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Fallen Warrior

 

"Hagrid?"

 Harry struggled to raise himself out of the debris of metal and leather that
surrounded him; his hands sank into inches of muddy water as he tried to stand. He could
not understand where Voldemort had gone and expected him to swoop out of the
darkness at any moment. Something hot and wet was trickling down his chin and from
his forehead. He crawled out of the pond and stumbled toward the great dark mass on the
ground that was Hagrid.

 "Hagrid? Hagrid, talk to me –"

 But the dark mass did not stir.

 "Who's there? Is it Potter? Are you Harry Potter?"

 Harry did not recognize the man's voice. Then a woman shouted. "They've
crashed. Ted! Crashed in the garden!"

 Harry's head was swimming.

 "Hagrid," he repeated stupidly, and his knees buckled.

 The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back on what felt like cushions, with
a burning sensation in his ribs and right arm. His missing tooth had been regrown. The
scar on his forehead was still throbbing.

 "Hagrid?"

 He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on a sofa in an unfamiliar, lamplit
sitting room. His rucksack lay on the floor a short distance away, wet and muddy. A fair-
haired, big-bellied man was watching Harry anxiously.

 "Hagrid's fine, son," said the man, "the wife's seeing to him now. How are you
feeling? Anything else broken? I've fixed your ribs, your tooth, and your arm. I'm Ted, by
the way, Ted Tonks – Dora's father."

 Harry sat up too quickly. Lights popped in front of his eyes and he felt sick and
giddy.

 "Voldemort –"

 "Easy, now," said Ted Tonks, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder and pushing him
back against the cushions. "That was a nasty crash you just had. What happened,
anyway? Something go wrong with the bike? Arthur Weasley overstretch himself again,
him and his Muggle contraptions?"

 "No," said Harry, as his scar pulsed like an open wound. "Death Eaters, loads of
them – we were chased –"

 "Death Eaters?" said Ted sharply. "What d'you mean, Death Eaters? I thought
they didn't know you were being moved tonight, I thought –"

 "They knew," said Harry.

 Ted Tonks looked up at the ceiling as though he could see through it to the sky
above.

 "Well, we know our protective charms hold, then, don't we? They shouldn't be
able to get within a hundred yards of the place in any direction."

 Now Harry understood why Voldemort had vanished; it had been at the point
when the motorbike crossed the barrier of the Order's charms. He only hoped they would
continue to work: He imagined Voldemort, a hundred yards above them as they spoke,
looking for a way to penetrate what Harry visualized as a great transparent bubble.

 He swung his legs off the sofa; he needed to see Hagrid with his own eyes before
he would believe that he was alive. He had barely stood up, however, when a door
opened and Hagrid squeezed through it, his face covered in mud and blood, limping a
little but miraculously alive.

 "Harry!"

 Knocking over two delicate tables and an aspidistra, he covered the floor between
them in two strides and pulled Harry into a hug that nearly cracked his newly repaired
ribs. "Blimey, Harry, how did yeh get out o' that? I thought we were both goners."

 "Yeah, me too. I can't believe –"

 Harry broke off. He had just noticed the woman who had entered the room behind
Hagrid.

 "You!" he shouted, and he thrust his hand into his pocket, but it was empty.

 "Your wand's here, son," said Ted, tapping it on Harry's arm. "It fell right beside
you, I picked it up…And that's my wife you're shouting at."

 "Oh, I'm – I'm sorry."

 As she moved forward into the room, Mrs. Tonks's resemblance to her sister
Bellatrix became much less pronounced: Her hair was a light’s oft brown and her eyes
were wider and kinder. Nevertheless, she looked a little haughty after Harry's
exclamation.

 "What happened to our daughter?" she asked. "Hagrid said you were ambushed;
where is Nymphadora?"

 "I don't know," said Harry. "We don't know what happened to anyone else."

 She and Ted exchanged looks. A mixture of fear and guilt gripped Harry at the
sight of their expressions, if any of the others had died, it was his fault, all his fault. He
had consented to the plan, given them his hair . . .

 "The Portkey," he said, remembering all of a sudden. "We've got to get back to
the Burrow and find out – then we'll be able to send you word, or – or Tonks will, once
she's –"

 "Dora'll be ok, 'Dromeda," said Ted. "She knows her stuff, she's been in plenty of
tight spots with the Aurors. The Portkey's through here," he added to Harry. "It's
supposed to leave in three minutes, if you want to take it."

 "Yeah, we do," said Harry. He seized his rucksack, swung it onto his shoulders. "I
–"

 He looked at Mrs. Tonks, wanting to apologize for the state of fear in which he
left her and for which he felt so terribly responsible, but no words occurred to him that he
did not seem hollow and insincere.

 "I'll tell Tonks – Dora – to send word, when she . . . Thanks for patching us up,
thanks for everything, I –"

 He was glad to leave the room and follow Ted Tonks along a short hallway and
into a bedroom. Hagrid came after them, bending low to avoid hitting his head on the
door lintel.

 "There you go, son. That's the Portkey."

 Mr. Tonks was pointing to a small, silver-backed hairbrush lying on the dressing
table.

 "Thanks," said Harry, reaching out to place a finger on it, ready to leave.

 "Wait a moment," said Hagrid, looking around. "Harry, where's Hedwig?"

 "She . . . she got hit," said Harry.

 The realization crashed over him: He felt ashamed of himself as the tears stung
his eyes. The owl had been his companion, his one great link with the magical world
whenever he had been forced to return to the Dursleys.

 Hagrid reached out a great hand and patted him painfully on the shoulder.

 "Never mind," he said gruffly, "Never mind. She had a great old life –"

 "Hagrid!" said Ted Tonks warningly, as the hairbrush glowed bright blue, and
Hagrid only just got his forefinger to it in time.

 With a jerk behind the navel as though an invisible hook and line had dragged
him forward, Harry was pulled into nothingness, spinning uncontrollably, his finger glued
to the Portkey as he and Hagrid hurtled away from Mr. Tonks. Second later, Harry's feet
slammed onto hard ground and he fell onto his hands and knees in the yard of the Burrow.
He heard screams. Throwing aside the no longer glowing hairbrush, Harry stood up,
swaying slightly, and saw Mrs. Weasley and Ginny running down the steps by the back
door as Hagrid, who had also collapsed on landing, clambered laboriously to his feet.

 "Harry? You are the real Harry? What happened? Where are the others?" cried
Mrs. Weasley.

 "What d'you mean? Isn't anyone else back?" Harry panted.

 The answer was clearly etched in Mrs. Weasley's pale face.

 "The Death Eaters were waiting for us," Harry told her, "We were surrounded the
moment we took off – they knew it was tonight – I don't know what happened to anyone

else, four of them chased us, it was all we could do to get away, and then Voldemort
caught up with us –"

 He could hear the self-justifying note in his voice, the plea for her to understand
why he did not know what had happened to her sons, but –

 "Thank goodness you're all right," she said, pulling him into a hug he did not feel
he deserved.

 "Haven't go' any brandy, have yeh, Molly?" asked Hagrid a little shakily, "Fer
medicinal purposes?"

 She could have summoned it by magic, but as she hurried back toward the
crooked house, Harry knew that she wanted to hide her face. He turned to Ginny and she
answered his unspoken plea for information at once.

 "Ron and Tonks should have been back first, but they missed their Portkey, it
came back without them," she said, pointing at a rusty oil can lying on the ground nearby.
"And that one," she pointed at an ancient sneaker, "should have been Dad and Fred's,
they were supposed to be second. You and Hagrid were third and," she checked her
watch, "if they made it, George and Lupin aught to be back in about a minute."

 Mrs. Weasley reappeared carrying a bottle of brandy, which she handed to Hagrid.
He uncorked it and drank it straight down in one.

 "Mum!" shouted Ginny pointing to a spot several feet away.

 A blue light had appeared in the darkness: It grew larger and brighter, and Lupin
and George appeared, spinning and then falling. Harry knew immediately that there was
something wrong: Lupin was supporting George, who was unconscious and whose face
was covered in blood.

 Harry ran forward and seized George's legs. Together, he and Lupin carried
George into the house and through the kitchen to the living room, where they laid him on
the sofa. As the lamplight fell across George's head, Ginny gasped and Harry's stomach
lurched: One of George's ears was missing. The side of his head and neck were drenched
in wet, shockingly scarlet blood.

 No sooner had Mrs. Weasley bent over her son that Lupin grabbed Harry by the
upper arm and dragged him, none too gently, back into the kitchen, where Hagrid was
still attempting to ease his bulk through the back door.

 "Oi!" said Hagrid indignantly, "Le' go of him! Le' go of Harry!"

 Lupin ignored him.

 "What creature sat in the corner the first time that Harry Potter visited my office
at Hogwarts?" he said, giving Harry a small shake. "Answer me!"

 "A – a grindylow in a tank, wasn't it?"

 Lupin released Harry and fell back against a kitchen cupboard.

 "Wha' was tha' about?" roared Hagrid.

 "I'm sorry, Harry, but I had to check," said Lupin tersely. "We've been betrayed.
Voldemort knew that you were being moved tonight and the only people who could have
told him were directly involved in the plan. You might have been an impostor."

 "So why aren' you checkin' me?" panted Hagrid, still struggling with the door.

 "You're half-giant," said Lupin, looking up at Hagrid. "The Polyjuice Potion is
designed for human use only."

 "None of the Order would have told Voldemort we were moving tonight," said
Harry. The idea was dreadful to him, he could not believe it of any of them. "Voldemort

only caught up with me toward the end, he didn't know which one I was in the beginning.
If he'd been in on the plan he'd have known from the start I was the one with Hagrid."

 "Voldemort caught up with you?" said Lupin sharply. "What happened? How did
you escape?"

 Harry explained how the Death Eaters pursuing them had seemed to recognize
him as the true Harry, how they had abandoned the chase, how they must have
summoned Voldemort, who had appeared just before he and Hagrid had reached the
sanctuary of Tonks's parents.

 "They recognized you? But how? What had you done?"

 "I . . ." Harry tried to remember; the whole journey seemed like a blur of panic
and confusion. "I saw Stan Shunpike . . . . You know, the bloke who was the conductor
on the Knight Bus? And I tried to Disarm him instead of – well, he doesn't know what
he's doing, does he? He must be Imperiused!"

 Lupin looked aghast.

 "Harry, the time for Disarming is past! These people are trying to capture and kill
you! At least Stun if you aren't prepared to kill!"

 "We were hundreds of feet up! Stan's not himself, and if I Stunned him and he'd
fallen, he'd have died the same as if I'd used Avada Kedavra! Expelliarmus saved me
from Voldemort two years ago," Harry added defiantly. Lupin was reminding him of the
sneering Hufflepuff Zacharias Smith, who had jeered at Harry for wanting to teach
Dumbledore's Army how to Disarm.

 "Yes, Harry," said Lupin with painful restraint, "and a great number of Death
Eaters witnessed that happening! Forgive me, but it was a very unusual move then, under
the imminent threat of death. Repeating it tonight in front of Death Eaters who either
witnessed or heard about the first occasion was close to suicidal!"

 "So you think I should have killed Stan Shunpike?" said Harry angrily.

 "Of course not," said Lupin, "but the Death Eaters – frankly, most people! –
would have expected you to attack back! Expelliarmus is a useful spell, Harry, but the
Death Eaters seem to think it is your signature move, and I urge you not to let it become
so!"

 Lupin was making Harry feel idiotic, and yet there was still a grain of defiance
inside him.

 "I won't blast people out of my way just because they're there," said Harry, "That's
Voldemort's job."

 Lupin's retort was lost: Finally succeeding in squeezing through the door, Hagrid
staggered to a chair and sat down; it collapsed beneath him. Ignoring his mingled oaths
and apologies, Harry addressed Lupin again.

 "Will George be okay?"

 All Lupin's frustration with Harry seemed to drain away at the question.

 "I think so, although there's no chance of replacing his ear, not when it's been
cursed off –"

 There was a scuffling from outside. Lupin dived for the back door; Harry leapt
over Hagrid's legs and sprinted into the yard.

 Two figures had appeared in the yard, and as Harry ran toward them he realized
they were Hermione, now returning to her normal appearance, and Kingsley, both
clutching a bent coat hanger, Hermione flung herself into Harry's arms, but Kingsley

showed no pleasure at the sight of any of them. Over Hermione's shoulder Harry saw him
raise his wand and point it at Lupin's chest.

 "The last words Albus Dumbledore spoke to the pair of us!"

 "'Harry is the best hope we have. Trust him,'" said Lupin calmly.

 Kingsley turned his wand on Harry, but Lupin said, "It's him, I've checked!"

 "All right, all right!" said Kingsley, stowing his wand back beneath his cloak,
"But somebody betrayed us! They knew, they knew it was tonight!"

 "So it seems," replied Lupin, "but apparently they did not realize that there would
be seven Harrys."

 "Small comfort!" snarled Kingsley. "Who else is back?"

 "Only Harry, Hagrid, George, and me."

 Hermione stifled a little moan behind her hand.

 "What happened to you?" Lupin asked Kingsley.

 "Followed by five, injured two, might've killed one," Kingsley reeled off, "and we
saw You-Know-Who as well, he joined the chase halfway through but vanished pretty
quickly. Remus, he can –"

 "Fly," supplied Harry. "I saw him too, he came after Hagrid and me."

 "So that's why he left, to follow you!" said Kingsley, "I couldn't understand why
he'd vanished. But what made him change targets?"

 "Harry behaved a little too kindly to Stan Shunpike," said Lupin.

 "Stan?" repeated Hermione. "But I thought he was in Azkaban?"

 Kingsley let out a mirthless laugh.

 "Hermione, there's obviously been a mass breakout which the Ministry has
hushed up. Travers's hood fell off when I cursed him, he's supposed to be inside too. But
what happened to you, Remus? Where's George?"

 "He lost an ear," said Lupin.

 "lost an -- ?" repeated Hermione in a high voice.