9 And Scene

The moment we appeared inside the room where the family was situated, a couple of curses flew towards us. I immediately deflected the curses and got into a defensive stance. Thank god for seeker reflexes.

"Mistresses they are allies." Noddy squeaked. I glanced at the little fellow and he was almost in tears. I suppose the attack on the house he served so faithfully had unnerved him.

"What are you saying Noddy?" Amelia Bones barked, still pointing her wand towards me.

"Dobby is an elf who was freed by Harry Potter. Dobby said he could help."

There goes my cover. I could see the reason for her apprehension, but this was not the time for it. And in his distraught state, Noddy couldn't explain his reasoning for trusting Dobby. Even I was curious as to what Dobby had said to convince him, this could have been a fatal mistake on his part if I were not the one who was trying to gain access.

From Hedwig's eye, I could see that Bellatrix and co were trapped in the ground floor while we were on the first floor.

An illusion could work now, but the reason I was doing this in the first place was to gain allies for myself, and also save key figures who would help in the fight. Madam Bones fit both of those categories. I needed her on my side.

I so did not want to do this. But time's a wastin. "Enough. Susan, a few months ago, when we were partnered up in Herbology, you told me about how you finally understood my 'reflected fame'." I then wandlessly lowered the goggles, letting them catch a glimpse of my eyes. I shifted my body towards the direction of the door, in anticipation of the impending fight.

"Harry?" she gasped, as her wand lowered a bit due to the shock.

"Potter? How did-" before Madam Bones could continue, I held up a hand.

"We do not have time, they are already in."

"But we do have time. Right now they must be stuck in the endless corridor." Impressive.

"Then why aren't you using this time to escape?"

"Before I answer you, I need more proof. You can do a corporeal patronus can you not? You said it was a stag. I believe Susan has also seen it in the DA. Prove that it is you."

Still pointing at the door, I imagined myself being admitted to heaven after the successful mission completion and said, "Expecto Patronum."

To my fascination, the silver light that shot out of my wand coalesced into an all too familiar owl. I could feel a sense of contentment coming from Hedwig through the bond. Apparently she just crossed the window and caught a glimpse of the patronus.

"Figures that it would change," I muttered. I looked apologetically at them and said, "Umm, how do I explain this?" before I could say further, another spell came towards me. I promptly batted it away.

"Look, Susan. You recognize the owl right?"

"It does look like your owl-" a responding explosion came from downstairs and rattled the building a bit.

"What was that?"

"They escaped the corridor. They still have the golems and the stairs to go through tough."

"Look, you know that a patronus can change upon immense upheaval. And I almost died again. Isn't it possible that my patronus would take the form of my only living companion? And have you ever seen this eye anywhere else"

"I don't know Potter, nobody got a good look at your eye, and Dumbledore would not allow anyone either. Smart move, but here we are. Not to mention how easy it would be to use a glamor."

"Use your monocle then. Don't tell you have it only for decoration. When Moody has an all seeing eye, I don't see how his department head wouldn't use any enchanted eyewear."

"Auntie I think it really is him." Madam Bones adjusted her monocle and peered hard at me for a moment.

"No glamor. But there is something around your wand. And that knife has some… unpleasant magic on it."

I groaned at that proclamation. How stupid of me. Susan could have easily identified it because of the DA. I quickly undid the illusion on the wand and held it up.

"It is him auntie," she said resolutely. Madam bones waited a few more seconds and then pointed her wand towards the door.

"How are you doing this Potter?" she asked.

I just shrugged and snapped my goggles back on without moving a finger. I then recast the illusion on the wand.

"I suppose we'll have to talk about all that later. Why are we not leaving and instead wasting our time here?" I asked. By now, all of us were facing the door, waiting.

She huffed in indignation and said, "I am the head of the DMLE Potter and this is war. They will always come for me. What do you think will happen if I retreat now? They will just assassinate me in my office. They won't stop trying until they can get a stooge in place. We don't have enough manpower for a round the clock protective detail around all our important people. Who knows how many have already been imperiused. The war just started weeks ago and we are already at a massive disadvantage. He had a whole year to prepare while we weren't doing anything thanks to Fudge. The protection detail for Rufus alone is pushing our numbers as it is." If what she said was true, then this was way worse than I thought.

"So this was your last stand?"

"Yes, these creatures took almost everything from me. It was only fair that I got my revenge. Even our special department specific communication is down. I expected no reinforcements."

"But Auntie!" Susan whined.

"She refuses to leave. I know that these monsters won't even consider house elves, none of us ever do. That's why I kept Noddy close. But she won't listen. I even tried to stun her and get her out of here, but apparently you taught her too well," Susan just smirked in response.

"So, how many did you take care of? And guessing by your blood soaked clothes, I suppose you dealt with them permanently."

"Nine down. Six remain. Bellatrix is one of them, so it wouldn't be easy."

She mouthed the word nine and shook her head in disbelief. Another explosion went off below, but this one seemed a bit closer.

"They took out the golems. Now only the traps in the stairs remain. Is it too greedy to hope that some of them perished in the traps?"

"No, but knowing my luck, highly unlikely."

After a few minutes, the Death Eaters led by the crazy witch blew the door apart and entered the room. They looked a bit haggard, and one of them was even limping, but it looked like they survived the traps just fine. We were all a bit spread out, in order to avoid drawing concentrated attacks. It would split them up, I was sure of that. The elves were hiding out of sight, since we did not want the Death Eaters to know of their presence.

Hedwig was perched on a branch, right outside the window. The additional field of view would help me in the battle.

Bellatrix took one look at us and began cackling madly.

"You blood traitor of a bitch, I will have fun killing you and the little bint over there. And who are you supposed to be? Some jumped up mudblood trying to oppose their betters?"

I did not dignify her with a response and sent a bombarda maxima her way. The Death Eaters wordlessly divided themselves into pairs and approached each of us. To my dismay, Bellatrix had gone towards Madam Bones first. But I knew that it was only a matter of time before I joined in on that duel.

Trapping my two opponents under an illusion, I made them fire on my spot. I put up a shield and immediately took several steps to the right. In their eyes, I was still standing there and shielding against their barrage. I banished Hirudo towards one of them while I sent a powerful cutter towards the other. As Hirudo sunk itself into the Death Eater's stomach, the other one's decapitated head fell on the floor with a thud.

He screamed in agony and grasped Hirudo's handle. Mistake. In agitation, Hirudo flared out its magic and cut his palm viciously. As his screams intensified, I sent a reductor to his face and accioed the knife. As I rushed towards Susan, I saw her dodging an Avada Kedavra as her stunner connecting with a Death Eater, but at the same time, the other Death Eater's piercing hex hit her shoulder. She doubled down in pain, but despite that, she prudently put up a shield and blocked a curse which I vaguely recalled as something that would cause organ damage.

Her opponent let out a hollow laugh and launched a killing curse at her. Before it could reach her, I transfigured the ground in front of her into a wall. The curse hit the wall and it exploded. Thankfully, her shield was good enough to block the shrapnel.

All this time, I was also looking at the battle between Madam Bones and her opponents through Hedwig. She was locked in a fierce duel with Bellatrix while the other Death Muncher covered Bellatrix. On her own, Bellatrix was formidable, but with someone shielding her and then sending out curses to support her, she was nearly invincible. On the other hand, Madam Bones did not let up and displayed a skill with combat that I had only seen Voldemort, Dumbledore and Bellatrix exceed.

Madam Bones made judicious use of transfiguration and shields to eat up the onslaught of spells while her own offensive spells were often hidden behind her transfigurations. This surprised her opponents and gave them less time to dodge, but since it was two against one, they would often shield themselves just in the nick of time. It was more like, the support was the one doing that while Bellatrix was just solely focused on herself and her opponent.

One instance was when the Death Eater destroyed a transfigured wolf approaching him, but what he didn't see coming was the bone breaker which was right behind the wolf. The bone breaker caught him right in the ribs, and she took the opportunity to direct another wolf towards him, which mauled him promptly.

Now it was one versus one but still the battle was more in Bellatrix's favor.

Meanwhile, Susan and I had regrouped and were sending a hail of spells towards her opponent. Before I could cast another illusion, Susan let out a roar of anger and charged towards the other duel. Her opponent took this moment to send another killing curse at her. Right in the nick of time, I managed to cast an illusion on him which made him think that Susan was moving slower than she actually was.

My reductor hit him in the stomach as his killing curse safely sailed onto the wall a few meters behind Susan. As he kneeled on the ground, I banished Hirudo, which promptly lodged itself into his forehead. I let it stay there absorb as much blood as it could, since I would need its other ability soon enough.

Due to the shared vision, I could see the cause for Susan's agitation. Madam Bones had sidestepped a killing curse, but she had stepped right into the path of a cutting curse variant. Blood gushed out of her torso as she collapsed almost immediately. I couldn't even believe my eyes when I saw the casting that Bellatrix had done. She had sent out an Avada Kedavra, and immediately followed it with two consecutive curses that flanked the killing curse on either side.

I briefly looked at the one Susan had previously stunned and then cast a stunner of my own at him. I suppose I shouldn't have killed so many of them and left some for interrogation. No, what I did was correct. Capture can be done from an advantageous position. When they were the ones with the numerical advantage, we had to focus on our survival first and foremost.

Susan meanwhile had started bombarding Bellatrix with something that looked like bone splintering curses. It must have been some variant in their grimoire. Bellatrix on the other hand was dodging and cackling madly. Instead of retaliating, she was just taunting her like she taunted me in the ministry. I could see that Susan was losing steam. She was also injured and such large scale magic usage wouldn't be good for her now.

Dobby did not show himself because I had ordered him to stay out of sight unless it was inevitable. Noddy though, was stricken with grief. He started hurling cutlery at Bellatrix with great speed and accuracy. It caught her off for a second, but she deftly sent a curse towards Susan and while the barrage stopped for a second, she turned around and hit Noddy with a curse. The elf crashed into the window and was flung out of the house.

By this time, I had finished my duel and was now right in front of Susan.

"Take her to Mungo's I will finish it here."

Susan hesitated for a second, and then nodded resolutely. She caught the unconscious figure of her aunt and realized that Noddy just got hit. Before she could ask, I rose a wall in front of us and called for Dobby. He appeared next to us, clutching a battered and bleeding Noddy.

"Mungo's Dobby," I whispered.

"I will come back for you sir," he said and disappeared with them. He'd mostly drop them on the doorstep since the inside was protected. I made a large hole in the floor, making it look like they used that to escape. Right then, the wall in front of me exploded.

I transfigured the debris into knives and flung them back towards her. She quickly batted them away with a shield of her own and stared at me with crazed eyes.

"Where are they?" she roared. She then looked at the hole and seemed to understand how they escaped.

"I will not fail my master again!" she then sent a killing curse at me. But from the shared vision, I could see that like what she did to Bones, this was also flanked by two other curses. I stepped to the side, a protego maxima already in front of me. The shield deflected the flank and I immediately sent out a couple of bone breakers at her. We started trading spells in a similar vein for a couple of minutes as I tried to trap her in an illusion.

She cackled madly and said, "Your legilimency will not work on me fool." I realized that the illusions were not taking hold. Her mind was well protected. It felt artificial, but even stronger than the one the shopkeeper in Knockturn had. At least my illusions worked on him even if he was aware that I was doing something. Here, it was like trying to breach a brick wall with a pocket knife.

There goes my major advantage. At least she didn't know that I was casting an illusion and mistook it as a legilimency probe. Silver linings and all that. I'd like to see her laugh when I learned the reality warping illusions.

Throughout the exchange, I reached an epiphany. I did not need to kill her right now. If I was right, I could get my hands on Hufflepuff's cup this night. This was an opportunity I was not willing to waste.

I hid my left hand behind me and pulsed a bit of magic to it. Hirudo disappeared from the Death Eater's skull and formed in my hand. At this point, the blood cost was not much of an issue since I was still uninjured.

I tried to close the gap between us, but she saw the blade and understood that I wanted to stab her. As a result she started putting distance between us while casting fatal curses all the same.

How much stamina did this insane bitch have? I was almost empty now due to all the fighting I had been doing. I switched to the fourth path once I realized that. Thankfully, I had made the googles reflective, so she could not see the flames surrounding the eye. The magical flames were anyway ceremonial and wouldn't burn anything. Their purpose after all, was to give an indication to the power left.

With renewed Vigor, I began casting spells aiming to capture her. Every now and then, I banished and summoned Hirudo, aiming to cut her. Just one good cut would be enough to initiate the process.

It went like this for a while and I could see that she was beginning to get tired. She had stopped using unforgivables a little while ago, in order to conserve strength. In my single minded focus to get closer to her, I did not notice a trap that she had laid for me. The floor beneath me transformed and spikes rose from the ground. I jumped to the side to avoid it, and right on cue, a bone breaker rushed towards me. It was already too close to me for me to put up a shield. I crossed my arms in front of me and pushed with as much magic as I could muster.

I had completely pushed away the curse through sheer magic, but it cost a lot out of me. The fourth path was almost done now, and I could notice that the flames were dwindling.

Letting my guard down at that moment was a grave mistake though, because the bone breaker was followed closely by another one. I tried to dodge it, but it hit my forearm. My wand clattered on the floor as I let out a scream due to the pain.

That was stupid, now I had to depend solely on Hirudo and the other paths. I could not cast accurately from my left hand so I had to make to do with what I had. The first path wasn't affecting her. The second path was non combative unless I managed to possess her. The fourth path was pretty much useless since my wandless repertoire was very small. And I had already used the fifth path for the day. I only had the third and the sixth paths to depend on.

"Out of tricks, are we, mudblood?"

I flung Hidrudo at her and banished it with as much force as I could and switched to the third path. I immediately summoned a horde of bees and sent them after her. The loss of the magic was palpable and I could clearly feel that my reserves were almost dry.

Just as she dodged the knife, the bees swarmed her. Hedwig used this opportunity to fly in from a blind spot and slashed at her wand arm with her talons. The next instant, she was out of the window. Her newfound speed was astounding. Bellatrix shouted in frustration and before she could even see what hurt her hand, I maneuvered the blade to stab her from behind. She heard the sound of the knife flying towards her and dodged it again. She then burned the bees and turned towards me. Her arm was bleeding, several bees had stung her; she was a sorry sight right now.

By this time, I had caught Hirudo and switched back to the fourth path. The blade had consumed enough blood for the day to activate its other ability. I pushed magic into the blade and slashed repeatedly at the air. Cutting curse after cutting curse rained from Hirudo. The variant had the same curse as the blade possessed. The wounds would not heal for some time, if I managed to hit her.

All this exertion increased the pain coming from my dangling right arm. I grit my teeth and continued regardless.

She dodged a few, she shielded against a few, but at the end, one curse sliced into her abdomen quite nicely. Bellatrix grunted in pain and I immediately launched Hirudo at her. In her injured state, she tumbled out of the way, but the blade managed to leave a gash on her thigh nonetheless.

She roared in fury and sent a killing curse at me in return. I immediately dove to the side and summoned the blade back to me. She tried to shoot it out of the way, but the blade cut through her curse because by now it had drunk in a lot of blood and was at its peak. I caught the blade and immediately sent another cutter after her. She did not bother shielding and cast a killing curse right at the cutter. The killing curse slowed for a moment, but then blew apart the arc of magic and flew towards me.

Switching to the third path immediately, I summoned a flock of sparrows right in the path of the curse. I then switched to the sixth path. Even though the conditions were now met I did not have enough magic to possess her now, but I could bombard her mind as it was.

Apparently she was also spent, as she was took a hunched stance, panting heavily. The moment I tried to tap into her mind, she began to roar in fury.

"What are you doing filth? How dare you try to read my mind?" To my surprise, the protections around her mind were still strong. But then I noticed that a jewel in her bracelet began to smoke as I continued my onslaught. This must be how she protected her mind completely. It made sense, someone as mad as her would not have the disciple to temper her mind for occlumency. But since these trinkets were not widely spread, I suppose they must be very expensive.

She grimaced as she held her abdomen. She then glanced at the smoking bracelet and scowled even more.

"Listen well you trash. I will be the one to kill you, whoever you are," she snarled and then brought down the anti-transportation jinxes. She then activated a portkey and disappeared.

I immediately sat hard on the ground and let out a long breath. I was glad that she had decided to depart. I was spent. Even the fourth path was out of all the stored magic due to the final assault of cutting curses. Hirudo returned back to its new home in a flash of red and I immediately called for Dobby. I did not even have enough strength in me to stand now.

"Dobby"

"Yes sir," he appeared right next to me.

"My wand," he levitated it back to my outstretched hand. I awkwardly held it in my left hand and retuned it back to the holster. For not even two weeks of training, I had come a long way. But this fight showed me the holes in my offense and how my inexperience hurt me during a prolonged fight. The first thing I needed to learn upon going back is to cast from my left hand as well.

Hedwig flew back in and landed on my shoulder. She sent a wave of affection towards me as I chuckled.

"Thank you girl. You were great out there. Both of you," Hedwig projected happiness through the connection while Dobby's smile was ear to ear. I then looked at Dobby and continued, "Drop this fucker outside the ministry and come back quickly. Don't be seen," I pointed towards the only other surviving Death Eater on the floor.

Dobby returned within seconds and nodded his head, he too looked tired from all he had to do this day.

"Don't take me anywhere else. Don't let anyone inside my room. I will heal myself in the morning. Take it easy till then." I then drifted off as Dobby popped me home.