Avada Kedavra

Thanks to astopperindeath for the wonderful beta.

I landed hard, thrown to my back on the floor of a courtroom, and struggled to catch my breath and get my bearings.

"I thought you lot would never show up," said Blagdon quietly from the doors to the courtroom. "This room is secure; no one is in any of the chambers behind it."

Neville nodded to him as he hauled me to my feet, and we moved as silently as possible as we helped others set themselves to rights. Only the first group had arrived in the lowest level of the Ministry. We were the largest and needed to move the fastest to join Charlie's group. They were Apparating into the Atrium to secure the Floo network. Percy was taking the smallest group to secure the employee entrance.

Dusty looked thoroughly embarrassed as she scrambled around on the floor scooping up the Portkeys that had spilled out of her bag, as Peaches just stood over her and glowered. I checked my own bag and saw it was secure.

I pulled out my wand and signaled to my team with a gesture towards my eyes. They nodded and all of us whispered a spell and tapped our foreheads. Blagdon now appeared to glow with a golden aura. Around us other teams did the same.

At the door, Blagdon pulled his hood up and placed a mask on his face. Unlike the Death Eater masks, this one was very plain and simple, matte black with a white tear in the corner of the left eye. He waited at the door until we were assembled into our teams.

At a signal from Viktor, we moved out. Neville quietly cast Homenum Revelio at the door and it showed three people farther down the hallway.

Neville nodded to Blagdon, and he threw open the doors of the courtroom. We spilled out of the room and raced down the hall. The people out in the hall spun around shocked and were quickly stunned. The first groups continued past them, and the following groups moved up to secure them.

We moved swiftly and efficiently as we cleared the tenth basement level of the Ministry. Each team worked the same way: three or four fighters in front and two behind casting shields and collecting wands from the prisoners. We herded all the confused and frightened ministry workers into a large room with no other exits and locked them in and warded the doors. Only three had tried to put up a fight, and Angel dosed them with Draught of Living Death to keep them out until long after the fight was over.

"That was easy," said Blagdon, sounding nervous.

"Too easy," agreed Peaches.

"Better than that mess we made of the Lilac Lounge," drawled Dusty.

"Should we leave anyone down here?" asked Andrea, next to me.

"I don't think so," I replied. "They can't get through those wards without wands, and we might need everyone on the higher levels."

"I agree," said Neville.

We all moved in formation towards the stairs leading up to the Department of Mysteries. Just as we were about to ascend, Blagdon hissed and clutched his left arm.

"I'm being summoned," he gasped. "Good luck to you all, and I'll see you on the way back down."

Shoving up his sleeve, he pressed his wand to his arm and vanished from sight.

"Right then, it would seem that the Dark Lord knows he's in trouble now," said Neville. "Let's pick up the pace just a little and keep on our toes."

We took the stairs at a jog and with Silencing Charms on our feet. We knew this floor could be problematic; the Dark Lord didn't have much use for research unless it was in the Dark Arts, so our plan was to secure and ward the door to the stairwell and hope the other teams got the lift out of commission. If we simply trapped the occupants of this floor here, we could come back with Snape's Company and clear it then. As we got closer to the landing on the ninth level, we realized our plan might not work. Starting with those teams in the front we were all affected by feelings of despair and hopelessness. Just as we made the landing, the door at the top of the stairs was thrown open and a cold mist started to flow down towards us.

"Expecto Patronum! Dementors!" shouted Viktor as his luminous falcon Patronus flew out of his wand and through the doorway.

Everyone that could sent a Patronus ahead of us, and the rest of us threw up shields as our fighters dashed off the stairs and into the corridor in front of the Department of Mysteries. Seeing the Dementors again brought back old fears, and images crowded my mind. I shook my head, trying to get a grip, and saw Neville struggling to fire off his Patronus charm and keep moving forward. I kept my shield on him and reached forward and squeezed his shoulder as more of us made it out of the stairwell, and the Dementors and the people with them started to retreat back down the long hallway towards the lifts. One man dodged low and threw a slicing hex. It bounced off my shield, but I heard a cry as it clipped someone behind me.

Suddenly, a cold, blue light fell over our fighters, and I glanced behind me to see the door of the Department of Mysteries standing open and people pouring through doors into the circular, candle-lit entrance-room. As they joined the fight, we were pinned down in the hallway being fired upon by blasting hexes from both sides, and petrified fighters started to go down amidst the chaos, trapping others underneath them. As each Patronus started to fail, the despair came back. I aimed my wand at a Dementor that was drifting closer but my charm failed. I had always had trouble with it and cursed my own stupidity for not practicing this spell more. I, more than many here, knew they would be here. I summoned up my happiest memory, focused on the face of my lover, and shouted the charm, hoping this time my little otter would come to my aid. It did, and I felt a surge of pride as I watched it gambol towards a Dementor that retreated before it. The sight was almost entertaining, the little otter chasing after the retreating Dementor. More Patronus charms joined mine, and they beat the Dementors back while fighters continued to take down the opposition. We gained a few feet of ground. Angel tapped my shoulder and pointed behind us to a closed door on the far side of the circular room. As we watched, a glowing light raced around the edges of it. When the door was fully lit up, it opened and about a dozen elderly wizards and witches ran out. They moved quickly, despite their apparent age. My gut clenched at the new reinforcements, but they surprised us by aiming their wands at the Dementors as well, and I remembered Dahlia Parkinson's words about unexpected allies. We fell back into the blue-lit room, and our combined Patronus charms drove the Dementors back up the corridor and into the Department of Mysteries. As they passed us in a freezing wave, one of the witches across the room shouted "The veil!"

We started to herd the Dementors and the opposing fighters through an open doorway and into the Death Room. My hair stood up as I reached the doorframe and looked in on the room that Sirius had died in. Some of the men and women fighting against us started to throw down their wands and were stunned to the ground as a precaution. Our side spread out along the top levels of the benches and drove the Dementors down towards the veil. More and more wizards and witches tossed down their wands and threw themselves on the floor to avoid the hexes and curses, along with Patronus Charms that pushed the Dementors closer and closer to our goal. Finally, the first one, surrounded on all but one side by an assortment of Patronus shapes, took that fatal step backwards. Another joined it, followed by a third, and after what felt like forever, the last of them was gone.

I sagged against Viktor with relief. He swept an arm around me and hugged me to his side.

"Vee did quite vell."

He turned toward the stunned people on the floor and started to secure them with magical rope. Peaches and Dusty jogged back out into the circular room to revive our people who fell and see to any injured.

Reaching into my bag, I pulled out chocolate and handed it out to my team. Angel collected wands and marked the foreheads of those that had fought so viciously.

"Why are you doing that?" I asked her.

"So we know who to try for war crimes later," she said with asperity.

Neville and Viktor moved over to the people that had helped tip the balance.

"Thank you for your assistance; your timing was much appreciated," said Neville.

"Thank you, young man," replied the tallest Wizard. "Your timing is a bit off. Our calculations showed you were supposed to arrive ten minutes later than you did. However that may be, we will help secure this floor. Yes, yes, we've already had this discussion. I understand you are now ..." he stopped and looked back at a colleague.

"Nine point oh two," said a short squat witch.

"Yes, you are now nine point oh two minutes behind schedule. Off you go; we will secure the rest of this."

Neville looked back at me, and I just shrugged, not knowing what to say. He pointed to a team and had them go make sure the lifts weren't operating, then we assessed the damage.

"Peaches, how are we doing?" I asked as our teams regrouped and took head counts.

"I sent seven of Neville's people back to the house along with four of our girls and three of Viktor's. Other than that, everyone is good to go now."

"Okay, regroup and head back to the stairs," I said. "We move when we're sure this area's clear."

Victor jogged back towards us and reported that all the rooms in the department had been secured, and that unless there were more people hiding behind magic doorways, it was as good as it was going to get. The wizards that had come to our rescue were Unspeakables that had been in hiding in the Ministry for over five years, and they didn't explain anything more than that, but assured us that they would mind this floor as long as we blocked off access to other floors so no one could come in on them until the Ministry changed hands.

We fell into our teams and headed into the stairwell, the last team securing and warding the door before following us up another flight of stairs. The sound of fighting could be heard before we made the first landing.

"Keep your heads down," said Viktor when we reached the top of the steps.

Neville signaled for two groups to go first, and we waited until Peaches stuck her head back into the stairwell and nodded. We all ran up the last stretch and poured out of the doorway into madness.

"Form up, stay with your team!" I shouted and was proud to see they did. Each group of five or six fighters moved forward and to the side allowing room for the next group out the door. We all moved forward into the Atrium, each team next to another, and swept everything before us. Kenneth went down screaming, flames shooting from his mouth, and Angel barely slowed her pace as she slapped a bottle cap on him and tapped it. He disappeared, and we moved forward. I kept up my shield spells as Andrea slid over to close the gap left by Kenneth.

I recognized two of Victor's men up ahead of us and realized we had caught up to Charlie's group already. We merged with them, our fighters picking off targets, while those behind kept up a constant shield, and I asked one of them where Charlie was. He just looked at me and shrugged and dropped back behind our group, visibly exhausted. I couldn't tell if he didn't know where Charlie was or didn't understand my question. What I did know is that we weren't that close to the incoming Floos on the left of the hall, so they had been driven back a good bit. We had cleared two floors in the time they had needed to hold out and wait for us. Those that fell back behind us to catch their breath looked pretty bad. Advancing further into the Atrium, we encountered more fighters and the Killing Curse for the first time. Severus had trained us as best he could for this, and I was proud to see a desk, a chair and a large potted tree fly through the air, thrown by three different teams, to intercept the spells that rushed towards us with a roar of displaced air. The group was taken down quickly due to our superior numbers but not without injuries to our side as well.

We came up behind a large group of people pinned down behind a barricade made from more desks and the shattered remains of two giant statues, blasted from their black stone throne. Two of the fighters had ginger hair. The desks had been partially transfigured several times and had melded together with the statues to form a half wooden, half stone blob with drawers, decorated with tiny, distorted human figures. There were several bodies all over the floor, and I made out Ruby as she crawled into view and slapped a Portkey on someone lying relatively close. A chunk of her hair drifted to the floor as the slicing hex missed her neck by an inch. I signaled to Angel, Dusty and Peaches, and we moved together and forward, crouching low against the wall; our fighters threw spells over our heads. When we came within ten feet, we threw shields up in front of the barricade. Once the group behind the barrier was safer, the rest of our numbers came up behind firing non-stop.

Our combined groups overpowered the resistance trying to find cover by the shattered stump of the great throne, and it only took about another fifteen minutes to subdue the last of them.

A rumble that was felt more than heard disturbed the building, and dust drifted down from the ceiling.

"What the hell was that?" asked Peaches.

"Snape," replied Charlie, "or the Dark Lord. We encountered Death Eaters here pretty quickly, Mulciber and his lot as well as Rowle and that Carrow bitch. We held them off for about a fifteen minutes, but then they all Apparated upstairs, leaving their minions and toadies down here to fight. I think that means Snape got the snake. That fight that you hear has been going on for about ten minutes now. But we don't know what floor they're on."

"We need to get to them," I said.

"I agree," said Percy, "but there are seven more floors above us; we need to regroup and move cautiously.

Staying alert, we moved slowly out into the open and started to Portkey away our wounded as well as see to our dead. There were many. We sent them back to the house as well. Percy thought to pry open a drawer from the misshapen desk and scribble a quick status report and tuck it into the robes of one of the Bulgarians before we sent him back as well. A handful of those on the floor needed only minor healing charms and an Ennervate. A quick head count showed that of the one hundred and twenty-nine people who set off in the three groups, we had only seventy-seven left in any shape to continue. Charlie and Percy's groups had taken heavy damage.

We arranged ourselves into new groups and moved off toward the closest stairwell, leaving no one behind to guard our backs. We blocked and warded the door to the stairs behind us and took off at a run.

Our new strategy was to head towards the noise of battle. Besides those with us, the only group of fighters we had left in the building were Snape's Company. There were thirty-two of them, including Severus, and there were still easily one hundred Death Eaters. On each floor, we listened, and not hearing anything, we continued up, sealing the doors behind us until we reached the second level. We knew at once we were close because whatever spells were being thrown were shaking the stairwell, and large cracks could be seen in the walls from the stress. My mind reeled at the force of magic being used.

When we got to the landing for the second level, Viktor and three of his men flattened out against the wall and slowly opened the door to peek. He waved his hand and went into a fighting crouch as the first group went through the door. I was with Neville, Percy and Charlie along with Angel, Ruby and Peaches. We spilled through the door, keeping low, and slid behind some desks. The stair opened into a large open space in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement – part of the Aurory, from the look if it – and the area was separated into cubbies by low walls. Perfect.

Staying in a crouch below the level of the partitions, we had time to get everyone out of the stairwell and into their team formations before we set off. Keeping low, we scurried through the room until a huge explosion knocked us all off our feet. Ceiling tile and dust rained down on us, and I clamped my hand over my mouth to keep from coughing out loud.

"TRAITORS! You will all die like the dogs you are! I will rend your flesh and tear your souls!" The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, and more than one person swung around to look behind us. "My demons will torment you for eternity!"

Neville and I exchanged confused glances, but Viktor and his men groaned softly, and one of them started muttering in Bulgarian.

"He doesn't really have demons does he?" asked Neville.

Just at that moment, we became aware of noises getting closer, and we trained our wands ahead of us just in time to see what looked like a large bundle of black cloth moving around a corner towards us. No one moved as we tried to gauge the new threat until it pushed up on what we realized were the stumps of its arms and we saw the dead eyes of Alecto Carrow. Someone behind me screamed.

"Inferius!" yelled Charlie. He blasted it to pieces just as more came around the corner. This time I screamed as I saw a dead Vaisey crawling towards us. Percy leaped in front of me and fired a shot from his wand. The Inferi tried to scramble back, but they weren't fast enough and started to burn and writhe silently. The smell of burning flesh hit us, and I turned my head to keep from vomiting on Neville, who promptly did.

A blast hit the ceiling over our heads, and we knew our position had been spotted.

"Fire works on them! Hit them with fire!"

We jumped up and raced towards where they came from, burning any that came into our path: as frightening as they were, they moved slowly so once the initial shock was over, they were more or less easily dealt with.

Now that we were standing we could see how the battle was going. Snape's Company, easily distinguished by their golden auras, seemed to be pinned down in the corner of the room farthest away to our right while Death Eaters fought against them from the far left. We were diagonally across the room from our people. A second glance showed that Severus and his men had effectively blocked the Death Eaters from reaching the other set of stairs, and no one could escape by the doors into the corridors to either side of the Aurory without being in the line of fire.

"Should we make our way around to them? Or take the Death Eaters on from another side?" asked Charlie.

A shrill scream tore through the room, and the Dark Lord hurled another curse. It looked like a wall of sickly green acid flowed towards our men, eating away at the furniture and even one Death Eater witch unfortunate enough to be in the way. Snape's Company surged back, leaving Severus standing out front, surrounded by shield spells.

With an answering roar, Severus bellowed a countercurse, and his magic hit the wall of ooze with enough force for us to feel the discharge from the other side of the room. The wall of ooze dropped to the floor and dissipated. Snape's Company surged forward again and Severus dropped back. He looked terrible: his face was gray, and his clothing was burnt, and I saw a patch of his shoulder through his ruined robes; the skin was shiny and red from a burn. Looking at the others, determined yet grim, I realized they didn't have much longer before their strength gave out. Both sides threw Killing Curses, but both also threw debris and office equipment into the air to block the curses. I saw that Selwyn fought at Severus' side now, but he looked like so much raw meat himself. Nott was cradling one arm close to his chest but flinging hexes and shields without pause. There was no time to make our way safely to them, and they were on the verge of collapse.

"Second front!" I yelled and scrambled up onto a desk. "Shield me!" I was enveloped by at least six shields all at once. The effect of that much magic made my hair stand on end and lined my body in a silver fire. I must have made quite a sight.

"Voldemort!" I screamed. "I come for you!"

The effect of my battle cry was immediate. All attention in the room turned towards me.

"WHO DARES?" he bellowed.

"I do! The last friend of Harry Potter! Your day is over, Tom Riddle! Your life is forfeit! You will die today, and no one will remember you with anything other than pity and contempt!"

"The Mudblood whore dares to defy me? What fresh treachery is this? Kill her! Kill them all!"

I started to see my strategy of using myself as a diversionary tactic was intrinsically flawed when a barrage of curses came flying at me. I swept my hands out to my sides and simply dropped backwards off the desk as several Killing Curses flew above my body with the sound of a jet engine and hit the wall behind us. Several hands caught me before I hit the floor.

"That vas an amazingly stupid thing you did!" Viktor shrieked at me as I was lying on the floor. "You vill never do that again!" I shuddered to think what Severus was thinking right at the moment and prayed I would get to hear every blessed word.

"That was the most ballsy thing I have ever seen," muttered Peaches in my ear as she patted my shoulder.

I got up, and we started across the room using the same tactics that had got us this far. Voldemort's rage made him turn his attention away from Snape's Company as he directed all his men to attack us. Done with being a symbol, I had dropped back and was casting shield spells as fast as I could. We gained ground at a steady pace as we shot curse after curse, hex after hex, across the room at them. We blasted desks and partitions out of our way and made our own direct path. Our teams became fluid as people dodged killing curses and merged into the group next to them rather than take the time to move back.

Severus's group renewed their attack as well, and the Death Eaters had to turn and protect themselves but not before several of them went down. We were chipping away at their numbers, but Voldemort was raising them back up again as Inferi and sending them after us as well.

We kept up a steady pace and worked in rhythm, but a blasting hex found its way through our shields, and Neville and Ruby went down. I grabbed a Portkey and slapped it on Ruby, seeing how badly she was hurt, and then stepped over her for the next group to see if she was able to be ported. Neville screamed and rolled around next to me, clutching his face, and Peaches shoved a Portkey down the collar of his shirt and tapped it while I kept them shielded. His screams cut off as he disappeared. We regrouped again. Charlie and Percy stepped in front of me, and Angel and Peaches stayed at my sides. Viktor and his men closed ranks in front as well, and those from the back that hadn't seen much fighting yet spread out until we almost stretched the length of the room. Holes in our line appeared and disappeared as everyone leaped to avoid the green streaks of light that meant instant death. Viktor himself went down screaming from a slicing hex, and Dusty was quick with a tourniquet spell as Angel tucked his severed arm into his robes before activating the Portkey. While I had my shield covering their group, a curse took off Andrea's head next to me. Still we pushed on.

The ends of our line started to curl in and we had them boxed into the corner finally, with our boys in the other corner now safely behind our lines. Angel turned and signaled four girls to go see to their injured.

The battle became intense as our line thinned out: people on both sides were falling. The most vicious fighter wasn't the Dark Lord, but Mulciber. He was the one that killed Dusty with an Entrail-Expelling Curse as she was bent over Greg Goyle. Enraged, I directed our fighters to target him, but he simply faded back into his fellows when it got too intense. Snarling my fury, I stepped forward to close the distance and let off one blasting hex before an arm like a steel band slammed around my waist and snatched me back against a sweat soaked robe.

"Keep your head, foolish girl!"

Severus literally handed me on to Charlie without taking his eyes off the battle.

I gulped deep breaths to try and focus myself again: I was at that thin edge between functioning in spite of all the insanity around me and curling in on myself and screaming forever. I could feel the hysteria bubbling and just waiting to seize control. I forced myself to step up and cast a shield and concentrated on that one task until my mind started to calm and I went numb inside again.

I saw Caddoc Warrington, his mask long gone in the fight, firing hexes while shielding Angel with his body while she Portkeyed another to safety. She turned just in time to see the Killing Curse coming from their left as Warrington was braced right. I watched as she surged up from the floor and slammed into him, throwing him out of the line of fire. She almost made it too. Warrington screamed in rage and grief as Angel landed on top of him, dead. I dug into my bag and pulled out a Portkey and slapped it on her body and activated it. Warrington threw his wand away as he started to claw at his clothes and tear at his hair: I took one look into his eyes and grabbed another Portkey and sent him on his way out of the battle as well.

I heard more than saw the green streak of the Killing Curse coming towards me. I heard Severus's shrill 'Accio Hermione!' and was snatched sideways into his arms. I heard his ragged breathing in my ears as I flung up a shield to repel the hexes thrown at us.

Again Voldemort let out a high shriek and again a wall of sickly green acid came towards us. Charlie yelled the counter curse but it only collapsed part of the wall. With a roar like a maddened bull, Severus shoved me behind him, and the wall fell to the ground and smoked as it dissipated from his countercurse. Selwyn and Goyle Sr. stepped forward to flank him as he threw curses non-stop and hammered at the Death Eater lines. The force of his curses were deafening as they detonated. The Death Eaters before him retreated into tighter and tighter formations as their shields failed from the assault, and we smashed at them with our own spells. Several went down at once and a gap in their lines revealed the Dark Lord.

Severus didn't hesitate as he cast his final curse. He didn't even shout, just said the words and a jet of green light burst from the Elder Wand, and boxed in as they were, the Dark Lord had nowhere to run. He grabbed Rowle and tried to push him in front of the curse but it hit them both, flinging them back to hit the wall behind them with a sick thud.

Death Eaters screamed as they fell to the ground clutching their arms. I ran to where Severus was, as Percy ran to incapacitate as many Death Eaters as he could before the pain wore off.

Severus had collapsed, and I could tell by his face he was in agony, but unlike those around us, he let no sound escape. I threw my arms around him and held him tight. I could feel the warm slick dampness of his blood and sweat under my arms. I pulled him towards my body and rocked him, but I don't even know if he was aware of me until I felt a shudder run through him, and he started to relax just as the noise level started to fade. I loosened my grip, and he pulled away just enough to see my face. I ran my hands over his body and down his chest searching for injuries and didn't even know I was crying until he wiped a tear with a shaking finger.

"It's over," he said. His voice was so soft and gentle that it startled me, and I looked up to see his face. His eyes were full of emotion, and he seemed completely dazed by our victory. "My goddess," he whispered. "I get to keep you after all."

I lifted my face up to kiss him but turned away at the last second because a sudden movement caught my eye. Severus turned to see what caught my attention just as Mulciber aimed his wand at us and shouted: "Avada Kedavra!"

Time seemed to slow down as I reached to shove him to the side. I saw the people around us reacting as if under water. Faster than my mind could take in Severus pushed me backwards and spun towards the green light. He threw his arms wide to protect me, and I saw him lean in to catch the spell closer before it had a chance to diffuse enough to catch me as well. I couldn't even scream as my hero and lover was encased in green light and collapsed to the ground, still clutching the Elder Wand.

AN: Without Whitehound's extensive knowledge of the Floor Plans of the Ministry, this chapter would have been impossible. This time she actually stepped in and helped keep it canon when I had thrown my hands up in despair. Whereas I only managed to get the correct department on the correct floor, she put the correct candle in the correct room. Many thanks.