As always, critique and opinions are welcome.
For once, Harry was starting to believe that maybe old bat Trelawney might get another prediction turn true today - the one where he was to die a horrific death. Even worse was that his friends might share his fate as well. Not even the arrival of the Order members just minutes before did not seem to turn the tide. Their initial advantage of surprise was wearing off and they were slowly being pushed back.
They were at this moment in large hall, so much alike the courtroom where he had tried for underage magic the last summer. Rows of stone benches were overlooking a raised platform where stood a large arch, made of a dark material. Stopping behind of the benches to catch his breath, Harry dared to look around and assess the situation. Closest to him was Professor Lupin, exchanging spells with one Death Eater he thought he could identify as McNair, the one who was sent to execute Buckbeack two years ago. Further was Mad Eye Moody, holding his own against two opponents. On the other side Kingsley Shacklebolt was crossing wands with Lucius Malfoy. And finally, close to the platform in the center of the room, Sirius was fighting the Wicked Witch herself - Bellatrix Lestrange. There was no sight of his friends - they must have scattered in different directions over the course of the fight. Also a number of Death Eaters were missing, which meant that the tide could turn against them even more at any moment.
Harry also realized how lucky they have been so far and that initially the Death Eaters have been holding back a lot, probably to avoid damaging the prophecy ball. The gloves were off now though and all around him the fight was taking place at a level he couldn't have imagined before. That did not mean though that he was backing off the fight now. So he started inching towards Sirius, while trying to take potshots at the enemies whenever possible. It was a most humbling experience that is attacks were parried without much effort while his targets did not shift focus from their main adversaries. Professor Lupin was too busy with his opponent to pay attention to him, so he started moving towards Sirius, using the benches as cover and trying to attract as little attention as possible. His godfather, a wanted man, has risked everything coming to his help tonight and he was not going to leave him face that bitch alone.
On his approach Harry couldn't help but notice a change in the arch atop the central platform, no doubt a result of the stray spells hitting it and all the magic saturating the air. Scattered all across the surface, electric blue runes were flickering to life one after another. The faint whispers from before were being replaced by a deep throbbing hum that was making his teeth vibrate. Whatever the purpose of the device was, the surrounding battle was turning it on.
A commotion at the hall entrance caught his attention. It proved to be a couple of the missing Death Eaters, casting back at an yet unseen opponent. Considering that they were throwing only Killing Curses, their foe must have been a formidable one and Harry felt a flicker of hope. After all, an enemy the Death Eaters feared so much to run away from could only be a friend. The hope turned to elation when Professor Dumbledore himself appeared on the doorway, his wand a blur of motion, conjuring stone slabs to intercept the sickly green beams that sought to end his life. The Death Eaters seemed to reconsider their chances and decide that a retreat was their best solution at the moment. One of Mad Eye's opponents turned around and blew a hole in the wall behind him, making an escape route. Taking advantage of the reduced rate of incoming fire, Professor Dumbledore made a wide sweeping motion, sending a visible wave of magic across the entire room, knocking down any Death Eater it touched. That was the moment when everything went to hell.
As the force wall encountered the arch, it appear to freeze in place for a fraction of a second, then it got absorbed completely inside the device. Seven large runes blazed to life at equal intervals across the circumference and a geyser--like vortex, about 10 meters long, erupted from the device. The stormy pillar hit a retreating Lucius Malfoy dead on, before reforming in a water-like membrane that filled the entire archway. In its wake, a pair of feet, from the knee downward, in expensive leather boots was everything that was left from the once proud pureblood aristocrat.
Bellatrix was the first one to regain her senses. With a crazed shriek she surged forward, a flurry of curses flying from her wand. Sirius was suddenly hard pressed to defend himself and was forced back, towards the rippling surface of the archway. In no time his godfather has been pushed all the way to the top of the platform, when a explosive curse hit the floor right in front of him. The blast took the Marauder off his feet, blowing him away into the archway, where he disappeared from view, accompanied by the maniacal laugh of his crazy cousin.
In mere fractions of a moment Harry felt a broad range of feelings. Heart-gripping worry made place for blazing fury, then to ice cold determination. With new found strength he sent a trio of overpowered Reductos towards the laughing witch, before dashing forward towards the archway. With new found strength he sent a trio of overpowered Reductos towards the laughing witch, as he dashed forward towards the archway. He did not hear Lupin's anguished cry, asking him to stop and he was already too far away for the older man to hold him in place. He did not look back to see a startled Bellatrix raising a shield, that barely stopped the first spell, and crumbled under the second one. The third spell passed unopposed, turning her head into a red mess of blood, bone and brains. The Wicked Witch was no more. Yet none of this registered with the young wizard as he crossed the rippling surface. The next moment the membrane vanished, leaving behind an inert archway, a bunch of incapacitated Death Eaters and Order members, a dumbstruck Headmaster and a kneeling, crying werewolf.
