Brave New World

A/N: My chapter was cut off again. So this is the continuation of chapter twenty-two.





Chapter Twenty-Two cont.,





"Will you be joining us for lunch? There is a little place at the end of the lane that you might enjoy."



Harry looked down at his watch, surprised that so much time had passed. Even more so, as he realized how much he had enjoyed spending it with Blaise, Daphne and Tracey and not his usual crowd. He knew he should head back but found himself reluctant to do so. Then he caught his reflection in the front window of the store they had just exited, and was forcibly reminded of why he needed to get back.



"I told the others I would meet them for lunch at the Three Broomsticks." Still, he was reluctant to leave for he didn\'t want to leave them back here on this quiet side street alone despite the fact that they knew what was coming.



"Maybe next visit," Blaise compromised when Tracey looked like she wanted to protest. "We\'ll walk you back to Main Street."



The journey back was made in silence, anxiety building in his stomach that told him something was going to happen. Soon Hogsmeade would be attacked by Death Eaters and there were no guarantees of the outcome. They reached Main Street and Harry turned to look at his companions, struggling with what he needed to do and what he actually wanted. And that\'s when he realized there was something he could do, something he had been withholding a decision on for weeks now.



"So do you still study in the library on Wednesdays?"



The happiness on Tracey\'s face was immediate, for she had been the one to issue the invitation. Daphne leaned into Tracey\'s shoulder as a generous smile curved her lips free of any hesitation. Blaise merely nodded, as if he had known Harry would make this decision all along.



"Yes, we would be pleased to have you join us."



"Then, I\'ll see you all then," he confirmed and it was a decision he felt good for having finally made. Even better, he stepped forward to place a hand on Blaise\'s chest to steady himself as he knew outing their relationship on Main Street of Hogsmeade would definitely have some consequences. Consequences Harry couldn\'t bring himself to care about in this moment.



"I\'ll see you then." And he reached up to brush his lips across Blaise\'s.



Those consequences came sooner than he might have anticipated.



"Harry?"



"What the Hell!"



He didn\'t jerk away from Blaise at the sound of Ginny and Ron\'s harsh exclamations. Such a move would have implied guilt and he wasn\'t ashamed of his feelings. He knew what he had been risking when he kissed Blaise goodbye. Even now with his friends surrounding them, stunned, silently amused or red faced with fury, he wasn\'t sorry.



"Harry?" Hermione sounded more hurt than anything else. She knew he was seeing someone but Blaise Zabini was probably the last person she expected.



"Wha- What the bloody hell is going on here?" Ron sputtered repeating himself in his rage. Along with his flushed face, and the thin line of his mouth, his fists were gripped tightly at his sides as if waiting for the moment to strike out.



"Maybe we should all calm down," Daphne suggested, trying to control the situation before Ron made a scene.



"You, you just shut up!" Ron\'s roar earned him an elbow to the side from Hermione for having shouted at another girl so disrespectfully. Blaise had tensed behind him and Daphne had a restraining hand on Tracey\'s arm who already had her wand in hand.



"Ron, you need to calm down before you really embarrass yourself." Neville who had an arm around Luna also had his wand in his hand, prepared to stop Ron from doing something he would probably regret. Then Neville proved he was the consummate gentleman. "Zabini, Miss Davis, Lady Greengrass," he bowed his head in greeting. "Perhaps we should move this somewhere a little more private."



But Ron was too caught up in his own anger to listen to reason. "Harry, what the hell are you doing? First it was the pureblood shite and now this. You\'re kissing Zabini? A Slytherin?"



"Something must be wrong with him," Ginny put in. Her eyes were wet with tears that she was trying to hold back. "Harry hasn\'t been himself since school started, this just proves it. We should get him to Madam Pomfrey. And we definitely should tell Dumbledore, he won\'t stand for this."



"Dumbledore has no control over who I date, or what I believe." Harry pointed out, "So you can tell him whatever you like. There is nothing wrong with me."



"You don\'t find anything wrong with kissing a Slytherin boy in the middle of the street?" Ginny demanded.



"No."



That only set them both off again and nothing Neville or Hermione said could stop it. Harry listened as Ron\'s words grew more vicious and cruel than anything Malfoy had dared utter to them. They insisted something had happened to him and Harry had to wonder if just the opposite was true. Had something happened to Ron to bring about such an ugly change? He knew Ron didn\'t care for Slytherins but Harry had no idea just how deep that hatred ran until now.



The scream of pure terror cut across their argument, instantly silencing the vitriol spewing from Ron\'s mouth. Harry didn\'t know exactly what was it\'s cause but he needed no further signal that the attack on Hogsmeade had begun. He sent a glare toward Ron, furious that he had allowed such trivialities to overshadow his common sense. Blaise gripped his hand tightly, a question there in his eyes and Harry looked from him to Daphne and Tracey, three Slytherins the others would have a difficult time trusting. His instincts told him that Blaise was more reliable than Ron at this moment and if the man he was growing to care for vouched for Daphne and Tracey then he pray they were capable of fighting and place his faith in them as well.



"Death Eaters are attacking," he explained bluntly. They had no time for skirting around the issue. Lives were at stake.



"Harry you can\'t!" Hermione yelled but was quickly outdone by Ron who insisted Blaise probably already knew about the attack, probably had some hand in it. Then claimed their kissing as proof as a way to keep Harry distracted. Yes, Blaise knew about the attack but explaining to Ron who was so furious and unreasonable at the moment would be impossible.



Neville and Luna looked quietly on as if reserving judgment. No, as if waiting for him to pass judgment and he knew that whatever decision he made regarding the three, they would abide by for they trusted him just that much. Though, Harry had reason to believe Luna knew a great deal more than she let on.



"We don\'t have time for this," he shouted back, ignoring the hurt look on Hermione\'s face. "I didn\'t tell the DA about this attack so that we could pick and choose who deserved to be saved. That\'s not the way this is going to work. If Blaise and Daphne and Tracey can help get the other Slytherins back to Hogwarts safely, then we need to work together."



"They will just run back to Voldemort and tell him everything, Harry don\'t you see that!" Ron insisted, his face awash of red in both his conviction and rage. "Have you been so corrupted that you don\'t get that? Is snogging this slimy bastard more important to you than the people who are supposed to matter?"



"If you have nothing positive to say right now, Ron Weasley, you can just shut the bloody hell up!"



And finally, the Potter temper he was so known for had reached it\'s limit. "I don\'t give a damn what you think about me and Blaise, but right now we have something more important to deal with than your stupid prejudices and your precious personal feelings. Grow the fuck up! People are out here dying and I\'m standing here arguing with you!"



"Harry, what do you need us to do?"



He would never be more grateful to Neville than in this moment because he was certain his and Ron\'s next words would have brought them to blows. Instead, he pressed a shaking hand to his forehead, trying to focus and remember the plans that had been so carefully constructed the night before.



"Hermione, cast the charm on the galleon to notify the other DA members to the attack, though I\'m sure they are already aware. Remember the plans. Stay in pairs and watch each other\'s back. Don\'t try to join the fight. That\'s not our job. Our jobs are to get the students back to Hogwarts as quickly and as safely as possible. Take as many as you can."



What greeted them was worse than anything Harry could have imagined.



Hogsmeade was in flames.



Voldemort had planned well. That he was a tactical genius was never in doubt, the few Order members available were too divided. Some were trying to battle the fire eating away at the older buildings before it could leap to the next and engulf it. Others were throwing curses at the Death Eaters who were steadily making their way through town.



Voldemort\'s minions worked in groups of three, of which Harry had counted seven. This totaled at least twenty Death Eaters who had no qualms about casting not only for maximum carnage but to kill, proven by the flares of green light that felled Hogsmeade residents in one moment and left another with a gaping hole in the stomach and blood spilling onto the ground beneath them. By working in threes, if an Order member cast a stunner, the Death Eater was immediately revived.



"Spread out!" Harry yelled over the roar of chaos that had engulfed them the moment they entered the main street. "If you can, try to help the Order members put out some of these fires so they can fight but remember, concentrate on getting the Hogwarts students to safety."



Hermione immediately grabbed Ron and took up a defensive position behind him but for the first time he said no. It hurt, like someone had closed a fist around his heart and squeezed with a violence that shot pain through his chest. Ron was supposed to be his best friend, he should be able to count on him to defend his back. Yet Harry saw the rage in the depths of Ron\'s gaze and knew for the first time he could not depend on him.



"You two are the prefects for our year, you know who all came to Hogsmeade, I need you to keep a look out for any student who didn\'t make it back with a group."



"I\'m not leaving you here alone to fight." Hermione insisted.



Before another argument could start, the red flare of a curse shot between them. They all dove for the ground, screams of surprise following a hard landing. "Is everyone alright?"



He looked over to see Neville shielding Luna protectively with his body, whereas Blaise had done the same for Daphne and Tracey. Ginny lay sprawled to one side, panting heavily, and fear alight in her eyes as she finally accepted the danger of their circumstances. Hermione and Ron gripped each other, having fallen next to Neville eyes wide at the sudden violence that had almost struck them. Harry rolled to his feet, wand in hand as he summoned the thick wood and stone planter filled with the late blooms of white and yellow campion that sat in front of a shop. Several wand movements later and they were safely concealed behind a barrier but unfortunately it wouldn\'t hold against more than a few spells.



"Neville and Luna, take the left side of the street. Check the buildings that aren\'t on fire to see if anyone is inside. Daphne and Blaise, you take the right. Ginny and Tracey guard the rear, make sure nothing comes up behind us. We should be safe, I don\'t think any Death Eaters managed to get behind us but better safe than sorry.



"Harry please," Hermione begged, her eyes wet with tears. "Don\'t do this. Don\'t send us away."



"Hermione, it\'s more important that you help with the evacuation. The Hogwarts students know you, they need your calm head because I can guarantee they\'re probably panicking right now."



"Well so am I!" she shouted, the tears she had been struggling against spilled forward onto her cheeks. "We have to stick together, Harry, we always stick together. Ever since first year!"



"Brains and cleverness," he smiled, grasping the hand she held out to him. Both of them remembering when Ron lay unconscious at their feet having sacrificed himself so they could move forward to save the Stone. How different things were then. Their arrogance. The sheer naïve belief that good would triumph over evil. Now so much had changed. He and Ron almost coming to blows. The knowledge that sometimes evil won and there really were monsters.



"I need you to let me go and those students need you to help them, \'Mione. You know it\'s the right thing." And she did, he saw the awful realization there in her eyes. "Now go!"



She threw herself into his arms, squeezing him as though she would never let go. He was forcibly reminded of the fact that she had given him his first hug. "Stay safe, Harry," she whispered in his ear and then she was releasing him, already turning toward The Three Broomsticks to run away.



Just as Harry predicted, his blockade was struck with a powerful blasting curse and was shattered into pieces. A quick thinking shield charm on Neville\'s part, protected them from the worst of the debris. "We should get moving," Neville suggested when the dust cleared.



FSFSFS



Blaise couldn\'t believe what Harry had just done.



Not that he had a problem fighting, for he and Daphne and Tracey had already decided that they would eventually be forced to make a stand after the Dark Lord massacred an entire village using a corrupted ritual from the old ways. The choice didn\'t require much thought on his part. He would stand with Harry, for how could he stand aside and allow the person he was coming to care for to fight in a War for their world alone.



He just hadn\'t expected he would expected to fight so soon but isn\'t that the way things usually worked out. The fight didn\'t wait until you were prepared. There was no right time. And Harry and his friends had been doing this for five years.



During his argument with Weasley, Daphne had caught his eye, the unspoken question of what to do waiting to be answered. Whatever he decided they would stand by him. They might not have had the same experiences as the Golden Trio but it didn\'t mean they were any less loyal to each other. An arched brow was all he would give telling them both that the decision would be their own and he would respect it either way. To which, Daphne rolled her eyes and a smile curved Tracey\'s lips.



\'Of course we\'re with you idiot,\' those responses said.



Then Harry did the unimaginable, he sent Granger and Weasley away leaving him with only Longbottom and Lovegood and the Weasley chit to guard his back. Not only that, but he stayed with three Slytherins publically stating that he trusted them just as much as any Gryffindor. He would have to explore why that left a light elated feeling in his chest, for the moment he had to concentrate on making it through this Hogsmeade visit alive.



It was ironic, by planning this attack when Hogwarts students were sure to be present, the Dark Lord had harmed his cause more than he could realize. All of the children of neutral families were certain to owl home and discuss what happened today with their parents. Those parents would not be pleased. If Blaise knew his Grandfather, he certainly would be extremely upset that the Dark Lord had jeopardized the Zabini heir.



"There," Daphne shouted, pointing to Zonko\'s joke shop. The roof was on fire and swiftly spreading. It was only a matter of minutes before the entire building would be engulfed in flames. Standing in front of the building were the Weasley twins and Susan fighting off a Death Eater. Inside they could see Terry, Hannah struggling to keep the fire contained as best they could, keep an eye on the fight being waged and safeguard the people who were inside. Members of their coven were in danger. That was unacceptable.



Harry had his focus on shielding Longbottom who was pulling two children who couldn\'t be more than seven or eight from the small alley. "Give us some water Tracey," he murmured, taking her position as guard. There were plenty of charms she could have used but Tracey was well conversed in the old ways which mean she had connected with her element.



Tracey closed her eyes and took a deep breath and he could feel the magic stir around her. The sensation of it was the complete opposite of his own but almost just as familiar. She raised her wand pointing to the flames above the dueling Weasleys and her eyes snapped open.



"Hydrae."



Water, icy and pure spewed forth, the burst much stronger than the weaker charms everyone else was using. It spiraled around her arm and held, rippling under the pressure of being contained, waiting for her command.



"Inrigatus!" And it was free, rising high to take on the form of a water serpent mouth open and fangs extended to strike and strike it did slithering across the roof, engulfing the flames almost as if eating them, before the flames was extinguished. It moved on to the building next to it and did the same before the spell released.



"Praehensus," Daphne\'s spell ripped several thick vines free of the earth, wrapping the Death Eater in a plantlike cocoon made all the more affective when a Weasley twin\'s spell hit him.



Two wands were immediately pointed in their direction, but Susan\'s hand came up and pushed them away. "It\'s alright." The twins didn\'t look entirely trusting but with the chaos going on around them, were willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for the moment.



"Ginny, get back," one began.



"To Hogwarts! Mum would have," the other continued.



"Our heads if something happened to you!"



"I\'m old enough to fight. And I\'m not leaving Harry out here alone with them!" She glared at them with suspicion, the same people who had just helped her brothers.



"It looks like Harry doesn\'t need your help," Susan grit out, before pointing to Harry and Longbottom who stood in front of a fallen wizard, fighting three Death Eaters while Lovegood shielded the man on the ground and two small children.



Longbottom was better than Blaise would have given him credit for considering his performance in Potions class in the past years. He cast spells at his opponent before shielding against one with the ease of someone who had been in this situation before. He thought Longbottom\'s performance in Defense class was an aberration, due to the encouragement of his fellow Gryffindors. It seemed this was not the case.



Yet, next to Harry, it looked like Longbottom was trudging through thick sludge. Harry had disarmed, stunned and tied up the first Death Eater and made quick work of the second before he could think of retaliating, giving them all a display of just how skillful a wizard he truly was.



"Get everyone out of here and the students back to Hogwarts," Blaise told Susan who blinked in surprise.



"Harry told you?"



"Yes. We need to move on quickly before anyone gets hurt."



"It\'s too late."



Luna\'s declaration caught the attention of everyone, panicked eyes quickly turning in her direction. Luna\'s face was blank, her eyes wide yet seeing nothing as they were covered with a hazy film and everything about her was focused inward. The wand in her hand had fallen to the ground and Neville had come behind her, poised to protect her even with his life if necessary.



"Death is here."



What crested the top of the street was something no one ever wanted to glimpse in their lifetime. Yes, death had come and Blaise thought he knew what the Dark Lord had done to those villagers during Autumn Equinox. "Inferi." Despite the chaos around them, his murmur might as well have been a shout for the gasps it drew forth.



"Divine protect us," Daphne\'s shaky whisper was echoed by Tracey and Susan for they understood exactly what was drawing closer to them.



Inferi would cleave and tear and kill under the command of their master, which was most assuredly the Dark Lord. They were virtually unstoppable and utterly without mercy for they were only reanimated corpses. They held no conscious and were impossible to reason with. Their only goal was death. Luna was right Death had come.



"We need to retreat," Neville suggested. "Harry did you hear me? We need to run."



"We can\'t leave yet. We don\'t know if we have all the students out of here." Harry dug into his pocket and pulled out a galleon, tapping it with his wand. "What kills Inferi?" When no one responded, he shouted the question again. "What kills Inferi!"



"Fire," Tracey choked out. "We need fire."



Sure enough, there were several witches and wizards who were casting fire spells at the coming hoard of Inferi but it was having little affect and they were being pushed back.



"Blaise can\'t you do something," Daphne pleaded.



"I don\'t have anything powerful enough to stop that."



"You can cast Fiendfyre," Daphne reminded him but he shook his head.



"I can\'t control it, not well enough or long enough. I would end up burning Hogsmeade to the ground. Where is Dumbledore?" Why hadn\'t the Headmaster come down to help them, it was certain that he knew what was going on. He couldn\'t be sitting in the castle simply waiting for them to return. Dumbledore was powerful enough to maintain the control necessary to cast the dangerous fire spell.



"Harry!"



Blaise turned to see Granger and Weasley rushing back toward them. The two caught up easily, as the street behind them was virtually empty. "Most of the students made it back to Hogwarts, there are still a few unaccounted for but they aren\'t in the shops behind us." This meant they were either trapped in the commotion ahead or worse. "We should get back to the castle."



"We can\'t leave the Order here to fight this alone!" Harry shouted as he pointed to the Inferi.



"Then what do you want us to do Harry?" Neville\'s calm question was echoed in the minds of everyone there.



fsfsfs



A muscle flicked angrily at Harry\'s jaw as he watched the death and devastation wrought by the Death Eaters and the plague of Inferi that accompanied them. He heard the cackle of some witch as she set yet another fire to one of the buildings where the people of Hogsmeade etched out the living that supported their families. Buildings where he and his friends had come from Hogwarts and were welcomed as a tradition that had been laid down for more years than he had been alive.



And a righteous fury built in his stomach.



This wasn\'t the first nor would it be the last. Voldemort would continue to lay waste to everything he touched, not because he wanted to change the Wizarding world. Not even because he was prejudiced against muggles and muggle-borns. No, Voldemort was evil. A monster. And the people he corrupted, that raped and slaughtered in his name, eventually became just as gruesome as the malevolence they bowed before.



The Death Eaters could be caught and tried and sent to Azkaban. That was proper justice. Voldemort would just free them again so they could continue on killing because they had a taste for murder and reveled in the fetid perversion their magic had become.



Harry looked down at the hand gripping his arm, then to Neville\'s eyes. Another victim of Voldemort\'s madness. He looked over at his friends and wondered how much his hesitance and unwillingness to simply accept a destiny he didn\'t want had affected their lives. Deep down he knew this moment would come and had fought it with everything in his heart. Even when he accepted the training with Septima and Leo, part of him had yet to truly understand what would become his role in this War.



And that small struggling part of his heart that screamed for his innocence, hated the burden the Wizarding world insisted on placing on his shoulders, and cried for the blood that would be spilt by his hands, stilled. Stilled as it watched women and children cut down before his very eyes. Stilled at the pleas of help that were strangled off by a flare of green light. Stilled as it witnessed the Order members who fought under Dumbledore\'s banner and were trying and so desperately failing, simply because they hadn\'t accepted one vital truth.



You couldn\'t save that which didn\'t want to be saved.



So when he finally spoke, his words were resolute. These were his friends, his comrades, not the Order. Not those witches and wizards who were blinded by the brilliance of Dumbledore and his willingness to offer second chances. These fifth and sixth year students of Hogwarts bore witness to the depravity sweeping across their world and were willing to do whatever necessary to put an end to it.



When he spoke, his words were for Cedric Diggory who ended up in a grave yard and was murdered simply because he was in the way. He spoke for his godfather, Sirius, locked away in prison for a crime he didn\'t commit and forced to hide away like some terrified animal, who fell through the veil of death. He spoke for a village that was bled and desecrated to create the undead caricatures whose only thought was the desolation their master desired.



But most of all he spoke for the innocence that was torn away from his heart, their hearts, from all the children who saw the face of death before their time. He wrapped the destiny that was determined to claim him around his shoulders like a shroud and his fingers tightened around the holly and phoenix feather wand in his hand. Not for power. Not for revenge.



But for vengeance.



And when he spoke, his voice resonated with the fury of the Divine.



"Kill them all."