The battle was dying down. There were only two Death Eaters, and Tommy boy, left to deal with. Voldy had yet to make an appearance outside the house. Narcissa and Lucius were the only ones still fighting. Lucius was fighting to kill, and his wife copied his moves. They may not be in a love marriage, but both took family very seriously. Therefore, they would win together, or die together.
Amelia did always admire that about purebloods. Her family was much the same, having been raised on the same principle. Still, she wasn't going to let their teamwork bring her down if she could help it. She could see by the way the blond man was fighting that he had spent the last decade or so just playing politics. During the last 'war' Lucius was a man to fear, but now, his wife, who never fought before, was doing better than him.
Kingsley was down. He was bleeding badly, but Remus was attending to him, while Bill was keeping them covered. The man, Proudfoot was also down, but he was just disabled. Moody and Amelia were fighting Narcissa and Lucius.
Moody had just blasted Lucius in the leg and quickly tied him up. He nodded to Amelia who was still fighting Narcissa. Seeing she didn't need his help, he started gathering all the Death Eaters, be they dead or not, and putting them in a group. He then had them sit side by side in a circle, backs facing each other and made a huge rope to tie them together.
Hphphp
Meanwhile, in the manor. Sirius was still sneaking around. Not that those fighting knew that, but they were sure the man would not have left them to fight if he were not busy doing something necessary. At the moment, he was trying to find out what happen to the two Death Eaters that had snuck away. He was peeping around corners, still staying with in cursing distance of Tom.
Just then three things happened all at once. A Patronus flew in, Dumbledore showed up, and Peter in rat form scurried to his master. Sirius was about to throw off the cloak when Dumbledore decided that it was time he talked to Tom.
Sirius stayed hidden, watching and waiting for his opening.
"Tom, tonight you will pay for your crimes. That is the Head of the DMLE out there fighting your men. She will be arresting them shortly. You will soon follow. Give up now, and perhaps she will be lenient on you," the Headmaster said, like he was the one who planned the whole thing. The old man had his wand pointed at the noseless man.
Riddle raised his wand and sneered. "Dumbledore, how kind of you to present yourself to me. It saves me the trouble of tracking you down."
Both men were grandstanding, which they were both well known for. Neither wanted to throw the first curse, since Voldy was known to fear Dumbledore, and Albus was known for giving second, third, or however many chances to the wrong people.
The fact that the Headmaster thought that this… being could be saved let Sirius know that there was something terribly wrong with the old man. Perhaps it was time he retired. Permanently.
Sirius scoffed and pulled out his mirror. He activated it on silence mode. Which meant that those on the other side could hear it, but they couldn't be heard. Right now, he was hoping Andromeda would be paying attention. And that she would write down what was said, so her husband would have evidence.
Little did he know that Tonks was doing just that, after she heard the last sentence from old Voldy. She nodded to Harry to listen in, and they leaned forward to hear everything.
The two men were still going back and forth, both saying nothing, while incriminating themselves all the same.
"Tell me, Dumbledore, where is your hero? I hear that Harry Potter has turned against you. Not that I blame him, you are an interfering old man. Who doesn't know how to keep his big nose out of other people's business," Voldy said, glaring at the man who had made his life miserable, for as long as he could remember.
"Tom, why do you wish to know?" Albus asked, truly wondering what Voldemort was thinking. Did the man know the full prophecy? He knew that Sirius and Harry had listened to it. Did Voldemort learn it from Harry's head? Was the boy still connected to Tom? Severus had said that he was not, but if Harry had not died, then how was the horcrux removed? He had a hard time believing that he had been wrong for so many years.
"That is my business old man. Once again you are poking your nose in where it doesn't belong," Voldy sneered, watching his sniveling underling cower towards him. Like he'd protect the weakling.
Sirius looked to the side and saw Snape lurking in the shadows. That man was very good at staying hidden until he wanted to be seen. If there was one thing he could give the man credit for, it was that Snape was one of the best spies Sirius had ever seen. None of the others, during the last war, had lasted as long at Snivellus had. If nothing else, Sirius was impressed with that.
Peter took that moment to fully change. "Master," the mousy man said, finally getting the courage to speak, "we're losing."
"What?!" Voldemort exclaimed, not fathoming for a moment that his people would lose to a bunch of tree huggers.
"They went lethal, Master. They are killing the others. We were not prepared for that," Peter said, hiding behind his master, without appearing to do so. Spineless man that he was.
"That's very unlikely, Peter. It Aurors are not allowed to kill," Albus said, as if he was in control of the others. Severus had said they were fighting back with force, but he knew that the Ministry would never condone deadly force.
"Yet, they are," the ratman said, squeaking more than speaking. "I saw them with my own eyes," he protested further, still hiding behind the man who could care less if he died or not. "A good half of us were dead before we could even fight back."
Sirius took the time to get behind Peter, so he would be in the position to take him out the moment he transformed. There was no way he was going to let his old friend escape this time.
"If they are fighting out there, why are you in here?" Tom asked, not turning from the old man, but making it sound like a threat, just the same.
"I came to protect you," Peter whimpered, unconvincingly.
"Leave, Wormtail. Leave now or die by my hand. You had better be going to help your comrades, or I will find you and you will wish yourself dead," the Dark 'Lord' said, making the coward cringe.
Peter transformed and was heading out to do as he was ordered, when suddenly he couldn't move. Then for some unknown reason, he was being dragged across the floor, though no one seemed to notice. Once he reached the person capturing him, it went dark.
Sirius tucked the rat in his pocket. He spelled the opening shut, so that there would be no accidental escape. Then he fired a stunning curse at Snape, making the man fall to the ground. Both the men, who were still facing off, looked at the down man, then back at each other, then thinking they now had a common enemy, they both turned and started casting revealing spells.
"Whoever you are, come out now and I will be lenient," Tom said, peering at corners like they would reveal the culprit.
"Harry, my boy, how did you get here? Last I saw you were at school," Dumbledore said, correctly guessing that the Invisibility Cloak was at play, but incorrectly guessing who was using it.
Sirius remained silent. They had made sure that the Cloak could not be seen. Moody had found all the spells on it and removed them. Though he was loathed to do so. It would now hide from anyone, including Moody, which, as said, the man didn't like but agreed it was necessary.
Everyone jumped when there was a large explosion outside the room. The windows lit up like it was morning. Then the light faded. They didn't move from where they were, but they did look towards the wall the sound came from. That was when Sirius took his shot. He fired a piercing curse at Voldy and got him right between the eyes.
The Dark Lord dropped, never to get up again.
Dumbledore rushed to the man's side. Not believing for a moment that he was dead. Unless he knew Harry had done it, then to him, it was not over.
Sirius knew it was a cowardly move, but they also knew that if Dumbledore knew who killed the man, then there was a good chance that person would wind up in Azkaban. Well, maybe not, but having stayed at that 'resort' once before, Sirius was not eager to take the chance.
As it was, had not the old man been here, he might have faced the Dark 'Lord' in combat. Perhaps it was better that it played out this way instead. As much as he would have liked to duel the now dead man, he wasn't sure he would win. After all, he had spent 12 years in the worst place on earth. There wasn't much he could have done in there to stay in shape. Not to mention that the Dementors would have never allowed it.
"Harry, I am so disappointed in you. You know that this is not the end," Albus said, rising from his inspection of Tom. "Tom will rise again. You are only putting off the inevitable," the old man droned on.
Sirius decided not to engage in talk with the old man. Harry had an alibi, so he wasn't worried about the Headmaster trying to make the boy out to be 'dark', or some such rot. He didn't care what the old man said about him, he had permission to go lethal from Bones. Still…
While the old man prattled on, Sirius was making his way towards the door. Moving slowly as to not make a sound. He wanted to get to Amelia before Albus did.
Speaking of Bones, she and Moody ran into the room right at that moment. They both stopped short at seeing the dead man on the floor.
"Albus, what in the blazes are you doing here?" Moody asked, firing off a spell that wrapped the dead guy in ropes. They weren't going to take any chances until he was thrown through the Veil.
"Severus warned me that a group of people were trying to take down Voldemort. I decided to come and lend a hand," the old man said.
"Did you kill, Riddle?" Amelia asked, roping up Snape for good measure.
"No, I do believe that young Harry is here," Dumbledore said, looking around the room trying to locate the Cloak. He didn't understand, he had spelled the cloak to always be visible to him. It was only practicing good responsibility. He couldn't have a child running around the school invisible.
"If you're looking for Harry, you won't find him here. He is at home where he belongs," Bones said, floating the two tied up men in front of her, while she made to leave the room. She knew it was Sirius, but there was no way Dumbledore could prove it. That was the way they had it planned. Whoever got the Dork Lord, would stay out of it.
Meanwhile Sirius had left the room and was now running back in it, like he had been outside the whole time. "Sorry, I didn't come sooner. I found the rat, and needed to capture him," he said, playing like he was out of breath.
"Good, hand him over, and he can be tried with Snape," Bones said, nodding to Moody to take over floating the two men.
Moody did, while Sirius undid his pocket and handed over the stunned rat.
"Severus has my-" was all the Headmaster said, before he was interrupted.
"I don't care," Amelia snapped. "You are not an Auror, or even a Ministry worker anymore. Therefore, you have no say in the matter. I am not the men of old that worship the ground you walk on, Albus Dumbledore. If this man had committed crimes, he must pay for them," she stated firmly, all but snarling in his face. "There is nothing you can do to stop that. No man is above the law, not even you. Get that through your head." She sniffed and folded her arms, as if daring the man to say different.
Albus pulled himself up to his impressive height, and he looked down his nose at her. "I am Albus-" he said, before being interrupted again.
"We don't care," Sirius said this time, looking down his nose at the taller man. "You were not part of the planning that went into tonight. You were not invited, and you took no part in the fight. You have already said, it wasn't your spell that killed Voldy, so you can just keep your mouth shut and let us finish what we came here for," he said, before spinning around and stomping out of the room. Much like a teen who was told to keep his music down.
Amelia and Alastor followed behind, not giving Dumbledore any more of their time. they had stuff to do tonight and fighting with Albus was not part of that. The first thing they had to do was throw Tom Riddle, aka Voldemort, through the Veil. There would be no chance of him recovering from death this time.
Not that he could, but it paid to safe.
Dumbledore stood where they left him. His Machiavellian mind going a thousand miles a minute. This was not the way it was supposed to end. Harry was the one who was supposed to make the final blow that would end the Dark 'Lord's' reign of terror. Albus had planned it for years. Every step was important. How did it all go wrong?
He would never know.