"A lot of people are dead, aren't they?"Hermione whispered.
"Yes," Bill answered. "It shouldn't be asbad as it looked, I mean fuck I hope not. But almost everyone had their wand,even if they can't apparate, they can vanish parts of the stadium and maketheir way outside. They'll be able to heal and help each other."
"How did we get out of the stadium, Harry? What sortof magic did you use?" Charlie asked.
"Um, it's kind of a secret," Harry admitted.
"It doesn't matter, I reckon. It worked, didn'tit?" Ron said in a firm tone. Bill and Charlie shared a look. Harryshrugged innocently.
"Right, sorry. No big deal, thanks for pulling usout of there," Charlie agreed. They focused on hiking through a hillyportion of land, thick with thorny bushes and tripping hazards. Harry had noidea where they were, what direction they were heading, or how long they hadbeen running, although the sunset shifted into darkness as Bill and Charlie ledthem confidently through the trees.
"Is dad gonna be alright?" Ginny said,sniffling.
"He knows what he's doing," Fred assured her.
"And Sirius was an auror. He'll make sure dad issafe," George added.
"But - but - he said that the mark of - ofYou-Know-Who - what if he's here?"
"Oh no, Ginny. No, don't worry. He's gone. It's someof his followers, but not You-Know-Who, I promise." Bill said.
"And if it was, I still think Sirius could kick hisass," Harry chimed in.
"Exactly. Everything will be fine as long as we staycalm." Charlie said.
"I'm going to check the wards," Bill decided."I think we should be far enough." He began to wave his arm in acomplex pattern. "We can't apparate yet, but the jinx is weak enough thisfar out that I should be able to punch through -" The air around themshimmered with red haze. "Perfect, it wasn't a very strong jinx. I -"
He was interrupted by the sudden presence of a thickblack swirl of ash and smoke spiraling into the center of the group. As ittouched the ground, it solidified into a cloaked figure in a bone mask whowaved their wand at them in a mockery of a polite greeting.
"Excuse me, couldn't help but notice you trying totake down my spell. Very rude!" They said, and without preamble fired offa volley of spells.
Everyone returned fire, ranging from a tripping jinx fromGinny to a cutting curse aimed at the throat from Harry. Despite battlingagainst a large group, the Death Eater held their ground, twisting their wandinto a fast, wordless pattern of spells that allowed them to keep a shield upwhile sending attack after attack at them. Their attention was focused on theolder Weasleys; whatever shield the Death Eater was using was able to withstandthe barrage of spells being thrown at them, but the younger children still hadto dodge a nasty poisoning jinx fired their way.
Harry threw up a shield around his friends while Roncountered with a blasting curse. It missed, and ripped through a tree,exploding it into pieces.
"Distract them," Ron said to Harry. "AndI'll get behind. You break through that shield and I'll surprise them."
Harry nodded, although his breath was ragged withexhaustion. Letting loose a flurry of curses, he made room for Ron to dip lowand sprinted to the side. Harry unleashed a wave of fire from the end of hiswand which surrounded the attacker and tore through their shield. With the restof them taking advantage of their vulnerable opponent, Bill hitting them in theleg with some nasty curse that turned their leg into stone, Ron got intoposition behind the Death Eater. He sliced through the air, into a flawlesscombination of a swish-and-flick wingardium leviosa, into the downwards jabincendio and then a circular patterned bombarda maxima. The Death Eater wasstrung into the air by the hem of their robe, lit on fire, and then thrown intoa tree within seconds, crashing against it with a loud crack of their skull.They did not get back up.
"Jesus Christ, Ron. When you said you'd beenpracticing dueling…" Charlie muttered. "Very impressive, good jobeveryone."
"Oh goodness," Hermione said, her voice wasvery high and frightful and she pulled Ron into a desperate hug. "That wasbrilliant, Ronald."
Ron blushed very deeply which caused the twins to laugh."Don't let it go to your head, Ronnie," they cackled.
Harry grabbed at the stitch in his side and leanedagainst Luna to conserve the last dregs of energy.
"Alright, settle down," Bill said. "Weneed to stay focused. Good job Ron. Let's get this damn ward down so we can getout of here and you can brag to mum all about it, yeah?"
The cluster of children moved into a close group, theireyes peeled on the surroundings around them as Bill started a complicatedpattern of his wand, muttering under his breath as the wards began to crumble.Harry noticed Luna had a bit of blood peeking out of her blonde hair.
"Oh, it's healing up already, don't worry. I wasonly nicked by a cutting curse, I think." Her voice was very faint withnerves. Harry batted her hands away to examine the cut on her forehead. Itwasn't cursed and faded quickly. "You're the one who's injured the worst,Harry."
"Just tired," he assured.
"Got it!" Bill cheered.
"I'll take everyone, two at a time," Charliesaid. "Bill, you should wait in case they put the jinx back up or someoneelse comes." Bill nodded. Charlie moved toward Harry and Luna, but Harryshook his head and insisted the others leave before him. Begrudgingly, Charliegrabbed Fred and George and disapperated.
"Um, that Death Eater is dead, by the way," Heinformed Ron as he watched their life force drain from their body.
"Oh," he looked a lot less pleased withhimself.
"You did what you had to Ron," Bill assuredhim. "It was self-defense."
"I know that!" Ron snapped. "It's not abig deal."
Luna reached over to hug him, and Bill and Ginny joinedin.
"Should we get some of their body parts so we caninterrogate them later?" Hermione whispered to Harry. He nodded, and sheextinguished the burnt corpse and pulled off the mask, revealing a middle-agedman whose face Harry did not recognize from all the damage.
The charred flesh crumbled into pieces so Harry peeledoff a chunk of his ear. Hermione shoved the ear and mask into her bag asanother pop sounded and Charlie returned with a fuming Mrs. Weasley in tow.
"Right," she said, eyeballing the corpse andthe group of traumatized children. "Let's get you lot back to theBurrow."
With the kids finally safe, Bill stuck his head under thekitchen faucet and took a very long drink. He looked over to Charlie and thento his mum, who was fussing over the kids. Charlie nodded and while everyonewas distracted, the two apparated off again.
The chaos around the stadium had not lessened, although therewas no sign of life. Small fires were everywhere and most of the tents andstalls outside had been destroyed. Charlie cursed as he pointed towards thefloating bodies lined up underneath the Dark Mark. There were several more thanbefore, at least a dozen, dripping blood from various injuries.
They carried down the path towards the sounds offighting.
....
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