MetaFic

Harry fell to the ground as the force of the blast washed over them. He managed to keep a hold on Ginny through the fall, but once he was on the ground she leapt from his arms. Harry looked up and gasped at the sight before him.

A tower of flames rose from Wisteria Walk. Harry watched as another explosion rocked the ground and large quantities of earth and debris were thrown in the air.

Harry scrambled to his feet as people started rushing into the streets, some screaming and trying to flee the scene, others rushing toward the disaster.

Harry gathered up Ginny. "I think we'd better get back to Privet Drive." He turned and fled for the potential safety of the Dursley's home.

As they rounded a corner, Harry could see several flashes of green and red coming from the vicinity of Privet Drive. He pulled up and came to halt. It was obvious a massive spell battle was taking place at the Dursley's residence. He put Ginny down and pulled out his wand. He started toward Privet Drive.

Ginny lunged in front of him, her back arched and tail puffed out. She hissed loudly.

Harry looked down at her. "I've got to–"

Ginny hissed again, then batted the pendant on her collar.

Harry looked one more time toward Privet Drive, then swallowed. "Right, we don't know what we'd be running into, so we get away and call for help." Harry reached down and picked Ginny back up. "We need to get somewhere without all these Muggles."

Harry looked around at the panicked humanity rushing chaotically up and down the streets. In the distance he could hear sirens closing in. Another large explosion went off on Wisteria Walk and a sudden woofing noise announced a new fire starting on Privet Drive. He thought if they could reach the park, they could use the portkey without discovery. Harry turned and sprinted away.

They reached the park without incident and Harry dashed deeper into it, closing in on the large stand of oaks near the back of the park. Periodically he would look over his shoulder for pursuit. He held Ginny tightly as he ran. He was nearly to the trees when something unexpected lying on the ground caused him to trip. He fell forward, flinging Ginny toward a small bush, where she landed with a hiss and startled mew.

Harry rolled over to see what he had tripped on and found himself looking into the glazed, unblinking eyes of Hestia Jones. The front of her robes were still smoldering from whatever curse had struck her down.

Harry climbed to his feet and drew his wand. He swallowed and started to back slowly toward the trees.

"What's the matter little Potter? You act like you've never seen a dead body before."

Harry recognized the voice of Bellatrix LeStrange. "Show yourself, bitch!"

"Oh my, such notty-potty language from an itty-bitty boy," Bellatrix's high-pitched voice cooed from the darkness.

Harry cast three quick stunners into the darkness in the general direction of her voice.

"Expelliarmus!" Bellatrix called out.

Harry's wand was struck from his hand. He dived for where it had fallen.

Bellatrix LeStrange stepped from the darkness and aimed her wand at Harry. "Crucio!"

Harry took the curse full on. He doubled over with the pain, but kept trying to reach his wand. When Bellatrix took the curse off, Harry collapsed to the ground, but continued his crawl toward his wand.

"That's how you cast an unforgivable, little boy," she sneered. "Crucio!"

Harry curled up in pain as she held the curse on him. He was sure he felt something break inside of him. He was rapidly losing the ability to control his muscles.

Bellatrix took the curse off again.

Harry crawled to his hand and knees and, on all fours, emptied the contents of his stomach on the ground. He looked up at his tormentor with pain-filled eyes. "Is that the best you've got, lady?"

"Poor baby Potter. Sold out by his only family for a handful of gold coins." She smiled at the look of shock on Harry's face. "Oh yes, that piggy uncle of yours offered you right up to us. You aunt didn't even protest one little bit." Bellatrix's cruel smile widened even more. "Of course, once they accepted the gold and the protections fell, we didn't really need them anymore." She raised her wand to curse him again, but a sudden movement to her left made her turn.

Ginny Weasley, eyes dilated wide and hair a wild tangle about her head, sprung at LeStrange from the bushes to the left. The older woman tried to bring her wand to bear on the teenager, but she was too slow.

Harry watched in shock as Ginny's nails, elongated and sharp, struck her adversary across the left eye and cheek. There was a terrible wet ripping, and then Bellatrix screamed and dropped her wand, falling to her knees and covering her ruined eye with her hands. Ginny planted one foot and kicked Bellatrix's head as if it were a football. LeStrange flipped backward and lay still.

Ginny scooped up both Harry's and Bellatrix's wands. She dashed over to Harry and, kneeling beside him passed him his wand. Without a word she snapped Bellatrix's over her knee. The wand spit sparks, then lay dormant. Ginny put a hand on Harry's shoulder, stopping him from trying to stand.

"Oh, Harry, why do these things always happen to you?" she said, grabbing him firmly and touching the pendant on her choker. "The Burrow!" she cried out.

The familiar sensation of being jerked about the navel took them both. A moment later they found themselves deposited in the Burrow.

Smack in the middle of a room filled with smoke and flames. Around them they could hear yelled hexes and curses as a wizarding firefight raged both inside and outside.

Harry had only moments to react as a wizard in a mask and black robes loomed out of the smoke. Harry grabbed Ginny and rolled right as the Killing Curse blasted away the section of floor they had been occupying moments before. Harry cast a stunner as he rolled. The spell tore through the wizard's shield, and the Death Eater collapsed in a heap.

"This can't be good," Harry said, climbing painfully to his feet.

"We have to get out of here!" Ginny yelled.

They scanned the room. The fireplace and floo powder offered no escape; the flames had engulfed that entire wall. They looked around in a near panic as the Weasley's home succumbed to the fire; flames raced around the old wooden building at an alarming rate. Harry realized that the fire must be fueled by magic.

"Come on!" he yelled. Grabbing Ginny's hand, he dashed for the back door.

Right into a Death Eater ambush.

Four different spells were flung at the two teenagers. Harry's hastily erect shield deflected two of them, and one went wide. The fourth spell struck Harry on the shoulder, spinning him around like a rag doll. Harry came up against the far kitchen wall.

Ginny pointed her wand and cried out "Reducto!"

The four dark wizards dived out of the way as Ginny's spell whizzed past. The spell struck the wall behind the Death Eaters, collapsing it down, and caused the ceiling to crash.

With a strength and speed born of desperation, Ginny grabbed Harry and dragged him back toward the burning family room.

They dashed up the stairs, racing the fire the entire way. They burst into Ron's room and, after a moment's hesitation, looked at each other, held hands, and jumped from the third story window.

Harry hit the ground hard. He grunted in pain as ribs that had already suffered from the Cruciatus Curse broke under the strain.

Ginny landed on her feet next to Harry, wand out and casting spells as fast as she could pronounce them. Just as Harry was gathering his strength to stand, a blue colored spell struck Ginny on the leg. There was a terrible snapping sound and with a pained cry she fell to the ground.

Harry caught her as she fell and interposed his body between the unseen assailant and Ginny. He turned as Macnair, the man who had been summoned to behead Buckbeak in his third year, stepped out of the shadows. He took one step toward Harry and Ginny, and then his eyes went wide in shock as a curse struck him in the back. He spit blood, and his eyes rolled up in his head as he fell.

Harry smiled as Hermione Granger, her face covered in soot and dirt and her already bushy hair a looking as if it had a life of its own, strode out of the smoke and darkness.

"Harry! Ginny! What are you doing here?!" she cried, rushing up to her friends.

"The Burrow's not the only place under attack tonight," Harry told her. "Where's Ron?"

"Fighting down in the orchard with Bill and Percy." She knelt by Ginny's broken leg. She gave Ginny a curious look when she saw the formula markings on her legs. Ginny shook her head, letting Hermione know this was not the time for questions. With a quick flick of her wand, she set the leg in a splint. "That should hold for a while."

Ginny rose to her feet. and with Harry helping her the three friends started to hobble toward the shed as fast as Ginny could move.

"What's happening, Hermione?" Harry asked. He could still hear shouts and occasionally see flashes.

"Percy discovered that someone in Fudge's office had signed an order giving Narcissa Malfoy possession of Grimmauld Place. Except Percy didn't know how to find Grimmauld place, so he came to The Burrow to see if someone was home he could warn."

"Wait a minute, Percy's on our side?" Ginny asked.

"Yes," Hermione affirmed. "He told us tonight he's been Dumbledore's spy in the Ministry since he left Hogwarts."

"I'm going to kill him," Ginny hissed, wincing a little as her broken lag jarred. She shifted into Harry, who grunted as his ruined ribs took on more pressure.

"Anyway, when he got here it set off the alarms. He told Mr. Weasley and Bill what was happening, but before they could go back to Grimmauld Place, Death Eaters ambushed them. Mr. Weasley took a curse to the head that knocked him unconscious right away. Bill floo-called Grimmauld Place while Percy held off the Death Eaters." Hermione paused for breath before going on.

"Mrs. Weasley Apparated in, took Mr. Weasley, and apparated out. Everyone who could fight came to The Burrow. Ron and I were supposed to portkey to Hogwarts, under guard with Lupin and an order member I didn't know, but before Professor Lupin could finish making the portkey, Voldemort himself attacked Grimmauld Place. He killed the poor sentry and Lupin was dueling him when Ron and I fled. The Floo to Hogwarts is closed and we didn't know where else to go, so we came here." Hermione looked to Harry and Ginny. "No one knows where Dumbledore or Moody are."

Harry swallowed. "I was supposed to meet them at Mrs. Figg's house, but before we could get there, the house blew up. Privet Drive was under attack, so we couldn't go back there either."

The three teens reached the shed. Ginny tapped the lock with her wand and the door sprung open.

Hermione looked at Harry and Ginny wide eyed. "Is Dumbledore all right?"

"I don't know," Harry said.

"Hestia Jones is dead," Ginny added. Hermione gave a small gasp at the news. "And we ran into Bellatrix LeStrange as well."

"What happened?" Hermione whispered.

Harry tried to laugh around the pain. "Ginny gouged out her eye and snapped her wand."

"I see," Hermione looked a bit stunned.

Suddenly a flash of red and a loud bang made the three look out the shed door. A large fireball was climbing in the sky, a horrid whizzing noise emanating from it.

"That's a distress signal the family uses," Ginny whispered.

Hermione gripped her wand tightly and started for the door. "There's no one left to call."

"Gin, can you fly with your leg?" Harry asked.

"I'm not running away," Ginny scowled at him.

"I'm not suggesting you run away. I'm suggesting we attack from the air. Neither of us can run very fast in the condition were in, but on a broom–"

"You can both maneuver quickly," Hermione finished. "Fine, you two be air support. I'll work my way back to the orchard and try to give everyone some cover."

"Hermione–" Ginny started to say something, but the brown haired girl cut her off.

"I'm a lousy flier. You two on the other hand are brilliant."

"Right," Harry said, grabbing one of the Weasley's old brooms. "Be careful, Hermione."

Hermione hugged her two friends. "And you." She turned and dashed back into the fray.

Harry turned toward Ginny. "Ready?"

"Lead on, captain."

The two mounted brooms and took off. Harry climbed as high as possible, hoping that Ginny was staying with him and the elevation would protect them from ground fire. As he climbed he looked below and surveyed the scene.

Several small fights had broken out on the Weasley property. He noticed a large group of Death Eaters pinned in the flaming wreck of The Burrow, being held there by an attacking party that included Fred and George. He looked toward the orchard as another Weasley distress flare filled the sky.

Ron and Bill were surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered. Bill was trying to cast spells while moving from tree to smoldering tree. Ron was standing over the fallen form of Percy, wielding two wands. One he as using to deflect spells, while the other cast curses and hexes. He could see Hermione take up a well-covered spot overlooking the orchard. She started casting spells at Ron's opponents.

Harry looked over his shoulder at Ginny. He pointed down and she nodded. Harry climbed a few more feet and then, drawing his wand, rolled over into a dive.

The Death Eaters fighting on the ground had not expected an attack from the air. It was their undoing.

Harry and Ginny ripped through their ranks, leaving havoc and chaos in their wake. Their lines broken, the Death Eaters found themselves caught in a crossfire between the Weasley boys and Hermione Granger.

Harry and Ginny climbed again, and turned. As they did they heard several loud pops. Ginny yelled and pointed down.

Albus Dumbledore, Alastor Moody, Remus Lupin, and several other witches and wizards had Apparated onto the Weasley property.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He was still angry with the Headmaster, but he was all too happy to see him alive right now.

A dozen spells launched from the general direction of the pond raced up at Harry and Ginny. Harry turned and rolled, evading all the attacks, but Ginny's broom did not respond as well. The tail caught fire, and she started to make a spiral dive toward the ground. Harry dived in pursuit.

He reached out and caught her by the back of her robes and pulled up. The strain was too much on his arm and he felt something inside him pop. He screamed and tried not to let go of Ginny. Ginny scrambled onto his broom and, seeing Harry's pain, grabbed control away from him and guided the broom toward the ground. As she dived, a large shadow flew over the moon above. She looked up, then smiled.

Charlie Weasley, riding astride a Norwegian Ridgeback, flew toward the hiding place of the Death Eaters. The dragon roared and cast a jet of flame at the pond and trees. There were screams, then only the sound of burning.

Ginny lowered the broom to the ground and collapsed. She lay near Harry, who was curled up in a ball, gasping. She held her wand at the ready and surveyed the scene.

With the appearance of Dumbledore, several of the Death Eaters had Apparated away or otherwise fled, but many were lying on the ground; some very still, others struggling against bonds both visible and invisible. The loud screaming coming from The Burrow drew her attention.

Fred, George, Tonks, and several others had a group of Death Eaters pinned inside the burning Burrow. Bill and Dumbledore had recently cast anti-apparition wards on the building, and the only escape for those within was to come out and face the anger of the defenders. But every time one of them popped out, they were met with a hail of hexes.

Ginny watched, horrified, as the only home she had ever known collapsed into a flaming heap. She tried to close her ears to the screams of the dying inside, but couldn't. She gathered Harry into her arms. He placed his good arm around her, and Ginny Weasley, turning her face away from the carnage, allowed herself to cry into Harry's shoulder.

The battle was over.