"Now!" Tonks yelled to the group gathered behind her. Bursting through the door, Remus, Tonks and Bill Weasley began shouting immobilizing hexes at the large group of black-robed Death Eaters. Other Order members joined the fray, venturing out with spells designed to injure.
Behind them, Ron and Ginny were furiously casting protection spells on the people in front of them, hoping to keep them strong enough to resist the first wave of encroaching Death Eaters.
"AAAAAAHHH!" the twins screamed in unison as they exploded out the opposite room's door with Kingsley and Charlie. Behind them, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley started casting the same protection spells their youngest children were using.
There was no way to estimate how many Death Eaters had come streaming out of the little room, but Ginny only knew that more and more of them seemed to be coming forth in a sea of flowing black robes. Only a few Death Eaters had collapsed with the first wave of hexes Remus, Tonks and Bill had thrown, and now the Death Eaters were fighting back. She could see two Order members lying motionlessly on the floor.
The hall was booming with the sounds of screams, the blasting of spells and the cracking of masonry as errant hexes hit walls. The Death Eaters were moving forward, and while the protection spells the oldest and the youngest Weasleys were employing were helping the front lines, they weren't helping to drop Death Eaters.
"I'm going up there!" Ron yelled at Ginny. He turned away from her horrified look and surged into the melée.
"Ron!" her father roared. "Get back!" Ginny only caught a glimpse of her father running forward, ostensibly to grab Ron and bring him back to continue casting protection spells.
And then, she couldn't see either of them.
***
"Severus!" Voldemort shrieked. "Did you have knowledge of this?"
"Of course not, my Lord!" Snape yelled back. "I must go and alert Lucius!"
"No! You will stay here!" the Dark Lord commanded. "I've not the strength to waste if Potter shows his face. Lucius can handle himself!"
Assuming a defensive stance in a corner of the room facing the door, Severus waited for the door to be blown open.
***
"Picture the room. Picture the fucking room!" Draco muttered frantically to himself.
Snape had taken him aside the day after struggling in half-dead from his Summoning and taken a memory of the hidden room and placed it in a chipped Pensieve for Draco to view.
It was literally so unremarkable that Draco was nearly unable to focus on the image he had been shown in the Pensieve. Gray stone walls, low corners that mimicked the roof line, large enough only for a small table and a few chairs. Trying to solidify the picture in his mind, he hammered down on it. His mind flickered for a moment, and he Apparated.
***
Help had arrived. Dumbledore's small contingent arrived behind Ginny and Molly Weasley as the Death Eaters advanced past the unified front her brothers, Tonks, Remus and Kingsley had presented. She could still hear Ron yelling his head off, probably being held back by her father. Blindly Ginny and Molly continued to cast and hold protection spells as long as their waning strength would allow. To sustain such a powerful spell was to drain energy.
Ginny saw her mother being pushed toward the middle of the hall as members of the Order of The Phoenix marched up the right side in a dense bunch. Instinctively, the Order members who had already been fighting began to angle themselves toward Dumbledore's group, protecting them until they could push Harry and the aged professor to the door where Snape and Voldemort were still sequestered.
A break in the clot of bodies opened up and suddenly Ginny could see her father writhing on the floor, Ron hovering protectively over him, bellowing and firing off spells willy-nilly in the direction of three Death Eaters.
"DAD!" Ginny screamed helplessly, unable to curb the shout born of fear and anger.
***
An explosion rocked the hall and thick splinters of dark wood flew through the air as Dumbledore obliterated the door separating him and Harry from Severus and Tom Riddle.
"Harry, now!" Dumbledore commanded, grabbing Harry's arm and dragging him through what remained of the heavy door. A high-pitched scream ricocheted through the small interior, making Harry's eardrums ache. As he looked to the side, he saw Snape in his Death Eater robes and almost fired off a spell out of habit. Glancing to the other side, Harry laid eyes on the enraged Lord Voldemort.
"Dumbledore!" Voldemort thundered, rushing forward, wand outstretched. "I will not miss this time! Severus, hold the boy!"
As Voldemort's sibilant hiss began to incant the words to the Killing Curse, Severus fired off a vortex spell, a tornado-like blast of air that swept the relatively frail Voldemort across the room and thumped him against a wall.
For a moment frozen in time, Severus saw Dumbledore look and him and nod, the signal for Severus to leave the three alone to duke it out. He was tempted to aid his mentor, but Lucius was still unaccounted for and it was his job to find him and hold him alive, if possible.
With a curt, answering nod, Severus slipped out the door.
***
Lucius listened to the death and destruction ensuing outside the small room and merely smiled as if he were enjoying a particularly nice cup of tea. Narcissa had finally quieted, largely in part to the silencing spell he'd placed on her. She still struggled tearfully and angrily against the crude Muggle-type bindings he'd tied around her mouth, hands, knees and ankles.
The rather primitive binding had its uses; he'd cleverly forced her to sit on the floor with her knees drawn up, then had momentarily stunned her to link her wrists together underneath her knees, which he'd also tied together. A final knot around her delicate ankles ensured she would stay put.
"I'm going to see how my brethren are faring," he said. "Please be a dear and keep watch."
Carefully he Apparated outside the door.
Crouching low, he could see that his Death Eaters were being steadily pressed back against the long windows at the other end of the corridor. Whatever ragtag bunch of soldiers Dumbledore brought had actually advanced, and Lucius could see black-clad figures huddled on the hardwood floor. Blood stains and spatters decorated sections of the walls.
As his brothers-in-arms were steadily shoved back, he made an assessment. Perhaps he could not stop the Death Eaters from meeting their end. But he could strike some sort of blow to the Order. And now that the front the Order had presented was ahead of the Disillusioned door of the room he was sharing with Narcissa, perhaps he could make a clean getaway and have a satisfying kill. Of a Weasley.
The Weasley he wanted was too far away. The little blood-traitor princess was against the left side of the hallway, firing tricky spells over the heads of the Order and directly into a knot of Death Eaters. Her mother, however, was a different story. Tears were streaming down her plump, red face, and she was visibly struggling to keep up the weak protego she was holding. Even from a dozen meters away, Lucius could see her ample chest heaving as she cried and cast spells. Well. How wonderful. He would entertain himself by killing the mother of practically half the Order and distant family to Narcissa.
***
Ginny thought she saw movement behind her, and a flash of blond made her turn her head to see. Thinking it was Draco, she rejoiced. If he was here in the corridor, perhaps he'd located his mother.
Instead she saw the regal Lucius Malfoy wrapping strong arms around her weak and struggling mother. One pale hand clamped tightly to her mouth and the other was secure around her waist. As her mother wriggled frantically, Lucius looked up and over Molly's shoulder, locking eyes with Ginny.
Those malicious gray eyes gleamed as he smiled prettily at Ginny, then began dragging Molly toward the back of the corridor.
"No!" Ginny screamed, dropping her wand in her haste and running toward the dark corner into which Lucius disappeared.
***
Draco Apparated into the hall, eyes wide at the bloodshed happening only a few dozen meters in front of him. As he tried to orient himself, he realized he wasn't close to the room. Damn it! He couldn't concentrate long enough on the memory to go directly to his father's hideout.
Looking in the direction he believed the room to be, a long streamer of Weasley red hair caught his eye as it vanished into a dim corner of the hall, behind him and to the right of his position.
Ginny.
He ran.
***
Severus flew around the corner, eyes searching out the best route to get beyond the Death Eaters without being noticed so he could bring up the rear of the Order. The din from the battle was unimaginable, and as he vainly sought a safe path, something in the back of the hall and far away from the fight got his attention.
Draco was at a full run, heading toward Lucius' secret room.
Severus rocketed toward his godson's retreating figure.
***
-->