"

"You won't be killing anyone else tonight," said Harry as they circled, and stared into each other's eyes, green into red. "You won't be able to kill any of them ever again. Don't you get it? I was ready to die to stop you from hurting these people - "

"But you did not!"

" - I meant to, and that's what did it. I've done what my mother did. They're protected from you. Haven't you noticed how none of the spells you put on them are binding? You can't torture them. You can't touch them. You don't learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you?"

"You dare -"

"Yes, I dare!" Harry thundered, his eyes blazing. "It's time to end this, Tom Riddle."

[To be continued]