|
Don't Give Up On Me | ||||||
|
Category: Alternate Universe Characters:All Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama, Romance Warnings: Death, Mild Language, Mild Sexual Situations, Violence Rating: PG-13 Reviews: 173 Summary: Harry Potter has a destiny to defeat Voldemort and save the Wizarding World, but it’s hard to do when he’s the only one who knows that the Dark Lord has returned. Hitcount: Story Total: 50406; Chapter Total: 1205 Awards: View Trophy Room Author's Notes: Warning: Character deaths (not graphic) |
Previous Next |
|
||||
|
Harry stared down at Shacklebolt, eyes wide. Around him, the Order was taking control. The Death Eaters had been overrun by the resistance. Moody was in charge; Harry could hear him ordering people around and the distinct ‘whoosh’ of portkeys taking groups of prisoners away. “What do you mean you’re Lovegood’s spy?” Ron said. His wand was inches from Kingsley’s head, but the man didn’t flinch away or even seem to be paying Ron any mind at all. His black eyes were focused solely on Harry. “I’ve been feeding The Quibbler classified information for years now,” he said. “If I’d had any idea there was an organized group fighting, I would have come to you.” “Prove it,” Harry bit out. “Tell me something only Lovegood would know.” “I was there the day that the Lovegood home was destroyed--” “Where?!” burst out Ron. “We were there seconds after--” “You wouldn’t have seen me,” said Kingsley. His gaze flashed to Ron for a long second before returning to Harry. “I cast a memory charm on Xenophilius moments before Alastor Moody arrived. I watched from a hiding spot as you picked through the rubble. You took a book from the ruins.” “Doesn’t prove anything,” Harry said. “You might’ve been there as Voldemort’s spy.” “I was the source who verified the information you gave to Xenophilius about the Dark Lord taking over the Ministry. I confirmed it for him, fed him the names of high-profile Death Eaters, and even helped him print and distribute the paper.” Harry ran his hand through his hair as he thought about it. There was no dark mark on Shacklebolt’s forearm, but that didn’t mean much. “Why would you stay and work for Voldemort?” Hermione asked. “You knew what he was doing!” “Of course, I knew,” said Shacklebolt, “but I had no idea that anyone else did. There were no other Aurors who did, I thought. Tonks did a good job of hiding her loyalties until the end. By the time I realized she was fighting with you, it was too late. I needed to stay and do what I could to sabotage them from the inside.” “Harry, what do you think?” Ginny whispered. She was still cradling her hand that was swelling and turning purple. “I don’t--” A motion at his side startled Harry and he looked down to see Luna Lovegood, as serene as if she’d been strolling through a garden, standing next to him. “You’ve found Kingsley, Harry,” she said. “He’s one of Daddy’s closest friends, you know.” Harry’s eyes widened. “Luna? You know him?” “Of course,” she said plainly. “Kingsley helps us write for The Quibbler. And sometimes he comes over for tea, although he has been rather busy lately.” “Why’re you out of hiding?” Ron accused. “You’re supposed to be--” “I came to help.” Luna’s protuberant eyes pinched at the corners as she smiled. “Of course, you came to help,” Ron grumbled. “Don’t suppose your father came, too?” “No,” she said. “Sadly, he kept trying to leave in the past few months, so Mister Moody put a charm on the house. Every time Daddy gets near an exit, he forgets what he’s doing and thinks of something more important. I could have removed it, I suppose, but it was keeping Daddy safe. I thought it best to leave it where it was, for now.” “Luna, you can vouch for Kingsley?” Ginny asked “Yes,” she said immediately. With his foot, Harry nudged Kingsley’s wand back toward him. It rolled along the stones in the floor, but Kingsley didn’t pick it up. “Are you sure, Harry?” Ron asked. “Might be part of another trap. Or, he could be a double agent.” “He’s already a double agent, Ron,” said Ginny. “Okay, a triple agent, then.” “He might,” said Harry, “but we can’t spend all day discussing this. We need to get to Hogsmeade; that’s where Voldemort is. And...I trust Luna.” “Percy never told us about him,” Ron pointed out. “Percy Weasley is a spy, as well?” Kingsley said. His eyebrows rose slowly. “I suppose that explains a few things.” “You didn’t trust anyone, did you?” Hermione said. “I couldn’t,” said Kingsley. “Too many were either Death Eaters or under the Imperius curse.” He stood and tucked his wand into the sleeve of his robes “What about Dawlish?” Harry asked. “He was just an arse,” Shacklebolt said with a shrug. “I have no idea if he believed the ideology or not, but he wanted the recognition and power that the Dark Lord offered. Not everyone took the mark, you know.” Ginny rested her head against Harry’s shoulder, and he glanced down at her pale face. “Right. I need to get Ginny to the infirmary, and we need to get down to Hogsmeade.” “I can heal your hand, Ginny,” Luna said. “I’ve been studying to be a Healer from home. Normally, I use all sorts of roots and herbs, but spells work just as well, most of the time.” Ginny looked relieved and moved past Harry to allow Luna to heal her broken hand. Hermione joined them, leaving Ron, Harry, and Shacklebolt together. “You’re the one in the prophecy, aren’t you?” Shacklebolt asked Harry. “You know about the prophecy?” “Not what it said, just that one existed. I spent many nights hidden in that hallway making sure they couldn’t get into the Department of Mysteries to see it. I’d overheard enough to know that he wanted in there badly enough. Luckily for me, his focus was always so intent that he wasn’t able to sense me there. I’d have been dead long before now if he’d ever caught me.” Harry considered that and gave a single nod. “I’m the one.” Kingsley’s dark eyes widened. “Let me join you to finish this. I need to see him gone before I answer for the things I’ve done.” Harry wasn’t sure how to respond, but he gave another nod and turned to see that Ginny appeared to be whole again, thanks to Luna. “Let’s go,” he said to the group of them. Students were being directed into the Great Hall in groups and handed portkeys. He watched two different groups hold random items and then disappear out of sight. Two women he knew as Order members nodded to him, but kept the lines flowing to evacuate the castle as Harry and his friends passed. Shacklebolt followed. Xxxxx Harry led the procession of fighters through the castle--now eerily quiet without the sound of the student’s trampling feet and the barricade noise--toward the entrance to the hidden passageway that led into Honeydukes. It felt odd to have so many people following wherever he led and listening to him tell them what to do. For so many years it had just been he and Ginny who were fighting at every turn, that it made Harry feel off-kilter and self-conscious. “Alright?” he asked Ginny when she came up to walk beside him and slid her left hand into his. “Yeah. It’s still achy, but Luna did a good job.” She held up her hand and flexed the fingers, opening and closing it. “I can’t believe you broke your hand on Malfoy’s nose.” “Always knew he had a thick head,” Ginny said with a scoff. “Besides, I was defending your honor.” Harry snorted and would have kissed her, but they arrived at the entrance. Neville pushed his way to the front to stand next to Harry. “We know it’s safe?” he asked. “No,” admitted Harry, “but Moody came through here, so I’m betting that the Order has taken control of at least Honeydukes.” That seemed to placate Neville and he lit his wand before descending into the tunnel. Harry blinked at the man, still unnerved by this confident, almost reckless side of Neville Longbottom. “In you go,” he said to the rest. Hermione and Ginny ducked inside, followed by Ron. Shacklebolt, Luna Lovegood, and several other Seventh year students nodded toward Harry as they passed. Hagrid brought up the rear of the group. “Tha’ tunnel’s not big enough for me,” he pointed out. “I’ll find another way. I jus’ wanted to make sure you got here safely.” He patted Harry on the shoulder and his black eyes shown brightly in the low light of the hallway. “I’m right proud of yeh, Harry. Yer a good man.” Before Harry could respond, Hagrid turned away, his pink umbrella in hand, and lumbered down the hallway and out of sight. “Harry?” Ginny’s voice from the tunnel shook Harry awake. “Coming,” he responded, and closed the tunnel. He debated sealing it so no one could follow and trap them inside, but he didn’t feel right about cutting off an exit, if needed. Instead, he quickly set a ward on the door to warn them if someone did open the passageway again. The rune he drew glowed blue at the edges before fading into the wood. Xxxxx Honeyduke’s cellar was dusty and covered with abandoned boxes. Harry and Ginny were the last to enter through the trap door and found themselves jumbled together, all held under the formidable wand of Fleur Weasley. She ran Harry through a complex identification process before her shoulders slumped and she sat down on a pile of boxes. Harry’s eyes were drawn to the little round belly that she curled her arm over. “Have you seen my Bill?” she asked. “He was making portkeys in the Great Hall less than ten minutes ago,” Ginny assured her sister-in-law with a pat on her shoulder. Fleur nodded her head and swiped at her eyes with her hands, leaving streaks of dirt smeared on her face. Strangely, Harry thought it made her appear more beautiful, if that were possible. “Good. He is good at those. And he will be safe there.” “Everything secure up there?” Harry nodded to the staircase. “Oui,” said Fleur. “Tonks has secured it. She is stationed upstairs. I believe there are others; I heard footsteps, but I did not leave my post.” Harry reached out and gave her hand a quick squeeze before urging the others on. He had to nudge one of the boys, whose jaw dropped open and eyes went glassy at seeing Fleur. “Come on,” he said with a scowl. “Stop ogling and get up the steps. That’s my sister, you know.” The boy shook himself, but Harry saw him shoot glances backward over his shoulder as they climbed the steps. Harry rolled his eyes in Ginny’s direction, but was surprised at the strange expression on her face. He didn’t have time to question it, however, because Tonks was standing in front of him in the next second. She looked awful--pale face, mousy brown hair pulled back severely into a knot at the base of her skull. Her eyes were red and bloodshot, puffy purple skin surrounded them. Harry wondered if she’d heard about Remus but decided that she must have; Sirius would have made sure to tell her himself. “Wotcher, Harry,” she said as she took his hand to help him up the last few steps. “Ginny.” “Everything alright here?” he asked. The windows of Honeydukes were charmed dark, but he could still see through them. Harry peered past the displays of sweets--licorice wands, blood-flavored lollipops, and a massive jar of Fizzing Whizbees--through the dusky window that showed the main street of Hogsmeade. “Quiet for right now,” said Tonks. She came to stand next to Harry. “Moody ordered me to stay here. Said I wasn’t to be running about being ‘emotionally compromised’.” Harry glanced at her, but her expression was stone. “Tonks--” “Not right now, Harry,” she said. “I can’t...I can’t think about that. I need to focus on my job and on keeping you alive long enough to do whatever it is you need to do.” “Right.” Harry understood. Grief was a strange thing, and everyone dealt with it in a different way. He and Tonks were a lot alike in how they handled it, Harry thought. “What else has been going on? Neville said the whole place was under siege.” Kingsley Shacklebolt came up to stand on Harry’s other side and Tonks’ eyes went wide. She raised her wand, but Harry forced her hand to go down. “He’s on our side; he’s been a spy the whole time.” “And you believe him?!” She tugged her wand out of Harry’s grip and leveled it at Kingsley. The tall Auror didn’t flinch but seemed resigned. “You don’t know the things he’s done, Harry. I’ve seen him…” She stopped speaking and clamped her lips closed, shaking her head. “How could you be on our side?” “I will pay for my crimes,” said Kingsley, “but only after Voldemort pays for his.” “He’s the spy for The Quibbler, Tonks,” said Harry. “Luna vouched for him.” “I still don’t trust him--” “You don’t have to trust me,” said Shacklebolt. “I don’t deserve it, but I am fighting for the same outcome. That monster needs to be gone.” Tonks narrowed her eyes but turned back to look out the window again. “A few skirmishes now and again up toward the end of the street, but the shopkeepers have held their own. We’ve stationed Order members here and there along the way up to Hogwarts. I think most of the Death Eaters went up there, to be honest.” “Not all,” said Kingsley. “There are many you don’t know about. He has a loyal following.” “So do we,” snapped Tonks. Harry bristled, but dismissed it. “What more do we need to secure?” Just as he finished asking, George burst into the shop through the front door. “They’re at the gates!” he yelled before disappearing again. Harry watched him scurry across the street to another shop. “Let’s go,” Harry said. “We can’t let them get back into Hogwarts.” Order members and the residents of Hogsmeade filled the street, abandoning their shops as they marched toward Hogwarts. Several of them shot Harry strange looks, but he did his best to ignore them. In the throng, Harry saw faces he recognized–Cedric and Amos Diggory were walking determinedly toward the school gates. Cedric caught Harry’s eye and gave him a nod before turning back to something his father was saying to him. And there were others–people Harry’d known from Hogwarts, and the Ministry–even Annaliese Hawkins–all headed toward whatever confrontation was looming. Ginny greeted both her parents with quick hugs and explained the things that had happened at Hogwarts as they walked. In the back of his mind, Harry couldn’t help but wonder when Voldemort himself would appear. The flash of menacing thoughts while Harry’d been in the Chamber still rang clear in his memory. Harry knew Voldemort would come and knew that he would have to face the monster and end this once and for all. But there was still the horcrux in the snake, Nagini, to be dealt with. Harry knew that Voldemort would now be guarding the snake furiously, having lost all his other horcruxes. It would be no easy feat to kill it, and Harry still had no idea how it would be done. Ginny’d wrapped the basilisk fang in her torn robes and it was tucked away in Harry’s pocket. The wards over Hogwarts flashed in the darkening sky, lighting up the growing evening with brilliant, menacing color. Whatever protections Professors McGonagall and Flitwick had set up were holding, for the moment, under the onslaught of spells that Voldemort’s followers were throwing at them. The attack shifted when the Order flanked the Death Eaters. They began defending themselves, rather than trying to break the wards surrounding the castle. Harry felt as if it were all a blur around him. Spell fire erupted and Harry threw up a shield to protect himself. He ran forward and engaged a man he’d never seen before, but who grinned with broken, dark teeth at him and tried to slash through his shield with a curse Harry didn’t know. As his spell rang against Harry’s shield, George fired a spell of his own, crushing the man’s knees and making him cry out in agony. Harry summoned the man’s wand and broke it in two before tossing it away. All around him, Order members were fighting. He saw Ron head-butt one Death Eater while Hermione cut down another. Others he’d known from Hogwarts--Seamus Finnegan, Dean Thomas, and even some of the girls--had been in Hogsmeade, too, and were fighting. Harry shot off spell after spell, trying to find Ginny in the fray, but she must have worked her way around to the far side, because he could see no sign of her. The battle seemed to go on forever, even though Harry knew it was only minutes. More and more Death Eaters were apparating away rather than face those who were fighting back. “Cowards,” Harry muttered viciously, even as he felt a wave of relief wash over him. His glasses were broken again, and he could feel a trickle of blood near his ear, but Harry kept fighting until, at last, he looked around and could see no further threats. Any Death Eaters left were being contained by Kingsley and Tonks, a portkey slapped to the lapels of their robes, and sent away. “Where are you sending them?” Harry asked. “Moody set up a secure location,” said Tonks. “We’ll sort them out later.” Her left arm hung limp at her side, but she still worked with fierceness and speed to remove the threat from the scene. “This isn’t the end,” Kingsley warned Harry as he sent another away. “I don’t even know these ones. And I haven’t seen Lucius Malfoy, or the Lestrange brothers at all today. His most loyal fighters aren’t even here.” Harry grimaced, nodded, and turned away to find Ginny. He walked through the makeshift triage that Luna and Madam Pomfrey had set up outside the gates of Hogwarts, praying that he wouldn’t see Ginny lying there. He found her, along with George, Ron, Hermione, and Mr. Weasley, at the back of the group. Molly Weasley lay on the ground, her wizarding cap abandoned and her hair covering her face. Harry’s heart leapt into his throat as he stared at the only mother he’d known lying on the cold ground. “She’s okay,” Hermione burst out when she realized that Harry stood next to her, “only hurt.” Ginny sat on the ground, her mother’s head in her lap, and tears streaming down her face. “Dolohov,” she snapped, her eyes flashing with fire. “He’s the one who killed her brothers, and she took him on all alone.” “She’ll be alright,” Mr. Weasley muttered over and over. He knelt at his wife’s side, clutching her hand in his own. “Did she at least get the bastard?” Ron asked. “Yeah,” said George. “Crushed both his hands, but he got one last spell in. Not sure what it was, but--” “Get someone over here,” Harry said. “Someone who can--” “She’s not the worst off, Harry,” said Hermione. “They’re doing the best they can. Give them--” But Harry didn’t want to hear that. He only knew that Molly needed saving. He couldn’t lose her. “I don’t care about anyone else, get them--” “Harry!” “Hermione, she’s...she’s…” “I know.” Her hand rested on his arm and Harry fought the urge to push it away. “She’ll be fine, Harry,” said Ginny. “We’ll take care of her.” Harry gave a nod but had to turn away. His eyes scanned those who had fallen--too many--and the few left who were trying to help them. Neville was trailing after Luna, limping, and helping where he could. Fleur, who had stayed behind for the fighting, was now on her knees next to Lavender Brown, wrapping bandages around the girl’s arm, which looked to be badly burned. Sirius, his arm wrapped in a sling, limped up to stand next to Harry. Harry startled; the last time he’d seen Sirius, he’d been going with McGonagall to hunt down Fenrir Greyback. “Harry?” “I’m fine,” Harry said automatically. Sirius blinked and then nodded. “Greyback?” “Dead,” said Sirius. “But not without cost.” Harry’s heart gave a painful thump in his chest. “Who?” “Bill was attacked, but he’ll live,” said Sirius. “Don’t know if it was bad enough to turn him. We’ll have to wait and see.” But there was more, Harry could see it in Sirius’ eyes. “McGonagall?” “Tough old bird,” Sirius said. “She’ll be okay. Banished that bitch Umbridge through a wall. But Flitwick...it was too late by the time I found him. Greyback tore him apart. I...I actually enjoyed crushing every bone in his body.” Harry opened his mouth to answer, but a searing pain erupted in his head as a low, hissing voice came into his mind. “Enough have died today, Harry Potter,” it said, “while you have hidden behind school children like a coward. Come to me in the Forbidden Forest. Sacrifice yourself and no more have to suffer. Do not, and I will unleash hell upon those who fight for you.” Sirius held him up as he swayed. “Harry!” “I’m fine,” Harry said as he pressed his hand to his forehead. The pain receded as quickly as it came, leaving him feeling weak and dizzy. “I need...I have something I need to do, Sirius.” “I’m coming--” “No!” Harry blinked away the feeling and forced himself to stand upright. “No. I need you to do something for me.” He reached into the pocket of his robes and found the basilisk fang, wrapped in part of Ginny’s robes that she’d torn away. He pressed the bundle into Sirius’ hand. “Kill the snake,” he said. “It’s...imperative, Sirius. The snake has to die, or...or this will never end.” Sirius’ eyes swirled with confusion, but he nodded and tucked the fang into the sling holding his arm to his chest. “Okay. Kill the snake.” “Kill the snake.” |
| Reviews 173 |
Previous Next
|
