Why He Fights

Chapter two: Why He Fights

Harry led his fellow Phoenix members from the room, leaving Dolohov and the petrified Death Eater behind. Ron was waiting at the foot of the stairs.

'Find it?' he asked eagerly.

Nodding, Harry slapped the cylinder in his belt. 'Now let's get out of here'. Everybody headed for the destroyed vaults exit... all but one.

'So we're just leaving?' Draco asked with a disgusted voice.

Turning slowly, Harry looked at him. 'You've got a problem with that?'

'Yes. Yes, I do. Many of the Death Eaters in this building are not dead yet.'

'Many of those Death Eaters are little more than children. There has been enough killing for today. We've got what we came for.'

Malfoy opened his mouth to say something, but Harry was not in a mood to argue and turned away, striding purposefully out of the building. With a furious look, Draco followed, already brewing on Harry's display of leniency. Quite unlike the other Auror divisions, the Order of the Phoenix had a reputation for being all "noble" and "decent". To Draco it was a display of cowardice. 'We ought to murder the bloody lot of them,' he muttered before hurrying outside to catch up with the others.

They were crowded around Luna. As usual, she was doubling as the Order's Healer, and as Draco arrived she was fixing a deep gash on Ginny's shoulder.

Harry was just asking for a casualty report; most were slightly wounded; only Edgecombe, a young member who had been slain in front of the vault, had died.

There was a moment of silence.

'Things are quieter below,' Ron reported, referring to the fight on the plain. 'It went our way.'

'Really?' Harrys sounded mildly surprised, but he seemed ultimately uninterested.

Luna noticed Draco had a small neck wound. 'Want me to look at that?'

'It's nothing. Later.' To Harry, he added stiffly, 'Shouldn't we be moving?'

'Indeed. Hermione, make sure you have all the Death Eaters' wands. Try not to leave any traces for the Muggles.'

He turned to the four Order members hanging around listening. 'We'll get back to the Thestrals and get ready to fly back to the Ministry.'

They pulled long faces.

'It'll be nightfall soon,' Draco remarked.

'What of it? We can still fly, can't we? Unless, of course, you're frightened of the dark.'

Harry walked over to Ron, hoping that this mission would be over soon and he'd be rid of Malfoy. But before he could say anything a chorus of sound arose, a combination of roars and twittering screeches. It came from the other side of the concrete building. Expecting the worst, Harry set off in that direction. Draco (obviously wanting to prove he was not afraid) and Ron trailed him. Hermione stayed with Luna and the others.

On to the other side of the building, he saw what had made the faintly familiar sound.

'They look spooked,' Ron remarked. 'They shouldn't be cooped up like this. It's just not right.'

Walking over to a massive steel fence, the nearest beast was no more then a wand's length away. Twice the height of a man, it stood rampant, weight borne by powerful back legs, taloned feet half buried in the earth. The chest of its massive body swelled, the brown and grey feathers bristling. Its eagle-like head moved in a jerky, convulsive fashion, and the curved beak clattered nervously. The enormous eyes, jet-black orbs against startlingly white surroundings, were never still. Its ears were pricked and quiveringly alert.

It was obviously agitated, yet its erect pose still maintained a curious nobility.

The herd beyond, numbering upwards of a hundred, was mostly on all fours, backs arched. But here and there pairs stood upright, boxing at each other with spindly arms, wickedly sharp claws extended. Their long, curly tails swished rhythmically. A gust of wind brought with it the fetid odour of the hippogriffs' dung.

'If only Hagrid could see this...' Harry thought.

Ron cleared his throat. 'Why do you reckon they would keep all those hippogriffs here? It must have been one hell of a job catching them all and bringing them out here.'

'I don't know,' Harry confessed. 'But all these creatures here in the middle of nowhere, the cylinder and a legion of Death Eaters to guard it; I bet it was something big.'

'All I know,' Draco interjected, 'is that yonder hippogriffs smell bad but taste good.'

'You want to eat them?' Ron asked incredulously. 'Who asked you anyway, you bloody carnivore?'

Draco bridled and was about to retaliate.

'Shut up, both of you!' Harry snapped. He was too tired for this. 'Just get rid of those fences and set them free. Remember to make a bow first, and Draco, if you kill one of them you will regret it!'

He moved on. Ron and Draco exchanged murderous glances before they both made a deep bow towards the Hippogriffs.

Getting back to the ruined bank's doors, Harry turned his attention to the scene on the plain. The fighting had stopped, the defenders either dead, unconscious or routed.

The Magical Catastrophe Reversal Department was going to have one hell of a job covering this up. If they would bother.

'It's a bonus to win the battle,' Neville observed, 'seeing as it was only a diversion.'

'They were young, inexperienced and weak. Only a handful of them were real Death Eaters,' Harry said. 'We expected to win. But no loose talk of diversions, not outside the Order. It wouldn't do to let the Aurors know the fight was set up to cover our task.'

Automatically his hand went to the cylinder.

Down below, some Aurors were moving among their fallen comrades, stripping the robes of their emblems and collecting the wands just like Harry had done earlier. Here and there he could see small clouds of black smoke almost immediately carried away by the wind.

In the gathering twilight it was growing much colder. A stinging breeze whipped at Harry's face. He looked out beyond the battlefield to the farther plains, and the more remote, undulating tree-topped hills. It would have been familiar to his forebears. Save for the ever increasing fog.

As he had a thousand times before, Harry silently cursed the Dementors and the Death Eaters for destroying the magic. Their pillaging and murdering that upset the flow of earth energies which fed the magical powers. Most wizards and witches couldn't even Apparate anymore! Even though the Death Eaters themselves were affected as well they continued to destroy almost everything in their path.

Harry thought about the last time he'd seen a pair of Dementors. He had been on his way to a Ministry meeting at the Department of Mysteries. While he was walking through London, he had taken a shortcut through a small and dirty back alley. His attention was drawn to a large abandoned warehouse because there had been waterfalls of what seemed to be steam pouring from the windows. There he had witnessed a horrible scene. Two Dementors, just floating next to each other, quantities of fog hissing out of their cloaked bodies. Their foul breathing only barely audible. And there had been no cold, no sudden terrible memories or the feeling you could never be cheerful again. The Dementors had not even paid any attention to him. They just continued floating there.

With a shock Harry had realized they were breeding.

Because of the fog Dementors produced while breeding, less and less sunlight reached the ground. It had become colder, and the seasons seemed to have forgotten when to change. All the magic must be intertwined or something, for Harry had heard it was much the same in the greater part of Europe.

He stopped thinking of Death Eaters and Dementors for the moment. Instead, he looked at Ron and Hermione, who were in quiet conversation, standing very close to each other. Ron, who had not witnessed Hermione's duel with Dolohov, tried to cheer her up.

Then Draco decided it was time to break in on their little chat.

'How did it feel, Granger? Killing a man with his own wand hardly sounds noble to me.'

He smirked at her. 'Why were you so keen on fighting him, anyway?' He looked at her enquiringly, his eyes staring menacingly.

Hermione did not even look at him. 'Just bugger off, Malfoy. Go bother somebody else with your attention.'

'Was it something he did to you?' Malfoy pushed her further, narrowing his eyes slightly.

'Shut it. Or I will hex you.'

'Tut tut, feeling insubordinate, Granger? Must I remind you that I am not only a senior ministry official, whom you are bound to obey, but that I am also your superior officer in the Order?'

Hermione gave him a threatening look. 'You're only here because Scrimgeour appointed you. As soon as this mission is over you can go back to that stink hole you came from.'

'Be that as it may,' Malfoy replied, 'you will answer my question. Tell me what happened.'

Ron, sitting next to Hermione with bright red ears and pulsating veins, could no longer contain himself.

'What about you, Malfoy?' he spat. 'Your need to prove yourself must be strong indeed! How did it feel? Killing of your old Death Sucking buddies?'

'I don't need to prove anything,' Draco replied, his voice now cold and distant, but his cheeks turned slightly scarlet.

'Really? With all your fellow house members siding with Voldemort (Draco flinched), and you the only Slytherin in the Order? I think you have much to prove.'

Draco's voice was barely a whisper. 'What's your meaning?'

'I just wonder why we need your sort in our ranks.'

I should stop this, Harry thought, but it's been building too long. Maybe its time they jinx it out of each other.

'I've earned my position within the Ministry.' Draco pointed at the senior markings on his shoulder. 'I was good enough for that.'

Ron slowly drew his wand.

'Were you?' he taunted.

Luna, Seamus and Ginny and several other Order members arrived, drawn by the fuss.

More than one of the members wore a gleeful expression at the prospect of a duel between officers... or in anticipation of Draco losing it.

Insults were now being openly traded, most of them concerning their parentage. To rebut a particular point, Draco gripped a handful of Ron's long red hair, giving it a forceful tug and hissing, 'Say that again, you filthy, sniveling blood traitor.'

Words were about to give way to action. They squared up, wands raised. Hermione looked scared, but did not intervene.

An Order member elbowed through the scrum. 'Captain! Captain!'

The interruption wasn't appreciated by the onlookers. There were disappointed groans.

Harry sighed. 'What is it?'

'We've found something you should see.'

'Can't it wait?'

'I don't think so, Captain. Looks important.'

'All right, leave it, you two.'

Draco and Ron didn't move.

'Enough I said!' He raised his voice menacingly. Ron lowered his wand and backed off, reluctant and still radiating hatred. Malfoy gave a mock flick with his wand before doing the same.

Eyeing Draco a moment longer, Harry turned to the Order member. 'This better be good'.