At Voldemort's command, the Death Eaters unleashed their spells.
Amid the crisscrossing light, even Dumbledore had to tread carefully.
Sirius joined the fray, clashing with a Death Eater. With his left side still injured, going up against one in peak condition was far from promising.
"We need to help," Harry said quickly.
Ron and the others nodded in agreement, raising their wands and charging into the fight.
Fortunately, John's earlier dragon's breath had left the Ministry hall full of wreckage, providing plenty of cover.
Harry ducked behind a crystalline mass reshaped by the intense heat, firing a spell at Lucius.
Lucius deflected it with a lift of his wand, his eyes sweeping the battlefield, searching for his son.
Dumbledore, forced to divide his attention, now found his duel with Voldemort evenly matched.
The situation was dire—the Aurors had been lured away by chaos elsewhere.
Which meant the Ministry itself had become a cage.
With the arrival of ten Death Eaters, Voldemort no longer intended to flee.
If he could take down both Dumbledore and John in one stroke, then no one would remain to stop his rise to power.
The thought filled Voldemort with such delight that he nearly burst into laughter.
"I laugh at John Wick for being young, and at you, Dumbledore for being senile! Hahaha!"
"You can't change anything. Today, only I can rewrite history." At Voldemort's command, the Death Eaters pressed harder, forcing several close calls.
"Savior?" Voldemort raised his wand, blasting apart the cover in front of Harry.
"Without that prophecy, I can still rule the wizarding world."
Harry was forced to dash to the other side, Voldemort strolling leisurely behind him.
Dumbledore seized an opening and broke free from the Death Eaters' encirclement.
He raised his hand, summoning the witch statue to leap in and block Voldemort's attack. "Stay inside, Harry," he ordered.
Sirius crossed paths with a familiar face—his own brother-in-law, Rodolphus Lestrange.
The two dueled fiercely, their spells carrying them farther and farther apart.
Lupin engaged his old adversary, Drogon, the fight going back and forth.
A stray spell struck Jörgen's mask, knocking it off and revealing a face Lupin thought he recognized.
"You…" Lupin felt certain he'd seen that face before, likely back during his years at Hogwarts.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Drogon immediately fired a curse, forcing Lupin's legs to snap together, locking him in place.
Lupin had no choice but to clamp his mouth shut and roll aside to dodge the next Stunning Spell.
Hermione, Ginny, and Luna once again fought side by side.
Their opponent was a Death Eater named Gargson.
Ginny hurled a Blasting Curse, and Gargson countered with a streak of red light.
Without protective charms, Hermione and Luna had to be especially cautious.
Seizing the right moment, Luna cast a Levicorpus, yanking him upside down and slamming him into the air.
Hermione aimed at that spot and fired off a spell.
Ron charged in recklessly, shouting, with a Death Eater hot on his heels firing curses at him.
At the crucial moment, Ron surprised even himself—he dove into a sliding tackle to dodge, and his wand leapt up on its own, firing a spell back at the pursuing Death Eater.
The Death Eater was blasted to the ground. Ron froze, staring at his wand in disbelief.
His wand was made from Whomping Willow wood—sensitive, aggressive, and unpredictable.
While he was distracted, the Death Eater shot a Disarming Charm, sending Ron's wand flying from his hand.
Without his wand, Ron let out a defiant roar, "For Gryffindor!"
He charged forward, tackling the Death Eater to the ground, fists flying in a brutal, close-quarters brawl.
Harry wished he could rush out to help. He saw Hermione being ambushed, raised his wand, but his spell went wide.
Voldemort and Dumbledore were already locked in a duel of clashing light.
Sparks crackled violently, scattering across the floor and burning small pits into the stone.
Harry noticed a Death Eater sneaking up behind Dumbledore and shouted, "Dumbledore, behind you!"
At his warning, Dumbledore flicked his wand, redirecting the current of light as if cracking a whip in a circle around him.
The Death Eater was struck, hurled backwards, and let out a shriek of pain.
Truly, Dumbledore—calm, composed, unshaken—even while facing Voldemort and his reinforcements, fought as though entirely at ease.
Just then, the lift rumbled to a halt. Out stepped Tonks.
Kingsley and Moody were still needed to guard the Death Eaters below, so Tonks had come up to check the situation.
She had barely set foot inside when five spells blasted toward her, forcing her straight back into the lift.
"Arg! What the hell?" she muttered in confusion. "Didn't we just finish off the Death Eaters? Where did all these come from?"
She had originally thought she'd come up to help deal with Bellatrix.
But now it was clear—the battle above was anything but favorable.
And when Tonks caught sight of Voldemort himself, her eyes nearly popped out of her head.
This was supposed to be a difficult rescue mission—yet somewhere along the way, the difficulty had been dialed up, the foot soldiers swapped for elites, and now the final boss had appeared on the field.
No time to think. Tonks seized a chance, rolled out of the lift, and fired a white bolt of light at a Death Eater.
She blocked two spells in quick succession, but then a streak of silver light struck her in the abdomen, blood spilling heavily.
"Urh.. Protego!"
She scrambled across the floor, barely managing to shield against another curse, her face pale.
One Death Eater raised his wand, aiming directly at her.
Harry, seeing this, panicked. He burst out from behind the witch statue and fired, "Impedimenta!"
The Death Eater crashed against an invisible barrier, blood streaming from his nose.
But before Harry could cast a second spell, another curse slammed into him, hurling him backward.
These Death Eaters were far stronger than the ones they had faced in the Department of Mysteries.
He caught sight of Barty Crouch Jr., with only one hand left, taking down Hermione, Ginny, and Luna all at once with just three spells.
Ron was still brawling with a Death Eater, fists pounding. Thanks to Malfoy, he'd built up a decent resistance to getting beaten.
Just as he was about to land the final punch, a heavy kick sent him rolling across the floor more than ten times.
Dizzy, he had just lifted his head when pain shot through his ankle.
A massive black dog dragged him away—an instant later, the spot where he had been lying was blasted by a jet of green light.
Lupin, who had been holding his own against one opponent, suddenly found himself facing three.
Even with his deep mastery of defensive magic against the Dark Arts, he was quickly overwhelmed.
At last, three curses hit in succession—disarming, body-bind, and stunning.
Lupin collapsed to the ground, his fate unknown.
Harry had barely managed to save Tonks when the tide of battle shifted against them.
He screamed in anguish as he saw Sirius struck by a flash of silver light, howling as he went down.
Ron was caught in the blast and sent tumbling again.
The scattered group was forced back together.
The Death Eaters closed in on them.
"Kill Harry Potter!"
Bellatrix's left arm was completely petrified. Clutching her wand in her remaining hand, she glared fixedly at Harry.
Harry felt a wave of helplessness. He gripped his wand tighter as the Death Eaters advanced.
"Drogon, come with me to aid the Dark Lord," Lucius suddenly said.
The battle's outcome seemed set, and his move was not unexpected.
But Rodolphus was more cautious. He turned to Barty Jr. and said, "Barty, you come with me too. Leave the rest to the others."
Over by the duel, Voldemort was still locked in combat with Dumbledore. Because of the Authority of Dominion, Dumbledore couldn't spare himself to save Harry for the moment.
Barty Jr. nodded silently. He, Lucius, Drogon, and Rodolphus together went to reinforce Voldemort against Dumbledore.
Though none of them matched Dumbledore's strength, they could still provide support.
Their absence scarcely changed the balance—Bellatrix didn't care in the slightest. Mad laughter twisted her face as she hissed, "No one can save you, little baby Potter."
Tonks, clutching her bleeding stomach, drenched in sweat from the pain, stood resolutely at Harry's side with her wand raised.
Sirius had shifted back into human form, though he looked even more battered than before.
"The Savior meets his end, ha ha…"
"Not necessarily."
A figure appeared at the edge of the fray. Bellatrix turned toward it, and her face instantly changed.
John strolled out from nowhere, smiling pleasantly as he looked at them.
"Harry, how about we make a deal?"
He asked as if no one else were there. Harry froze in surprise.
A wisp of black smoke flickered in John's eyes as he smiled. "This plan is only missing you."
His gaze swept over the people standing beside Harry, his tone layered with meaning. "So, what's your answer?"
"I agree—just save them!" Harry blurted without hesitation, not even asking what the deal entailed.
Bellatrix was nearly livid, furious at being ignored.
"Kill him!" Her hatred for John reached its peak as she screamed hysterically.
John snapped his fingers. "Time to begin the plan."
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