Do or Die

Harry watched safely from the forest as the manor descended into chaos. It all seemed to be going according to Ron's plan.

Dobby had not only been able to take them to the edge of the property, he'd been able to plant a series of explosive devices inside. Fred and George had outdone themselves on this one- seeing how the Death Eaters had modified their fireworks in their attack on Hogwarts had lit a fire under them.

The first, placed just outside the manor, was a fairly traditional battery of their fireworks- of the same caliber that they had used against Umbridge over a year before. The other two, were much more… creative.

Dobby returned just as the fireworks began to envelop the house, a satisfied smirk on his face. "Thank you, Dobby." Harry said seriously. He was too focused to feel any satisfaction in the Malfoy's prized manor going up in smoke. "Right, phase two."

Their strategy was not to overwhelm them by force. That would be impossible if Voldemort was in the field. No, their strategy was confusion and distraction. They knew, thanks to Dobby, that any prisoners would likely be kept in the cellar, but they weren't foolhardy enough to think they wouldn't be defended. If things went wrong, they could use Demelza as a hostage, or worse.

The twins' 'packages' would go a long way towards making sure it was pure chaos within the manor. That was where phase two came in- the diversionary attack. If they thought that the plan was to rescue Demelza with a frontal assault, they'd be less prepared for Dobby.

As Ron had reasoned- while Dobby could get someone out of a sticky situation, he couldn't be everywhere at once. Anybody in the attack would need have an easy means of escape… like a broom. The strategy was to hit and run- get their attention, but not stay long enough to be overwhelmed.

Harry kicked off the ground, joined by a cadre of others- Ginny, Katie, Fred and George, Remus, Tonks, and Hestia Jones. Ron had initially planned on going as well, but Mrs. Weasley had lost it at the thought of four of her children going on the attack- so he stayed behind to take the heat off Ginny.

The light of the fireworks guided them, and soon they were raining spellfire onto the mansion, searching for resistance and finding remarkably little of it. Looks like the twins were more effective than we reckonned. Ginny said optimistically.

Or they're trying to lure us in. Harry countered. Via Hermione, who relayed this to Ron.

"Send Dobby in. Hopefully he can just get Demelza in the confusion, the only problem is we need to find her parents too, if they aren't with her." Ron told her.

You heard him. He told Hermione, who relayed the message to Dobby. The seconds ticked by, until Dobby returned, distraught. Demelza wasn't there. There was only the body of a dead Death Eater. She had escaped.

Harry barely had to think about it before diving.

-----

Demelza's moment of victory was short lived, as she soon found out that escape was not so simple as killing her captors. She was well and truly trapped, and no amount of destructive spells so much as chipped the false wall that Pansy had said lead to the drawing room.

Out of breath and heart pounding from exertion, she slumped against the wall, trying to wrack her brains for a solution. "Hey, don't feel bad." Pansy told her "I could have told you- what? ACK!" As Pansy approached, the wall seemed to vanish. Demelza fell backwards with a squawk, only to be swept up by… something green and gooey as it flooded into the room.

Thinking quickly, she cast a sticking charm to her hand and grabbed ahold of the wall, flinging her other arm out to awkwardly catch Pansy by her elbow. "Oh Merlin! Ew! Ew! EW!" Pansy shouted in disgust.

Demelza just grit her teeth and weathered the torrent. Both they and the floor and walls of the room had been plastered with the green sticky goo, but once it was no long actively flooding into the room, Demelza found that it was only somewhat awkward to move around. "This is so gross!" Pansy whined, trying in vain to wipe the goo off herself.

"Will you just be quiet!" Demelza snapped. Pansy's mouth clicked shut. "Here, I'll vanish it for you. Evanesco." However, the vanishing spell had the opposite effect, causing the goo to grow even thicker on her until she looked like a creature from the lagoon. Pansy gibbered, and Demelza rolled her eyes. "You're useless."

Demelza cast a disillusionment charm on the both of them and raised herself into the drawing room. She quickly realized why Pansy's antics had gone unnoticed- it was bedlam. There were four death eaters in the room, including Wormtail. The goo seemed to have erupted from a side room, completely ruining what must have once been an ornate room, plastering one death eater to the wall, and coating the rest in a layer of the sticky green substance. Their attempts to banish or otherwise dispel the goo had all backfired, and the death eaters had resorted to using killing curses, which were… a tad counterproductive. Each curse destroyed part of the structure and sent both shrapnel and goo flying. The situation was compounded by the fact that two fireworks had broken into the room and seemed set on harassing the death eaters.

Demelza and Pansy carefully traversed the room, and Demelza was bold enough cause a bit of chaos by casting a few well-placed vanishing charms. "How do we get out?" She whispered to Pansy, who silently motioned for her to follow.

At that moment, another death eater burst into the room, also covered in goo. "You idiots!" He snarled "You're destroying my house!" Ah, Malfoy, then.

"The Dark Lord doesn't care whether its' your house or not." Another challenged "So unless you've got any better ideas, shut it."

"This is all just a distraction. It's the girl they're after, so I suggest you go check on her."

Demelza's stomach dropped, and the two girls hurried their pace. They had just made it to a set of double doors when she heard faintly from the dungeon "She's gone!" Unthinking, she pushed through the doors, causing every head in the room to turn towards them.

"Shit." Pansy said.

However, Demelza was pre-occupied by the sight on the other side of the doors- a host of death eaters, and floating in the air above them… her parents. Their bodies dangled lifelessly as if they were hung on a string, their glassy eyes staring blankly ahead of them.

Demelza choked back a cry and forced tears, and it felt like she had swallowed acid for how it stung her throat. They were… they were…

"Ah. Miss. Robbins." Said a voice, unnaturally cold and as rough as sandpaper. She'd been so distracted by her parents that she hadn't even noticed that she was in the presence of Voldemort himself.

Maybe Harry would have had some sort of snappy comeback, but Demelza's voice failed her, and Pansy just whimpered at the sight of the Dark Lord. They were trapped, Voldemort and Death Eaters had them surrounded and her parents were dead. She could only grip the wand in her hand tighter and vow to herself that she wouldn't go down without a fight.

"It seems that I have once again overestimated my servants. Done in by schoolyard pranks. No matter." He tapped the wall with his wand and vanished the goo without a word. Then with another wave of his wand, an invisible force grabbed Demelza and dragged her (along with Pansy) into the air, up to her parents.

"Carpe retractum!" She shouted, sending a chord of energy that latched itself to the ground. With effort, Demelza began to pull herself down, fighting against the relentless force of Voldemort's spell.

The Dark Lord, for his part, looked on with amusement. "Resistance, futile resistance. I can see why he chose you." With another swish of his wand, the force behind the spell increased, breaking Demelza's spell and pinning her to the wall. "The only question is, where is he? I would have expected…"

At that moment, one of the side doors to the sitting room exploded. The Death Eaters in that room barely had time to react before they were brutally cut down by spellfire as Harry skid into the room. It took him just a moment to orient himself, his eyes going wide at the sight of Voldemort, before steeling themselves. "Hello, Tom."

-----

God damn it Harry! Ginny screeched as Harry dove, before following right after him. Harry's instincts had served him well, as he was able to dive through portion of the building that had been blasted through, using his momentum to kick a death eater into the wall as he landed, before stunning him.

He took a moment to fish a small vial out of his pocket, uncork it, and down its contents in one gulp. Hermione had given it to him, it was an experimental potion, she had said, and he was only to use it in emergencies. Only Harry and his bonded knew exactly what went into that potion, and as far as they were concerned it would stay that way.

Harry shuddered as the effects kicked in. The barrage of information briefly overwhelmed him. He could see every detail of everything, every freckle on Ginny's face as she streaked towards him, even in the dark. He could hear everything, the sounds of spellfire both on the floor above him and in the center of the manor, he could hear his friends above him arguing about what to do, even as Katie muttered 'Screw it.' and followed after Ginny and Harry. He could hear to pounding of Ginny's heart, Bellatrix's deranged laughter on the floor above him, and Demelza's shout of 'Carpe Retractum!', along with Voldemort's unmistakable voice.

A moment later, his brain caught up. It was almost automatic now, his brain dumping almost everything that came to it and delivering what mattered. Demelza.

Harry took off, forcing Katie and Ginny to rush behind him. He blew down doors without thought and brutally took down any Death Eaters he saw, using blasting curses, cutting curses, and sometimes just raw magical force to brutalize them. With senses so acute, he could anticipate exactly how many and where his enemies were before he got into the room.

When he burst into the sitting room, time seemed to temporarily slow. None of them were ready, and Harry easily evaded the few curses they were able to get off before he incapacitated the lot of them.

He turned and was momentarily taken aback by the sight of two people he recognized as Demelza's parents. He forced himself to not linger on what that meant for Demelza, and without missing a beat said "Hello, Tom."

"Potter." He returned, his voice gravelly. His face was worn and twisted, as if he was under strain. Harry hoped, perhaps foolishly, that this would translate into weakness. "It seems I wasn't mistaken after all."

"Congratulations." Harry said flatly. Ginny and Katie skidded to a halt behind him, both of them flushed and breathing hard from exertion. Meanwhile, Hermione and Fleur were pitching a fit, demanding Dobby to take them to him. Ron argued that the more people in danger, the longer it would take Dobby to get them all out, which prompted Hermione to lash out viciously at him.

"Well, you called. Are we going to do this, or what?" Harry said loudly, brandishing his wand.

Voldemort chuckled. "No, you will not be doing anything, Harry. Other than dropping your wand." To prove his point, he pushed Demelza against the wall with more force. She didn't cry out, but with his enhanced senses he heard her whimper in pain. "Drop your wand, or she dies."

Harry gulped. He'd been hoping to avoid this. "Fine." He tossed his wand to the side. "Now let her go."

"Fool." Voldemort, sneered, and it was the only warning Harry got.

Not that he needed it.

"Avada-" "NO!" "Accio!" "Kedavra!"

Time slowed once more. Harry's summoning charm pulled his wand to his hand with enough force to sting his hand and leave it throbbing. Ginny yelled gutturally as she threw herself at him, but by the time the killing curse had left Voldemort's wand, he was ready. The only plan that Harry really had was to repeat what had happened in the graveyard, to give Ginny and Katie enough time to get Demelza down and escape. However, before Harry could even react, something truly unexpected happened.

A wave of golden fire erupted from Harry's wand, enveloping Voldemort and his Death Eaters and blowing them back. The killing curse continued undeterred, but Ginny successfully tackled him to the ground and the curse sailed harmlessly overhead.

As the flames began to clear, the spell holding Demelza up failed, and Katie leapt into action. "Arresto Momentum! Accio Demelza! Accio Demelza's parents!" She shouted in rapid succession. Demelza was pulled into Katie's arms. Pansy received no such protection and fell hard onto the floor, forced to scrambled to them while the Death Eaters recovered.

"Dobby!" Harry said urgently. The house elf appeared, and squeaked as he took in the situation, and wordlessly took Katie and Demelza away.

"Potter!" Voldemort hissed in fury and he pulled himself to his feet. He tossed the wrecked wand to his side and wordlessly summoned another from one of his followers. Harry didn't respond except to shoot an extremely overpowered blasting curse at the ceiling above Voldemort, forcing the ceiling down around him.

Voldemort didn't vanish to falling debris, he atomized it, and then responded with a volley of killing curses. Harry raised up the stones in front of them and with every bit of focus he had, forced the shrapnel toward Voldemort. Dobby appeared again, with a curt order from Harry, took Pansy and Demelza's parents.

Harry didn't bother sticking around, he didn't think he could last long enough for Dobby to return. Ginny didn't need to be told anything, wordlessly mounting his Firebolt just as he did. The shrapnel had, of course, posed no problem to Voldemort, but it had bought Harry enough time to take off. The collapse of the ceiling gave him the opening he needed. Ginny was able to look down and behind him giving him the information he needed to corkscrew through the curses that Voldemort and the able bodied Death Eaters sent at them. For a moment, Harry thought they were out of the woods.

Uh, Harry. Ginny disabused him of that notion. Voldemort had taken off after him, and like Harry, he didn't need a broom to fly.

Bugger. Harry put every bit of his firebolt's power into going faster, but Voldemort gained ground with amazing speed even as he evaded and batted away spellfire from Ginny and from the airborne Order members. Within seconds, Voldemort had pulled even with them, and Harry knew they only had seconds to act.

He reached deep, summoning every bit of power he had for this, and he felt it well up anew within him, surging with a strength he'd never felt before. On the ground, Hermione and Luna collapsed, while Ginny slumped against him- weakened. He was taking their magic!

No, we're giving it to you, idiot. Ginny mumbled.

As usual, Harry went with his instinct. In this case, his instinct was to use every bit of magic he had to blast Voldemort from the sky. He didn't even use a wand, he just did. Harry saw Voldemort's eyes go wide and his wand hand twitch a moment before his vision was enveloped by white. He turned away and just flew, riding the shockwave of the blast.

He chanced a look backwards and blinked the spots from his eyes. It took him a moment, but from the light of the fireworks he could faintly see the Dark Lord on the ground, at the center of what could only be described as an impact crater. He was unharmed having been protected from Harry's spell by a faintly glowing shield that surrounded him.

Harry hurtled back to where they had set up camp and stumbled as he landed. "Get out! Now!" He shouted. Someone went to his side and helped him sink to the ground, though he wasn't sure who. Everything was fading, but he could hear the distinctive sounds of apparition. Good, everyone was safe.

And with that, he lost consciousness.

-----

As soon as he landed, Remus took control of the situation. Harry's garbled instructions before collapsing had caused more confusion than anything. The entire operation had been a clusterfuck, but somehow it had all worked out. Potter luck. Remus figured, remembering how many times James had managed to avert the laws of probability in their school days.

It hadn't all been luck. Remus had been skeptical of Ron's strategic ability, but the plan he'd put together was solid, needing just a few tweaks from Remus who knew more about the realities on the ground. The twin's inventions had been ingenious. While apparently the goop bomb had been dispelled at some point, the hallucinogenic gas on the second level had been very effective- taking fully half of Voldemort's forces out of the fight, including Bellatrix Lestrange.

And Harry… well Remus had clearly underestimated how powerful Harry was. If he hadn't just seen him blast Voldemort out of the sky with his own eyes, he wouldn't have believed it. Though he found it odd that not just Harry, but Ginny, Hermione and Luna appeared to be suffering from magical exhaustion. There clearly was a lot that they weren't telling him.

In less than a minute, everyone had made it back to the Burrow. Katie holding Demelza. Fleur carrying Harry. He, Tonks, and Molly taking Hermione, Luna, and Ginny. Arthur and Ron volunteered for the grim duty of taking Demelza's parents. Hestia seemed shellshocked in the wake of the battle, or perhaps just Harry's impressive burst of magic. She'd always been a bit of a… fan of his. Dobby, meanwhile, took Pansy Parkinson of all people... he still wasn't sure how that happened.

"Alright everyone." He announced to the crowd at large. "I'm sure a lot of people have questions and the like, but there'll be time for that later. Its late, a lot of people are exhausted. There'll be time for… everything in the morning. Let's go get some rest."

-----

It was only after the battle, when everyone was safe, that Demelza let herself cry. She hadn't let Katie go for a moment since they'd gotten out of that manor. Katie was familiar, someone she knew and loved and felt safe with, and right now Demelza clung to her like life raft.

Katie noticed as the first tears came, and let the rest know they'd be at Susan's before apparating out. As soon as they were alone, Demelza's tears turned to soft sobs, and then to bawling. "They're gone. Katie. They're gone!" Katie didn't offer any platitudes; she didn't tell her it would all be alright. She was just there. She held her and kissed her forehead and smoothed her hair. She tucked her into bed and rested beside her.

Soon after, Susan joined them, hugging Demelza from behind. At some point, Luna, Hermione, and Ginny stumbled into bed with them. The latter two almost immediately fell asleep, but Luna managed to crawl up to Demelza and rain tearful kisses onto her face before drifting off.

And then came Harry. He couldn't even properly walk, relying on Fleur's support to even make it to bed. The two of them shared a look of understanding, and Fleur left him. While logically Demelza knew that Fleur was going to be part of the coven, she was glad that Fleur left. She didn't know her yet, didn't trust her the way she trusted them, she wasn't family.

"Go get him, sweetie." Katie said playfully, and Demelza wasted no time in transferring her death grip from Katie to Harry. Harry didn't have the strength to squeeze back with nearly the force, but it didn't matter to her.

"Harry." She sobbed, a confusing mix of emotions welling up in her. Greif and pain, yes, but also love and warmth. This had been the worst day of her life, but right now she was surrounded by people she loved, people who loved her, people who had risked it all to save her. "I love you."

"I love you too, Dem." Harry said softly, stroking her hair. "I love you so much. We all do, and we'll be there for you, through everything. I promise."

Neither of them noticed that Fleur had lingered just outside the room, pensively observing them before softly closing the door behind her