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Perhaps he would side with... Moody.
Potter understood Tonks' logic, he also understood why Justin had decided to side with Nymphadora, but they both didn't know what Harry himself knew. Mad-Eye was not a traitor. Potter had no argument to prove it, but he just knew that he was; he knew Moody too well to even suggest that someone could have been discreetly posing as a retired auror. And, since Moody was real, the other fact that came from here was that they needed to hurry to catch the traitor. Potter still didn't know what he had discovered, but he saw no reason not to trust Mad-Eye, they needed to go to the dungeon right now, without any checks. Justin and Tonks didn't believe Moody, just as they refused to listen to him. Which meant...
- Stupefy!
The spell, fired at point-blank range, hit its target instantly. Nymphadora Tonks was sure Harry wouldn't risk attacking them, so the sudden attack should have surprised her, but the stun spell hit her so quickly that her brain didn't have time to analyse the situation and let out an emotion of surprise. It had all happened too quickly. Tonks hadn't even started to fall, and Harry had already ducked and leapt to the right, and just in time, where Potter's head had just been, the red flash of Justin's stun spell flew.
- Ricktumsempra! Reducto! - While in flight, Harry fired two spells at Finch-Fletchley.
The man put up a dissipating shield and defended himself against both spells.
- Expelliarmus! - Justin was about to supplement the disarming with some combination of spells, but not in time, he was pounced on by Moody, who even with his hands tied tried to help Harry.
- Protego! - Potter defended himself from the disarming spell and, trying not to hurt Moody, attacked: - Incarceo controlus! - A rope flew out of Potter's wand, which turned into a whip and struck Justin's shoulder.
He howled and released some sort of non-verbal spell, but Moody prevented him from aiming, and the spell flew into the ceiling, which immediately began to crumble.
- Stupefy! - Harry decided to end the battle by stunning Finch-Fletchley, however due to the struggle of the bound Moody and Justin, he missed by literally a millimetre, wasting the time gained by Mad-Eye's attack in vain.
- Reducto! - Justin's voice came from somewhere underneath Moody, and the retired auror flew off Finch-Fletchley with great speed, hitting the wall and landing on the floor.
- Architekt! - Justin shouted, and three purple orbs flew out of his wand and flew towards Potter in a wavy trajectory.
- Frisio! Incarcero! Somebody! - Before the orbs reached Potter, he had time to attack, and he took advantage of it by sending a stream of ice and rope at Finch-Fletchley.
While Finch-Fletchley dealt with Potter's spells, Harry threw his wand to Mad-Eye, pulled a spare from his sleeve and scattered three purple balls from Justin's Architect. Finch-Fletchley dealt with Potter's attack half a second faster, and he spent that time attacking Mad-Eye.
- Architekt! - Three purple orbs flew at Moody.
Alastor dodged the first two, but the third one hit him in the forehead and he fell to the floor without feeling. Mad-Eye was out of the fight. Harry and Justin were left one on one!
- Incarcero counter... - Harry wanted to repeat the whip spell, but at the last moment he noticed two purple balls flying towards him and decided to change his attack to defence. - Distracto!
The dissipating shield dispelled the remnants of Justin's Architect and stayed on Potter's defence.
Harry knew the best way to deal with these orbs easily. Distracto is a scattering shield. It is used to dispel not the most powerful spells, but it will handle even the most powerful Architect. Architect is a spell that releases three purple orbs that have two main properties, the first is that they are self aimed at targets, the second is that they don't disappear until they reach their target. Moody used this spell a lot, so Harry got a whole lecture on how to defend against this spell. You can't defend against orbs without a wand, no matter how much you dodge them, they will still chase their target until they reach it. They don't care about physical defences, they don't care about magical ones either, you can't put them in warped space, you can't redirect them at your opponent, the only option is to scatter them.
- Expelliarmus! Conjunctivitus! Asclepio! Expelliarmus! - it took Finch-Fletchley about a second to use the four spells.
- Bombarda! Diffindo! Furunculus! - Potter decided not to defend himself against Finch-Fletchley's attack, but to perform his own attack, relying on the dissipating shield.
The shield withstood the first three spells, but the fourth, the disarming ones, managed to get through the defence. Potter noticed this instantly, but he had no chance to defend or dodge, for he was attacking with a Furunculus just then. Harry's brain went into overdrive as he began to think of possible ways to escape the Expelliarmus, but at the last moment before the spell hit, he came up with one action that could help.
Harry let his wand out of his hand. The Expelliarmus hit Potter, and nothing happened, because he had nothing in his hands, the disarming spell didn't need to disarm anyone, it didn't work. The result would have been completely different if the Expelliarmus had been more powerful, because a powerful disarming spell had a strong repulsion effect in addition to the disarming effect, but the spell went through the dissipating shield and reduced its power to a minimum.
With his other hand, Harry caught the discarded wand and instantly attacked again:
- Incendio!Finch Fletchley, who had handled Harry's previous attack, swung his wand and the fire Potter had released suddenly turned against the spellcaster himself.
- Hydralis! - Harry extinguished the released fire and attacked again:
- Bombarde maximus!
Finch-Fletchley dealt with this attack as well, leaping away from Potter's spell. There was an explosion. The wall of some office shattered into pieces, one of those pieces almost hitting Harry, it flew a few centimetres above Potter's head.
- What are you, sick? Throw Avada at me, you moron! - Finch-Fletchley shouted.
Justin himself was nowhere to be seen. The blast of the wall had contaminated the air with dust, reducing the view. Harry didn't bother answering Finch-Fletchley, he ran through the hole in the wall into the Defense Against the Dark Arts room and released a spell from there at the sound of footsteps:
- Locomotor Mortis!
There was the sound of falling, it seems that the spell disabling the legs had achieved its goal.
- What the fuck! Finite! Where the fuck are you anyway! - Justin shouted.
- Keeghn capt! - Harry still couldn't see Finch-Fletchley, but the scream gave a clear indication of its location.
Human bones erupted from the floor and covered a small area. This was a spell Harry hadn't shown anyone yet. Even Moody didn't know Potter knew one necromancy spell. If Finch-Fletchley got caught in the spell's range, he wouldn't get out of it. But is he? Keeghn Sapt was blocking not only the ability to move any living creatures inside, but also all sounds coming from the trap. Harry stopped and listened. All sounds except his breathing were gone. Moody and Tonks were lying unconscious, everyone else in Hogwarts was still asleep, a good thing the battle had taken place far from the faculty lounges. The only person who should have heard the sounds of the battle was Professor Lupin, whose bedroom was not far away, but he was absent, quite possibly as luck would have it, just today he had fallen ill again with his obscure illness. Although an explosion could wake up the whole of Hogwarts, Harry wasn't aware of the sounds spreading through the castle, but in any case, no one was here yet.
A minute passed. There were still no extraneous sounds. So Justin had been caught. The battle's over. Now Potter needed to get Moody's consciousness back. Potter walked up to the Mad-Eye... Suddenly someone whispered something behind his back.
- Protego! - Harry put up a magical shield, and the red beam of the spell released by the unknown person hit his shield.
However, the strength of the shield was not enough. The first spell was followed by a second, then a third, and the fourth spell broke through his shield and knocked his wand out of his hand.
- Give up, Harry, I've won! - Justin shouted and stepped out of the corner covered in a layer of dust.
He looked terrifying. Torn and tattered clothes, abrasions on his arms and face, a laceration on his leg, burnt hair, and a cut shoulder that was bleeding thinly. All of these wounds, however, didn't seem to bother Justin much. He had the smile of victory on his face.
Harry reached into his sleeve for his spare wand, but found nothing. Of course, since he had thrown it away to Moody back at the beginning of the fight. What else could he use as a weapon? A flask? Bezoar? A cloak of invisibility? Did he really lose?
- How did you get in there! I closed you in! - Harry refused to accept defeat. - You couldn't win! You weren't supposed to win!
- I dodged and then pretended I wasn't here! I don't know what spell you used, but I just assumed it was powerful enough to render you unconscious. I knew you'd fall for it, and then--
"Whack!"- was the sound the bezoar made when it made contact with Justin Finch-Fletchley's nose. Moody had most likely given it to Potter for absolutely no purpose at all, but a stone from a goat's stomach could be used as a weapon. And Harry, having spent two years in the paddock position, was well aware of how painful it could be to be hit in the face by a heavy object. At the same time as he threw the stone, Potter made a dash for his wand, he was well aware that Finch-Fletchley would recover from the blow faster than he could grab the weapon, and he would only have time for one spell to deflect the combination of spells. One could take a chance, put up a dissipating shield, in the hope that Justin would use the Architect, or one could put up a magical shield, in the hope that he would use a magical attack, or one could... Potter had a better plan, however:
- Accio maxima!
Tonks' body, which had been lying quietly against the wall the entire fight, flew towards Potter and hovered between him and Finch-Fletchley. The latter, meanwhile, seemed to use his strongest attack and unleashed five spells in one second. All five spells failed to reach Harry, hitting Nymphadora.
Tonks' body fell to the floor, there was no visible damage on it. It was likely that Finch-Fletchley had not used anything strong, emphasising speed. Realising that he had just unleashed a bunch of spells at Nymphadora, Justin cursed loudly and profanely. Harry, on the other hand, had used those few seconds to better advantage:
- Rapido!
The nearest large object, which turned out to be Tonks's long-suffering body, flew at Justin and, ignoring his hastily placed magical shield, knocked him to the ground. Potter had the advantage, but it needed to be developed, and while Justin was getting out from under Nymphadora's body, he brought Mad-Eye back into the fray.
- Enerwaite!
The spell hit Moody and he woke up, using Potter's spare wand to get rid of the ropes and was standing ready to fight a second later
Despite the doom of the situation, Justin wasn't about to give up.
- Petrificus totalus! - Justin exclaimed.
- Stupefai! Expelliarmus! Silenzio! Polylumos! - Moody said.
- Impedimenta! - Potter said.
Justin attacked Moody, Moody attacked Justin, and Potter attacked... Moody.
Justin's spell was blocked, and all the other spells hit the target. Because of the slowing Moody started very slowly pointing his wand at Potter, but Harry was much faster:
- Expelliarmus!
Potter's spare wand returned to its master.
- What did Mad-Eye say when he first saw Harry Potter? - Both wands in Harry's hands were pointed at Moody.
- So you're still not sure I'm not a Potter? - The slowing spell was still in effect, so Mad-Eye said the line very slowly.
- No, I'm sure I won't mistake you for anyone else! But it's good to be on the safe side, you'd approve! Answer me!
- And if I don't?
- I'll stun you and then I'll levitate all three of you to Dumbledore and we'll lose the Eater. Will that do?
- No, it doesn't. I don't remember what Mad-Eye said the first time he saw Harry Potter.
- Well, then, another question, how many people have you killed, I asked you once. You can't have forgotten that.
- Three. I killed three.
- That's no good, you could have learnt that from the real Moody. One more question, how did we meet?
- I mistook you for Nymphadora and attacked you, you went out the first floor window. I jumped up and knocked you down.
- Yeah, that's right. That's enough, isn't it?
- Enough, Potter, enough is enough, the first question the impostor could really learn from me, as it is a fact of my life, and the second question has to do with you, and it is unlikely the impostor would go into detail about that fact. Take the freezer off me and give me back my wand.
- Uh-huh. Finite! - Harry took off the freezer and tossed his spare wand to Moody.
- 'Take it with you,' Mad-Eye tossed the wand back to Potter. - I'll take my two. Get cleaned up quickly and let's go.
Harry examined himself. Surprisingly, the fight had left almost no marks on him. There was a small abrasion on his arm, and that might have come before the fight.
- What do we do with these? - Potter pointed his wand at Tonks and Justin lying on top of each other. - Should we levitate them to the Hospital Wing?
- There's no time! We're already late, we probably won't catch the Eater, but it's still worth a try. Take the bezoar, that's him, isn't it? And let's go, or rather run. Then I'll deal with who of you managed to blow up the wall of the defence room and who are the two idiots who prevented us from catching our enemy. There'll be time for educational talks too, let's go!